The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Which Ammeter/volt meter are you using?

What brand & model ammeter/volt meter are you guys using to adjust your voltage regulator, and check other electrical diagnostics?

It's a "Fluke". This one don't care what you get the probes in or on, Ohms, Amps or volts, It senses what your reading and switches automatically WITHOUT frying the movement.
Jerry

Fluke is really the Caddy of multimeters. I started using them 35 years ago in the Air Force and then later in the FAA. If its good enough for the government... They ARE there to help. LOL!

Triple that. Fluke.

I always swore by my old Simpson with a sweep dial, but I recently bought a Fluke 88V and I'll probably never use the old Simpson again.

Does a Fluke meter have a function capable of measuring full charge current, like in the 40-60 amp range or more?

I've always found that most digital meters are way too sensitive to monitor the output of a vibrating-point regulator, either voltage or current flow. I just see randomly-changing gibberish numbers on the digital meters I've used. An analog meter has a slow enough response to read an average of several cycles of the regulator points.
Jerry

That's a good point. I haven't used my Fluke on a Generator system yet. Maybe I should keep the old Simpson around handy. I have an old generator testing contraption that I have had for about 50 years. I saw it just the other day when I was looking for something else.

My expensive Fluke has the current probe and all the bells and whistles, but it would be a few months before I could check since my 6v truck with generator is down till then.

Another measurement that almost requires an analog meter is measuring point dwell. A dwell meter is nothing more or less than a voltmeter, and it measures an average of points open/points closed voltage. With the points closed, the voltage on the downstream side of the coil is virtually zero, since the closed points are at ground potential. The only possible voltage reading would be indicating whatever resistance the slightly dirty points have. The "points open" voltage will be the same as battery voltage, since no current is flowing with the circuit interrupted by the open points. If the dwell is 30 degrees (of a possible 45) on a V8 engine for instance, that means the points are closed 66% of the time. The dwell meter will indicate 0 volts for 2/3 of the time, and battery voltage the other 1/3. With a charging system voltage of 14 volts, the "dwell" voltage at the distributor side of the coil will be about 4.6 volts. Try it sometime (with an analog meter).
Jerry

I hadn't thought of that either. The little bit I run my old jalopies with good lubricant on the rubbing block, the point gap stays put for a long time. Between my old meters, I consider the Simpson the best, but I have an old Snap On and an old Mac. They might be more useful that I thought. But the Fluke sure is nice for trouble shooting electrical problems on our Internationals with Cummins electronic engines. Now that I think of it, it probably has been several years since I had reason to check dwell.

Simpson or Fluke...each has advantage and disadvantage. For most truck stuff? Hard to beat the Simpson. It has enough out put voltage and current in the Ohms position to help find bad connections. And that is the bad thing too. It has enough output to destroy any solid state device that is not rated for a lot of current. Fluke? Very stable and very accurate. Very low current out in Ohms position so no risk of harm to solid state devices. Very fast response to voltage changes...bad for mechanical regulators and any thing with a commutator. If I were starting now? Get a Simpson and a cheap digital. Working on a Radio? or any thing digital? Get the Fluke. Hard to say "best" with the specific task not defined. There is a reason I have more than one Hammer...:)

The programmable digitals allow you to take measurements at different sampling rates. If the makers of the analog meter created the proper signal processing to move an analog meter movement, the digital ones should be able to perfectly emulate that. But not sure how that plays out. I don't have a Simpson, which I would love to have, rather I have a Heathkit analog. I never use it anymore, but I keep it around for occasions like the ones described above. Good analogy Steve!

That Heathkit is good one and it uses less current to measure Ohms than the Simpson. To check just get the cheap digital from HF and measure the output at the leads when set to Ohms. Change the scale and watch the out put change. Gives a good indication and if you use the same meter to compare it won't have to be too accurate. Simpson has 1.5 volts out with a BIG battery for current. Not what you want at the junction of a 2N2222. That is a common fast switch transistor. It comes in about a dozen different packages but they are all the same transistor. Lots of them in radios, power supply's and other devices.

This is a great thread, I decided to go with the Fluke 233A because of the removable remote. My next big electrical project is rewiring my stake bed for brake and turn signals, and I think it will be nice to check from inside the cab. Thanks again for all of the input!
Curt