Suggestions on second multimeter - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: microbug
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 04:49:15 pm
content: Hi,I have been surviving so far on a 'pocket' UNI-T UT120C multimeter. I am building my own bench power supply and the more I use it, the more it pisses me off - it's all quite flimsy and I really don't trust the reading half the time. It also doesn't have a few features such as temperature measurement which may sound insignificant, but I get fed up with burning my finger every time I want to check if a chip is overloaded / blown etc and itactually is!I would like to get something that will last me some time but (as far as I can see) there's no need to get anything too mind-blowing. I don't want to spend more than about £150 / $240.Edit (realised there wasn't enough detail here):This multimeter should last multiple years, as previously stated.It would be nice to have a backlight.It needs to be True RMS and have a temperature, decent continuity (fast) and capacitance range - other ranges would be nice but not essential.It should have a bar graph.It would be nice to have Min-Max (and average) and if possible an autohold (or similar) feature, but the latter is not essential.I was thinking of a Brymen BM257. It's a fairly basic meter but it seems to have the features I need and Dave seemed to give it the thumbs up in his video about Brymen multimeters (BTW I live in the UK and the cheapest place to get Brymen meters here seems to be attme.eu). At a stretch Imightget the BM869 - nice 500,000 count DC volt range with a load of bells and whistles but to be honest I don't think I'm going to need it all - but that's why this is in the 'Beginners' section! Much as I'd like to go entirely on my own opinion, I think many of the members here are more experienced than me and would value any recommendations / input from anyone else.Thanks in advance!

author: cristoper
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 05:18:43 pm
content: The Amprobe am-270 is only 5000 count, but I've seen it for $77 shipped on both amazon and ebay. It includes temperature and TRMS. There's a look at its construction here:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/teardown-amprobe-am-270-digital-multimeter/

author: microbug
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 05:32:45 pm
content: That does look good for my purposes (see edit on first post) but seems to be difficult to get hold of in the UK - I could pay for shipping + import VAT (20%) but in doing so I might as well get a more expensive meter from a UK distributor. Are you aware of any european sources of Amprobe meters, there seem to be some on eBay but not the am-270.

author: ElectroIrradiator
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 05:35:13 pm
content: Find a nice second hand Fluke 179?Should be easy with a budget of 150 Euro.

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 06:30:35 pm
content: You will not be disappointed with a BM257. It is one of my favorite meters. You can also get it from iloveelectronics here on the forums for less than $135 USD shipped and he sends it with the better probes. You can also get the PC cable and software from him too.

author: microbug
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 06:32:38 pm
content: I forgot that that Franky did a discount for EEVBlog forum members - I'll probably go for the BM257, just checking there isn't anything obvious I have overlooked.

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 06:35:44 pm
content: I am going to do a review on the BM257, but I can tell you I think it is one of the best buys in the $100-$150 range and hard to beat in anything below $200. It has a good mixture of features, tough build, and safety.

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 06:48:00 pm
content: I have a BM257 and am very happy with it. Except for AC V it reads almost identical to my Fluke 87V.

author: Fsck
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 07:07:01 pm
content: If you're considering the 869, you should look at the 867, has most of the 869s features and if you don't need the differences, it's not worth paying for them.

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2013, 07:23:46 pm
content: Any of the Brymen models mentioned would be good.You might be able to swing a pair of BM257's with your budget, which would allow you to take simultaneous measurements. If you can do without temp, the BM867 can be had a good bit cheaper than the BM869 (~$75USD less, which is a good start towards a BM257 as a second meter, which would give you temp).