I’ve got two of these SparkFun Multimeters, which is a good basic meter for the price. I’ve had them for years and they’ve worked well… except for one thing. Every now and then the detent fails and the dial still turns fine but doesn’t click into place. It’s a minor annoyance, but life is full of minor annoyances. Since I had to fix it again today I figured I’d write it up so I remember how to do it next time, and others might also find it useful.
There are three screws to remove to open it up. One small one for the battery compartment, and two holding the case together. Get a small Phillips head screwdriver and get to it.
There are four screws holding the circuit board to the front of the enclosure. Sorry, this is the best photo I have. Look for the screws, you’ll find them.
The front half of the enclosure has the dial in it. Lift it out… oh wait!
At this point I should have mentioned that if you hear the tiny metal ball rolling around inside the meter you should carefully open it so you can capture it and it does not roll away. It’s tiny! There’s also a tiny spring you’ll want to find. That’s pretty important.
Oh, look! There they are. Now, there’s a good chance there should be two balls and two springs, but I probably lost a pair long ago. No matter, let’s keep going… If your spring and ball are nowhere to be found, look on the floor.
Okay, there’s a pocket in the front of the enclosure where you place the spring and then the ball. There are two pockets, one on each side of the dial. As mentioned, I only have one spring and ball at this point. Argh…
Yeah! Back in place… carefully put the dial in place, then reassemble in reverse order you took it all apart, and it should be good. Again, this post is mainly for me the next time I need to do this since I stared at the whole thing for five minutes before I remembered how it all goes. Good Luck!