Rant: Tried to use my old analog meter on a new smart panel and it just laughed at me

I was helping my cousin rewire his garage in Akron, and his house has one of those new smart panels with all the digital readouts. I pulled out my old Simpson 260, the one my dad gave me, thinking I'd check a voltage. The needle just sat there, didn't budge at all. Turns out the panel's output was some kind of pulsed DC for the smart stuff, not a clean sine wave. I had to borrow his cheap digital meter to get a reading. Has anyone else run into this with older test gear on new systems?

3 comments

3 Comments

juliarodriguez21d ago

My old Fluke 77 reads those pulsed signals just fine.

caseythompson20d ago

But what if it's just averaging the pulses wrong?

kim_ramirez320d ago

My buddy had the same thing happen with his old meter at a solar install... his needle just twitched like it was confused.