Review: DC Clamp multimeter

[CookMySock]

If you work on bike electrics, then you need a meter.



Dick Smith model Q1476. $149

Bottom line - DAMN GOOD! I've had mine a year, and if you fancy yourself as a hobbiest or semi-professional electrical person, then this meter will do anything you need. It's the next most useful thing after the test-lamp. There are a few meters like this around, but not as fully-featured or inexpensive as this one.

Select DC Amps and slip the clamp over any 12V circuitry (1000 amps max) for an instant reading. Test stator AC amps, rectifier DC amps, battery charge/discharge amps (meter shows direction of current flow) headlight current, starter current, etc etc. Damn good!

Measures down to millivolts, so can be used to measure voltage drop across wiring, and also more delicate electronics circuitry.

Measures capacitance, so great for checking motor start caps etc.

Will read frequency in Hz through the clamp (so I am told - never tried it.)

Min/max/peak/hold functions.

An indispensable all-around unit. Get one!

[Spearfish]

Sounds like a useful tool.
Just one question-how far away do the wires being tested by the clamp have to be from another wire if at all?

[EB255GTX]

Sounds like a useful tool.
Just one question-how far away do the wires being tested by the clamp have to be from another wire if at all?

What a thoughtful question!

The answer might seem counterintuitive, but that doesn;t make it any less true - any wires outside the clamp can be as close as you like, even touching the clamp as long as they are outside it becayse they are outside the magnetic loop.

[Spearfish]

Thanks for the answer, I had visions of having to pull a big loop out of a nice tidy loom to get an accurate reading.