New DMM for iPod/iPhone/iPad coming soon

[Jim R.]

Just wanted to post this here in case anybody is interested.  In early June there will be a new digital multimeter box that will communicate via bluetooth with your iDevices:

http://www.redfishinstruments.com/

The comparison with the Fluke is a bit silly since the fluke does a bunch of other things, but that aside, IMO this is just too cool not to give it a try.  I'll be reserving mine today.

-- Jim

[dbishopbliss]

Way cool, but $220.  I will save my money for a Fluke. 

[Jim R.]

Yes, and I should have mentioned this, but did you see that it talks right out of the box, whether using VoiceOver or not?  $220 seems like a deal compared to my $650 talking DMM from Omega Instruments :-).

-- Jim

[dbishopbliss]

I was thinking to myself, "Why would somebody need a talking DMM?" 

I should have realized since you are the one who originally posted the topic.  Sorry, wasn't thinking. 

[Jim R.]

Actually, there are plenty of times when I was a woking engineer that a talking DMM would have been a godsend.  That's why Omega Instruments makes one -- definitely not for blind people.

True story, when I told the sales rep I was blind, he resused to sell the meter to me -- said it ws too much of a liaility issue (which is total BS for so many reasons I can't even list them all), so I just had a fiend buy it for me.

I suppose that he didn't realize that his company sold them wholesale to a couple of specialty distributors of assistive technologies for blind and vision impaired people.  Didn't buy it from those places as they typically add a healthy margin on.

Well, I've got one, and it is built like a tank, has some nice extras like IR temp sensors, capacitance measurements, and others I'm forgetting.

Funny thing is that Radio Shack used to make a talking DMM that was just part of their normal line, was $40 and was a very nice meter, but they stopped producing that model a long time ago.  I also have a little cheapie $50 talking meter that is workable, and also was not meant for blind users.  I use this one as my daily meter, especially when measureing high voltages as it would be a lot esier to deal with the loss of a $50 meter than a $650 one.

Point is that there are plenty of field applications where having a talking meter is a very nice thing.

-- Jim

[Doc B.]

was a very nice meter, but they stopped producing that model a long time ago.

Ahh, Radio Shack. They get truly innovative stuff every once in a while, and as soon as someone figures out it is cool they sell it out and that's that - the portable CD player with the SPDIF output, the little monitors with Lineaum tweeters, 97/3 tin/copper solder, that little 4" woofer everyone was fooling around with ten years ago, that planar tweeter they sold in the 80s, etc. etc.

[Jim R.]

Doc,

Yes, know what you mean.  I built a pair of speakers for my pickup back in the late 70s that used a really nice 4" woofer and a fabric dome tweeter they made at the time, and they turned out to be the best car speakers I ever made.  I even used them for a while afterwards on my desk and they sounded quite good even in the better listening environment.

BTW, I should point out that the voltage limit on this dmm is 300v, so not practical for some of the measurements in BH gear, though I suppose one could make some  2x probes or such.

-- Jim

[JC]

Jim, I can't tell you how many times a talking meter would have come in handy for me, especially in the field where it is often difficult to position the meter in my sight-line.  I usually find that I lose my place with one or both probes when I have to look away to the meter.

I don't remember the Radio Shack one; sounds like something I would have bought!