I finally changed my mind about digital panel meters after a chat with a old Navy tech

Ngl, I always swore by analog gauges for troubleshooting. Then last week at the shop in Tucson, this retired Navy guy showed me how his Fluke digital meter caught a intermittent fault on a Garmin G1000 that my Simpson analog couldn't see. He said, 'Your eyes miss the glitch, but the digits don't lie.' That got me thinking about whether digital is actually more reliable for modern avionics. But I still worry about ghost voltages and false readings on digital screens. What do you guys use for sniffing out those random dropouts in the cockpit?

3 comments

3 Comments

iris57420d agoTop Commenter

Are you telling me that @parker_thomas actually admitted digital might be good for something? That's like hearing a flat earther say the ocean looks kinda curved. Look, I get the ghost voltage thing, but here's the real joke: my Simpson shows a steady 12V on a wire that fell off three days ago and I'm still chasing demons. I switched to a Fluke 87V for cockpit stuff and now I just keep a cheap analog meter in the bag to check if the Fluke is lying or not. The old Navy guy is right about glitches though, analog needles just give you false hope while the digits call you out on your bad wiring.

joelwells20d ago

Wait, a Fluke caught something a Simpson missed? Dude, I've been using a Simpson 260 for like 15 years and swear by it. That hurts my soul a little. But honestly, that old Navy tech knows his stuff, they live and breathe intermittent faults on ships. I still don't trust digital for ghost voltages though, they show 3V from a disconnected wire and send you on a wild goose chase. For dropouts, I stick with a analog scope every time, it shows you the waveform breaking up instead of just a number that might be lying.

parker_thomas20d ago

Ghost voltages are a digital meter problem. Your analog Simpson catches those fake readings where a Fluke shows 3V from nothing. Analog will always win for dropout hunting, it shows the actual break.