Multimeter help please

[70-CA-Panel]

Ok, I have no clue about electrics, my bus only had minor small stuff I could work out myself over the last 16 years, but now at resto stage I need to seek out the faults.

What functions do you use on the multimeter? There are soo many on each and some have more than others.
I just want a nice little solid one without too much unnecessary options.

Can you also explain the basics how to use and what function you use for what?

Which one do you have any comments and where did you get it?

Cheers.

Andy

 

[rlepecha]

Continuity setting, volts and ohms. That's about it.

Automotive ones will also have dwell and a tach if you need them?

Continuity is excellent for diagnosing and finding wires that are ground and shouldn't be. Basically you would just disconnect the cable at the end your checking, put one lead on that and the other to ground and it should beep if the wire has a dead short.

Volts, again, same as before but you would just get a reading of volts on the wire.

Resistance is good for checking resistance to ground, same procedure, probably not often you would need this though, unless working out what fuse you need or how many amps that circuit would use (without turning it on). Volts/resistance=Current(amps)

 

[jonboylaw]

WHS^
I got a £15 automotive one from eBay that does fine.


Sent from my GX64 SatCom phone using Tapatalk

 

[70-CA-Panel]

Thank you for your replies.

Sorry for my ignorance but I don't know what the continuity nor resistance settings look like on the dial, Volts is fine as is Ohms.

For continuity it will only beep if there is a grounding fault with the live wire? And that's with the red lead touching the live wire and black to ground, this completes the circle and should beep regardless of fault? I'm getting in a twist here cause I'm thinking it should beep with red and black to live as it would have a closed circuit...
Oh does the ignition need to be on to measure continuity and resistance?
I assume I would be for Volts and Ohms...

I've only ever added positive and negative wires for bulbs, tacho and such, so no clue about the other stuff yet...

Links to ones you can recommend would be helpful.

Thanks again for your help.

Andy

 

[rlepecha]

Thank you for your replies.

Sorry for my ignorance but I don't know what the continuity nor resistance settings look like on the dial, Volts is fine as is Ohms.

For continuity it will only beep if there is a grounding fault with the live wire? And that's with the red lead touching the live wire and black to ground, this completes the circle and should beep regardless of fault? I'm getting in a twist here cause I'm thinking it should beep with red and black to live as it would have a closed circuit...
Oh does the ignition need to be on to measure continuity and resistance?
I assume I would be for Volts and Ohms...

I've only ever added positive and negative wires for bulbs, tacho and such, so no clue about the other stuff yet...

Links to ones you can recommend would be helpful.

Thanks again for your help.

Andy

Hi,

Continuity is normally shown by a symbol similar to the WiFi signal bars on an android phone?

Resistance is Ohms, Ohms is a unit and not what you are measuring.

I bought mine from mega bug but they don't have them anymore so I can't recommend.

You hold one lead to ground because if you didn't, how does the multimeter know what ground is?

 

[70-CA-Panel]

Ok found a couple with a continuity buzzer:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/digital-multimeter-with-temperature-test-n73cg

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-pocket-sized-autoranging-multimeter-n59lk

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/precision-gold-wg020-digital-multimeter-gw26d

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/uni-trend-ut50a-manual-ranging-digital-multimeter-n77cb

Recommendations of these?

Cheers.

 

[Pickles]

I bought a cheap one off ebay less than £10 from memory

for a guide on how to use it try this from one of the guys on the Late Bay

http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/how-to-using-a-multimeter-and-testing-for-faults.4688/page-2#post-88354" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[who?1]

The top meter looks fine.

So long as it reads volts DC and AC you can't go wrong!