Digitech Multimeter to measure amps not voltage

Hi Findanomad,
Yes you most certainly can use it for measuring amps. Just change the red lead over to the amp socket at bottom of multimeter then change the switch over to the number 10 or maybe it is 20 on your meterwhere it indicates a A then a straight line with dots under it.. Then if you are wanting to measure the amps going in to a battery from a solar panel or wharever just put the red lead on to the battery terminal and the black lead on to the end of positive wire coming from panel and presto you have the number of amps coming from your panel.
Farouk

no you can NOT measure the amps IN a battery. you can only measure amps flowing when a load is connected. What you want is a battery monitor which monitors amphours charged and taken out. they are a bit more pricey than a multimeter.
good luck
gmd

Dont put the meter straight across the battery you will probably put a few thousand amps thru the meter and end up with a blown fuse or ( as some meters are not fuse potected ) you will have a nice smoldering molten mass of plastic in your hand. You use the amp measurements to show how many amps a device uses when operating. eg a 5 watt 12volt bulb will draw 0.42amps. The formula is Power ( in watts ) = voltage x amps. To connect the meter it must be in series with one of the cables, not across both cables as you would when measuring voltage.

no you can NOT measure the amps IN a battery. you can only measure amps flowing when a load is connected. What you want is a battery monitor which monitors amphours charged and taken out. they are a bit more pricey than a multimeter.
good luck
gmd

just for the record - you can bvuy cheap Clamp meters ( used to testing amperage draw in a circuit easily and cheaply) on ebay - if you by locally you can expect to pay about $100 and upward to about $300 for a known brand name

I just ordered one from HK $26 + free delivery - a good option if your only ever going to use it occasionally - i use mine for work and they tend to go walk about - hence the cheap nasty

Hope this helps

clamp meter on ebay

You can measure the pressure (voltage) from a pump by tapping into the line.

If you want to measure the flow in litres per minute (amps) you have to interrupt the line form the pump.

You can't measure the tanks capacity in litres (amphours) by connecting to the pipes on the the tank.

MrNomad,

Good question. It can get confusing. It boils down to what information you want.

Your multimeter most likely has a couple of ways of measuring current (amps), and its best to have some idea of how many amps you're going to measure. Remember amps is always measured in series (i.e. use the multimeter like a piece of wire - never hook it up to both pos and neg sides of a battery)

With the multimeter leads in the same sockets (as you are using for volts), it will probably measure up to 0.2Amp (200 milliamps). This is not much current and is useful for measuring the current consumed by a circuit board, or a relay coil, or a battery isolator, or low voltage cutout etc etc

The 10amp setting requires the red lead to get moved to the third (unfused) socket. This is useful for measuring the current being used by a fridge or a light, or any other accessory that uses less than 10 amps.

If you want to measure more than 10amps, you need a new device. Either buy an ammeter that measures more (eg 20amp, 60 amp or whatever and hook it up, or if you want a spot reading, many prefer to use a clamp meter.

If you want to measure high amps continuously (eg you want to know how many amps are going into your aux battery) you will want to install a "shunt ammeter". This is not a true ammeter - it is actually a voltmeter that measure the small voltage difference across a small resistance (shunt) and translates that into how many amps is travelling thru the wire. That is the way most vehicle ammeters work.

If you wanna see what kinda capacity your battery has - what kind of current it can put out, just go to a car battery place and they will load test it - basically put a load across it and see how it copes as the load is gradually increased.
Ideally this should be hundreds of amps something like the cca rating, might be 50% of the cca and just turn the car over, not much room for error though.