[HomeBrew] Those cheap Harbor Freight multimeters....

[Steven Weber]

> Does someone have or know of a write-up about how to use those cheap
> Harbor Freight multimeters as volmeters and ammeters in homebrew projects?

Not specificly, but most likely you would have to power them with an 
isolated supply or with the battery for it to work right. Often the (-) 
input is baised to 1/2 the meter supply voltage so it can read +/- and if 
the (-) input is connected to the meter (-) supply, it doesn't work right. 
All kinds of wierd things can happen, including blowing the chip.

The other poblem would be mechanical - it is unlikely you can remount the 
display to right angles to the board. Connections to the display in a cheap 
meter like that are no doubt done with "zebra" meat strips between the board 
and display. Therefore, you would need a really big front panel and waste 
all that space behind the meter.

73, Steve KD1JV