This product does not emit light of its own (much like this spectrometer and this spectrometer too), so the standard review format will not be used and the product will be assigned a rating at once. A fairly high rating too, as during the time I've had it, it has thus far performed pretty much flawlessly.
The Radio Shack DMM w/PC Interface is...what else...a handheld DMM (Digital MultiMeter). Its purpose is to allow you to measure common electrical parameters such as volts, amperes, and resistance (in ohms).
It provides its readings on a generous, easy-to-read LCD display, and it has something that many other meters don't: a computer interface that allows you to "record" a series of readings over a long period of time.
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To install a new battery, follow these procedures:
1: Turn off the meter.
2: Place meter face down on a clean cloth.
3: Remove the screw from the battery door, and throw it into the waste bin (wastepaperbasket) -- might as well get rid of that screwdriver too while you're at it.
4: Slide the battery door off, and chuck it into the weeds so that something will become angry at it and subsequently uranate on it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THOSE!!! So just set them aside instead.
5: Unsnap the old battery, and recycle or dispose of as you see fit.
6: Snap a new 9V transistor radio battery onto the battery snap; orienting it so that it's small snap fits into the larger snap on the battery clip, and vice versa.
7: Slide the battery door back on.
8: Screw in that screw that you removed earlier.
Aren't you glad that you didn't dispose of that screw or huck that battery door into the weeds with those creatures (squeaky or otherwise) with full bladders now?
To use the meter, plug the black test lead into the second-from-the lower-right receptacle on the meter's body labelled "COM", and plug the red test lead into the receptacle directly to its right (except when measuring current).
If measuring current, leave the black test lead plugged into the "COM" receptacle, but move the red meter lead to either the "20A" or "mA" receptacles, depending on the current range you wish to measure.
Press & release the red button labelled "ON/OFF" on the meter's front, on the left side just below the display.
Turn the large dial on the meter to the setting you want:
DCV (DC volts), resistance (in Ω {ohms}), DC amps, DC mA (milliamps), etc. and measure.
When finished using the meter, press & release the red button labelled "ON/OFF" a second time.
SCOPE.ZIP
This is the software that comes with this meter.
BATPLOT.EXE
And this is BATPLOT.EXE -- a program writtten specifically for this meter by my best "long distance" friend Don K. on the east coast of the United States. It was written specifically to provide battery decay plots for various flashlights and other portable lighting devices.
IMPORTANT! Although this is an ".EXE" file, it is known to be "bug-free" if you will.
These programs are designed exclusively to be run under the Windows 98 operating system.
To run BATPLOT, just stick the program into the same directory as RS.EXE (one of the files unzipped from SCOPE.ZIP), and (at the DOS prompt), change directory to the one that these programs live in, and type BATPLOT TEST555.ME1 (assuming that the file you created with the meter was named "TEST555"), wait very briefly for the chart to appear on the screen, and hit the "PrtScrn / SysRq" key on your keyboard.
Go back to Windows (typing in the command "EXIT" usually does the trick here), open a graphics program (it really doesn't matter which one -- I use IrFanView over here), type CTRL-V, and the chart should magically appear. Save it as a .GIF, and then you may do whatever you want with it.
This is an example of a chart output by BATPLOT.EXE.
Photograph of the meter's display.
Screen dump (yes, it's really called that!) of the Scopeview software that comes with the meter.
Another screen dump of the Scopeview software that comes with the meter; this time in plot mode.
This is after the plot had already been completed; that's why the date reads 11-03-01.
A third screen dump of the Scopeview software that comes with the meter; this time in plot mode.
This is after the plot had already been completed; that's why the date reads 03-02-07.
And this is what BATPLOT.EXE produced from the above Scopeview chart.
Video clip on YourTube allowing you to see and hear a successful continuity test.
This clip is approximately 3.266343247852 megabytes (3,483,598 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than seventeen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
TEST NOTES:
Unit was furnished to me by P.G. of Arc Flashlight in 2001.
UPDATE: 00-00-00
PROS:
CONS:
MANUFACTURER: Unknown
PRODUCT TYPE: DMM with PC connection
LAMP TYPE: N/A
No. OF LAMPS: N/A
BEAM TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/off; rotary range select
CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 1x 9 volt transistor radio battery (# 006P)
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown
WATER- AND URANATION-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistant at maximum
SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
ACCESSORIES: Test leads, extra 2A 250V ceramic fuse, RS-232C cable, 3.5" floppy disk w/Scopeview software on it
SIZE: 1 1/3" (34.0mm) D x 3 3./8" (81.0mm) W x 7 3/7" (187.0mm) H
WEIGHT: 12.35 oz (350.0 g)
COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: Korea
WARRANTY: 90 days
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