MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I need a new one - Fluke are a bit outside my price range so what’s else is worth considering? £40 max.
A fluke, Chinese market model, from Ebay.
Model number is 17b
the fluke ones are legit just sold to China I believe to get a foothold in China AVE on you tube has stripped one down.
YouTube link above lol
gentleman welcome back to the shop
I use a UNI-T 61E
There are a lot of posts about it on the EEVblog forums.
You need to get the legit German version (TÜV marked with proper fuses) not the crappy Chinese export version. But if you do it seems like a good True-RMS meter with USB data capture.
Any. Unless you are working somewhere you need a highly accurate, calibrated one then all of them are fine. My best one is probably a maplin precision gold but I've got a couple of sub £10 ones, as sometimes you need more than one or I leave one in the car, and they are absolutely fine at the basics. Funnily enough the one I never use is my fluke as the auto ranging is so slow
I've got a Megger analogue and a Mastech digital, the Mastech gets used more.
Extech are apparently good too, but I've never used one
Like everything, buy from a reputable dealer
Got a mastech and a maplin. Both are fine. I tend to buy a decent set of probes/clips in addition as the ones that come with cheaper machines are often a bit crappy
The 17b looks good but I can’t find anyone selling them. Seems they have upgraded to the 17b+ which is over £100. I did wonder if there was much in it with the cheaper ones like Maplin etc.
Depends what you need it for. I have a cheapo maplins one and it works fine for me. I basically only use it as a continuity tester and use its electronic thermometer function
Another vote for the uni-t as recommended by EEV Blog. Nicest to use since I left a uni department where we all had flukes.
I have that Fluke one. Works well.
Also been impressed with this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VC97-3999-Auto-Range-Digital-Multimeter-LCD-Voltmeter-Tester-Ammeter-AC-DC-OHM/162403507156
^^ I should add that the Vici meter linked to above is not a safe design for high voltage or high current applications. But for low voltage work it's accurate.
Any recommendations for a cheap one? My £10 Tandy one's died (due to leaking battery) after 25 years.
And do people still use neon screwdrivers to check if mains is still live or is that retro now?
Mines a 10 quid job off eBay Murray.
Used for rewiring my landy plus fault finding in various cars(resistance of circuits) and my campervan. Occasionally it's even done house wiring
Does the job nicely.
If I was building and testing delicate circuits I might spend more for accuracy but I've had mine 10 years or so and it's not let me down.
And do people still use neon screwdrivers to check if mains is still live or is that retro now?
Because there are far better alternatives that don't involve the user being part of the circuit.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/fluke-1ac-ii-voltage-detector-pen/85949
depends what your doing or need if for. this is my go to atm, i use a volt pen, a plug in socket tester and a voltage reader.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-voltage-tester/3516f.
if you are taking various readings then any multi meter would be suffice from £15 plus.