Meter for a beginner?

Starting to quite enjoy DIY, and in preparation for making something slightly more substantial, I'd like to get a meter. I've seen all manner of quite cheap digital ones, but the resident electronics guru at work said that they're "of random accuracy", and recommended that I get a secondhand Fluke instead, which I could then sell on later for little loss if I wanted to upgrade (or realised this hobby wasn't for me). Had a quick look around, and the 17x range seems to do everything I'll need. I want to build two headphone amps as first projects, a portable one first, and then a more substantial one for home. Any comments?

 

Hi,

I bought a really cheap £4-99 digital multimeter, it's a DT830B and its fine for the majority of measurements.

I also have a 6 digit bench multimeter for the more serious measurements.

If you look around you can pick up some good Fluke one's quite cheap.

Regards

 

Hi again,

This is the cheap one I have...it's even cheaper now!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1504&item=3816665303&rd=1

Regards

 

whilst flukes are mighty fine meters there a bit of over kill ,ive found 2 of those cheapo meters ideal and fairly accurate,ive also a fancy meter that does everything but i hardly use it,more usefull is an oscilascope,ive one of the £100 lcd model,direct read out of voltage,either rms or peak and frequency,and you get to see a pretty wave form

 

Will an oscilloscope show how clean a mains supply is?

 

possible,depends how high a frequency you wish to measure up to,mine goes up to 10Mhz,it will show wot the base frequency is,and wot th voltage is . make sure its got a suitable voltage rating though .o and also the scopes signal earth maybe at mains earth,connecting it to mains neutral may give some misleading results

 

DMM.

Go and buy GW26D at Maplin.
A reliably accurate (ignore your sniffy workmate!) DMM that also measures Capacitors and Inductors and is thus ideal for audio. Not under a tenner, but should last you a very long while, having entered the catalogue number above into the Maplin website I see that it is under 3 tenners...
Model WG020 Price: £29.99 Valid until: 12/06/2004 Save: £20
A signal generator and oscilloscope would indeed be the next step for thee and me, but one step at a time...

EDIT: Re your reply below... ooops! Didn't spot your location, but I imagine that the WhiteGold WG020 is manufactured closer to you than I anyway! If you can spot it amongst the cartoons it is worth considering.

 

Maplin. Hmm, kind of a long way. I think I'll get something cheap and cheerful for the time being. Plenty to choose from, so just pick the one with the cutest cartoon characters in the ads. Usually works.

 

Chiba,
You need to go to Radio Kaikan in Akihabara. You will find something to suit your needs and budget there.

 

Joel - cheers. Is it a tool shop? There are three tool shops that I know, but to be honest I don't really bother with names, just tend to navigate by 'across from the place that does second hand Compaq kit' or 'round the corner from the place that looks like a dodgy anime shop but in reality sells really cheap DVDRs', etc. I often go with a more logical mate though, so I'll ask him if he knows it.