The Heathkit IM-2215 Portable Digital Multimeter

In this video I give an overview and demonstration of a piece of vintage test equipment, the Heathkit IM-2215 Portable Digital Multimeter.

[armstronglance]

Still have mine! My Fluke, Kelvin & IBM multimeters have all bit the dust, but this Heathkit one lives on!!!

[ripjones]

Very interesting. I built several Heathkits during their lifetime. I still have several pieces of their test equipment -- HV and LV power supplies, as well as RF. I built this 2215 when it was available. I took it to the mill where I worked, and it was stolen. It was out of production, so I could not replace it. In reality, this was actually a Fluke meter that was turned into a kit by Heathkit. I have subscribed.

[youtuuba]

This was actually a pretty good meter. I always considered buying one, but by the time it was available, I already had a couple Fluke and Keithley DMMs, and could not justify buying a lesser meter than those just to build another kit. But recently I bought and restored one of these, and did a detailed analysis of the circuit, and it was quite well thought out and 'solid'. As with another Heathkit meter in this series, their handheld digital capacitance meter, the Achilles heel on both was the non-sealed, minimal wiping-action slide switches through which all input signals unsealed allowed Heathkit to save some money and offer a lower priced product, but it also meant that many of these stopped working long before anything ELSE inside also quit. Unfortunately, it is very hard to get those switches working again, other than cycling the switches a lot in hopes of restoring better contact continuity.

[ghjk]

Just ordered your book ! Looking forward to reading it!

73
Paddy

[watchmakerful]

Is this a predecessor for the Soviet multimeter Electronica MMC-01?

[douro]

Do you have an IT-18 transistor checker? I've used mine quite a lot to check old germanium transistors. I've also used it on occasion for gain matching as it is very accurate.

[garyrogers]

Jeff, excellent report on the 2215.  Which Video Camera did you use to record this session.  I would like to know the make and model number as your video quality is excellent and I would like to purchase a camera like it.  Thanks for the reviews, excellent information.  Gary

[jafinch]

Is this the same, in a Heathkit version packaging, as the Fluke 8020? I've read the Fluke Model 77 and others were marketed by Heathkit also.