Excel XL830L Digital Multimeter $5.99 @Tmart (ended)

If the one I got is any indication, the answer is ‘no’. With stock leads it measures a 2.8A Nanjg driver at .8A, with thicker gauge leads it measures it at 3.39A. There’s no way that I know, to calibrate the current measurements.

Got this one coming tomorrow, I’ll let you know how it does.

Please do I have it set in the cart on pay pal if it's decent ill order it if not let me know thank you tallbassboy

Try this thread for voltage calibration.

Thanks, moderator007, will do my research!

bucket

Just got the MS8268 in from Amazon. So far you can color me impressed. It reads a 2.8A Nanjg @ ~2.77A, that sounds about right, and that’s with the stock leads. For $24 I can’t imagine getting a better meter!

After reading the post i ordered and after reading 007 calibration link I think that it's a heck of a lot better than my harbor freight model now the trick ia finding a fluke or another high calibrated multi meter , I just wish I was still working in Aviation where i could have guys in Avionics calibrate it for me again tall bassyboy you have bailed me out last week it was a vendor for 3400mAH Panasonic 18650's and now a good multi meter thanks again.

Glad I could be of some help, LJ!

9/29/03 and today I finally had time to try and get readings And again I am having no luck6 I have it set @20 mAH any suggestions oh this is embarrassing!thanks

You should have it set on 10a if your trying to read tail cap current. And you have to move the red lead to the far left hole that says 10a max. You are still talking about the XL830L, correct?

Yes sir thanks I am going to try now brb I had bassakwards thanks okay on my kdc8xml2-u2 and lightmalls c8xmlu3 and I am only vetting 1.12 on high with freshly charged Panasonic 3400's and on my lightmalls c12 modded with illumination supply 8 chipped 7135's with xml2t5 on copper pad iam hitting 4.56 amps all on high can this be right?Also iam not getting anything otf on.c12 thanks for any input and the help on meter.!

Stock leads are worthless for current measurement.

i still haven’t received mine :frowning: ordered 27/8, shipped 28/8, and then nothing…

i got the $0.01 ultrafire battery from tmart a couple of weeks ago, and that order was made 2 weeks after the DMM. sigh

other than ordering some do you all think some new heavier leads from say Radio Shack would those leads suffice?I would just hate to wait ordering and I would like to get to see why my modded c12 is not working.

I use dedicated DMM for my current measurements now. It’s a cheap 830 clone DMM around $6 at the time (many years ago), but now giving very accurate and replicable result every time.

How, you say?

20AWG copper wire *soldered *straight to the internal board. Huge difference.

Yes, I used to use 14/16 AWG thinking that’s the bottleneck, but they’re really stiff, and it turns out the connection/banana jack plays a much bigger part. I love the extra mobility and limpness from smaller wires, and since the measurement does not seem to suffer now, I think it’s an easy choice.

Heh, good idea, thanks, Pulsar13!

The radio shack (in the store leads) are decent leads but still not what you need for measuring current. My fluke leads will not even measure current correctly after about 4 amps. Just use what ever you have, thick speaker wire, a household lamp wire, old drill (that doesn’t work) wire, computer power supply wire that’s not needed. Just shove the end of the wire down in the DMM lead hole. You can double the wire over if it needs to be bigger to fit the hole. Make it as short as possible around 8 to 10 inches or so. This should get you a close reading. In the meantime you could order you some 14awg silicone wire and some banana clips to make a nicer set.

Good advice. I'm ordering this 14ga silicone wire to make up some leads, alligator clip cables, test leads, etc. . . I'm also ordering these banana plugs to try out. I've been looking to find longer banana plugs (some are just too short to fit tightly down in the jacks). These seem a little longer, but better yet the expansion part (widest part) seems to be further up the plug than others. I'm currently using 12ga non-silicone wire and they are very stiff.

Now anyone know where to find decent probe ends?

-Garry

You could use another set of gold plated banana plugs as a prob. The tips are a little big but I don’t imagine you will be measuring current (tail cap measurements) through anything too small.

Well I was hoping for typical smaller probe ends for voltage testing use instead of switching leads back and forth like I do now. My current homemade leads just have the ends "tinned" to make them solid, but they are too thick to poke around.

I can't seem to find any reasonable replacement probe ends at all searching around the Net!

-Garry