[sdiy] DVMs as A to D's

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Peter 'n' all.
         Sorry pal. You'll have to deal with prior art if you want to 
patent that idea. Been there done that.

But if you want parallel or serial access to your data, forget it. First 
you're going to have to build a converter to read the BCD data and however 
else it talks to it's LCD. Then you're only going to get 4.5 digits worth. 
Even with a shit-hot meter.

Great if you need to actually measure something. Lousy if you wanna do 
anything else.

For those interested, this will be part of the SMPS project I'm currently 
working on. But this too is not for the faint hearted. Just to figure out 
the three actual settings I needed on this project, I had to make a 3D 
digital model of the meter's switch to figure it out. And you can almost 
guarantee each cheap-assed Chinese meter is going to be laid out differently.

All these cheap meters seem to have a 200mV FSD. Which is why they all read 
a maximum of 1.999(9) But the entire premise depends on a hideously complex 
switching arrangement. And the meters themselves are none to stable. The 
inputs on the two (no name) brands I tried appear to be differential but 
there's only just so much reverse engineering I'm prepared to do.

However if you wanted to slap some real cheap DPMs on your modulars for 
some reason, this would be the answer. Hell, when you're paying US$4.00 
each in lots of 4, who cares if you have to butcher 'em up. Given what I've 
done to this one, you wouldn't even know it WAS a cheap Chinese DPM unless 
you were told.

NOTE: If anyone's hanging out for me to finish this and write it up. Keep 
hanging a while longer. Apart from the fact that I wired the whole thing up 
wrong and still haven't finished re-wiring it, there's been significant 
distructuptions in the Kitchen this past week or more due to plumbing 
issues. Said issues now resolved, all I need is a significant amount of 
sleep and I'll be able to concentrate again. Maybe.

Be absolutely Icebox.

  _ __        _       ____ International Nihilist ____
| "_ \      | |
| |_)/  __ _| |_ ____       ALL ELECTRIC KITCHEN
|  _ \ / _` | __|___ |Your source of Armageddon in a musically crass world
| |_) | (_| | |_  / /
|_,__/ \__,_|\__|/ /   Disgusting-> http://all-electric.com
                 / ,__  Music -----> all-electric.com-click music/download
Goodfortune    |_____| Cult  -----> http://www.subgenius.com