| Products > Test Equipment |
| Best practices for not damaging DMM? |
| << < (3/5) > >> |
| orb:
Do a triple check before you even think about to measure something. |
| bastl_r:
If you want to measure the voltage on a larger transformer, turn it on first and then contact the test probes. Many years ago I destroyed a HP3457a.... :bullshit: The input hybrid, all the protection transistors and the 8052 on the measurement side.... I had incorrectly connected a large toroidal transformer on the primary side, and after the fuse tripped, made three more power-up attempts.... |
| Brumby:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on January 08, 2023, 09:41:48 am --- --- Quote from: RoGeorge on January 08, 2023, 09:29:11 am ---Don't try to measure how many amps "has" a 12V battery :palm:, or even worst, how many amp "are at" the mains socket outlet. :scared: --- End quote --- Ah yes, don't be me. I had a couple of extension cords pulled through a 1" plastic pipe (impact shielding in a garage-type situation) for work lights, and needed to check which one was which. So, I connected one, and measured the AC voltage at the other end. Because I was thinking "I must measure AC voltage, and not AC current; remember: NOT AC current!", I switched my DMM to ~A, of course, and stuck the probes in. ZAP. Oopsie. Only blew the DMM fuse, though. --- End quote --- Quite some many moons ago, I had a guitarist friend ask me what was a good multimeter to buy. I pointed him to Fluke and he threw $700 at buying one. I was stunned - but I was soon glad when he told me he tried measuring his "household current". Cue: your trick. I got a call to say it made a loud noise and wasn't working properly - the casualty also being a fuse. I'm forever thankful I pointed him to a meter that could handle that. |
| Brumby:
+1 on the Current measurement caveat. Never leave a meter in current measurement configuration. |
| tooki:
Here’s one: never use a multimeter to try to measure anything inside itself. Every once in a while there’s a thread here about someone killing their multimeter because they tried measuring its own battery voltage, for example. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |