Every satellite hobbyist should have one.

[Llew]

Ah, the leather case! Smelt like the inside of a prestige car Think mine's mouldering in the loft 2

I see the latest AVO 8 costs close to £600 now... A friend gave me mine ages ago, couldn't have afforded a new one.

Did buy an Avo 8 Panclimatic (NATO job) before that from Henry's in Tottenham Court Road - a wonderland of army surplus gear - but it developed a stuck movement.

Llew

 

[johnsattuk]

Henry's in Tottenham Court Road - a wonderland of army surplus gear
Llew

That brings back some happy memories, one of the few good points of going to London. There used to be a few interesting shops in Totenham Court Road :-bigsmile

 

[Likvid]

That brings back some happy memories, one of the few good points of going to London. There used to be a few interesting shops in Totenham Court Road :-bigsmile

That was the first place i visited when i arrived in the old days in London as you had loads of cheap nice electronics we didn't have here, it was the mecka in Europe.

But after EU and all that fancy crap all countries were all the same and had the same stuff wherever you visited.

Kinda boring these days visiting another european country these days as they are all the same.

 

[Topper]

Mine arrived today and very nice it is too, much better than the 15 year old one I have which is well past its sell buy date, damaged leads, probes fallen off many times etc cheers Rd100

 

[BarMoo]

When I saw that AVO thumb I smilied.

In fact, I was reminded of the same thing the other day on a TV programme (AVO = Amps Volts [and for the younger ones] have a guess what the 'O' means, LOL.

Like many others here, I too used [suffered] this gem when ascending the elctronics ladder. Have long since descended the same ladder, hehehe.

First thing I did when I left college was to buy an electronic Multimeter (from Maplins) - still use it :-)) Doesn't do capacitor discharge readings very well - but comes in handy when I have to re-install Photoshop.

Moo.

.

 

[johnsattuk]

Picked up four of them today, not all of them for me :-cry1

Great bargain, nice handy size, fits in pocket, even a soft touch sleeve. I shall leave one in the boot of the car

 

[2cvbloke]

I'm just waiting for Maplin to send me my password for my account so I can buy myself one...

 

[2cvbloke]

Well, I never got my password, so I guessed through the passwords I've used in the last 6 years, and got the right one, so I've bought myself a meter and it's on it's way...

It'll beat the pants off the one I use at work, well, the one I have at work has no backlight, so, er, there...

 

[Llew]

Now everyone's getting themselves kitted up with multimeters, might I suggest a useful project to make - an ESR meter!

Expensive to buy, but relatively easy to construct - and indispensible for testing electrolytic capacitors in or out of circuit.

As the capacitors age, their Equivalent Series Resistance increases (that's the internal resistance in series with its capacitance). So although the capacitance measures the same, the capacitor is for all intents and purposes caput, and will eventually cease functioning, causing havoc to associated circuitry. It's one of the main causes of switch mode power supply problems in your STB's.

I built one from a Television Magazine project years ago, and it's probably one of the most used items I have.

One of many simple circuits on the web can be seen here -

http://ludens.cl/Electron/esr/esr.html

Llew

 

[2cvbloke]

Looks fun, gives me an excuse to buy one of those boxes from Maplin...

Just a little off topic note, the last thing I bought from maplin (excluding their catalogues and the multimeter) was some CT100 cable...

 

[Llew]

Some pix of my home-made ESR meter.

Pic1 testing a good capacitor.

Pic2 with one that caused a TV's field oscillator to stop working. Needle right down in 'fit for bin' area.

Pic3 layout inside the meter.

The bad'un showed the capacitance as normal, so this method of checking was the only way to find out that it was faulty, and it was able to be checked while still in circuit.

Llew

 

[wod]

shame theres no diagrams to make a spectrum analyser sat meter

 

[johnsattuk]

shame theres no diagrams to make a spectrum analyser sat meter

I havn't tried it, but there's a spectrum analyser plugin for the relook

 

[Llew]

...and the Triple Dragon, use it sometimes for locating feeds

Llew

 

[2cvbloke]

Some pix of my home-made ESR meter.

Love the hand-drawn needle levels...

 

[Llew]

LOL,needs a makeover I agree.

Afraid my artistic talents are somewhat wanting when it comes to signwriting 2

 

[2cvbloke]

Well, I got my meter today, and out of pure boredom, I measured 0.065 Volts accross my gob....

 

[Llew]

Fillings and saliva make an excellent voltaic cell

 

[2cvbloke]

Fillings and saliva make an excellent voltaic cell

I have no fillings...

 

[Analoguesat]

Dentures ;)

Maplin seem to have run out of the ultra cheapie multi meteres, but they do have 400GB Seagate external HDD's for under 90 quid this week which is tempting me to stick my mp3's on at work.