Thank you for the tip. The fuses cost more than a new meter.
I’ve screwed up and blown the ‘single strand fuse’ on several meters and the ‘wire fuse’ worked every time without dinging the meters.
Mel
I’ve got one of those, too. Looks about the same.
So does a new battery.
I really wouldn;t jumper over the fuse. It’s bad enough the 10 amp range doesn;t have ANY fuse whatsoever. THatmeans if you overload or short out while plugged in for the 10 amp range, the whole meter will likely just blow up in your hands. That fuse is on the low amp range, and will blow if you exceed 200ma. THere’s not much in model railroading that 200ma is enough, most things you would be on the 10 amp range. testing current to a single LED maybe, for the 200ma range.
ANd better quality probes and leads or not - I would never use the HF meter for household wiring - the leads it comes with would probably just melt in your hands if overloaded or shorted. Good probes and leads won’t - however, then the meter itself will melt. There’s a video of ‘fully destructive’ testing of that and similar cheap meters.
A g
The FLuke 70 and 80 series meters are traditionally “electrician’s” meters - made to take a beating, made to measure high voltage and current safely. Hence the rubber baby buggy bumpers around them that keep the plastic case from getting smashed. Definitely good stuff.
But not so good for DCC model railroading - the RMS functionality will actually read way off, not more accurately, when measuring DCC. None of my good quality meters reads DCC track voltage as accurately as the cheap Harbor Freight meter. Except my venerable old Fluke 8060. One of the early LCD handhelds, still of the type where the range selection is pushbuttons down the left side of the meter instead of a dial knob. It does true RMS measurements of sine, square, and triangle waves at frequencies up to somewhere near 30KHz. Most RMS meters only do sine, up to maybe double lien frequency, 120Hz. Or a True RMS meter than can handle different wave shapes, but also only up to a limited frequency range, far below DCC frquencies. So while it sounds like they shoudl do better than a cheap meter that does no sort of RMS measurement at all - actually, they don’t, where DCC is concerned.
I bought the 8060 used on eBay, pretty cheap. It needed some cleaning up, and internally there is a zebra strip connecting the LCD to the board which needed a good cleaning, as dirty/poor contact was causing some segments to not show up properly. But after that - still works good. It probably should be recapped and calibrated, but it actually measures within spec compared to my reference source. I have two newer full feature meters though that I use much more, excpet for DCC track voltage, becau while they are both True RMS meters, the top frequency is too low to accurately measure DCC. The one is quite neat, user updateble firmware, data logging to an SD card, and Bluetooth connectivity to dat logging and display apps for IOS and Android.
Most of the time I jsut use them o measure resist
Randy I agree with you.
I think most model railroaders that pop the fuse in the HF meters are doing it accidently. As you said there is no fuse in the HF 10 Amp connections so they are popping it measuring voltage on the 200ma setting.
I set my power supply to limit at 2 amps and a single strand of #30 blew it easily. It did get hot and melt at 1 amp so it would be safer if it was in the glass rather than tacked to the outside. I continually grab a HF meter to check voltage (24 volts and lower) and forget to check where I left it. The HF is the worst offender because of the on off switch isn’t part of the selector switch like most normal meters. It’s too easy to turn on and go.
I agree about not using the cheapo meters over 50 volts or so for non electrical type guys. I go to my Fluke or Triplet 360 for over a 100 volts and I’ve been using meters for over 70 years.
Mel
Not so fast. Fuses are there to prevent expensive smoke!
Also, some Flukes use an expensive fuse, which must be replaced with exactly the same type, as it is also a shunt. Just stuffing any handy fuse in there makes the ammeter function useless, as it needs the shunt created by the fuse specified for it.
I don’t remember ever having to replace the fuses in my Fluke, It did come with a spare 1 amp and 15 amp fuse and they are still in the box.
The Fluke manual doesn’t say it’s a special fuse just fast blow with without a Fluke part number.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I bought two electronic items at Harbor Freight not long ago. A cigarette lighter phone charger for my phone and a battery monitor for my 69 classic car.
The charger for my phone didn’t work right from the start. I wasn’t about to stick the battery monitor on my classic car after that. I returned them both.
You get what you pay for. I bought a battery Governor from Napa that is on my classic car now because my security system draws so much current from the battery it needs to be continually trickle charged.
I will pay for the good stuff. Don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of good stuff from Harbor Freight I buy and I am happy with. Just Not Electronics
TF
I normally buy a tool of some sort and use the freebee coupon for my train goodies. I did get one meter that was DOA but my wife stopped by and they replaced it no questions ask.
You’re right about you get what you pay for but normally everything I get at HF does what I need, even stuff non railroad related. I would rather buy a cheapo to tear up than something expensive, I’m good at tearing stuff up. I buy all of my drill bits from HF and as I’m not a machinist I can’t tell the difference between the HF 10 bits for less than the price of one at a big box store so I’ll hang in there.
I have about 10 of the HF volt meters (I always have one within arms reach, I’m lazy) and for the most of it they’re pretty accurate, close enough for model railroading. I bought a A803L Cen-Tech meter off eBay for about $6 several years ago and I keeps up pretty good with my $300 Fluke, Cen-Tech also makes the HF meter.
Mel
Drill bits yes. Mel, Harbor Freight does have those little ones that I seem to bust all the time. Replaced cheap at Harbor Freight[Y]
TF
I still remember the tool guy that used to be at local train shows selling the very same Cen-Tech meter you get at harbor Freight. For $15! At that time, if you actually paid for it at HF, it was $3. You can still find them on Amazon and other palces for $20+. It’s the same meter.
As for car chargers - on an older classic car that doesn;t have all the electronics of a modern car - I’d just put a battery disconnect on it and that way nothing could drain the battery when it’s parker - also nothign can fail, or mice eat a wire, and cause the thing to catch on fire. My car is too modern for such things, it would go nuts if I pulled the battery when I park it for the winter - I have a battery tender I got at HF and it’s kept it good (actually, the car before this one as well) for 5 years now. When I still ha dmy lawn tractor - I was too cheap to go to the battery outlet and get a cheap battery, I just connected the battery tender between mowings and it was good enough to get it started next time I needed it. Curse of newer cars with all their electronics though - my '92 truck sat for 2 months without being started and still it started right up, granted that was in the summer. In winter I park the car (it has performacne tires which don’t like being cold and definitely do NOT go in the snow) and drive the truck.
–Randy
I park my car and I leave it. That’s it. I have a security system in my car. My car calls me on my phone if it moves.
TF
After if such a thing happens my car will tell me where it is GPS x 3 I pay for that service too.
It’s a drain on the battery
To me nothing can beat the Simpson 260. I recently retired as an industrial electrician & a 260 has always been part of my arsenal for the past 45 years. I do have a number of different brand digitals as well… Mostly Clamp on amp/volt combinations… funny thing I found. that the cheapest HF one reads almost exactly the same as a nice Fluke that I own
My wife is the one that makes the HF run for me and when she brings back a freebee meter I check its accuracy with my fluke and most are very close. I can only remember having to tweak one out of about a dozen meters.
I keep a HF meter within arms reach around my layout because of my arthritis.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield
New Harbor Fright add says ‘‘Everything must go.’’. Do you think they are going by the way of Radio Shack?
I think it refers to their parking lot sale as the ad also says “See What’s New”
A few years ago, I worked near our local HF and passed it twice a day. With those “Free” coupons I got 9 meters, 18 tape measures,11 magnetic trays,14 screwdriver sets and 19 LED mini flashlights in that time period. I do like their tool boxes.
I did mention using the HF meter on the 20 ma current scale as a DCC five amp meter. The below link shows how it is done. I made two sets. The fellow use to show the HF meter a few years ago.
It is accurate. Our club booster would trip at about 4.97 0r 4.98 amps.I have a high wattage rheostat I clip accross the track for a load and dial down the resistance.
We had thought of getting a RRamp meter but they liked this.
Two three terminal chips do the conversion.
http://www.circuitous.ca/DCCammeter10.html
In fact, you can measure AC current using one of the resistors. 0.1 ohms, 1 percent, 5 watt resistor… Use the meter on AC and measure AC voltage drop across the resistor. Ohms law if no meter to calculate AC current. Just buy an extra resistor or two. Put it in series with the load.
Rich
Rich is correct, Robs circuit is dead on. It also works on DC and just as accurate.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.