Re: Desktop vs handheld multimeter?

nabi wrote:
Which one is better in the long run?

I'm a beginner in electronics. after reading few electronic books, now
I feel urge to start build small kits for learning purposes. I have a
$15.00 USD worth of multimeter. It's very basic and one funny things is
it can not read 0.00 ohm. Checking zero ohm gives 00.6 ohm. The value
is almost identical to the previous 'mastercraft one. What the heck! In
my workplace, it's good enough. 12 DC environment, mostly checking
continuity of wires and bad ground. Actually, I broke one wire of test
probe. When I went to local stores to buy test wire, it was few times
expensive than the mulitimeter I have. So, I bought another one.

I plan to buy a reliable multimeter within 6 months depend on the
progress I'll have made in projects. I think the multimeter is good for
a while. So, I'm not in hurry but want to have some idea about good
multimeters. Price range is below $500 USD.

A reading of .6 ohm is not unusual for a cheap meter. There are two main causes of this.
1. The quality of the meter in general and the accuracy of the ADC.
2. The most likely cause is in the probe leads themselves. They may actually have .6 ohms of resistance.

So you should short them together and then subtract that reading from the total read.

This is where a desktop unit will be better. They tend to have a 4-wire system that compensates for the probe resistance. It is much more accurate for a low resistance measurement, but slightly less convenient since you have to deal with 4 wires.

cv
.

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