I previously had a nice Digital Multimeter that worked fine but somehow "disappeared" during an office move at work, and I've yet to replace it. But alas, now I must because I need to troubleshoot a hot water heater problem, and I really need one for model railroading purposes as well. SO, I just wanted feedback if you know of a decent, readily available digital multimeter that has features, form factor, or other attributes that make it handy for model railroading, moreso than others. When I say readily available, I mean I need to be able to purchase it locally, tonight. So that means Radio Shack, Fry's, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or something along those lines. I probably will head by Fry's on the way home and just pick one if nothing else reveals itself.
One bit of info I came across that might be useful...a DMM that properly reads non-sinusoidal AC waveforms will more accurately convey the voltage from a DCC system. This is why Tony's DCC Rampmeter is popular since it does this well. So I guess that might be a selling point.
Well, here's my worse case scenario, price wise. Kinda expensive but should do the trick. http://www.radioshack.com/entry.jsp?source=PE&entry=2104750 I've found some for $10, so if you are looking for a price range, it's $10-90. :-D I'd like to find something for less than $50, which is what I spent on my last one.
I have: a fluke auto ranging multimeter from about 1990 adn a B&K test bench from about 1990. both are great. the Fluke is autoranging which is nice, teh B&K has a transistor and cap checker. I think they were about $80-$100 each back then
Try Sears also. I got mine there on sale and it has worked fine. They seem to have much better models than Radio Shack. My previous was a Fluke but the display gave way and it was too costly to repair.
Unfortunately a true rms multimeter is going to cost you. It would be safe to say that you do not need true rms. What do you need it for other than MRR? You can get into a very nice Fluke (for under $160) and you cannot beat a Fluke. Try jensen tools (sorry - forgot the 1 up there - $160) [ February 21, 2006, 11:50 PM: Message edited by: FiveFlat ]
I went ahead and sprung for the true RMS unit at Radio Shack. I avoided the drudgery that is going to Fry's, and I think the unit will do everything I need it to. Of all the "entry level" true RMS meters I found, it had the best specs and was also the cheapest. Sheldon, I was just going on the info I read about buying a true RMS meter to get an accurate voltage reading on the DCC signal. That seems to make sense given what little I know about the way DCC works, but maybe that advice was ill-conceived...I don't know. Anyway, an extra $30-40 isn't going to break the bank I suppose.
I think I saw a Sears Craftsman unit in a recent add for $19.... I didn't catch the tolerances... Harold
