Eagle K1400 Multimeter

[Yorkie]

As usual when I go to places such as Rufforth Autojumble, or vintage radio events, I came away with something last Saturday that I didn't need and until I saw it, I didn't want. But at £2.00 I couldn't walk past it. It's an Eagle K1400 multimeter - I believe that back in the 1970s they were dubbed the 'poor mans' Avo'.

The basic meter movement is 50uA, the scale is 6" by 3" with a parallax mirror. It (allegedly!) measures up to 5kV AC or DC, though I wouldn't trust typical mutlimeter leads at that, and am never going to need to. Current ranges from 50uA FSD to 10 Amps, and there's a DB scale. The sensitivity is 20,000 OPV on DC, 5,000 OPV on AC - typical of reasonable analogue meters of the era, such as the AVO8.

I've always considered the Eagle brand as cheap and cheerful, but I must say that on removing the back, it looks nicely designed and made, with very neat wiring and soldering of the 'switchery' and it seems unmolested. I haven't yet had time to test it - it does need a new battery box for four AA cells side by side, which has to be a certain design for a plastic shield to clip over it. (The old box had rotted away with four corroded leaking cells in it, which have not otherwise damaged the 'works'). I tried the 'usual suspects' for a new battery box (Maplin et al), but none had quite the right design of box, so an exact one to the original is on its way here on a slow boat from China, sourced on e-bay for £1.89 post free! (The meter also uses a 'C' cell but the box for that is fine).

I've searched t'internet for a manual (if indeed there is one), and drawn a blank. All I found was a recent pristine example of a K1400 in its carrying case which recently sold on e-bay for just £10.50:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EAGLE-K-1400-M...gory=58277

Bargain!

A bit of a long shot I know, but if anyone on the forum does have one, I'd very much appreciate a copy of the manual.

I've attached three not very good pics.

Yet more 'granddad's junk' to find a place for

[AlanBeckett]

That looks OK young David. You can't have too many Meters, Screwdrivers or pairs of Pliers. You never know when you'll need an extra one.
I agree though, I'd be nervous about putting 5kV on it.

Alan

[kevin.Hoyland]

Hello David,
I am just like you with test meter. 2 weeks ago I came home with one made in Russia in a steel case. I will put a post on with photos. However, I always go back to useing my fluke 75.
Regards Kev.

[Yorkie]

Did anyone notice in pic 3 the hefty shunt for the 10 Amp range to shunt the 50uA meter movement? (They don't like it up'em!).

A coil of about 18 SWG copper about 6" long, tapped at one end.

[Alistair D]

The general construction of your meter is very similar to my K142 valve voltmeter. The original designer and manufacturer of these meters was a company called Kyoritsu.

Al

[pwdrive]

I thought also that Eagle stuff was quite well made for the price and they seemed to last a reasonable time, have a Eagle transistor tester here, very well made in my opinion.
Didn't they make or sell those calibrated reduction drives for radio projects etc?

Lawrence.

[Yorkie]

The general construction of your meter is very similar to my K142 valve voltmeter. The original designer and manufacturer of these meters was a company called Kyoritsu.

Al

Thanks for the info Al.

I've temporarily hooked up some batteries and the meter seems to work fine, with a nicely damped needle movement. I'm aware of the limitaitons of using analogue meters with relatively low input impedances of 20,000 OPV (Avo 8 etc) as compared to a valve voltmeter, especially on low voltage equipment , but as long as those limitations are understood (often they seem not to be), it's rather nice to use them in preference to digital meters, especially when peaking up circuits and we want to see a needle move rather than digits bobbing about all over the place.

This one has a lovely clear and uncluttered screen.

As I've passed through life I've long since conclued that there is little correlation between money expended and enjoyment derived, and this is one more example - £2.00 spent on a 40 yr old meter, rescued from an uncertain fate in a heap of junk at an autojumble, and another £1.89 to repair it to give it a new lease of life. A nice little find for those such as myself whose formative years were back in the era of 'make do and mend' - not 'use it up and chuck it away'.

[Yorkie]

New Forum Member Ray - 'Sunray' has sent me a PM asking for advice on repairing one of these meters. I've tried to respond as a PM but have had the message 'Sunray has personal messaging disabled'. Maybe that's something to do with how his profile has been set up, because clearly no-one is going to prevent himself from receiving replies to messages he's sent to a forum member. To try to help Ray, below is a verbatim response I'd penned, which hopefully he'll be able to read, and which might help a little, so here goes:

Hi Ray,

Firstly, welcome to the forum. It's quite relaxed and friendly, and I hope you'll soon feel at home here

As to the K1400, I'm really sorry to say that no - I no longer have it, otherwise I'd have been only too happy to help. You'll gather from my thread about it on the forum that I never came up with a circuit for it.  I assume that the 1.5V and 4.5V batteries are only required for the Ohms ranges, with perhaps the 1.5V serving the X1 and X10 ranges, and the 4.5V battery serving the X100 Ohms range. That's similar to how the AVO8 works.

I think the negative wire will have become detached from a switch contact associated with the X100 range, but that's only an assumption on my part as it depends on whether the negative or positive connections of the batteries are switched. If you trace the wiring of the 1.5V cell to the range switch and can see that it's connected to the X1 & X10 ranges on the switch,  you might be able to see where the X 100 connection has come adrift on the adjacent Ohms X 100 position.

If you enlarge the pic of the  inside of the meter that I posted and compare it with your meter, you might just spot where the wire has come adrift, though all I can see is the black wires disappearing in the general vicinity of the switch. I'd suggest that first of all, you short out the prods on the X1 and X10 resistance ranges with the 1.5V cell in place, then try the X 100 range. If the first two work and the third range doesn't, at least you will confirm that the 4.5V battery is for the X 100 range. If so, I'd be inclined to short out the prods on the X 100 range, and poke the negative wire from the 4.5V battery at various points to see if you can get that range to come to life. If the meter works on the AC/DC Voltage ranges and the current ranges, as I suspect that it will, at least you'll then  have narrowed it down to the X 100 Ohms range.

Really sorry not to be able to help more Ray, which I'd have been very willing to do had I still got the meter.

Best of luck with it!

[Mark Hennessy]

Regarding receiving PMs, any user has the choice about this. Simply click on your name at the top of the page, and from the drop-down menu, choose "Edit options". This takes you to a page that has a tickbox called "Receive private messages from other users". Click on the grey "Update Options" buttons at the bottom of the page to save...

As for new users, I'm pretty sure that this option is enabled by default, but I'd be interested to know if it's not.

It does appear to be a strange quirk of the forum software that a member can send a PM but can't receive a reply! But there it is

[bigtom]

Hello
        Just to say that I have two of those meters ,both  working perfectly. I  also  have  the   manual or booklet if   if one  wishes to call  it that . It  has the circut diagram included,  it  is all  rather small , but quite readable. I will scan  it to the computer and try to send it as an attachment

   Bigtom