I mainly use a Fluke 179 multimeter. I also have a Fluke 117, but I rarely use that one.

Haven't had a need yet to get any more, but I also have a bunch of other test equipment for other purposes.

I use Harbor Freight's higher end one. I've used their cheapo ones before and still have probably one working one of those.

I used to get them for free when HF had the coupons for them.

I also have an old analog one that never gets used.

One from Lidl (Powerfix PDM 250 A2). It has served me well.

RadioShack 22-182 that I've had for over 25 years

DaveDDS wrote on Yesterday, 01:02:

I realized today that I have a lot of them ... most of which I picked up for a specific reason/purpose.

thats a great collection!

i admit i'm just using cheap ones, i have a chinese cheap one, copy of fluke appearance but not quality! Still its actually fine for most tasks. a couple of cheap small ones too, that are easy to just take anywhere.

As i seem to get by with cheap ones it might be that i am missing out without realising that i am missing out 😀 probably its just that i use them less

I mostly use an AstroAI DM6000AR . It had been mentioned and possibly recommended by Horun, AFAICR.

On a tangential note, I also use this very basic DSO https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B08W1Q2KNL mainly to weed out/detect truly terrible and/or failing PSUs.

(sorry for the terrible photo saved from an exchange with some friends).

Fluke 87

handhelds, a UEI DM393 which I love, couple of other junkier ones that get the job done.

benchtop, I have a GW Instek GDM-8251A.

ive been on the lookout for a newer benchtop for a while just not itching to pull the trigger on a $1k to $2k meter.

Out of curiosity what would be the advantage of a bench top multimeter versus the handheld versions?

Shponglefan wrote on Yesterday, 15:16:

Out of curiosity what would be the advantage of a bench top multimeter versus the handheld versions?

There's a couple advantages (at least for me) - mounted on a bench, under a shelf at the back - easy direct access without taking usable bench space.
They are also "plug in" - powered, you don't need to futz with batteries, or worry about them dying in extended use sessions.

But... for most people prob. not worth the hassle/expense of getting one, a handheld is almost always fine! I only have them because at one point a local Canadian government research lab was shutting down and "fire sold"a few of these old goodies!

Bench meters... back in the day it was because the fancy functions were a lot of heavy discrete and logic boards.... these days with all the same in a handheld, it's so that wire kinks don't have the meter jumping onto your test piece every time you move the probe 🤣

I gotta find my Micronta analog again, not sure what it got packed away with. That is super useful for seeing when you have capacitance at play in a circuit you're trying to measure resistance, because of how the needle behaves, on digital the same thing looks like jumpy contacts. Also good for instantly seeing ripple problems on voltage measurements, the needle buzzes.

Otherwise, which meter I use is ... the closest one... several cheapies around. I think what I regard as my "good one" is a well featured Mastercraft unit.

Thanks for the great feedback - I prob should have been a bit more clear in my question - not just "what DMM do you use", but also "why did you pick that one, what do you like/dislike about it".

I have a lot (and forgot at least one - UNI-T UT-210 clamp meter)... Some are general, but several of them I picked up for various reasons over the years (which I tried to hint at in my original post)

Like I said, not looking to get any new ones, but curious to know if I'm missing out on anything super-handy, and also could be a good resource for someone looking to get one.

--- Likes

I like the 4.5 digits, esp when they have a 2ua scale .. means I can detect current 0.0001ua (almost none - at at that range the low digit "bobbles" but you can usually tell if it leans more one-way than the other - why would I care about such low-current? It mattered when I replaced the unobtanium rechargable in my Logiteck solar keyboards with more common coin cells - didn't want to make it look gross blocking the solar cells, and was able to verify that the CR2032s I chose didn't take ANY "reverse charge".. also important when figuring
out how a circuit drains.

The MN-35 can measure temperature - I was working on something where we had to keep a part from overheating and this made it much easier to check "where it was".

The 22-168A has lots of "stuff", but the main reason I picked it up was that I wanted to record readings for a length of time - and this one has an RS-232 cable which lets you "query" it's reading from a computer with a serial port. (This is mitigated now as the UT-81B has an I/R interface with a USB adapter to fit it... I "figured out" the protocol, it's also a simple serial connection, and I made my own I/R <> RS-232 interface for it)

Some of them can do 10A or more - which makes them much more useful in checking current draw in many cases,'

The clamp meter is a godsend, can measure 200a and super easy to clamp on to a power wire.

Some have extra testing capability (freq. Capacitors, transistors etc.) which at time is really helpful.

The super-small ones are great to "stuff in your suitcase" along with your "travel toolkit" - you never know what you're going to have to fix!

-- Dislikes

The 22-168A has a little insulating cover for it's battery which must have taken some time to design in such a way that it doesn't fit over almost all batteries. Also the continuity function (which I use a LOT) is dog-slow. I like to hear an instant beep. not have to wait a second.

I had one of the LCD displays come partially unbonded in one of my 8060A. Really annoying as it made segments go dim or not at all - spent a few months trying to get the connections to line-up "just right" but couldn't get it to stay aligned. Just tried a "trick" I figured out with the same issue on one of my Hex calcuators, a rubber presure pad to keep in place with the cover screwed down - and now it's working well again (which is what I was doing when I noticed how many meters I still have).

Some of them seem almost "too auto" ... being a bit hard to get to stay in a range. I tend to know what I'm looking for and therefore tend to prefer the non-auto ones.

--- and ... meters are only a small part of a lab - Worth discussing other common (and often wanted) lab tools? I *thought* I had really downsized in recent years, but...

I still have 7 scopes, a few logic analysers, L/C meters, power monitors, freq. counters, signal generators, bunch of device programmers, couple in-circuit emulators, a transmision line/SWR analyser ... the list goes on. Admittedly much of which is of less interest to vintage games and other users of classic PCs ... most of my work was in dedicated small embedded systems.

Just thinking that these forums could be a good way to share our opinions and experiences with what can be some of the most important (and expensive) things we buy to support our "hobby".

darry wrote on Yesterday, 10:45:

... On a tangential note, I also use this very basic DSO ...

A scope is a very important tool (perhaps most important)

But... looks like that one only one channel. I find two channels pretty much essential, as the thing I'm doing the most with a scope is looking at timing of signals relative to each other.
(Don't get me wrong, the UT-81B scopemeter I showed is only one channel and still *way* better than no-scope in some cases, but if you are going to have only one scope, I'd seriously recommend two channels!)

Not long ago I picked up a super-cheap / super-tiny two-channel scope that actually seems not-bad (so far).

Re: oscilloscopes

But... depends on what you are doing with it. At 10mhz it's more than enough for most of the "little stuff" I want a really portable scope for, but if you're working a lot on new/fast stuff, you're going to want faster!

My daily driver is a Fluke 117. Also got a B+K 880 LCR meter and an old Fluke Scopemeter 99 that I mostly use as a bench instrument.

Picked them simply because they fulfill my needs without being exorbitantly priced. The Scopemeter was free. The previous owner was about to scrap it, was just a bad/leaky battery pack. Easy enough to fix 😀

Then there's a bunch of high voltage testing equipment that might be a bit off topic here.

I mostly use my Mastech MS8269 multimeter for resistances and continuity finding. I damaged its voltage measurement bits when I tried to measure deflection voltages/currents of a TV, not knowing the flyback pulse goes to 1.4kV, significantly above the 1000V limit on the multimeter... It still measures but has significant offness for the voltage... I used to use it for inductance and capacitance but for inductance I now have a dedicated meter (Honeytek A623) that has better sensitivity and range.
For capacitance and small components I use Miniware DT71 "tweezers", and for voltages the little baby multimeter 🤣. Tweezers and inductance meter are courtesy of Keropi ~

I also have a Tektronix TDS420A oscilloscope that I have unlocked some features on along with upgrade of waveform memory so it can do longer captures. It is starting to show signs of trouble though, every now and then it fails a part of self test although it still works good when you continue... I guess the power supply capacitors are finally giving in. Eventually I'll replace it with some 1GHz analog bandwidth scope so that I can properly work with high resolution analog video stuff ~

And from work I received a Kenwood-Trio CS-2100, it was gonna be trashed... It has a mechanical issue that makes the horizontal position of the waveform twitch until it warms up... I have been unsuccessful finding the source but I know on which board it is located and the part of circuit and it probably is something like a cracked resistor because all the obvious things like loose connectors and trimpots were not the reason...

Chalk up another Fluke 117 user. It's way more qualified than I am. I only need occassional continuity, voltage or resistance measurements and any mm would probably do fine.

I used to work with a guy who had been an electrician in a previous life and he convinced me not to skimp in this area. I have good hopes it'll last.

I use a (battle scarred) ITT Metrix MX20, reminds me I've got another defective one that I need to swap parts with.

I'm still looking for a backup unit in case mine ever kicks the bucket.

well other stuff besides my fast bench dmm, agilent 1670g 132 channel logic analyzer (puts those garbage saleaea devices to shame), a lucent rubidium clock (having a rock stable calibrated 10mhz reference clock is something I use a lot for random things 🤣), a rigol dg1032z signal generator, i have a bunch of frequency counters, racal dana 1992 with the 100mhz third bnc, and a fluke pm6690 2.7ghz frequency counter, the fluke is awesome, and 3 fluke programmable dc power supplies, a PM2813, a PM2812 and PM2811, gwinstek programmable psu etc etc etc...

the fluke psu's are very good units. oh, and one more random thing a GPIB to ethernet, aka VXI-11 for random devices that want configuration over GPIB... and oscilloscopes....

I will say, a good frequency counter is an amazing device, as too the signal generator for creating clock signals and such..

(as an aside all the fluke gear that starts with a PM was originally Philips Test & Measurement gear as they bought out that branch of Philips).

Why would you need more than one multimeter? 😀 Anyways, I have some random cheap multimeter...