22 Sep
2010
22 Sep
'10
12:49 p.m.
A couple of years ago, I received a Mastech 8284 DMM
as a promotional
item ("buy $50 or more of our stuff and we'll throw in a meter").
That, I guess, makes it a cheap meter :-)
After awhile, I found myself using it more than my
Fluke 77. The
accuracy is very good on mine, the display is large (with a
backlight), the continuity checker is fast, and it seems to be well-
made, right down to having brass bushings on the battery compartment
screws (and you don't have to remove the rubber "bib" to get at
them).
http://www.p-mastech.com/products/04_dm/ms8264.html
I will take a look...
FWIW, I am currnetly using a Maplin own-brand analogue multimeter. I
bought a couple of them _years_ ago as customer returns, non-working.
There was a cehcmatic in the manual, and it didn't take me long to find
the dry joint on the fuseholder (I didn't need the schematic for that
:-)). It's got rather more ranges that most analogue meters, including
temperature, Hfe, and capacitance. It even ahs AC current, somethign that
few analogue meters have.
Thing is, it's quite well made, and works remarkably well...
It's not an autoranger like the Fluke, but I'm
not sure that I care
for the autoranging feature.
_Many_ years ago I used an origianl FLuke 73, which was autoranging
_only_, not even a range hold function. It drove me insane. I would
insist on manual ranging, and to be honest, I never _needed_ the
autorange feature of the Fluke 85. Often I would sleect the range by
hand, and the times when I let it autorange it wouldnt' ahve made much
difference if I'd had to select the right range.
Yes, there are some things that I don't care for;
I wish the buttons
were better engineered, but all in all, it's way better than the
Harbor Freqight DMM. Another one I've used for many years is one
branded by JDR--decent enough, but no continuity buzzer.
That is a feautre I do regard as essential, though.
-tony