Question about switching from analog to digital multimeters daily

I used to rely on my old Fluke 77 analog meter for everything on the flight line here in Savannah. Last month I picked up a Keysight U1282A digital one after a buddy said it'd save me time tracing intermittent shorts. Any of you guys find digital meters actually help with older aircraft wiring, or am I just wasting money?

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2 Comments

barbara_grant41mo ago

You mentioned "saving time tracing intermittent shorts" and honestly the only thing digital meters save me is the headache of squinting at a needle bouncing like a jackrabbit. I swapped to digital years ago for my side work and I'd never go back, analog is just guesswork in a trench coat. But hey if you miss watching that needle dance around like a drunk hula dancer then you might want to keep both in your bag.

1

umar491mo ago

72 volts DC on a dead short through an analog meter, that needle slams the stop peg hard enough to make you flinch every time. I had a Fluke 77 that paid for itself in one afternoon when I was chasing a short in an old house's knob and tube wiring, digital just caught the voltage drop faster than I could blink. But here's what I'm wondering... do you ever run into situations where the digital's auto-ranging lags behind the intermittent flash of a short, or is that just me being impatient? Because I've had times where the meter's still trying to figure out the range while the fault is already gone, and that's when I miss the analog needle's instant reaction.

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