I picked this up today from Canadian Tire for $9.99 CDN, on special from the regular price of $34.99.
Here's a view of the front of it without its bubble pack.
There's a flip-out stand in back.
Battery Installation
The unit takes a single 9V rectangular battery in a compartment at the upper rear. (A battery is included in the packaging.)
Removing that single screw gives you access to the battery compartment. Don't lose the screw; it's an M2.5 thread -- not something you'll easily find a replacement for.
Test Leads
They're 33 inches long, not counting the length of the probes. They come with little caps for the plug ends[1], which strike me as quite needless.
The probe tips are short[1] -- barely 9/64" long -- and not very sharply pointed.
Continuity Test
For resistances lower than about 30 ohms, the meter issues a discreet beeping sound. There's no way to turn off that feature.
Hold Feature
Pressing the button labelled 'H' forces the instrument to hold its current reading in its display. Pressing the 'H' button again releases the hold, and returns the device to normal operation. Be aware that nothing appears in the display to indicate that 'hold' has been invoked. One could get faked out and think that the meter was defective because of a 'stuck' display.
Instruction Manual
The little manual that comes with the meter is remarkably good -- easily one of the best such manuals I've ever encountered.
Accuracy
I'm not equipped with calibration standards gear, so I just have to take the manual's word for it. I expect that the meter's accuracy is entirely ok for this class of instrument. The voltage scales display zero when they're supposed to; the ohmmeter displays 0.1 ohm on the low ohms scale with the test leads firmly shorted together. Good enough.
In Conclusion
For $9.99, I'd say that I've done alright. I bought this to have a basic multimeter with me in my carry-about tool kit, and it looks like this should serve. I have no gripes with the thing, though I would like it to be possible to disable the audible continuity test feature, and the display ought to report when the 'hold' function has been invoked.
* * *
Note:
[1] The guarded, deeply recessed banana jacks/plugs and short probe tips are typical these days. They're supposed to make for user safety, but they limit a meter's versatility. A standard banana plug just barely inserts far enough to make, which complicates the fabrication of special/alternative test leads a bit. The probe tips are too short to enter, say, a household electrical receptacle for a quick test to see if a receptacle is live, and if it's wired correctly. 'No big deal, but I'd happily settle for a little less 'safety' in favour of versatility and ease of use.
# # #
# # #
Be aware that the banana jacks on the 052-0060-2 don’t accommodate after market standard banana plugs. A standard banana probe lead set with alligator clips and hook probes that I bought may require some creative modifications of the its banana plugs to fit into the jacks.
ReplyDelete