[vcf-midatlantic] Apple IIe Voltmeter

[David Riley]

On Nov 13, 2015, at 11:59 AM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
> 
> I prefer analog meters when making "runs" of comparative measurements. It's easy to see if one reading is "more" or "less" than another, the needle is literally in different positions.

I prefer them for that and, for diagnosing intermediate or "wandering" problems (or quickly checking continuity), it's MUCH easier to see a needle moving than wait for the update of an LCD.

> I've found variations in current measurements among several Simpson 260 meters (and among their scales) I've acquired. My guess is that some of the shunts were "cooked" by excessive current, or corroded by time and tide. I have not yet gone to the trouble of diagnosing them, I simply use the meters that have the best readings through the procedures noted. They are cheap today.

I've definitely cooked current shunts in both digital and analog meters.  Nothing is immune, even the fused ones (those fuses do have a finite blow time, which is more than enough to damage something if you accidentally touch mains).

> Why? Given the "digital is better" bias these days, only a few people call out the Simpson 260 as a valued instrument - Dave McGuire for instance, in that email list we used to use.

Digital is marginally better in situations where you need to record a number, but that's really just laziness.  They can actually be more precise where that matters, but it seldom does.  And I like the autoranging of digital meters, but that goes back to laziness.  I have a very nice Fluke 87-V that I use for just about everything, but there are a lot of times I wish I had a dependable and portable analog meter as a counterpart.


- Dave