I just picked up a "not working" Hioki TH-Y12 analog meter for $2.99 at a thrift store. The needle seems to be moving freely, which was my only concern, as it had been my intention to just use the analog panel off it for a school project I'm working on. Upon opening this meter, though, I discovered I can easily make this into a "working" meter with one small drop of solder.

Does anybody have experience with older Hioki meters? Is it worth my while to fix it up and use it for testing circuits, or should I stick to my original plan of just scavenging parts from it? Worse yet, did I just waste three bucks?

 

The "manual" for your meter:
http://hioki.jp/discon/pdf/field/CIRCUIT_TESTER-1-3.pdf
1,000 Ohms/Volt is the worst I've ever seen. Usually, analog meters are 10,000 Ohms/volt. You could still use it, but you would definitely have to keep the high loading in mind.

 

Yeah, just what I was thinking. Oh well...three bucks a few parts isn't bad though.

 

This must be a very old unit.

Attached are two Hioki meters I had in the early 1980s when working offshore in the oilfields.

The one on the left I converted to a six range capacitance tester. You are welcome to the circuit.

The one on the right is a combined digital multimeter and scientific calculator. You could transfer the readings from the multimeter into the calculator. Not bad for 20+ years ago.

Since your unit is not switched, you will find it to be never plugged to the correct range.

Be very careful you don't blow it up by not plugging it correctly before connection.

You will also soon discover what a pain this type of arrangement can be, although the meter will be useful monitoring current draw or something like that.