recommended tools for beginners?

[krispy]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, and can't stop thinking about getting involved and building some of these circuits - getting started on the bedini schoolgirl to prove the concepts to myself.

I would like to question the experienced people here on what tools would be a good start for someone who has nothing related to this work - firstly, multimeters - there are so many options, with an incredible price range. I'm having difficulty sifting through all the specifications, and what I need.

In my neighborhood, Fluke, Greenlee, Ideal, and others are available. I'm hoping to keep the meter under $200, and I have the ability to get good discounts through some of the contractors I work with, but I need to choose a unit first.

Can anyone recommend a unit with the most useful feature set for the best price? I would personally like to get a unit with temperature monitoring, although I realize this will add to the price. I'm not afraid to spend more money to get the unit that will serve me best through all my experiments, cause I hate going out and buying a better one because I cheaped out before I knew what I was doing....


recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

kris

[theremart]

What meter to get.

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, and can't stop thinking about getting involved and building some of these circuits - getting started on the bedini schoolgirl to prove the concepts to myself.

I would like to question the experienced people here on what tools would be a good start for someone who has nothing related to this work - firstly, multimeters - there are so many options, with an incredible price range. I'm having difficulty sifting through all the specifications, and what I need.

In my neighborhood, Fluke, Greenlee, Ideal, and others are available. I'm hoping to keep the meter under $200, and I have the ability to get good discounts through some of the contractors I work with, but I need to choose a unit first.

Can anyone recommend a unit with the most useful feature set for the best price? I would personally like to get a unit with temperature monitoring, although I realize this will add to the price. I'm not afraid to spend more money to get the unit that will serve me best through all my experiments, cause I hate going out and buying a better one because I cheaped out before I knew what I was doing....


recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

kris

1. Get the $4.00 meter from harbor frieght. I pick up about 3 at a time the price is great, and it is good to have multiple meters.

2. Get yourself analog amp meter my 1-3 amp one is my tool of choice it gives an accurate measurement where digitals fail, time and time again at measuring low amps the clamp on amp meters fail.

[amigo]

As theremart said, one or two Analog Panel Meters, 0-1 A, 0-5 A or whatever, depends on your application. Analog meters do not fail to work at high frequencies like Digital ones do and will give some (inaccurate but best we can get) picture of the currents.

One or two digital meters, any would do to measure voltage across the batteries or in general.

A cheap oscilloscope that can do 10 MHz would come handy as well to see those waveforms. You can probably pick one for $40-50 in surplus stores (just make sure it works)

Also, if you do not have adequate space for this (apartment like myself) get yourself an assortment of SLA (Seald Lead-Acid) batteries and use those instead of pure Lead-Acid car batteries. They are much easier to manage and handle and produce same effects as Lead-Acid but without the acid hassles.

Might wanna consdier getting some spools of magnet wire as well. Various AWGs, pick several that you think you will need like 23, 26, 30 for example and use them to wind new coils (you will want to after a while).

[krispy]

sweet, thanks for the tips guys - I thought it was necessary to pick up a high end meter. Ill save my money and buy those analog panel meters and a couple multi's... Im thinking I need to get a unit that can test up to 24 volts, just to future proof it a bit. Oscilloscope - I wanted one, but didnt remember the name - I should be able to find one of those in town....great advice, would LOVE to see those waves in person!

Spools of magnet wire? what kinda footage? i know thats a tough question, based on what I wanna do i guess...Basically, once I prove this to myself, I likely wont stop. so what, 2000, 5000 ft? of each?

sweet, I'll get started gathering after the weekend. Magnets should arrive by then!

Thanks again, and more advise welcome to help me tool up!

Peace!

kris

[dambit]

Hi Krispy,

If you are going to wind your own coils order some spools with at least 100ft of wire on them. Here in Australia most electrinics shops only supply small amounts of wire, I had to order mine online to get larger quantities. (I now get someone else to make my coils as I couldn't be bothered anymore)

With regards to the meters, the above is correct. No need for expensive equipment as most of it can't measure whats going on. Just get a normal multimeter (about AUD$20-$40) as most of these will allow you to take resistance readings etc also. The panel meters are invaluable to this kind of experimenting. They are cheap and more accurate when measuring current.

If you don't mind spending a bit more on equipment, get a multi-channel scope. this way, when you start to build multi-coil devices you can compare the waveforms and this will help with tuning. I personally think that a true anologue scope is better than the PC software versions, but that's just me.

Cheers,

Steve