Seminole Wind
Well-known member
Riverman said:
i dont know what sort of multimeter you are using, but EVERY multimeter i have ever had in my hands measured atleast volts,amps and ohms. that is why it is called a MULTI meter, you know, it measure multiple things. the vast majority of multimeters will measure low and medium voltage DC volts usually a 20v and 200v scale also medium scales for AC volts several scales of ohms (resistance) and current/amps/milliamps. even the $5 harbor fright will measure 5 amps current, the older ones i have from harbor fright measured 10 amps, and there are hacks to bump that up considerably if youre a geek and like to tinker.
yes you actually have to have some skill and knowledge of how to use these multimeters, but they are not hard. to measure amps with the cheap multimeters you need to "install" the meter "inline". with low volt DC that is usually pretty easy just disconnect the wire going to the battery or load bar, touch one of the meter leads to the battery/load bar and the other to the wire going to the device. then turn on the device (helps if you were born with a third hand) and read the amps from the meter. make sure the anticipated current is less than the rated current on the multimeter or you will blow the fuse. bacck in the day when i was using analog multimeters most of the ones i had would only read a few milliamps so make sure or you will blow the fuse. measuring amps in an AC circuit is a little more involved. since most cords for AC appliances and tools and such will have duplex (or triplex) wires where the hot and neutral and maybe a ground will all be encased in a single cord. you need to separated or isolate the wire inside the cord to be able to measure the current in just one. you can make a super cheap adapter for this purpose from an old short cord. if you dont have an extra one lying around just grab a short one from the thrift store. then strip the outer sheath off for a ways and you will have access to the individual wires inside. cut the one you want to measure and "insert" your multimeter leads there. remember now you are dealing with higher volts and AC, it can hurt or kill you so follow safety precautions to make sure you dont get shocked. you can get fancy and splice in any number of fittings and even a switch to make it multifunctional you also need something similar to this if you have a fancier clamp style or ring type inductive (hall effect) pickup
once you know the amps and the volts, a little math will tell you the watts Volts * Amps = Watts and if you want to know amp hours or watt hours consumed over time, then use a timer and add it up. i have been known in a pinch to set my gopro up doing time lapse like 1 pic every 5 seconds then put a clock or other time piece so it gets recorded by the gopro and some sort of indicator that will show when the device cycles on. then come back later and load the timelapse on my computer and scrub through the video to see how much the device was on/off. not as easy as a "kil-O-watt" but it sure can be done
if all you can measure with a meter is volts, that is a "volt meter" not a "multimeter"
