New old multimeter

[TR3driver]

I heartily recommend "Nuts and Volts" if you're interested in such things. They always have construction projects, ranging from uber-simple to very complicated covering a wide range of interests.

Animated talking skulls for Halloween; digital clock using Nixie tubes, or an analog clock using 180 LEDs. There's a column almost every issue about rocketry and building various payloads to sense altitude, barometric pressure, and so on. Build your own laser light show, using real lasers! And of course a steady series of articles on various popular microcomputers, like Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Last months issue had a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controller that sounds like it would be great for a garage band or whatever.

 

[DrEntropy]

Dad's old Simpson 303-3XL, my late '70's Amprobe and an Extech digital. Prefer analog but been using the digital more 'n more now.

 

[John Kuzman]

Simpson 260 analog VOM. Been using it since the late 60's.

 

[Basil]

Simpson 260 analog VOM. Been using it since the late 60's.

If Memory Serves, I think Simpson was the primary meter we used back in the day when I was a Computer Maintenance man on the NORAD Sage Computer system (IBM Q-7).

Meter we used was very much like this one:

https://www.wolfautomation.com/anal...1183916950055&utm_content=Other Product Types

 

[John Kuzman]

Basil -

Started with the Simpson 260 while learning TV repair from my uncle. Joined the Navy in 1970 as a Sonar Technician. My trusty 260 was my Navy tool of choice as well. I still have two of them along with a Fluke and several HF throwaways.

 

[waltesefalcon]

I have an old Micronta multimeter much like Bas and Bayless's and a Heathkit dwell meter. Both get their fair share of use still. I also have a small digital Craftsman multimeter that lives in my road tool box.

 

[PC]

Doug beat me to it. If you want a dead solid meter that will still be working for decades to come, it's hard to beat Fluke. I once held a "shoot-off" with all the meters I own, which includes not only HF cheapies but other semi-respected names like Beckman.....

For the record, I do love Fluke meters. I've used tons of them over the years, always supplied them to the technicians in our labs and have three of my own. They generally give great service.

That said, my oldest one, which was their top of the line unit for a number of years, failed fairly early. It probably measures OK but some segments of the display flaked out. You can tell it's measuring something. You just can't be sure what. To Fluke's credit, they fully supported the model for quite a while, even after it was discontinued. I, stupidly, just threw it in a drawer and used my other meters. By the time I decided to get it fixed, the price for doing so had skyrocketed from very reasonable to astronomical. But it's in perfect cosmetic condition so I can't bring myself to chuck it. I guess my best bet is to find one on ebay with good electronics but a trashed case.

While we always used Flukes in the lab, my absolute favorite to put out on the production floor were the Beckmans (later, BI technologies after Beckman Instruments spun off the division as an independent company, later still, Wavetek, after BI Technologies sold their meter business to them).

They were generally reliable, although any instrument on the production floor takes a beating. They were very easy to use, being the last decent meter I could buy that had manual range settings. Autoranging is fine for experimenting engineers and techs. But it plays havoc on the floor with multiple operators having to perform different measurements at different workstations. So each workstation got a dedicated meter, set to a specified range and all the operators had to worry about were the numbers.

 

[Basil]

While the old Simpson meter was what we used mostly, I do recall we had a Fluke meter that we used for certain tasks where additional precision was needed. I had almost forgotten about our Fluke meters.

 

[pdplot]

I'm still using my Radio Shack (remember them?) special.

 

[Basil]

I'm still using my Radio Shack (remember them?)View attachment 56209 special.

The Micronta meter discussed on the first page of this thread were Radio Shack also.

 

[JPSmit]

The Micronta meter discussed on the first page of this thread were Radio Shack also.

and, following the advice of my comrades on this very forum, I cleaned the contacts on the switches and initial indications are that I have a working meter again. Haven't done everything on it but, followed the "test instructions" in the manual and everything checked out the way it was meant to - including the continuity buzzer which works again.

Thanks all for good advice and wisdom. It is nice to have an old machine working again. (and to know that it wasn't just a fluke - oK I had to add that last bit

 

[Basil]

and, following the advice of my comrades on this very forum, I cleaned the contacts on the switches and initial indications are that I have a working meter again. Haven't done everything on it but, followed the "test instructions" in the manual and everything checked out the way it was meant to - including the continuity buzzer which works again.

Thanks all for good advice and wisdom. It is nice to have an old machine working again. (and to know that it wasn't just a fluke - oK I had to add that last bit

Yahoo!

 

[Gliderman8]

Glad to hear you got it working again! It's always good when a useful piece of equipment can be revived to function again.

 

[pdplot]

Not to hijack this thread but where does one go to buy the kind of gear that Radio Shack used to sell?

 

[Boink]

Not to hijack this thread but where does one go to buy the kind of gear that Radio Shack used to sell?

I'm betting eBay.

 

[NutmegCT]

Not to hijack this thread but where does one go to buy the kind of gear that Radio Shack used to sell?

How 'bout ...

https://www.radioshack.com/

 

[Boink]

How 'bout ...
https://www.radioshack.com/

I think you'll mostly find toys (or related) there now. Are there any VOMs there?

I think you'll find all of their multimeters are not available on-line (and a huge majority of stores have closed).​

 

[TR3driver]

Not to hijack this thread but where does one go to buy the kind of gear that Radio Shack used to sell?

Unfortunately, one of the reasons RS didn't make it is because their market niche more or less disappeared. There are a few electronics stores left, but not many.

One such is Allied Electronics. They have incredible inventory, at good prices; but only deal over the Internet (or by phone/snail mail). AFAIK they don't have a brick & mortar store.
https://www.alliedelec.com/

Another is Mouser (same story) https://www.mouser.com/

Digikey (ditto) https://www.digikey.com/

There are a few stores left in my area (near Los Angeles, CA), but my perception is that they are dying and won't be with us much longer. Torrance Electronics in Torrance, CA is my favorite.

I imagine other large cities still have similar stores, but that's not much help in Stamford.

Of course, there's always eBay, which usually has the lowest price if you know exactly what you need and don't mind buying 100 of them.

 

[Boink]

... and where did all the old surplus stores go? Loved them.

 

[Gliderman8]

Anyone remember Lafayette Electronics?..... Paul?, Tom?