EEVblog 1636 - Ultimate Multimeter Beginners Guide - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 27, 2024, 11:58:49 pm
content: The ultimate beginners guide to multimeters. What are they, how to choose one, and how to use them to measure electrical things.00:00 - The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Multimeters00:35 - Display Counts Explained01:17 - Range Switch or Push Button?01:43 - Don't get a rechargable type or permanent backlight02:05 - Autoranging vs Manual Ranging03:05 - Multimeter Probes03:36 - Rubber Holster vs Overmoulded Rubber03:50 - Battery powered & Auto Power Off04:06 - What can a Multimeter Measure? Voltage, Resistance and Current04:55 - Do you need Current measurement?05:38 - Capacitance & Continuity06:39 - Continuity Testing Demonstrated07:08 - Diode and LED testing07:59 - Thermocouple Temperature Measurement08:37 - Non-Contact Electric Field (NCV) Testing08:57- Frequency, Duty Cycle, and Min/Max/Avg09:18 - True RMS vs Average Responding10:13 - Practical usage demonstrated10:47 - Modern Multimeters are very robust11:10 - Here is where it gets dangerous, current measurement.12:55 - CAT Safety rating and fuses14:23 - UL and ETL Testing Certification14:43 - BEWARE of Battery LEAKAGE!15:00 - Don't measure Ohms in-circuit15:43 - Auto Touch Hold16:17 - DC Voltage Measurements17:35 - AC Voltage Measurement18:08 - Current measurement demonstrated19:50 - Capacitance measurements demonstrated21:20 - Ohms cable measurement22:07 - Manual ranging demonstrated23:02 - Bargraph function23:45 - Conclusion and Recommendations

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2024, 09:59:14 am
content: Shared with a friend, who starts his journey into electronics.The cable capacitance trick may also be used, if one doesn’t know the capacitance of the entire cable. Measure the broken cable from both ends. Proportion of the measured values will be roughly the proportion of cable lengths on each side of the break.

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2024, 11:38:28 am
content: The capacitance of cables is not that variable. A good starting point is 100 pf/m : works OK for mains cable and RG58 coax. Getting a much different value is rare.For cheap meters of Chinese origin one should be a bit suspicious about the CAT rating. At least have a look at the fuses before using it for mains or similar high power circuits. There are a few that are somewhat OK, but also plenty of fake ratings. Just another mark claiming an independent test may as well be wrong.

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2024, 02:21:20 pm
content: Quickly looking at the actual values from a few mains cables, Kleinstein’s rule of thumb seems pretty reasonable.

author: axantas
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2024, 06:44:30 pm
content: Always a pleasure to watch your guides, Dave. Not a beginner at all, but still detecting some interesting details.Just be aware to speed up your personal "recogintion rate", as Dave is not known for slowness and simple, straightforward explanations. Listen to the important details. So: no SMS, no phonecalls - just sit down, listen and watch - or replay eveything.PS: Not for a multimeter beginners guide, but as a follow up, I recommend Daves Video about "burden voltage" here:

author: aeberbach
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2024, 09:18:14 pm
content: Excellent! You might have added don't trust when it says 'CATIV' on a $2 multimeter or linked to some dodgy meter teardowns to show how misleading that can be, but this was a great video.