Choosing A Multimeter
I’ve received a lot of great feedback the past few weeks on our videos. And while I will admit that it has been fun to collaborate with other professionals who put their own spin on things, it’s honestly refreshing to just try out some new ideas. So as just a small digression here, make sure you try to bounce some ideas or problems off of some of your peers in the coming weeks. Collaboration is such a great tool and it’s incredibly easy to do with today’s resources. You may be surprised where some honest input will take your projects.
For today, I thought I’d jump back to our multimeter video featuring our friend Mark Van Til from AEMC. I had a tech mention to me that there were a lot of smaller points in the video that were important, but not necessarily highlighted as “key points” in the interview. Everyone learns information differently, and lists are a great trick for breaking large amounts of information into more manageable pieces. So, for you list-lovers out there, here’s some points on multimeters:
Before you purchase a multimeter, you need to understand your work and anticipate the type of tasks you’ll be performing to know which meter you will need.
Understand that every instrument has a Category and Voltage Rating (e.g. 1,000V CAT IV and 230V CAT II). Make sure that the device you plan on using is acceptable for the environment in which you’ll be testing.
The Leads of your multimeter also have a rating, so be sure that they match or exceed the rating of the instrument you’re connecting them to.
Meters will age with you and perform their best when they are regularly calibrated.
This would be a great topic to discuss with other engineers or technicians. Almost everyone I’ve spoken with about instruments has an interesting story about a weird way they used a device, a difficult troubleshooting experience, or a mistake that they now know how to avoid. As always, if you have questions about multimeters, testing, or anything else feel free to reach out to us.
