3 ms·
Oh, did your banana have "CAT III Max 600V" stencilled on it? The $15 multimeter does. I suspect the cheap meter has about the same right to wear that label as
by aeberbach 13y ago
Oh, did your banana have "CAT III Max 600V" stencilled on it? The $15 multimeter does. I suspect the cheap meter has about the same right to wear that label as the banana.
- judk 13y agoDoes Sparkfun's product actually fail in 590V environments? That seems like a more serious concern tha branding.
- mindslight 13y agoProbably not, but if it does fail at 500V, I wouldn't want to be around. The short circuit current and energies available generally go up with the voltage, and who knows how well thought out its failure modes are. Not that I'd like the CPSC anywhere near electronics, either. But given the amount of QA those meters probably (don't) receive and their intended market, Sparkfun should be responsible and either post their ongoing testing process, or probably just drop the rated voltage to 100V.
- teacup50 13y agoProbably not? Tear downs of cheap knock-off multimeters have shown that they very well can and will fail.
- fest 13y agoI doubt it will fail in such environments (at least, for most of the time). The problem with meeting CAT ratings is transient voltage spikes- I don't recall exact numbers, but some for some of the higher CAT ratings multimeters are required to withstand (meaning continue to operate, or fail in a safe way, with no harm to operator) several kilo-volts. Cheaper multimeters just literally blow up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-FZP1U2dkM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-FZP1U2dkM