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Extech DMMs

D

David L. Jones

Anyone have any experience with them? Are they easy to zap?
Click to expand...

It claims "600V input protection on all functions (1000V on Voltage)",
so that would mean well protected on ohms, diode, and cap ranges etc

Dave :)
 
A

Anthony Fremont

John said:
I haven't used their dmm's (I like Fluke) but I have several of their
other gadgets - IR thermometer, air flow meter, LCR meter - and they
all seem very good.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Fluke is nice, but maybe a bit too rich for me plus I'd like a bit
more frequency counting response than 200kHz, well actually I'd like allot
more. ;-) Trying to keep things in the $200 area. Thanks for sharing
your experience.
 
A

Anthony Fremont

David said:
It claims "600V input protection on all functions (1000V on Voltage)",
so that would mean well protected on ohms, diode, and cap ranges etc
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for pointing that out. My Micronta spoiled me all these
years by surviving such things without flinching. It's a concern for me as
I'd really hate to kill an expensive meter by making a stupid mistake. It's
pretty much what happened to all my old analog meters, AC in Ohms
mode.....poof....

As you noticed, I started a new thread since the other was old and getting a
bit OT. ;-)
 
B

Ben Jackson

http://www.extech.com/instrument/products/alpha/MM560_570.html
Click to expand...

We have one of these at work:

http://www.extech.com/instrument/products/400_450/400series_EX450_EX470.html

It's a fine IR thermometer, but it's a sucky DMM. Everyone avoids it like
the plauge in favor of fluke meters. We replaced the leads on it a few
times before realizing it was just a flakey ohmmeter.

If not for that experience, I'd probably own one, since I've seen that
model for under $125. It's a shame, the specs on the 470 (450 + LCR)
look nice.
 
A

Anthony Fremont

Ben said:
We have one of these at work:

http://www.extech.com/instrument/products/400_450/400series_EX450_EX470.html

It's a fine IR thermometer, but it's a sucky DMM. Everyone avoids it
like the plauge in favor of fluke meters. We replaced the leads on
it a few times before realizing it was just a flakey ohmmeter.

If not for that experience, I'd probably own one, since I've seen that
model for under $125. It's a shame, the specs on the 470 (450 + LCR)
look nice.
Click to expand...

Ouch, that's not good. Was it problematic from the start? Could it have
been damaged/dropped? What do you mean by flakey; inconsistant, slightly
off or wildly off?
 
J

Jim Yanik

Yeah, Fluke is nice, but maybe a bit too rich for me plus I'd like a
bit more frequency counting response than 200kHz, well actually I'd
like allot more. ;-) Trying to keep things in the $200 area.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Click to expand...

You don't want to use a DMM for freq. counter,they will NOT have accuracy
comparable to a real freq.counter;use a real Freq-counter.

Look at the specs a bit closer.
 
J

Jim Yanik

Ouch, that's not good. Was it problematic from the start? Could it
have been damaged/dropped? What do you mean by flakey; inconsistant,
slightly off or wildly off?
Click to expand...

It could have just been bad internal connections(loose) to the ohms jacks.

Of course,without 4-terminal measurement,you are not going to get high ohms
accuracy anyways.

If you want a good high accuracy digital meter(6.5 digit),get a HP/Agilent
14401A.
AND it probably has a faster measurement,and better ACV accuracy across a
wider bandwidth.

It's not a handheld,though.
 
A

Anthony Fremont

Jim said:
"Anthony Fremont" <[email protected]> wrote in
Click to expand...
You don't want to use a DMM for freq. counter,they will NOT have
accuracy comparable to a real freq.counter;use a real Freq-counter.

Look at the specs a bit closer.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have a frequency counter already but it's not portable. I don't
need high accuracy on the frequency counter, just a good idea of what's
going on. I play with PICs and it would be nice to be able to quickly check
a pin that's being toggled without having to drag everything to the "bench".
I do want good accuracy on the low current and low voltage measurements.
 
A

Anthony Fremont

Jim said:
high resolution is no good without accuracy.
Click to expand...

..03% on DCV seemed pretty good to me.
and DCV accuracy does not transfer to frequency measurements on DMMs.
Click to expand...

Not that I need even this accuracy, but they are claiming .008% on frequency
measurements. I would rather it be able to read up to 10MHz instead of
2MHz.
 
B

Ben Jackson

Ouch, that's not good. Was it problematic from the start? Could it have
been damaged/dropped? What do you mean by flakey; inconsistant, slightly
off or wildly off?
Click to expand...

It's probably been a year since I used it to measure anything, I don't
recall. It was relatively new when I used it (it was purchased for the
IR thermometer) so I don't think it had been mishandled. Whatever it did
wrong was enough that I questioned the results and got another meter.
Could be an anomaly -- my sample size is 1!
 
D

David L. Jones

Thanks so much for pointing that out. My Micronta spoiled me all these
years by surviving such things without flinching. It's a concern for me as
I'd really hate to kill an expensive meter by making a stupid mistake. It's
pretty much what happened to all my old analog meters, AC in Ohms
mode.....poof....

As you noticed, I started a new thread since the other was old and getting a
bit OT. ;-)
Click to expand...

It was starting to P(r)ong a bit!

An older thread had some support for the ExTech:
http://groups.google.com.au/group/s...frm/thread/5534e068a5413dd7/41d9d5e4030c8442?

And look who was there too, none other than Roy L. Fuchs, a.k.a
MassiveProng

Dave :)
 
A

Anthony Fremont

David said:
It was starting to P(r)ong a bit!
Exactly

An older thread had some support for the ExTech:
http://groups.google.com.au/group/s...frm/thread/5534e068a5413dd7/41d9d5e4030c8442?

And look who was there too, none other than Roy L. Fuchs, a.k.a
MassiveProng
Click to expand...

Looks like "igor The Terrible" likes Extech. I hate to say it, but if the
Protek 6800 could measure DC current with better than 1uA resolution, I'd be
tempted. Most of it's other specs look pretty decent, excepting the battery
life of course. ;-) Since I'm quickly approaching the $300 mark, I'm
rethinking this. In this price range I should probably be looking at
equipment I don't already have, like a logic analyzer.

I think I had less trouble picking a wife. ;-)
 
J

Jim Yanik

Looks like "igor The Terrible" likes Extech. I hate to say it, but if
the Protek 6800 could measure DC current with better than 1uA
resolution, I'd be tempted. Most of it's other specs look pretty
decent, excepting the battery life of course. ;-) Since I'm quickly
approaching the $300 mark, I'm rethinking this. In this price range I
should probably be looking at equipment I don't already have, like a
logic analyzer.

I think I had less trouble picking a wife. ;-)
Click to expand...

OTOH,I can remember when a digital freq. counter was the size of a 25 inch
TV set,and used vacuum tubes.


Do you really -need- 6 digits and .03% DCV accuracy??

(I bought a Metex M-4650 4.5 digit DMM years ago for $99,from Jameco;.05%
DCV)
 
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