Not sold on the whole 'always use digital multimeters' trend I keep seeing here

Been doing avionics for about 12 years now, started at a shop in Phoenix. I swear my old analog Simpson 260 catches intermittent signal drops way better than any Fluke I've tried. Digital meters just seem to average out the noise and miss those quick flickers in the cockpit wiring.

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_white9919d ago

That Simpson 260 is a workhorse. I still pull mine out for chasing down weird shorts in older machines. It reminds me of how people just trust the fancy new stuff without questioning if it's actually better for the job. Like with those smart thermostats everyone loves, they give you a nice number but miss the fact that the old bimetallic strip in a basic one caught the slow temperature drift way sooner. Digital meters just give you a number and that's it, but analog shows you the movement and the pattern. It's the same as how people use GPS now and forget how to read a damn paper map when the signal drops.

mason49919d ago

...and the worst part is, I'm one of those GPS people now. @laura_white99, I swear I can't find my way out of a parking lot without Google Maps telling me. Last week my phone died in a rural area and I had to pull over and ask a farmer for directions like it was 1995. Felt real dumb. But yeah, you're right about the Simpson 260. I've got one sitting on my bench, been meaning to learn it proper for months but I keep grabbing the Fluke out of habit. Gonna dig it out this weekend, maybe finally understand what everyone means about seeing the needle bounce.