# Calibrating a multimeter without another multimeter

I have a hand-me-down multimeter from my Mom made in the 80s. I don't have another meter that is good enough to be used as a calibration standard, however I do have a few reference chips and precision resistors. I hope I can calibrate that multimeter using those.

My 3.5-digit multimeter is a Zhenxing DT-890 made in the 80s. I have a few of each reference chips, ADR02B and ADR03B. I have an And I have a few 0.1% tolerance resistors. Are those reference chips good enough? To calibrate lower voltage ranges, is TLC5615 a good enough chip to use to divide the reference voltage down?

I am on a tight budget so this meter have to be kept in spec for a while, before I can save up for a used Keysight 34401A.

• When I was measuring the output of a brand new MC1403 reference chip the reading was a little bit out of tolerance for the chip. I know my batch of chips should be fine so it is probably my meter being out of spec. – Maxthon Chan Mar 15 '16 at 7:43
• I decided against calibrating against my batch of MC1403 as I have better graded reference chips ADR02B and ADR03B. Those chips have better initial tolerance specifications that is within the resolution of the meter, so any ADR03B should read 2.50V on my meter. – Maxthon Chan Mar 15 '16 at 7:50