good inexpensive DC clamp ammeter?

[severach]

Re: good inexpensive DC clamp ammeter?

AC clamp meters are cheap because AC can be measured with a 2 piece ferrite core. DC can be measured by the deflection of a magnet it must be very close and a magnet doesn't lend well to electronic meters. A handheld alternator starter amp meter like the Milton 1230 is placed on the wire and isn't very accurate as even a small amount of field from a nearby alternator makes the reading wildly inaccurate. To duplicate the ease of use, outside field rejection, and accuracy of an AC clamp probe an AC/DC clamp probe is constructed with a hall effect sensor. The probes look the same but the AC/DC clamp probe costs more than an AC only clamp probe.

Wikipedia, Current clamp, Types of current clamp

I bought the Uni-Trend UT204 AC/DC clamp meter with TrueRMS.

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: good inexpensive DC clamp ammeter?

I bought the Uni-Trend UT204 AC/DC clamp meter with TrueRMS.

True RMS only at pure sine wave.
What about inverters ? Read the User manual at the pages 43 to 44.
Regarding AC current it can measure only at 50/60Hz.

Nothing personal but Uni-T always cooking up the specifications.
For a clamp that is designed at 2005, the only positive could be the three measurements per second.
And I will not touch the subject about accuracy.

[alle-wis]

Re: good inexpensive DC clamp ammeter?

What's mainly involved in having a permanently installed dc clamp on amp meter? What kind of maintenance is required?

[SwainMeter]

Re: good inexpensive DC clamp ammeter?

Visit www.SwainMeter.com. We manufacture "portable DC current clamp meters that precisely measure the magnitude and direction of DC current flow on any conductor. Used both onshore and offshore, Swain instruments assist with corrosion monitoring and cathodic protection by accurately reading current from 5mA to 200 Amps with a resolution of 1mA in the 0-2Amp range." We are a U.S. company based in Michigan, and sell both nationally and internationally. Call and/or send a message to our website to receive a quote. I am an engineer at this company, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to reply.

[budm]

Re: good inexpensive DC clamp ammeter?

Truem R.M.S meter is good for Pure sine wave or non-sine wave measurement:
From Fluke:
"True-rms ac voltage and current for accurate measurements on non-linear signals"
"True-rms Meter. A meter that
can accurately measure both
sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal
waveforms."



We use all True R.M.S meters by Fluke at my work places.

[redwire]

Re: good inexpensive DC clamp ammeter?

Not inexpensive, but I bought an Agilent U1213A at $350. It has an extra digit of resolution (so you can read mA) and a few features over the Flukes.
But the meter would read almost 2.0A DC with nothing in the jaws I thought they were magnetized, and could subtract it out, but I ended up getting a refund after tech support said the cal was out. Newark was pretty good about it.

[redwire]

Re: good inexpensive DC clamp ammeter?

You can make a DC clamp meter - the hassle is cutting a ferrite toroid in half.
Silicon Chip magazine has the (pay) article here, but with Google you can find the schematic. They used a big alligator clamp to house the ferrite core and hall sensor IC.