Protek 6300 "5 in 1" DMM

[hardwareguy]

So I accidentally left my old radio shack meter back at home and I'm 165 miles away at college.... and I needed a decent meter for my EE courses and I needed it fast.

I went down to Frys and found an interesting Protek 6300 DMM that pretty much does everything.

This thing is crazy.... it has the usual DMM stuff with some extra sensors inside it for temperature, relative humidity, lux and SPL. It can also use an external thermocouple, which was also in the box. The display is backlit with white LEDs and is very easy to see. Temp and RH are always displayed regardless of what function is selected as the top of the display has dedicated readouts for these built in instruments. Yes....you can have two thermometers going at once.

It has a frequency counter from DC to 40kHz, and can test caps up to 200uF (not great, but a nice addon anyway). Besides, for bad cap hunting, you need an ESR meter anyway. The blue and gray case is a little on the odd side
but it doesn't bother me.

As for safety features, it offers some interesting stuff. Each function will light up a ring around the correct lead jacks for that function and sound a beeping alarm if the leads are connected improperly. The fuse for the mA range is a polyfuse while the 10A range uses a one time fast blow fuse. This is great...it means my meter will probably be intact even if I let my lab partner use it. Its CAT III rated to 600V. The included leads are pretty nice as well. Only the truly ham-fisted will destroy this thing.

The accuracy is OK, pretty much on par with most other sub $100 3 3/4 digit DMMs out there. The SPL meter is a few dB off from a dedicated SPL meter that cost as much as my whole DMM, but its good enough for most things.

Oh and yeah....it runs on three AAA cells, which were also in the box with it. This is the first DMM I have used that used anything but a 9V battery.

In short, I'm happy with it and for $60, I can't gripe at all. Sure, I want an RS232 port and true RMS, but I'll get that this summer when I can afford it.

[hardwareguy]

Long term test update!

My meter has died due to corroded batteries...I'm not faulting it for it's demise. That's clearly all on Duracell and I.

With that said, I have some gripes. The humidity function is *hilariously* slow. You want an even semi accurate reading? Leave it on for an hour and you might get within 10%!

The internal temperature is almost as slow and noticeably inaccurate. The thermocouple is good though.

I have no standard for which to test the light meter but it reasonably jives with cell phone apps at low levels at least. It's quite responsive as well.

The fusing leaves something to be desired. I wouldn't quite trust that CAT III 600V rating. 500V fuses don't cut it here.

[retiredcaps]

Originally Posted by hardwareguy

My meter has died due to corroded batteries...I'm not faulting it for it's demise. That's clearly all on Duracell and I.

I suggest 3 things.

1) If the Duracell batteries are not expired, send pictures and a complaint to Duracell to see if they will give you money to replace the multimeter. At minimum, they may send you new batteries.

2) If you want to try and repair your multimeter, post some clear focused pictures and I'll try to help.

3) If you are not interested in the above options and will be throwing this meter in the garbage can, PM me first as I would like to have it for my own learning purposes. I will paypal you USPS shipping costs (probably around $6 to $7 USD) to send it to someone in the USA. He will, in turn, send it to me in Canada at a later date.

[eccerr0r]

You know, that Protek 6300 looks a lot like my Centech P98674, which I determined to be the same as the Mastech MS8229. If you feel like taking it apart to repair it, take a look at http://vanade.com/~blc/html/hardware/ms8229/ for fun (amongst other websites that have the same topic)...

[momaka]

When I read the first post today, I didn't realize it was dated from 2009. As soon as I read the part that said, "it runs on three AAA cells, which were also in the box with it," I immediately though, that is not good... AAA batteries are very prone to leaking.

Yeah, definitely don't throw the meter away. Seems like a decent meter. I got a used Radio Shack 22-812 on eBay last summer for $20 shipped and overall I'm pretty happy with it.

[hardwareguy]

Originally Posted by retiredcaps

I suggest 3 things.

1) If the Duracell batteries are not expired, send pictures and a complaint to Duracell to see if they will give you money to replace the multimeter. At minimum, they may send you new batteries.

2) If you want to try and repair your multimeter, post some clear focused pictures and I'll try to help.

3) If you are not interested in the above options and will be throwing this meter in the garbage can, PM me first as I would like to have it for my own learning purposes. I will paypal you USPS shipping costs (probably around $6 to $7 USD) to send it to someone in the USA. He will, in turn, send it to me in Canada at a later date.

I will have to *find* it first! It's in the garage / Storage Facility of Doom (a subsidiary of The Mad Scientist's Lair). Wish me luck.