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Asked a senior tech at my shop why he still uses a multimeter over a scope on simple jobs
He said half the time a scope just shows you noise you don't need, and it hit me different because I'd been overcomplicating every single diode check for the last 6 months since I got my Fluke 87V.
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alicecooper22d agoTop Commenter
Keep thinking about that senior tech's point because honestly a scope can make you chase ghosts. Like when you're just trying to see if a diode is forward biasing or not, all that noise from the scope just confuses things. A multimeter gives you a clean yes or no answer in two seconds flat. The scope is great for finding a bad capacitor or a missing clock signal but for basic component checks it's overkill. I mean I still bring out the scope for anything timing related or when I'm trying to trace a weird intermittent glitch. But for simple diode checks or continuity stuff the multimeter is way faster and you don't have to interpret a bunch of extra crap.
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riveradams22d ago
Or maybe both tools miss what you aren't looking for.
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