Delbert
Golden Member
- Dec 4, 2000
- 1,306
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I picked up a Craftsman 81437 from sears about two months ago for like $29. After I bought it I discovered it was a rebaged Fluke 17B. with a couple missing buttons.
Originally posted by: InSuboRdiNaTioN
Nice deal, perfect timing. The memory on my 7900 GTO could use some more juice
hahaha my thoughts exactly!
mindless1
Diamond Member
- Aug 11, 2001
- 8,733
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Comparing to an old multimeter's readings is not necessarily useful, they drift over time no matter how good they were when new. More significant with a cheap meter is the confidence you have it was calibrated properly (or in the case of cheapest meters, they may not truely calibrate it at all, just *try* to manufacture so it's as close as economically feasible). Then again, some uses just don't need 0.(nn)% precision.
This is a good deal at $15, especially with the free AC tester though you can get a similar meter at many places for roughly same price, sometimes even discounted closer to $10, but usually there's still shipping cost on top of that. Here's one with a few more features some might find useful for only slightly higher cost if you're buying other stuff there to offset S/H, or a ton more value priced meters here.
Cheap meters tend to do fairly well at reading voltages if that's all you need, but mV and mA current readings are better done with more expensive meters, as are rapidly fluctuating values by meters with higher sample rates or/and True RMS.
The Craftsman 81437 Delbert mentioned is a particularly good deal too as it's the only Craftsman that's a disguised Fluke (AFAIK), at about 1/2 it's regular price and comes with Fluke factory calibration certificate. You can "sometimes" get those 81437 even cheaper on eBay, and thanks to so few people knowing they're disguised Flukes, at pretty cheap prices (I paid under $25 delivered ea. at 3 different auctions/sellers). Rare PDF Fluke 17B Manual 1.7MB and Calibration 625K
This is a good deal at $15, especially with the free AC tester though you can get a similar meter at many places for roughly same price, sometimes even discounted closer to $10, but usually there's still shipping cost on top of that. Here's one with a few more features some might find useful for only slightly higher cost if you're buying other stuff there to offset S/H, or a ton more value priced meters here.
Cheap meters tend to do fairly well at reading voltages if that's all you need, but mV and mA current readings are better done with more expensive meters, as are rapidly fluctuating values by meters with higher sample rates or/and True RMS.
The Craftsman 81437 Delbert mentioned is a particularly good deal too as it's the only Craftsman that's a disguised Fluke (AFAIK), at about 1/2 it's regular price and comes with Fluke factory calibration certificate. You can "sometimes" get those 81437 even cheaper on eBay, and thanks to so few people knowing they're disguised Flukes, at pretty cheap prices (I paid under $25 delivered ea. at 3 different auctions/sellers). Rare PDF Fluke 17B Manual 1.7MB and Calibration 625K
Well, they're either both wrong or both right - correct? I seldom read anything that needs more than two digits of accuracy. I was just amazed that they both read identically - not a digit's diff between them. If anyone has a collection of Radio Shack catalogs from the 60's forward, I'd like to know when this Micronta was first sold there and when they stopped. I'm thinking it's at least 25 years old - maybe more.
.bh.
mindless1
Diamond Member
- Aug 11, 2001
- 8,733
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Sure, they're either both right or wrong on the particular scale you used, or not off enough to see but two digits depends on which scale too- lot easier to read 12.1V twice than 12 uV.
I don't have a collection of Shack catalogs but have an old Micronta 22-184 that was purchased (maybe? Been awhile...) 10-15 years ago? For some reason I was thinking they still caried Micronta branded meters, were those that had this style casing.
Edit: I have located an old catalog from '97, and one of those meters (#22-174)I recall as being strikingly similar styling in the successive year(s) to mine which I can only assume means same manufacturer, but by '97 they'd already changed the branding, essentially replaced "Micronta" with "Radio Shack", a mere substitution of words on the product and paperwork.
'97 Catalog pg 150 300K
'97 Catalog pg 151 330K
I'm mad, I ordered from their site for instore pickup (it said IN STOCK) and when I show up there to pick it up there the guy told me "sorry our system wasn't updated, we don't have that item".
Mine has an LED display and a slider switch that goes across the case to select the scale and a row of 4 banana sockets across the bottom. It was made in England (I believe by one of Clive Sinclair's companies).
Here's a pic ( sorry it's blurry, flash has a bright glare off LED cover so I did it handheld w/o flash - I'll have to do one from a tripod): Old Micronta DMM.
.bh.
Here's a pic ( sorry it's blurry, flash has a bright glare off LED cover so I did it handheld w/o flash - I'll have to do one from a tripod): Old Micronta DMM.
.bh.
I bought a couple of 82146 kits from Sears about 3 months ago for $19.99ea. and the p/n on the DMM is 82140. If you need an inexpensive DMM this is hard to pass up.
OK. Local store was out. Big surprise. Ended up getting the 82174 kit with the AC voltage detector for $13.29 + $1.18 tax and $6.25 shipping. Shipping is free after rebate so total is $20.72 - $6.25 = $14.47. Not bad. Used a link in my email for 10% off tonight only from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am. Here is the link...
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