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Re: [TowerTalk] remote reading multimeter

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] remote reading multimeter
From: Grant Saviers <grants2@pacbell.net>
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2021 15:07:39 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
The wifi camera might be the easiest.

Grant KZ1W

On 7/26/2021 11:25, Lux, Jim wrote:
On 7/26/21 10:37 AM, Grant Saviers wrote:
Probably others have or would like to have what I am searching for:

A multimeter with a couple hundred feet remote readout.  Best if the readout was on my android phone, but a pc would be acceptable.  The need is troubleshooting stuff happening at the tower/up the tower at the end of cables, etc. when manipulating stuff at the station.

The are infinite cheap (<$40) digital meters available, a lot of searching found one with bluetooth on amazon:
Tekpower TP4000ZC PC Based USB Interfaced Auto Ranging Digital Multimeter

Seems it has sketchy software support.  Then the bluetooth range is inadequate so a range extender of some sort is needed. (at both ends?). wifi seems like the better technology for direct range and battery size in a handheld isn't much of a constraint.

Any solutions out there being used or created?

Given the competition <$40 in the VOM market, I would think a wifi enabled meter would find a niche.


You might do better looking for a WiFi data acquisition module - measuring current is a bit tricky, but voltages are easy. A rPi or BeagleBone Wireless with a WiFi would probably do.

Labjack is pretty pricey, but has been around a while, and there's lots of software support on all platforms.

Another approach is a wifi camera pointing at your test instrument(s) of choice.

There are also some long range serial links available (non-bluetooth) and you could connect to a serial interface DMM.

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