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Product: Cell Phone: Feature
Mobile multimeter   (+17)  [vote for, against]
...and possibly oscilloscope

My phone has Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, MP3, USB, camera, composite video output...but it doesn't have a multimeter.
The damn thing is chock full of DSP, A-to-D and D-to-A converters, shirley it could have a simple multimeter, for those times when, you know, you just have to measure a voltage.
-- coprocephalous, May 06 2008

Turn your PDA into a multimeter http://www.engadget...s-into-multimeters/
...and if your cell phone has a CF or PCMCIA slot, then I imagine it will work on that. [DrCurry, May 06 2008]

GameBoy oscilloscope http://www.elektor....082-91).91407.lynkx
[AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 06 2008]

Getting closer. http://www.electron...00512attr=editorial
[coprocephalous, May 12 2010]

Damn. Thought this would be an artistic hodgepodge arrangement of dangling electrodes and readout displays :(
-- daseva, May 06 2008


//Thought this would be an artistic hodgepodge arrangement of dangling //
No, that would be a "Multimeter mobile".
-- coprocephalous, May 06 2008


Yes, indeed. By the lack of power invested in me, I give you the rights to both. +
-- daseva, May 06 2008


Oooh, there is a big reading from the flux capacitor in your De Lorean.
-- 4whom, May 06 2008


Most phones have a battery charge indicator, albeit with fairly low resolution. Should be a simple matter of finding the right connections and bringing them external, adding a switch to go between functions.

++
-- csea, May 06 2008


[+]

Monkey see, monkey want ....
-- 8th of 7, May 07 2008


dang, I already [+]'d it. This would be a hefty yes-weight on the scale that determines if I ever get a cell.
-- FlyingToaster, May 12 2010


[+] But I don't think it'd be a minor modification. A normal multimeter handles voltages over at least 4 orders of magnitude, and also measures current and resistance. "Multi" right?.

I'd pay extra for such a souped up 'phone, though. They'd probably be visibly different from cellphones (bulkier, at least), so they'd be geek fashion accessories: anyone who carried one would be declaring him/herself the sort of person who feels the need to whip out a multimeter at a moment's notice and start debugging the toaster.

A subset of "multimeter" that probably *would* only require a little rejigging, and would be really handy is a continuity tester.
-- mouseposture, May 12 2010


//would be really handy is a continuity tester.//
You've almost certainly already got one of these - all you have to do is make a cut in the headphone cable.
-- coprocephalous, May 13 2010


Seeing that most phones have bluetooth built in, a really handy accessory would be a bluetooth multimeter adapter.
-- neelandan, May 13 2010


I'm *really* sick of losing and breaking multimeters and buying cheap crap ones from Maplin.

[+]
-- wagster, May 13 2010



random, halfbakery