@averagejoe wrote:
I thought getting the agilent would be quicker than our solartron multimeters but its not, or i cant figure out to make it any quicker.
Why? The time required to take a measurement is dependant of the method used to obtain the measurement. Most DMM's use the exact same methods and are calibrated to the exact same standards for any given accuracy. As suggested, you can trade off accuracy for speed (to a limited extent) but the base methodology remains the same. For True RMS ACV measurements The method employed averages the instantaneuos voltage over a period of time (aperature) longer time = greater accuracy with an erroneous answer if the aperature is less than 1 cycle of the waveform.
The time to configure, trigger and return a measurement can vary between instruents and communications buses but, is usually small compared to the actual measurement time. Although for very high throughput automated systems it can be a significant factor when a difference of 100mSec * 6000 readings per test is a minute per part!
"Should be" isn't "Is" -Jay