I hooked a bunch of meters into the same circuit.

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.

to each their own, as long as people can quantify their position does it really matter what that position is in subjective realms like these?

Maybe because it’s fun to own 14 cheap meters?

一人难称百人心/众口难调 It is hard to please everyone.

Here is my Uni-T UT33B for comparison sake. I paid little for it but they do cost more usually. It has safer sockets (sleeved banana plugs can fit) and fuse holder, but longer shunt resistor.

Ahhh, but…when the one really nice car breaks down, how do you get to work?

And of course it’s all subjective as to what one wants and perceives as their own personal needs. Some people have no children and absolutely do not want any! Some people have 12 kids.

I used to go Gaga over nice new cars. Then I bought 2 new cars and soon realized that once the New car smell wore off, they drove just like the low mileage used cars that were half the price.
Then I graduated to the thought of “They are all just a means of transportation” and dropped the ego trip and bought a mini van. I can haul lot’s of stuff in it and it still pulls 22 mpg. And insurance is real cheap.
Seat for every butt, butt for every seat. I get that, all I am saying is don’t be a slave to any possession.

When you are young you go bonkers at seeing a nice car, when you get older you appreciate the looks of a nice house and ample property.
Priorities and time and space.

At least one spare car/truck to me is a must. I have to have a “plan B” to get to work as does my wife who is a nurse.
4 wheel drive comes in handy when the Nor’easters come in to PA.

A hand full of killer high end flashlights, or a bucket full of Budget Flashlights, It’s all good!

That’s all folks,
Have a great weekend! ,
Keith

Since we are looking at circuit boards, I opened up my 35 year old DMM, the Sabtronics 2000. It has been sitting in a corner of the basement for 30 years. It has been that long since I have turned it on.
Here it is with a wall wart connected to it through a hole in the back of the unit. There is a rattle inside when I shake it, that’s not good.

When I opened it up I saw what the rattle was from, a box of fuses in an area that used to be the battery compartment, it originally ran on 4 “C” cells. Apparently I had converted it to a plug in power brick. The readouts on this unit are the old red LED’s and compared to the newer LCD displays are power hogs.

I checked the voltages, they were OK, so I turned it on and it still works!

One simple test. Perfect reading. Still having fun, after all these years!

Now a look at it’s innards. Count ’em, 9 trim pots……eck!


Back in it’s day, this meter was as close to state of the art that the average person like myself could get a hold of. Compare this to even the cheap, lowly HF meter and it looks like a dinosaur, with MUCH less functionality. Bet it isn’t as accurate either.

Why?, because I have already been there, done that! EICO to Sabronics to…………Harbor Freight :bigsmile:
As crude as the technology of this meter was, compared even to the HF meter that I get now for free or very little money, it was good enough.

Sometimes “good enough” is, well, GOOD ENOUGH

That is an edited, revised version of the original proverb.

in full it goes like this:

“A man with a clock thinks he knows what time it is, but what if his clock is not accurate?. A man with 14 clocks can calculate with a pretty high degree of accuracy, approximately what time it is.!”

The group “Chicago Transit Authority” summed that up best with their song “25 or 6 to 4” when they asked “Does anybody really know what time it is?”

Ah, but Technology moves on…my Casio G-Shock is Solar powered and automatically set’s itself to the Atomic Clock in Denver. No batteries, no winding, even accounts for DST. I DO know what time it is, and I DO care! :wink:

Good song too by the way.

Edit: Oh, and I think the true Chinese proverb was something like this….Man with 2 clocks does not really know what time it is. Man with 14 clocks talks to Cuckoo bird.

I think it started out at 8, you know how the Chinese always inflate the numbers :wink:

This guy lives in the New York City and of course has no car because of parking. Anyway he takes the bus to go to clock shop to pick up a Grand Father Clock for his apartment. He gets off the bus and walks the 2 blocks to the shop. The shop keeper takes his payment and asks him how is he going going to get it home. He responds, just strap it to my back I’m sure I can carry it the 2 blocks to the bus stop. Turns out it was harder than he thought and worried he would miss his 3 O’clock bus. As he struggles down the walk, he asks a stranger what time it was. The stranger stops, looks at the clock strapped to his back and says “it looks like it’s 2:50, but why don’t you just wear a wristwatch like everyone else”

uh, don’t ya mean parallel ? n/p :slight_smile:

I like the EICO meter,
us “Fossils” have some experience under our belt that the
“young-whippersnappers” could use.

I bought a Radio Shack “Clamp-On” ampmeter.
It has the 120v plug adapter so you don’t have to split the wires testing household stuff.
the adapter has a 10x multiplier loop, handy for measuring low amp draws.
[anyone can split off the black wire of a extension cord 10 wraps to do the same]

My daily is a very used industrial Fluke, a 77 I think.

I bought my sister a Greenlee kit from Lowes for $27.~ w/outlet test and voltage probe pen

I have a Harbor Frt, $1.99 unit like yours, pretty ok, for $2

It is pretty close compared to the fluke measuring 1.32 vdc, I wouldn’t trust it reading resistors though.

Great write up, thanks for the trouble.

I do! Helps to have a cesium beam oscillator, a gaggle of rubidium oscillators, and a herd of GPS disicplined oscillators. My GPSDO time wanders around +/- 1.5 nanoseconds over just about any time interval (day/week/year/etc). The 10 MHz frequency, around 0.1 parts per trillion. The cesium beam oscillator frequency is around 10 times more stable.

I am impressed.
Yes, you can measure the passing of time, and with great accuracy. But…….

Does anybody really know what time it is? :bigsmile:

its why its worth spending the extra cash for a good professional meter like a Fluke or simmilar. i have several digital & Analog meters, but use my Fluke ET73DMMA for critical measurements with # 12 pure copper low-resistance/ High amperage leads.

We are to assume Texas Pyro has never ever been late a day in his life. Or never been early by his own design.

I’m wondering, do those ceaseum and rubadubdium thingies fit on your wrist? Do they work when the power is out? Seriously! I’m wondering. Do they have telecommunication links so you can phone home when you need to know how much longer til the the wife is ready to go? Just EXACTLY how long DOES it take to void one’s bowels, anyway? I mean, there’s got to be a perfectly valid reason to have that level of time sense sophistication at home in one’s small office. Does Aurabuy have that ceaseum thingy for like a buck 99? I want me one of those!

Guess I’m out of luck. Will have to stick with my calibrated solar watch that keeps itself in tune with the Naval Observatory’s little watch that has an accuracy of 10−9 seconds per day. Hope that keeps me on time.

So, what time is it?

HAMMER TIME! lol

Ah, but is that copper wire Oxygen-free copper ?
If it’s not, then you could do even better :slight_smile:
Once again, each of us has to ask the question “How good is good enough” (for our own application)

(Just playing with you)

My dad was not impressed with my solar powered watch that set’s itself by the atomic time.

“Where do you need to go that the time matters that much?”

Guess he’s got a point.

Good question. :stuck_out_tongue: i dont know if they are or not oxy-free. They do seem to give a lower loss than the stock wires though.

When I referred to Oxy-Free wire I was poking fun at the Audiophiles. They are the most anal, snootiest group ever. Oxygen-Free Wire is supposed to provide a better listening experience and some will spend thousands on speaker cables! I lost one of my best friends to the “Audiophile Cult” After that I couldn’t stand to be around him.

Get a load of these prices!

wow that it crazy. I like my music too, but not that much to spend the price of a car on some wires.
I would prefer to use that money for more flashlights. :bigsmile: