I hooked a bunch of meters into the same circuit.

The super low price of the HF meter has been a game changer for me. Being free, or next to nothing allows me to spread them around like you would a screw driver. I have them in the shed, garage, kitchen drawer, my van, my electrical tool box, various tool bags, with my computer, etc. Where ever I am, I have a meter not too far away. I have even hardwired them into some portable power supplies that I have.

And they come with the battery already installed

Thanks much. We know it takes effort to put good info up for our benefit. You have spoken volumes to the utility of the HF meter.

If I didn’t thank you, I would burst. Kudos to you.

Thanks. great and informative test. Fun to see 14 meters in series .

Thanks for posting! I also have several of the HF meters. Time to build a good set of leads for them for current measurements.

Wow. Very interesting and informative. Thank you for all the effort you put into this. I think you are one meter short of being scientifically valid though.

Actually, I shouldn't joke. I think I have about 7 meters, not counting an oscilloscope.

It’s funny, I waited 3 weeks for 10 Banana Plugs to arrive from FastTech so that I could make some good test leads. I was disappointed with them, they were not of the greatest quality. So instead I used them to make the first 5 “jumper” leads. They didn’t work so well, I had to add soldier to each tip to get them to connect well. After I ran out, I used the plain 14 gauge wire stripped and folded in half at the bare wire portion. They worked well as is.

What I need to mention here is that there are other things to be concerned about with meters, that being SAFETY. These cheap meters are not as safe as the professional meters. I would not use them to measure high voltages i use them for light household and low voltage measurements. That is flashlights and automotive type measurements. I know some of them have the CE rating, but I wouldn’t trust that.

:smiley: I at first thought you were going to say ” I think you are one meter short of a full range digital multimeter
You would not be the first one to think that :slight_smile:

There probably is a “BudgetVoltmeterForum.com” somewhere in an alternate Universe :bigsmile:

What is really sick, is that I have many more, a lot of them unopened except that I have taken the test leads out because the crappy set that comes with it broke. Also for years, whenever Sears had a sale on meters, I would buy one. My price point for them was $10. There are 3 in play, one of them is auto ranging. Believe it or not, I don’t like auto ranging. Makes you think twice what you are actually reading. To me, it can be dangerous!

Do what Pulsar13 does, dedicate one of the HF meters to 10A current readings by soldiering the leads directly to the inside of the banana jack! See how free or cheap can be a game changer? What a great idea!

That’s a great idea. Thanks! :slight_smile:

Those red meters look like the same as my DT-830D (left), which is okay for a cheap meter. It’s internal resistance is 0.03 ohms (only 0.01 ohm more than the Uni-T UT33B on the right), so with decent cables and probes (clean the sockets too) it is good enough for current draw measurements. Good to know they’re calibrated!

You could use “the cheap, junky test leads”, get a reading perhaps 1A on your 14 meters, this number would be accurate.

Yes you are absolutely right! Point well taken, and the point is exactly what I was trying to show. That these meters measure accurately the amount of current that is passing through them. Of course we would not want to influence that amount downwards by using the stock test leads. Good catch on your part, proves you were paying attention! :slight_smile:

Yes, the major difference is that the red meters have a slide switch to turn them on and off and the DT830 has the on-off built into the selector switch. If you look closely at the voltage test pic, you will see your DT830. Bottom row, second from the right :wink:

Here are pics of the insides of my DT830 and a recent HF meter. The DT830 I thought was about 6 years old. That could be, there is a date of 2005 on the circuit board. The HF meter is the most recent one I picked up (free) on Sept 25, 2013.

Notice that the shunt resistor on the DT830 is twice as long as the one in the HF. and also that the shunt resistor in the HF is soldered directly to the same pads that the banana jacks are soldered to. 2 major improvements in reducing the internal resistance.
BTW, if you search around on the circuit boards, you will find “830B” printed on each of them. They are both generic type 830B meters. A lot of cheap meters will include the numbers 830 in their model number.

My 830D is quite old too. I will check inside for date etc. I am sure there is a trim pot. I see yours has no trim pot on the PCB compared to the red one.

There is no date on mine(I checked under the beeper). There is a date 20060909.

I see your meter has the shorter shunt resistor, but it is not close to the banana jacks. The fuse is soldered in place, not easily replaceable. I do see the 830B imprinted on the circuit board however, so this meter belongs in the club. That is weird about my 830D, no trim pot.
Also, notice the notch in the shunt resistor on yours, it was calibrated!

Thanks for the entertainging and informative post dchomak!

I’m missing the point to this thread, why would you invest in fourteen cheap meter instead of consolidating the same cash into something quality?

Because… It’s the American way!

(this is intended to be a joke)

How many flashlights do you own? :smiley:

Why, then you only have one item instead of 14!

If anyone ask me to trade me for all my cheap lights, modding components and stuff I spend the last 2 years for one Deft-X, I would still say H NO. Despite my stuff is half its value. It’s just the fun of the impulse buying, tinkering, breaking, repairing… you know the stuff.

There's an old Chinese proverb: "Man with two clocks never know what time it is."

In 1986 I bought a Fluke-77 for $125. It's still the only DMM I own, and gets quite a bit of use.

I can understand owning two as for some measurement two are needed. Would you rather 10 crap cars or one decent car? if you answered one decent car you get what I’m saying.
No offense to the OP, I just don’t get it.

Only about 6 all quality lights. I’m not one for cheap stuff.