Hya one of the above followed me home the other day. It's a very cute multimeter in a two-compartment leatherette wooden case. It has an Ohms adjust control, there's volts control option with DC, AC & OP & the selectable ranges are 1MA, 10MA, 50MA, 250 MA, 10V, 50V, 250V, 1000V, R, Rx10, Rx100, Rx1000. It has a beautiful "University" movement which seems to be in excellent condition & the case is finished in a black wrinkly paint. It looks lovely! On the bottom LHS next to the negative lead connector there are three letters: MVA & the bottom, the manufacturer ( I think) is shown as RADIO EQUIPMENT P/L SYDNEY. Does anyone have any info on this you would like to to share please?

My general warning would be to check that which is inside. I have seen several old meters including some of mine, e.g. AVO, Paton VCT,s Peak, where the caps are paper and are / or have failed.

Marc

Radio Equipment Pty., Ltd., were the manufacturers of University branded test equipment. The company was later on known as University Graham Instruments Pty., Ltd.

Here is an advertisement for the MVA from Radio & Hobbies for October 1946.

Definitely one for the check it treatment, if it's like the one in the pictures?

Marc

First, sorry for being so long in replying, I thought I'd get email notification when someone replied.... & I see two of you have done so!

Marc, you are quite right. There's least three unmarked black capacitors in there - I will snip them out rather than risk heat damage & put them across a cap meter - hoping the value hasn't drifted too far.

Monochrome625, yes this looks practically identical
The caps don't look too difficult to replace, it's the batteries for the ohms ranges which I'm not sure of. There's a trough along the back of the electronics which looks like it might have housed two flat 4 1/2-volt batteries - I'm sure you know the ones: three 1.5V penlights in a row in a polystyrene case with two angled brass contacts on top? There's also a holder for a "D" Cell.

Thanks to both of you for your replies & time spent on this
John.

I thought I'd get email notification when someone replied

Would be a great optional feature! Brad, how about it?

E-mail subscriptions are now on the to-do list.

I can't promise a rollout date as it will involve a big rework of the way this site communicates with the mail server. There's no real reason why we can't have it though. Leave it with me.

In the mean time...

http://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?t=133.

If they are wax paper. I really do not care what their value is,nor should you, at this point. What is critical is their leakage. Some of those had values embossed in the mud.

If you are in HRSA note my comments re capacitors, current edition. It is unlikely that a wax paper cap will not be leaking by now and that is why we virtually replace them on sight, without bothering to test them. They actually may be in spec, from a capacity point of view. Clip out only one end so you know where it belongs.

There is no place for leaking caps in a test instrument. The only way to test those is at their rated, or test voltage using an insulation tester, or something designed to test them near their working voltage. There is also the "Neon Flash Test" as used in the VCT Valve &circuit tester.

The 4.5V battery was a lantern battery often used in bicycle headlights. AVO 7X has same, easily sorted (with 7X anyway).

You never know your luck, someone may have a book. I managed to get data on 1938 VCT Valve & Circuit tester.

I read your Article Marc quite good thank you

I actually on another post advice from you for someone else, have purchased the latter version of the insulation Tester from Altronics...bit of two minds on it but it does whats needed and thats what counts

Just on your comment of those wax caps being in spec ...*yes most all if not all I've checked so far are in spec but as you say its the leakage thats the key thing...and one thing a capacitance meter of today wont tell you...

So 6A8G as marc said ...and if you can get the values by measuring them that along with size will hopefully help you determine what they might truly be...better if you could actually read them thought..
(thought remember old caps are super large so you'll need to try and id from the period, hopefully an id'able brand )

I tried to hunt some info but sadly no schematic or manual thus far is forth coming off the net

Sadly even the Radio Museum only lists a later 1962 model MVA3 & not much info at all

On the manufactures page:-

http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?company_id=13436.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/universau_multimeter_mva_3.html.

Not even a real picture...

I guess being a multimeter it shouldn't be too hard to sus out the circuit and reverse engineer its operation.

(*in my noob status case, thats like 2 radios worth...but if you weren't aware of what happens with them you'd probably assume they are ok...and that would be a bad move, a general comment here )

Post up some photos of the the unit inside and out would be good...

Anyway a lovely piece of history I think to own
even if you dont get it working..

(I am trying to get my hands on VTVM myself but Ebay is the pits and shipping from the US is so expensive..)

Hello again to all, first, I was wrong - there was only one cap - a big one. It was encased in a sort of black pitch - very brittle but melts like butter in the presence of a soldering iron. I removed it , put it across my cap tester & got a reading of .5μF. Tracing the wiring to the selector, this is part of the OP position so it's odds-on .5 is the correct value. There's now a nice yellow .47uF/630V cap in its place.

I've replaced all the dog-bone resistors in the voltage & ohms range with 1W equivalents from Jaycar but I haven't touched the shunts - they are wound on what looks like tiny cotton reels with very fine wire.
The meter reads consistently low IE a 9-volt battery shows 6, & my mains supply reads around 190V, down from 238V. The pointer moves smoothly & is not catching on anything so I'll think further thoughts about this while I rebuild a Mullard 10+10 amplifier to replace my recently deceased Luxman amp of 34 years. Funnily enough, I see Silicon Chip is featuring a similar Mullard beastie this month. But that's another story!

Again, thank you to all who took the time to offer advice & share thoughts.
John

One really should take photos of things, before they are dismantled. I am getting the feeling that a wrong resistor has been added. By the way it is performing, it is away from the rectifier and common to both AC & DC. That could mean that it is in a part of the circuit which is not switched: Perhaps a shunt?

I would not surprised with 0.5μF for the Output cap albeit it depends on the meter movement & circuit.
The cap zapper should be applied with knowledge; It is not for polarised caps (many electrolytic's).
What should be general knowledge is that some of the older meters have wax paper caps in them, or caps anyway.

Be warned, a test instrument is no different from a radio. I have had two VCT's with failed caps, a Peak 200H (output...again) and an AVO 7x. Also note that some resistors, may be deliberately out of the spec marked on them.

The VCT has a card inside it proclaiming a "special" resistor that will affect it's calibration. What that means translated, is that some Indian ended up with a bucket full of duds & had to find the ones needed.

Marc