RFI for MultimeterBuyersGuide.com

[MJLorton]

Hi Folks,

As I've noted a few times in my videos, I would like to have the "ultimate multimeter selection tool / buyers guide" as a database on multimeters. I've registered the domain MultimeterBuyersGuide.com and have a web developer willing to donate his time to the cause.

I'm putting together a spreadsheet to capture the data fields that would be useful as selection criteria for someone looking for a multimeter. Please have a look at it and start noting specs / information I have missed or you think may be handy for folks doing such a search.

Besides being a handy reference for folks there will be a commercial aspect. There will be advertising on the site and links to purchase multimeters from resellers I'm affiliated to (Franky, Amazon, tester.co.uk, etc). I'm doing this to diversify my income so I'm less reliant on the fun and games with Youtube. There will of course be links to any video reviews I have done and perhaps others too.

I'm also hoping to include some kind of intelligent rating system as well as public ratings.

Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Martin.

[SeanB]

Open circuit voltage in ohms range, plus open circuit voltage in diode test. Speed of continuity buzzer response along with buzzer threshold, and open circuit voltage. Current in these ranges as well would be nice( though you will need a microcurrent to measure it at a short circuit) as an option.

This will be getting to be a really big sheet, you might want to use a page for each model, and then an overview page that allows a basic shortform, then allows you to look at the appropriate sheet.

[Mr Eastwood]

MultimeterBuyersGuide.com sounds great!  A ranking system would work really nice if you can nail how that would work; it would certainly take some careful thought.  I had a quick look at RS Online and how they offer DMM search filtering (product selector) and came to the conclusion very quickly that it was quite poor and a good example of how not to implement it!

I total agree with Sean, but surely you would need all the various meters in front of you for testing, how many DMMs are you thinking of including?  Can you get hold of them all?  Will they all fit on your shelf? :-)  Maybe if you created an online system, perhaps owners of the various missing brands and models could post their data into the database?

Recently I was messing with my UT-70b and I thought i'd give it a tune-up, so I cracked it open and saw 4 pots inside; after looking at the chipset spec sheet I realized that the pots were for the temperature adjustment;  I was really quite disappointed that temperature was all I could adjust;  so for me the ability of calibrating my own DMM vs a "baked-in" factory calibration is quite important when I come to choose my next DMM.

[edit: there are 6 pots inside not 4!, the other 2 are under the LCD display, but accessible from the underside of the PCB]

[Majes]

Closed case calibration is quite appealing to me also, even if ya must use terminal commands, as long as it's linux native it should OS independent.

And of course, speed and resolution...

[SeanB]

In most cases I think Martin will get the meters himself, or he will crowd source the info. That will both increse the availability and the quality of the data.

As to closed case calibration, it is good provided that you cannot accidentally enter it ( open battery compartment and close a switch marked Calibrate) and that you have a good reference source to do each range with. Unfortunately the second one is expensive and not common.

[Monkeh]

Remember burden voltage varies by range (uA, mA, A) and not all meters will have all three, so those should be separate fields for readability.

This is going to be one big spreadsheet. Methinks life will be easier with a website and database.

With regards to the website, I'm sure you can get other reviewers (Dave Jones springs to mind) to assist with populating it with information. No one man can test every meter!

[MJLorton]

Thanks for all the good points thus far...it's all being noted and I'll post a "progress report" soon.

[Billy]

Hmm, presenting all the data will definitely be a challenge, but nonetheless it would definitely be useful to have it all in one place, would save a hell of a lot of googling when one is about to buy a meter.

More criteria for the mix:

• Backlighting
• Temperature measurement
• Battery type
• Battery life
• Weight. Of interest to those who have to carry it in their overalls or in a toolbox.
• Some sort of ergonomic rating. Eg: is it easy to operate with one hand, got a good viewing angle, etc. (No idea how to quantify this though.)
• Configurability. Eg: can you override the auto-power-off mode, beeper, etc. Again not an easy one to quantify.
• After-sales support. Well aren't I on a roll with the difficult-to-quantify ones tonight!

[MJLorton]

Thanks Billy...good points noted!

[retiredcaps]

Hi Martin,

You may have to consider the user interface on this for different types/expertise of user.

A newbie will not care about a lot of the things that are discussed here or on eevblog forum.   Are they going to be overwhelmed by the number of different search parameters? 

For example, imagine a newbie going to digikey simply looking for a 1000uF 10V capacitor.  The parameters on digikey are enoromous and overwhelming.  However, it is great for expert users who are looking for ESR, lifetime, operating temperature, etc, etc.

Are you planning anything for used older multimeters?  For example, people in the USA have a lot of options with ebay and used Fluke multimeters for under $100.  An used Fluke 87 would hold its own in any $100 shootout today even though it is 20 year old technology.

[Mr Eastwood]

I saw a nice bit of UI today which made me think of my ideal DMM selection tool,  so I pasted in some dummy pics and changed some text;  you'd need to add filters etc,  but it would be nice to have something more visual than the typical boring way of presenting products.

http://tinypixels.co.uk/demos/dmm-sg/index.htm

[MJLorton]

I really like that.

Life is manic at the moment but once we have settled into our new home and have the lab setup I'll concentrate on this.

Thanks very much for putting it together.