As I don't want to keep bringing my Fluke DVM in and out of the car to work with it I was looking for a nice desk model meter.
And why not go with it in style ?
I had some things I definitely wanted:
- LED indication. Nice to view under any light circumstances opposed to LCD
- must have V, A and Ohms testing and diode testing
- had to WORK great
The number of digits didn't matter too much for me, I don't need 1000's after the comma...
Looking around marktplaats and ebay I stumbled upon some extremely cool meters that use Nixie tubes.
This one was without a doubt the coolest of them all, with HUGE nixie's, but the ebay auction was ended before time so I guess the seller got an offer he couldn't refuse...:
However there were a couple of drawbacks with these:
- generally quite old, prone for problems
- they go for high prices because of their collectibility
- often don't have diode testing
So, I went back to wanting an LED indicated unit and was pretty patient. There were many that I passed on because on the price going too high.
So I just won this one, a Siemens B1033 but it seems to also have been sold as the Norma DA3232
I'm not 100% sure mine has diode testing, the Norma has so it seems reasonable enough to assume the Siemens has it too.
I really like the extra LED bar-graph.
It was last calibrated in december 2012 so that is great. Can't wait to put it in service.
