Do I need a new Multimeter? Yes I do!

A few days ago...

I have had this Radio Shack 22-166B digital multimeter for about 30 years and it has served me well in that time...  until now!  A few days I turned it on and got no response.  Using a freebie Harbor Freight meter, the batteries and fuse tested good.  So I took it apart and acted like I knew what I was doing and all looked well so I put it back together and started searching the net for a new one.

I went back to look at it and noticed the batteries (2xAA, side by side) had both (+) on one end and (-) on the other and that just did not look right.  Only one of the battery positions was marked and I had recently replaced the batteries.  I reversed the one in the unmarked side  and the meter started to work and I even uses it for a while.  

Next morning I was checking something and got very weird readings, so I turned it off, checked the batteries , which were OK, and the fuse showed 3 ohms with my HF meter.  From that point  I could not get it to turn on, or at least no indications on the readout.  I have new fuses on the way.

Did it just die, or, did I kill it?  And, can it be revived?

If it's dead, I need a new one, Under $100 .  Looking at this one at Home Depot online

http://www.homedepot.com/p/General-T...M550/205748236


Any one know this one, is it a good one.  I seldom use one and then only use it for gereral household and auto type maintenance.  Any other suggestions?  The HF one just wont cut it, even for me!

Fast forward to present...

This morning I took the RS unit apart once more just to see what I could see.  Seems the LCD screen unit connection is a press fit type.  I have never seen this before.   The PCB and LCD just press together.  

 So I put it back together trying to fit it correctly and the LCD did come on, readings are still wacky.  Then I banged it with my hand a few time and the wackiness changed each time until it went blank, never to show a number again.  Guess I really screwed it up this time, and a new meter is in my near future.

And, just to keep the irony gods happy, my new fuses came in today!!

Pretty boring week!

Not much going on in the last week or so.   I did get a few miscellaneous  RV repairs done.  The bottom drawer on my side of the table/desk was moving out during travel and I found a loose catch so I fixed and tightened it up a to hold better on the road.  We used to keep the main area rugs there and that held it in I guess.  Now that we no longer have them is when the problem showed itself!

The table/desk top was bouncing up and down so a couple of screws from the bottom took care of that, and a couple of pieces of Velcro took care of M's keyboard tray sliding out while on the road.

One of the storage bins/drawers of the table has always had problems with the slide latch.  I had put in a stopper behind it to reduce the wiggle room and it was too tight.  I replaced it with a thinner one and changed the latching hole to a latching plate with a small piece of angle aluminum.

I replace the waterproof  LEDs in one of the light fixtures to non-waterproof.  The double stick tape had dropped loose causing a heat sink failure and a discoloration of the waterproof coating.  The sticky stuff on the non waterproof seems to be working better.  While I was at that, I install a second switch on two other fixture allowing half of the LEDs to be off or on, depending on the need, and extending the battery life just  a little which help when out in the wood boondocking.

The Suzuki was due an oil change and other routine  maintenance and I got that all taken care of, including replacing the air filter with one I have had on hand for a few years.  While rotating the tire I noticed an air pocket on the side wall of one of them.  Something to call about for warranty.

I have been wanting to add memory to my laptop and this week I remembered that it used to have 4GB and the two 2GB DIMMs were removed and placed in out two net books and their 1GB DIMMs were placed in my laptop.  So this week I switched the back.  Did not help with photo transfers speed, but maybe it will help with other things.

All things considered, it has been quite boring, not much going on!