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Harbor Freight Multimeters; Two meters and one is a 3 cyl Tach!
Topic Started: Oct 9 2011, 04:07 PM (8,127 Views)
Stiffchezze
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Sir Metrologist

Since a lot of our members shop at Harbor Freight, and EVEYONE needs some sort of multimeter in their tool box. I thought I would post a review on two that I have from HF. I own a few different multimeters; there’s one in every car. I own a Craftsman, HF, some no names, and a certificated calibrated Fluke. I like multimeters! I don't do as much electrical work as I did when I was a marine electrician, but these two are still easy to use.

The first is:
Posted Image
Link---->Cen-tech LCD Automotive Multimeter with Tachometer Kit
Current Price $39.99 before 20% discount

The first thing I can say about this meter is I LOVE the large display. :wub: It is very easy to read when your having to stretch a little to see it. It does NOT have a back light. :( It does come with a case. Not the best quality, but it's a case never the less. It has a removable rubber sleeve that has a stand, a hang tab, and a place to hold the probes on the back of it. It is not auto-ranging, meaning that you have to turn the dial to get to the range you need. It comes with a temperature probe (not shown) and can read out both C and F. It also has a hold button. The audible conductive signal is not very loud, but you can hear it.

One of the really nice things about this meter is that it can read both dwell and tach. It will read 8,6,5,4, and 3 cyl information. YES, I SAID 3 CYL! :banana Do not use the inductive pick up it comes with. I have NEVER gotten mine to work correctly. But if you set it on 3 cyl tach, ground the black probe and touch the red probe to the brown wire, ground of your coil, you get a VERY accurate tach. Other than this you have a full function multimeter great for working on cars. It is powered by one 9v battery.

The second is:
Posted Image
Link---->Cen-tech 5-in-1 Digital Multimeter
Current Price $39.99 before 20% discount

This meter has a much nicer feel to it. The rubber case is molded on and has a stand and probe holders on the back. It does NOT come with a case. This IS a auto-ranging multimeter so you can “set it and forget it” :D You can also set the range as well. It comes with a temp prob (not shown) and can read both C and F. It also has a built in temp probe and can read relative humidity. This is nice for troubleshooting A/C issues. It has a sound meter built in and is nice for calibrating sound systems and to see if all that sound deadening you adding is “really” making a difference. :D It also has a LUX meter for measuring light. B-) One of the things I use this for is measuring how bright my headlights are. This is especially useful with the plastic headlights. This meter has a hold button and very bright backlit display. Very nice when it is dark. This is also a great meter to use to set up a home theater. This meter will also tell you if you have the probes connected correctly and will blink lights at you if its wrong. A little annoying if you know what your doing, but nice if your a novice. The audible conductive signal is loud, but you have to select it using a button, a very small annoyance. Normal multimeter functions otherwise. This meter is powered by three AAA batterys.

Both of these meters are give very accurate readings when compared to my Fluke meter. Well within tolerances. Either meter will be a great addition to any tool box, but for a first multimeter I would almost suggest getting a smaller, simpler meter as both of these can be a little intimidating. :( If I had to pick one over the other, I would choose the 5 in 1 meter as it has more functions. ^o) Both meters would be a welcome addition to any toolbox! :thumb
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JellyBeanDriver


Too bad about that inductive probe not working. Did you try clipping it on both ways? (flipping it over). Is it supposed to go on the coil wire or the plug wire? (hope plug wire as I would love one of these for lawnmowers and such)
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Stiffchezze
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Sir Metrologist

Sorry, I realized what I wrote, It does work, it's just not accurate. The signal jumps around alot. :'(
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redpepe


thx stfchz,

i bought one of those hf meters when someone here recommended them and found the reading jumped all over the place as you say. took it back. with your workaround fix i'll give it another try since my old kragen analogue one has become unreliable.
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GeoZone
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Stiffchezze
Oct 9 2011, 04:07 PM

One of the really nice things about this meter is that it can read both dwell and tach. It will read 8,6,5,4, and 3 cyl information. YES, I SAID 3 CYL! :banana Do not use the inductive pick up it comes with. I have NEVER gotten mine to work correctly. But if you set it on 3 cyl tach, ground the black probe and touch the red probe to the brown wire, ground of your coil, you get a VERY accurate tach. Other than this you have a full function multimeter great for working on cars. It is powered by one 9v battery.

Wish I woulda known that before I took it back. That inductive pickup really made me consider the whole thing junk. So I looked at my coil and I'm not sure how I would ground the probe to the brown wire since there isn't any exposed metal.

Posted Image
Edited by GeoZone, Oct 13 2012, 12:47 PM.
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GeoZone
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OK, so I ended up repurchasing the multimeter with tach from Harbor Freight and am happy to report that the Stiffchezze method indeed works quite well. Just push the red probe in alongside the brown wire till you make contact. You'll know you have when the readings settle in as they will be all over the place as soon as you get the probe into the magnetic field. Ground the black probe.
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Stiffchezze
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Sir Metrologist

:banana
Glad you got it to work! :thumb
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davegran
Old Fart w/Wrenches

How do you get the 20% discount? :popcorn
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Cobb
BANNED

I get those coupons in the sunday paper and car magazines. You can buy them on ebay.

Do they make one with a clamp on that measures amps for dc circuits? It wasnt clear examining them in the store, seemed the clamp ons measure ac only.

I got quite a few of the free 7 function ones. They are accurate to 1 decimal place, any more and its off.
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redpepe


hi stifchezze,

i sent a pm but thought i'd follow up. i tried the hf multimeter as suggested and only got a reading of about 350rpm vs the 800+ it is. i wired it black to ground and red to coil negative / ground. any suggestions?

looking at previous photos, you all may have different coils. mine's the old style ... cylindrical.

been working to investigate a high idle. no vacuum leaks that i have found. it only happens after driving. i can't get it to do it while sitting at the shop. the throttle positioner seems to be working normally.
Edited by redpepe, Apr 22 2013, 12:41 PM.
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shaft
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I just purchased this multimeter and I used the red probe to touch the brown wire on the coil and grounded the black probe. It registered really high RPM bounces between 1400 and 1500.

So I tried the inductive pick up and it bounced around between 800 and 900 RPM -- its little high and it might be because of my advanced timing but not 100% certain.

Any thoughts on this? Not really sure if I'm doing this right since this is the first time using this meter.
Edited by shaft, May 28 2013, 09:49 AM.
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redpepe


hi shaft,
i've still not been able to get mine to settle down accurately. i don't know why you got high readings vs my low readings. it's a nice tool overall and would be great if it worked in my case. the only difference i could see was that i have the old style coil. please keep us posted if you figure it out.
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shaft
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I'm leaning towards the inductive pickup is more accurate for me since when I tapped into the coil and getting 14-1500 rpm, the engine certainly DOES NOT sound like its turning that fast.

The other the thing that bugs me is that it does not give you a steady reading. Not certain if its my car or the meter at fault.

My brother in law thinks he might have a spare tach he can give me -- I'm going to give that a try so I can confirm. Hopefully it works for a 3 cyl.

I'm also going to show this multimeter to my neighbor who is experienced on cars diagnostics to see what he thinks of it.

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rmalen1
Fresh Fish
[ * ]
the 3 cylinder setting, ground and brown wire combo solution didn't work either. if no one has a working solution, back it goes to the store. nice meter, the tachometer function just doesn't work properly?
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Murf 59
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Glowshift sells a tach that works with our little G10s and is about $45 shipped.
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