haha ive been reading stuff online until my eyes bleed and seriously almost all of the instructions and YouTube videos teach me as if i already know what everything means. so yeah, go easy on me, im a fast learner but i have no clue how to use this

i mainly bought it to test hot wires while i tap LED's or whatever into my exsisting wires in my truck. (yeah i can do that part) just not the testing part :P

So before i zap myself can someone please give me a dummy version of what some of these crazy symbols are? first of all here are some pics of the meter that i got sorry for the blury pictures they were quickies



my question is i what setting do i use to test the "hot" wires and which red hole to i plug in?



If someone would be willing to tell me which each section is for like the ACV, DCV etc. that would be wonderful i will send you a free swatch to change the color of your clock if you'd like? To me this stuff just looks complicated! let me know thanks!

Heh... how to break things in a hurry.....

... given that you should be learning on something else.... here's a start-point for you.

First, it's called a multi-meter for a good reason, it does multiple things.... but, fundamentally, you can ignore half of what you have...

So, going clockwise from the top.... you have the ACV section. This is for measuring 'household' voltage. If you have a 110V power inverter in your car this may be useful.....

Next is the DCA section - measuring Direct-current Current. This may be useful for you, but not often.

Then the DC10A section. Skip this one... I'll get to it (and you'll not likely need it).

Then a battery tester. This may be useful (but a flashlight works just as well...). It's for testing 1.5 and 9V batteries, not your car. So skip it.

The next is a Diode tester. It has the symbol with the Solid Triangle over it. You need to understand how a diode works to make sense of the testing of diodes, so skip it.

Next is the Ohm-meter ... for measuring electrical resistance. It has the Ohmega symbol (like those frat-houses).

Finally, you have the DCV section, for measuring DC voltage... go figure.



Now, the important thing is to simplify things. So, here are some rules:

1. stay away from high voltage (more than 15Volts)... so, stay away from household voltage.
2. stay away from high current (more than 0.5Amp)... so be very careful with short-circuits and sparks.

Your car battery is able to produce hundreds of amps of power. If you are not careful you can literally burn through the insulation of the wires, and set your car on fire if you do the wrong thing with that much energy. The good news is that your meter has an internal fuse, and the wires are so thin that the meter will probably burn before the rest of the car.

Because we will stay away from high voltage, we will never need to use the ACV section (red labels at top-right).

Right, 10% of the complexity removed.

Now, to understand how the meter works, it basically does one of 5 things.
1. to measure current (DCA), it lets the current flow through the meter, and it measures it.
2. to measure voltage(DCV), it puts a very large resistor (in your case, 10 MegaOhm) across the two places you are measuring voltage, and it measures the difference in voltage between those places.
3. to measure resistance (OHM), it uses it's internal battery to supply current between the test probes, and depending on how much current flows it can calculate the resistance between the probe tips.
4. to test batteries (BAT) it puts a 'load' on the battery (a resistance), and it measures the voltage of the battery while the battery is driving the load. It can tell how depleted the battery is by doing that.
5. to test a diode it puts a specially limited current through the diode. It can calculate the diode's 'voltage drop' when it does that.

Now, your meter has a safety feature. It will not let more current flow through the meter than it can handle. To limit the amount of current, it has a fuse. If you put more current through the unit than it can handle it will blow the fuse. Typically this will be a 500mA fuse. Your unit also has support for a separate 10Amp measurement, and that socket will have a special 10Amp fuse.... but, you will not need to use that.

But, it is very likely that at least once you will make a mistake, and will blow the fuse.... so, go back to your store, and get a handful of replacement fuses for your meter.

So, practically, on your meter you have two test probes, red and black.

The black one gets plugged in to the middle socket. The red one gets plugged in to the right.

If you ever need to test more than 200milli-amp current you will need to move the red test lead from the right (protected by 500mA fuse) to the left (protected by 10A fuse). But, remember, you will not need to test such large currents... so, just leave it on the right.

OK, so you have the red in the right, black in the middle.

So, now we have eliminated the left socket (and with it the DC10A section) and the ACV section.

We understand that we can't test more than 500mA or we'll blow a fuse.

The test-a-diode section (with the triangle symbol at the bottom) is more advanced than you want to be, so skip it too.

That leaves 2/3 of your meter.

Let's talk DCV.

DCV measures the voltage between two points.... typically some positive voltage, and 'ground'. When the meter is used in this mode, it puts a large resistance between the probes (10MegaOhm), and it can use that to measure the volts. This is important to know, because it means you can connect the test leads to things like your car battery, and it won't spark or short because there is a very high resistance.

Now, you have to be able to anticipate what sort of voltage you are measuring. In a car it is easy, because pretty much everything is 12V. So, go ahead, when you are dealing with your car, switch the mode to the '20' setting of DCV. This means the meter will measure voltages between -20 and +20. At this setting you can safely do pretty much anything on your car. It is normal to use the black lead on the lower voltage (on your car that will be the chassis/body/negative terminal of the battery. But, it is safe (for your car, you, and your meter) if you get it the wrong way around.... you will just get a negative reading on the screen.

Right, so you can ignore all but the 20 setting on DCV.

For the DCV mode you will need your car to be turned on (ignition, not necessarily running the engine).

The DCV mode is useful for testing whether something is 'on'. Remember though, just because something is 'on' it does not mean you can do much with it. Some 'broken' circuits will appear to have voltage, even though it still does not work.... but having voltage is at least a good start.

Apart from the 'Off' mode, the DCV mode is the safest thing you can do....

Just remember, for anything car related, you can always use the 20 'range' of DCV. Also, for car related things, the 12V can actuall mean anything from about 8V when the car is starting, to about 14V when the engine is running.

Also, you can use the DCV mode without cutting/disconnecting any wires..... all the other modes require that you make the meter a part of the circuit, which means that for the other modes there is going to be some current flowing through the meter... and it gets interesting then.

Now for the BAT mode... nah, you can figure that out... read your manual.


Then, the OHM mode.

This is for testing circuit resistance. Resistance is the place where electricity is actually working.... think of the wires as being the 'commute', but where there's resistance, that's where the electricity is working. A simple place is the lights.... the wires have low resistance, the lamp has high resistance. Typically, where there is resistance there is also heat.

Resistance is important because you want it to be where it belongs. You want very low resistance in the wires and the connections. You want high resistance on things like the lights, horns, etc. If you have 'infinite' resistance, it means that there is no connection.

try it.... put the meter on the 200 OHM setting. At this point the meter will be trying to put some current through the test leads. It is trying to measure ho easy it is to push that current through.... the easier it is, the less the resistance.

At first, it will read 'infinity' or something... indicating that there is no connection.

Now, connect the test leads to each other. The reading will 'drop' to 0. Indicating no resistance.

This reading is useful for testing what wires are connected, and what wires are broken. If there is infinite resistance, there is a broken circuit. If there is no resistance (close to 0) the wires you are testing are all the same.

Now, if you try to measure resistance while there is other power running through the circuit... like your car is still turned on, then it is likely that you will blow your fuse on the meter. Even if the fuse is OK, it is likely that the reading you see is all wrong anyway.

The 'magic' of electronics is that you always expect resistance.... and it is an important part of everything. The problem is that you want it to be what's needed to get the job done, nothing more, nothing less. Knowing what the resistance should be is why people study for years. You need to know what the resistance should be before you measure it. In your case, you only know two things.... the resistance of a single wire should be close to 0. (1 or less on the 200 range). The resistance of two wires that should not be connected should be infinity.

Even knowing just those two is enough to do things like test fuses... pull the fuse, if there is no resistance, the fuse is good. If there's infinite resistance, the fuse is blown.

Talking fuses.... you can use the resistance setting of 200 to test the internal fuse of the meter. If the resistance is still infinite when you touch the test probes together then you've probably blown the internal fuse.

Remember, when testing OHMs you want the car to be turned OFF. Also, some wires are 'hot' even with the car off. It is always best to first test for voltage before testing for resistance. If there is *any* voltage then it is most likely you will blow the fuse if you test resistance at the same place.


Right, so all we have left is DCA testing the current flowing through a circuit.

This is what you run the most risk with. If you get this wrong you will be blowing fuses like mad, and not just on the meter.... but maybe the car too.

Perhaps that's the way it should be... leave the DCA section for later when you're more comfortable.


Summary:
=======

So, that leaves four useful modes for you to start with:

Off - : saves battery on the meter, and it's safe.

DCV - 20: use to test if something has voltage or not. Should be between 12 and 14 for a normal car with ignition on, or running. Remember, for DCV the ignition must be on if you expect values... or off if you want to find that wire that is always on!

OHM - 200: Make sure there is no voltage before testing OHM or you will blow a fuse (or get bad readings). Use to test for short circuits where you don't want them, or open circuits where you don't want them. If it reads 1 or less, you have a short circuit. If it reads more than one, or 'infinite' you have 'resistance'. Depending on the circumstances either of these can be good or bad.

OHM - 20M: Make sure there is no voltage before testing OHM or you will blow a fuse (or get bad readings). Use for testing for open circuits. If it reads 'infinite' then you have a broken circuit - which is perhaps what's supposed to happen.

Since you have no idea of what other resistances are supposed to be, those are the only useful OHM settings.

Likewise, since you have no idea of what currents you should expect in circuits, the DCA section is meaningless to you, and is the place where you could most do damage.... because in the DCA modes, there is no resistance in the meter, meaning you can cause shorts and sparks, and blow lots of fuses (not just the meter's).

Fare thee well, and update your will.

mib

--EDIT--

A few things I should have added...

1. For resistance testing (OHM) the red and black test probes are interchangeable... there is no practical difference between them.... *unless* you have a diode in the system. A diode lets current flow in one direction only. So, for your purposes, since you've mentioned diodes in your post (LED is a Light Emitting DIODE), the best thing would be to test with the probes one way, then, if it reads 'infinite', you can swap them around, and try the other way... it may change to something less.
2. Never change the modes while the probes are still connected to anything.... you can/will blow a fuse.

wow thank you so much for this! this is exactly what i needed andyou sir are now my hero haha! maybe someday ill get more into what this thing can do but im gonna refer to your post and learn as much as i can. I dont plan on testing any house stuff soon but this will be great for other car stuff.