Lafayette Analog Multitester you won't forget!

tr7heaven

Active Member
I was told new kids need digital, analog to confusing, I doubted this until I came across the Lafayette TE-10, click on the pics, this one even confuses me, I made extra copies of the manual, would be screwed without it. Test ohms, volts, capacitors, decibels, power supplies, insert the red lead in the negative and black in positive? :scratch2:
 

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This was junk in its day (no mirror scale), and definitely has no value today. $5 meter from HF will be better.
 
A very nice meter. It was the first one I had. Although in the Netherlands it was not called Lafayette but something else as it was a Japanese OEM. The mechanical quality definately was not junk to me, I use it for a long time.
 
This was junk in its day (no mirror scale), and definitely has no value today. $5 meter from HF will be better.

Just out of curiosity, were you ever told that if you didn't have something nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all?



You normally use the red lead in the common jack when doing negative DC voltage readings. Not sure why this one has you do it all the time. Seems a bit silly, but whatever.
 
Never mind the black and red lead thing, they want you to use 120 VAC to test capacitors ?
 
It's our right!

It's ok, freedom of speech. I just love analog meters and Lafayette yes. Hard to read the manual but it suggest one of those wall adapters for capacitors. It looks cool to me. I once had a small Lafayette meter with mirror scale meter at the right end but lost it and have never seen another. This won't read unless the leads are inserted red negative. I like it and just wanted to show it to AK and anyone who would notice. All opinions are welcome. :banana:
 
I also thank you for the nice comments. Analog meters have always been a thing of beauty to my eye. I was reading the manual again and see I was wrong, not a wall plug in transformer but a small variable transformer, I also see it checks the uf to see if it's in range. I checked this meter somewhat and ohms works and DC works, AC does not. Now to those who say it's junk, I disagree, all things made have value and beauty. A lot of people worked hard to make this meter and the meter scale is a beauty even without a mirror scale. I posted this because I now agree some analog meters could be hard for a newbie. One reason I don't like digital is I get a reading testing car circuits when it actually has none. Of course I have never had a high cost digital meter. :)
 
I have two Simpson 260s that are identical except one has the parabolic correction mirror and one doesn't. I be willing to bet that nobody here has ever measured something so critical that the mirror was absolutely needed. These analog meters can do things that digital meters can't, it's ideal to have both.
 
Dead AC range may be a faulty rectifier inside. I have a very old Army Signal Corps Weston meter that has a half dead rectifier, and it causes AC volts to read low. I haven't gotten around to rebuilding it. Its a copper oxide rectifier. I think I can fudge it with schottky diodes for similar voltage drop. That one is sort of cool. It has no range selector switch. There is a common jack and probably a dozen other holes around the face of the meter. You move the test leads depending what function or range you want to use.
 
The Weston sounds cool, I have a Simpson 260 series 7 and it works well. I sent a meter to Simpson in for a fix once and they sent me a new series 8 but I sold it, that was a mistake. I have always switched equipment though and radios. I am at this moment listening to a hallicrafters S-38C I just rebuilt, I still want to align it though. I have had a lot of meters and I just sold 3. I do want to get a good digital, one that compensates for the leads at the push of a button. Well I will check for a bad rectifier on this Lafayette and let you know what I find later.
 
I have several Simpsons, and use a 7P on my bench regularly. I also have a VTVM and have more than once used it right along side the scope to work on things.
 
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