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Measuring Electricity
The best and cheapest way to measure electrical properties is with a multimeter. If you are planning on playing with electronics it is the first thing you should buy as you will use it more than any other instrument. You can get digital and analog ones, but the digital ones are cheap and highly accurate and easy to read. If you want to attach them to your project permanently, then small analog meter are ideal.
Using Multimeters
The key parts of multimeter are test probes and a switch to choose what you are going to measure. Before you connect the probes you will need to choose what you want to measure, voltage, current or resistance. Most meter will also either get you to choose a range or have an auto-range feature. This will mean you will normally need to know roughly what results you expect. If your expecting around 12 volt choose say 0 - 25 volts, or something that covers up to double the expected value.
The probes are normally coloured red and black. You touch the red probe to the positive side and the black probe to the negative side and the value will be displayed on the LCD screen (or the needle will point to the correct spot on an analog meter). Some meter also have a hold function so that once you hit the button the current value will remain on the meter.
Measuring Electricity | | | Author | Message | | ctjester
1 | OK so I have a multimeter, but to use it correctly you must know what you want to measure and where to set the switches. Now this may seem elementary, but if I'm testing whether an outlet or a switch has current running through it I'd like to know that I'm using the meter correctly and that I'm not plugged in to test DC!
Is there a link to providing an elementary explanation of using a multimeter correctly or can an explanation be provided? | Anonymous
202 | I'm not sure what you mean sorry? Can you explain and I will add it in.
thanks
e4b admin | Anonymous
202 | can you give the site for the "parts of multimeter">???tnx | Anonymous
202 | ha ha ha you are realy a beginner. to measure amps you must have something that use that battery (for ex. DC motor) . | Anonymous
202 | How do you measure amp? I tried to work out the volatage and amperage of a battery. The voltage worked fine but the multimeter started smoking when I tried to measure the amperage? Help? | |
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