26
Hit a dead end with my multimeter so I grabbed an old analog one from the 70s
Was chasing a capacitor leak on a power supply board last Tuesday and my digital meter kept jumping around. Grabbed a Simpson 260 from my grandpa's old toolbox and found the issue in 2 minutes flat. Has anyone else had better luck with analog meters for weird transient stuff?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
gavin3651mo ago
Analog meters have their place for sure but I kinda disagree on this one. The jumping around on your digital meter might have been a sign of noisy signals or bad probe contact, not the meter's fault. Maybe it's just me but I find analog meters can hide small fluctuations because the needle is slow to respond. They're great for seeing a trend or peak values though. But for finding a specific leaky capacitor I'd rather trust a solid digital meter with a slow sample rate setting.
8
willowg881mo ago
Yeah, bad probe contact will absolutely make a digital meter go nuts. I've actually started twisting the tips a bit when I push them in, seems to help with those intermittent readings.
6