I'm an electrical engineer and I use a Uni-T UT61E at home (Fluke at work). It's a fantastic low-cost but not crappy meter for electronics hobbyists, and available for <$50. If you're working with mains, I would get a Fluke. Otherwise, the UT61E is fantastic. I would pass on all those really cheap $10 meters, really not worth the worry if the reading is accurate or not, or if it will blow up in your hands :)
The probes which come with the Uni-T are.. OK. But if you want a real upgrade, spend about $20 and get a good pair of Fluke leads and it really transforms the experience :)
I’ve been a little confused about its 22,000 count capability. Does it mean that for example when measuring voltage, if you’re under 22V, it’ll display 3 decimal places and then switch to 2 decimal places once you go above 22V?
Is this a “good” budget multimeter for starters? Would it measure batteries’ voltage and drain?
Sorry for the noob questions, but I’ve never had something like this, nor am I familirized with these things :person_facepalming: …
And even if I want to start cheap, I’d like the minimum conditions to make some things
Thanks in advance!! :+1:
Thanks for the answer Pete! Gotta have to check another one that measures current!
About the wires is it because of the interference it may have when measuring? Or for being fragile?
You want a clamp meter for current & a DMM for voltage.
The UNI-T UT61E is a good “budget DMM & the UNI-T UT210E is a good ”budget” clamp meter.
Both are plenty accurate enough for “our” sort of measurements.
Another good “budget” DMM is the Vicci VC99 which is what I use myself.
MascaratumB, 1 meter (or more) long round trip leads is a lot of resistance when measuring current!
How do you think current is measured? By adding something into the target circuit which inevitably incurs some voltage drop. Doing a tailcap current measurement with a conventional multimeter on the 10A scale can mean adding ≈200mΩ (shunt + other components + probes + contact resistances) of resistance to the battery/switch/driver loop into the flashlight. That's A LOT resistance! When 2A of current go through those ≈200mΩ, the voltage drop is ≈400mV = 0.4V!
Clamp meters minimize losses because the clamp resistance is minimal and directly connected to the internal current measuring shunt. With a conventional meter, if minimal voltage drop is required I'd recommend purchasing a separate current shunt (75mV/50A example), attach massive wires between it and the load (in series) and then measure the voltage drop across the shunt with a multimeter with sufficient precision (at least hundredths or tenths of μV).
Oh gosh, so many things I need and so few knowledge about how these things work :person_facepalming: I guess I’ll have to learn a lot before making measurements and use these tools… Seeing it in the videos and people talking here makes it sound easy, but for a guy like me that never contacted with these things…it will take a while!
bella-headlight, Enderman and Barkutti, thanks of the explanations and for the suggestions so far!
I’ll save the info to try these instruments. But first I’ll have to read more and learn about these things :nerd_face:
You’re great people, thanks so much!! :+1: :+1: :+1:
Technically, if you are just starting out, you could get away with ut210e alone since you can measure current via clamp and voltage with probes, but I guess it depends on what else you want to measure.
Honestly, if i receive or mod some lights, I wanna be able to provide some data about that, currents, voltage and the stuff people share here about their lights and that are, somehow, important to the community’s development.
For now, as I am not savvy to go for other things, these are my main targets. But first, I’ll have to learn to be able to use the instruments correctly and to interpret the data, and to perceive how the whole processes occur.
So, a long way ahead… I never tried this before, and I wanna improve myself, gain and share some knowledge and information, at least as long as I’ll stay here on BLF!
Thanks for the tip on the UT210E! I’ll take a look at it, read a bit, watch some videos and then decide if I’m ready to get in the adventure
Thanks again!!
If you look in the http://budgetlightforum.com/forum/misc/gear/reviews part of the forum I am posting some DMM review and more will show up during the next few months.
It includes a schema that makes it fairly easy to compare features, at the bottom of each review I link to an explanation of the schema/features.
