The multimeter is one of the essential tools in your electronics toolkit. These battery operated devices combine several measurement functions into one easy to use device. You can get Analog or Digital multimeters, each displaying your measurements in different ways. Voltage, Current, Resistance and other electrically relevant measurements are all part of multimeters measurements. These days digital multimeters can usually measure one of these values to a high degree of accuracy; 1% or less in most cases. There are four categories of digital meters outlined by the IEC:
- Category I: used where equipment is not directly connected to the mains voltages
- Category II: used on single phase mains final sub-circuits
- Category III: used on permanently installed loads such as distribution panels, motors, and 3-phase appliance outlets
- Category IV: used on locations where fault current levels can be very high, such as supply service entrances, main panels, supply meters, and primary over-voltage protection equipment
For years, the style of digital multimeter has been the same. An LCD screen for measurement display, a control knob for measurement select, a few banana sockets to attach probes to and maybe a transistor tester. You can only measure one value at a time on your regular digital multimeter too. Oh, and the standard LCD displays look pretty archaic these days in my opinion. Well, Mooshim Engineering (C- for name choice) took that 'typical' multimeter we've all got lying around, hacked it to pieces and put it all back together with the new aged maker in mind. By combining the advent of Bluetooth 4.0, the processing power and high-resolution screen of a smartphone they created a multi-channel circuit testing meter. The Mooshimeter.
Mooshi-What?
The Mooshimeter was born out of the frustrations a couple of electronic engineers were having with the limitations of standard meters. They decided their meter would measure 2-channels simultaneously with two 24-bit ADCs on board the module. It relays that data via Bluetooth to your smartphone where your measurements are displayed in crystal clear quality. You can also select a graphing mode to track your measurements in real time. We're going to look at the setup procedure you need to take to get your Mooshimeter working out of the box. Before we do, the name Mooshi comes from the name of the lead engineer's mother's dog, which is important to know as you're about to read the word at least ten times.
When you first take your Mooshimeter out of the polycarbonate carry case, it is in 'Shipping Mode.' This mode is the best way to conserve battery power before use. The first thing you will need to do is grab two of the probes included with your meter out. Remove the plastic protectors on the ends of the probes. Now plug one probe into the Resistance terminal and one into the Current terminal (as shown in the picture below). Connect the probes together and wait until the orange LED (labeled) begins to blink. This will signal that your Mooshimeter is out of shipping mode and ready for use!
The next thing we need to do is connect our smartphone to our Mooshimeter. The meter is already transmitting via Bluetooth and is ready to pair. You need to download the MooshiMeter app for your smartphone to take this next step. Go ahead and do that now by searching Mooshimeter on the app store (Android and iOS supported).
Ready for the simplicity of a MooshiMeter?
Open your app and your phone will automatically display your Meter's name.
Tap to select and connect to add your device.
You might be prompted to upgrade the firmware of your MooshiMeter now, which you can do relatively quickly by selecting okay.
If you only have the one meter and you're expecting to use it fairly often there are a few settings you should utilize straight away.
Tap on the Setting icon in the top-right of your screen. Here you can:
- Set your MooshiMeters name
- Set logging intervals (more on this in future tutorials)
- Set the device back into shipping mode -Worthwhile if you aren't intending on using the meter for a while
- Reboot the meter - there's no troubleshooting step as crucial as this one
- Auto-connect - When you want to have your device automatically connect to your smart device
- Skip upgrade - If you prefer to stick with what's working
Head back to the main screen by using the arrow in the top left. All of the boxes with colored text are option menus in this view. That means you can tap them and select what you want to measure on that channel. For example, if you choose the Current DC box, you get the following options. The same goes for all of the headings in your view.
Auto-Ranging is also available on all of the channel measurements and the refresh rate and sample rate. Meaning you can dynamically use the analysis functions on your meter! That's awesome!
The graph option in the bottom right of the screen takes you to this view, with these options:
Skipped ahead? Here's what you missed:
- Is a Bluetooth 4.0 Digital Multimeter replacement.
- A Cat III Multimeter by the IEC standards
- Comes with a polycarbonate case, packaging and instructions are very clear and well thought out.
- Uses a Bluetooth tether with a smartphone to display multimeter readings.
- Is powered by two double A Batteries
- Can measure voltages up to 600V
- Can measure currents up to 10A
- Measures resistance too!
- Diode Test Range
- 8kHz Sample Rate (auto-ranging by default)
- Two 24-bit ADCs, allowing two channel measurements simultaneously.
- Much more that was glossed over in this article Logging with a Mooshimeter in particular!
That's a quick rundown on the Mooshimeter, including what it is, how you set yours up and the options and capabilities you get with your new multimeter! We're getting our Mooshimeter's directly from Mooshim in the US, If you have any product questions or set up queries, feel free to ask us in the comments below! We're here to help and love to have a chat about Mooshi-goodness.
