When buying a multimeter you have to pay attention to many things, but what do the terms digit and count mean, and what is the difference between them?

Digit

A multimeter almost always has a number of digits in its specifications. This is the number of digits the meter can display on the screen.

voorbeeld 4 3/4 multimeter

Half digits

An example of this is the meter above, which has a display with 4 1/2 digits. To be able to explain this better, the number 4 1/2 must be divided into the whole number and the fraction. The number 4 stands for the number of digits the meter can display from 0-9. These are the last digits, as for example with the meter above, 9998. The fraction stands for the value that the largest number can take, in this case maximum 1. This digit can be 0 or 1. or 1 of 2 possibilities.

Three-quarter digits

To make the story even more difficult, there are also displays with 3/4 displays. These displays are largely the same as the ones mentioned above. However, the fraction means that the first number can be from 0 to 4.

Voorbeeld 3 3/4 multimeter

Above is an example of this, this is a 3 3/4 digit multimeter. This means that the last 3 digits are full, and the first digit can be displayed from 0 to 3.

This is not the end of the story, some manufacturers use the 3/4 indication to indicate that the first number of their meter can be up to 2 or 4. This means that a 3 3/4 digit meter can indicate a maximum of 2999 or 4999 in that case.

Once the theory has been explained, the following example may be a good clarification.

digit clarification

Count

The other way of indicating is count, this one is a little more intuitive. The count value is a value that indicates how many numbers the multimeter can display in total. If a multimeter can display 0 and 1, it has a count value of 2. If the multimeter can display from 0 to 9, it has a count of 10, since 10 values can be displayed.

For the first multimeter this is 19999 as already indicated on the screen. This display can show from 0 to 19999. This means that this multimeter has a count of 20.000. The second display has a count value of 4000, as the screen can display 4000 values.

Agreements and conversions

Some manufacturers specify the number of digits, while others specify counts. Although they are two different names, it is possible to convert count and digit values to each other. Unfortunately, the conversion factor is not unambiguous and depends on the manufacturer's interpretation. However, as a rule of thumb, the following table can be used:

Conversion table
Digits Counts
3 1/2 2,000
3 3/4 4,000
4 1/2 20,000
4 3/4 40,000
4 4/5 50,000

This table is a good tool for entering the world of multimeters, since it covers a large part of the digit values that occur.

Why a high digit/count value?

The meter can display these values in any range, so if, for example, 39.99 Volt is displayed on the second multimeter, it will jump to 040.0 Volt when the voltage rises. In this case, the readings will decrease in precision. The reason why it is useful to have a higher count or digit value is that it improves the precision of the meter. Therefore it is easy to see in price if a certain meter has a higher digit/count value. However, this does not mean that the meter actually measures better. Precision is largely dependent on component quality. If the analog/digital converter cannot indicate 50,000 levels, there is not much point in connecting a 50,000 count display to it.

Want to know more

Check out the practical video by vlogger Tony Albus or the video below.