Tekpower TP7244L 7-Function 20-Range Analog Multimeter With Back Light with Strong Protective Holster

For serious electronics work, a reliable analog meter is as important to have as a good digital multimeter. The fact that the needle moves in real time to follow any fluctuations in voltage or resistance allows one to detect dead shorts, monitor fluctuations in the power supply supply during powerups, and identify any tapering or intermittency issues when testing such things as variable resistors. A digital meter with a purely digital number display will get "confused" during any of the aforementioned tests as the meter struggles to keep up with rapid changes, drops, or intermittency in measured values. This Tekpower meter is not the best of its type you can buy, but considering its low price it is decently made and, as far as I have seen so far, quite accurate. I mostly keep mine slaved to the variac to monitor powerups of new circuit builds (since the tiny meter on my variac is useless as any sort of indication of the unit's AC output). For this purpose, the Tekpower is compact and reliable. The one thing I did when mine arrived was to chuck the cheapo batteries it came with and install a trio of Duracells (you'll need 2X AA and 1X 9-volt). To change batteries (or fuses, should they blow; there is one 250mA and one 10A), one has to open up the entire unit using two screws on the rear. Be very careful when screwing the unit back together, so as not to misalign the back cover or strip the plastic bushings. Beyond this one annoyance, I am happy with this purchase.

Haven't really had much of a chance to test it out yet. I like the way it looks and feels. Looks like a good quality product.I do need an analog meter and will get back after I have used it a bit.Be aware of CHEAP meters with the name Sunwa. or Samwa. I went to Samwa's web site and they have a warning out about these cheap Chinese imitations. Some of them even have the name Samwa on them. You can't tell on line by the looks if it is an imitation. Real Samwa are expensive, high end meters, you won't find one for only fifty bucks.UPDATE: Used it to test my throttle position sensor. Digitals do not work very well on that type of sensor, you need to see a slow, steady movement as you work the throttle back and forth. Key being steady movement. This meter worked very well for that.Easy to read, nice lighted dial. Should last a good long time. Highly recommend.Unless you need precise, accurate, measurements this meter will work fine. If you DO need precision, you need a meter that costs several hundred dollars and you need to have it calibrated regularly. This is not that, nor is it meant to be. This is for the average guy or gal needing to see if you have hold of a wire that has about 120 volts or 240 volts. To check that you have over 12-1/2 volts or under 12-1/2 volts in your car battery. Or approximately 750 ohms on that resistor. With this meter you are good to go. I like it.

I am old enough that I grew up using analog multimeters. I have had digital multimeters for years. They work well, but I miss the D'Arsonval movement and it's immediate response. Analog meters (like this one) are familiar to folks like me and quite responsive. Since I am retired, I don't have a use for a "work" multimeter and even though a Simpson 260 is likely the "best analog" meter available I just cannot justify the cost. This unit: TP72444L, does everythng I need, seems robust enough and costs a fraction of the cost of a Simpson 260. I am back to the good "ole" days of calibrating out the test lead resistance. The scale is just big enough to read and the mirror behind the needle (a feature found on the best analog meters) can be used to eliminate parralax. Out of the box I took readings on most of the scales, this meters accuracy compares well with my best DMM.An analog meter with it's D'Arsonval meter movement is also a terrific "teaching" aide in understanding electrical theory. These concepts are more difficult to understand when just looking @ a digital display.I always like having a case for my meters. Since this is an analog meter I opted for a "hard case" for a small investment I found one (on Amazon) that fits well (see the photo). On Amazon the case is identified as: "Hermitshell Hard EVA Travel Case Fits DOSS SoundBox Color Portable Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Speakers"

Generally, it looks very well made and sturdy, I really like the backlight.I like the soft plastic outer shield to absorb shock when bumped or dropped.However, they call that shield a "Holster" which it is definitely not.To me, a holster implies some way of carrying it in your belt, like a pistol or tape measure.Really bad news as far as I'm concerned, is they used self threading screws to holdthe two halves of the main plastic case together. One has to unscrew these in order to installand replace the batteries. This is a VERY bad design in that respect. Trust me, as a longtime user (oy veh am I old) of all types of equipment, self threading screws are VERY likely to strip thethread holes in the plastic, and an inexperienced user might turn them too hard and do just that.If it were not for that design error, I would have given it 5 stars.So, if you be very careful not to over tighten the screws, you'll be fine with this multimeter.In actual use, the meter appears to be quite accurate, and self protecting.I accidentally connected the probes to an AC voltage circuit with the range dial set to DC,with no harm to the unit. I don't know if it will do this with other types of misconnections.Robbin Rohner

I have ordered several Tekpower analog swing arm meters the past month. While I like the large display as well as the back light feature the pointer arm mechanism is very sensitive. This particular Tekpower TP7244L meter has a glitch where when taking resistance measurements when turning on the back light function it lowers the reading about 5%.. I have also ordered the other Tekpower meters with the transistor tester as well as the one with the center null & returned them as they were both POS garbage. Lousy pointer mechanisms as the "0" adjustment would never hold & simple readings were also inconsistent. This particular version, although not without bugs, I will keep for simple quick diagnostics that don't require some iota of accuracy. I miss my old Simpson which sadly walked away a decade ago. If the Tekpower pointer arm mechanisms weren't so chintzy these would be awesome meters. However it is what it is. Nuff Said.