how do you choose his own welcome to theseries on how to use a multimeter for beginners: 9 this series will not likes to use ofthe show you the basics of how to take today electrical/electronic measurements with a multimeter and i'd also like todraw some nice analogies explaining the basics of how electricity works says not just akinda pat fashion this is how they measure voltage andthis is how i miss you can't hopefully you'll try and get it you geta better understanding of what you are
measuring hi alex is the works also owns cover of and some safety in terms of doing these measurementsspeakers electricity can be dangerous that's one thing i want surely do cometrue i think there are a lot of videos on youtube where people to startsticking the test probes the multimeter into themains pipe to measure ac and i think be happy with what you doingbecause you can 41 damage or equipment to you couldshort atcha electricity and and stop electricity working your houseand three more importantly
you can damage in digicel so at least take care and just be aware that thosekinds of issues surface fall again once thank contest who are the sudden after agents all leak hi i'm for providing me withthis multimeter which is very helpful cuz ithink sir a nice good entry-level multimeter to come todo this demonstration with i'm also they want to post little quizquestion which you guys going on sir i in the comments and then all come upwith the
on say in the next video in this serieswith the exclamation so my question to you is which is moredangerous ac power or dc power i'm looking at anymore information than that i'm keen few to come up with aust onsetand perhaps some justification to you answer and we'll go issue and the answers andsee what's wrong and what's right and why anyway this jumped into theseries okay so let's get started and have a look atthe basic layout of a multimeter just understand and what the differentpatterns do and what have you
and instead start to get an idea of howwe can take measurements now on this small to meet at thismultimeter happens to be a few could i'll one double sevenminutes that you are miss multimeter and this a kind and malts me to likethis is potentiated a good entry point into doing basic electronics and electrical measurementand it has at a hold feature which is is nice i'll see for holding managementsuch it take you can catch a min max you can its or to arrange a multimeterwhich means you don't have to just four
a different ranges but you can selectemanuel range if you want and then you've got a key whichbasically selects a secondary function on your selectiondial more importantly down she you we can see and i'll bring in for alittle bit a closer shot and you've got chu plot points where youplug in your your lead such a gonna take themeasurements with you always free or management's have a your black lead typed into thiscommon and then you'll have for the purpose ofthis exercise
as we going to be doing voltage stillhave your rate lead piped into this bolt each point overhere now point tonight is that's some some multimeters andaldous mention that i've seen precise voltage across a measure current and my small speeches will havefull pack points where you can do higher current measurements i actslike 10 amps and then a smaller one we measuremillions some multimeters will only have three because they don'tdo that fine measurement on the current side
and then they'll have a laugh track thisother multimeters may share some of the day current measurements in this voltage i proble connection point over here nowthat can be a little bit concerning becauseif you make a mistake and have your multimeter slates slippedto the wrong setting why you measuring let's say you want tomeasure voltage andrew but you have it selected to you current them potentially get itcause shorts
and you can hurt a multimeter it youcould potentially cause all kinds of issues so i wouldcertainly say try and work with a multimeter thatgives you separate plot points for your voltage and your current that something veryimportant tonight also if you follow any of my videos on leads at all i alwaysrecommend that you use i really the best quality test leads thecheek and it really does make a difference makes life a lot easier
if you can get one's with silicone leadsome makes all the world the difference because itmeans that i get tangled that he's lee and they can handle higher currents andthere's less risk of the starting to you i heat up in mail somewhat happy if youdo make a mistake so that's something to be wary of so the name as the name implies a multimeter in essence isn'tinstruments with multiple options or multiple i measuring i meters inside it
we are going to concentrates on voltage for this exercise and in essence what i would like to explain whatvoltage its with a little analogy some going tobe a little drawing temperature and we'll go through that okay so he i'm drawn a very simplelittle diagram basically all we gott a little i'm tap and a garden hose pipewith wat coming out the end of it i'm in a larger part down here black now this analogy is basically to try andexplain
what voltages and what current is in terms of electricity and they andtheir properties we gonna do you current as well eventhough the management account will be in the next video after this because they'll see do yourelate to give you a good understanding of how electricity works 9 essence electricity kinda has the properties hope waterflowing in a hosepipe just like you get electricity flowing ina piece of wire
that's what we're trying to explain yetelectricity flowing into wat in a hosepipe now united under gotten a jose cut two properties which email maynot be aware of when you put your finger over there theinternet host you can feel pressure that water's gonna and build uppressure so did two things properties withoutwater coming out you got pressured and you then you've got a volume ofwater now the pressure if there is a directcorrelation to bolt each voltage innocents electricity flowing in a pieceof why
is like the pressure of the water in awater hose pipe and in essence what what we do with whatwe gonna measure with a multimeter the multimeter acts like a pressure gauge in measuring water pressure you'd have a little let'ssay you tappin a pressure gauge into a pipe in essencethat's what you do with a multimeter you just tapping into you i'd a cross eighty electrical components or piecesof wine to measure the pressure all theelectricity
and the pressure of electricity isvoltage so the other components electricity is a volume is the amount of electricity and the amount of electricity correlatesto current or amps and there's also a very strongrelationship between the two working together which ultimately gives you power nowwill get on specs as saying in a later video but its good too and gets a good understandingof those basics and we're gonna could
continue this in a jigsaw it really ishandy when we talk about resistance and all that kind of thing it it it's far too easy to visualize i'm how those different properties work sothe one thing when you're measuring its its 10 the safer aspects to measure with your multimeterthey are certainly other tests like continuity tests which will get intowitcher ready to be safe but voltage in essenceif you can imagine this big we've got a big pipe with a large orthe above water
playing through it and it's got pressureand this pretend that it's catchy and a high-pressure the beaches make a small hole in thatmetal pipe even though it's a big pipe and there'sa fair amount pressure potentially you can actually quartet's with your finger all the coke what haveyou okay so multimeter can actually measure very high voltages relatively safely because at that same aspect with waterplaying in a pipe you just have to make
a small hole sticking to gauge and take a measurement there are certain caveats to that butbasically that is the case things start to changeacid will cover this in the next video when you get to measuring amps of current because then you havingtwo major the boy you of blow going here andthat's we have to have something in this flow and that's where things get far moreinteresting because you having to pass
or love this flow through yourmultimeter and that's when you can up 10 she start burning all melting things if you're notcareful depending on the limitations of the a multimeter whereas voltage which is basicallytapping into the electrical wire a measure the pressure okay so let'smove on to how we do that okay so let's get ready to commit to amultimeter that leads into a multimeter to measure the voltage of this aabattery now one important thing tonight yeah isthat as you can see we just couldn't
measure the voltage up this batterythere's no they are no other electrical wires or electricalcomponents connected because we just merely in essencemeasuring the pressure of electricity inside i'll the potentialelectricity sitting inside this battery that's very different again if you'remeasuring current but as a said what i'll just explain on thispicture if you've got that hose pipe and you hadto clock the end all this big parking placard the end sothat there's no flow of water you will still have pressure i can andthat's exactly how this patchy is
you don't do not have to have like boldor some electrical component connected to measure the potential voltage because just buy meat plugging into thepipe you are still going to be able to measure pressure it's different for current of coursebecause if you don't hate you can't measure the volume all electricity and missus actually flowing and that's where thingsget a little more complicated still need to have
some device or some electrical componentusing electricity to measure current but that'll happen init in the next video we're concentrating on measurablemeasuring voltage we don't need something connected but something tonight as well yourvoltage pressure will rc death if you do have somethingconnected the pressure is gonna drop and it's thesame for electricity what we measure in thisbattery now is with nothing connected no loadconnected but as soon as you can make
something the voltage potential is going to bedifferent because you've got flow and that potentially isengaged drop the pressure okay so how do you guys about measuringvoltage we've got a multimeter it switched offat the moment we've got out test leads retake the black one which is the common and be push it into the port labeledcommon can see on the smoked malts meter that'son the bottom right hand side and at the pan on a plaque simply pushesin there
then we've got the other red flag thatgoes into the one with the football teach and that plugs in simply like that then on the multimeter we have to select the measurements option that we want todo and on here a week we can see that we'vegots a bolted symbol and i'll bring in alittle bit closer to see that you've got a little voltage symbol witha squiggle on top now that voltage symbol is ac voltage
okay and independent battery it's not ac its dc its direct current so you conceded as some long atop thevoltage day is the strike dash for the dotsunderneath and that's the symbol for dc now your multimeter might actually havejust one voltage option with which consents ac or dc it so you have to keep an eyeout for that that differs from all to me to meetmultimeter but a month most multimeters you need to make that selection yourself
nailsea ever shared as one for manybolts and the rule of thumb is here its alwaysbest i'll see that size smaller reading or bolt each it's always best to startwith the larger reading first and it lets to launch go down because insome cases particularly when we come to measure current if he starts have a a large current andstart on the smaller reading you potentially e blow a fuse in yourmultimeter or damage a multimeter so always startwith the larger reading first and as well as if you have an altar ifyou have a manual ranging
multimeter you want to start with thelarger range first and then move down this one sort arranging so weakens putit straight down into anna the voltage range now as you knowthomas multimeter that has come up and its and it's notedon shit dc so can you meet tonight that becauseyour multimeter might have various settings and if you have the incorrect settingsyet you not going to get the right reading not the most part that might not seemserious
but if you do you have you all to meeton the wrong wrong setting you go and take a measurement ok let'ssay particularly a high-voltage and you have a wrong reading you mightthink tax what you taking a mission to be safe or not live you can touch it you couldelectrocute yourself so something always to be wary about isto make sure you do check that united at at best yougonna have a wrong reading and have our owncalculation what have you been at worst it could result in
in a safety issue said that she has tobe wary about so they will go we've got up our multimeter slipped it on dc voltswhich is exactly what we want for dispatching now we have ared and a black probe obviously the batteryit's fairly clear on this battery and on and aa batterythe top per share is the positive and you cansee the positive sign over there the bottom is negative and sometimes i label it sometimes idon't between oh the one end is positive
our raid is positive so we can put thaton there and we put out black on the negative trying keep your fingers out the wayaccepted she can have an influence have your probes go straight onto thosesepsis and we can see the measurement there his 1.91 bolts 1.91 vaults and that's about right forthis is a rechargeable battery its 1.2 volts in essence and that is showingus the potential pressure of the electricity in this battery
and that is how you measure voltage it'svery simple and straightforward so i'll get a few other items that wecan measure and then we'll move on to measuring ac voltage where we need to take alittle more k the kcm gots a few other batteries and back to results york dc sorry we've got our a multimeter on its sitting on its voltage setting which isfine here got a nine volt battery on a ninevolt battery
tonight is that the bigger terminal on the top them ninevolt batteries actually the negative american see this see that in the videoshot its its night on the plastic hair and then thesmaller one is is the positive and that's verystraight forward to measure so again out black goes to the negative the rate goes to the positive and you'll see there we go this thisbattery which is a rechargeable batteries currently sitting at
8-port 8 8.81 bolts this small to meet as you can see haslittle bar graph at the bottom which gives you some indication but that's if you have a fluctuatingvoltage but that will demonstrate a little later but there you go very straightforward8.8 one bolts now move on to this is a sealed lead acid battery it is rated as a 12 volt battery so itis a
a little more potential pressure boltedsitting in this and quite clearly on a top that iactually got to rate for the positive they've got black for the negative we'll put up to probe sunday and then we can go see as 12.92 bolts just a little understanding so as youcan see although this is a 12 volt battery asus 12.92 a little bit image occasionally yet a 12volt battery in this relates to car batteries
alarm batteries in like they generally they fully charge state actually sitsaround anywhere from 13.22 13 points 6 maltz and when they being charged the and it differs from that the top abachatechnology but while they're being charged actuallyare charged up to around anywhere between forty point2 infourteen point four faults and that's that pressure in essence thewater pressure you trying to push back with the electricity pressure you try topush back into the battery
a nice figures can be really criticaland that's where having a multimeter can be really handy to make sure that ifyou charging something or that the state took charge of your battery is sittingat the right level if this back she was sitting test deadon 12 volts and i needed to use something criticalbe a little bit worried because it's getting close to the point where in essence its emptyor the cells inside plants inside will bedamaged a bachi like this once a gets below 12volts like eleven-point thanks 11.52
really needs a recharge apache when it gets to like ten-pointquotes his base leona's classed as dead and it d potentially can cause damage atthat level now what happens if i happened to in theprobes over tend to put the red pro on thenegative and the other one on the positive you'llsee i get the reading but there's a littlenegative sign on the multimeter and that's because
the polarity has changed now with dc voltage dc voltage has apalavra t so you can have a positive and anegative side the mechanic going to go into too muchdetail about that i just want to create your attention that if you are taking measurements andyou kinda want to be working on the positive and if things bc the negative i there then you realize that you had to havegot you your am
approach on the wrong way when shestarted getting into electronics that axes it on a diagnostic and sometimesyou actually want electronic value you want negative values but that's whenyou start getting to more advanced measurements but just to make you aware that you canhave negative readings but if you come measuring a battery thatmight be a hint that you got your probes round the wrong way okay so now we're going to move on to measuring ac voltage and what i'vegot his aim
pay multiply to multiply strip which ihave plugged into the wall here in south africa our voltagesanywhere between 220 and 240 so and i if you do touch yourself or get a shot from that kindavoltage you certainly do you feel it so be verycareful so this is a caveat for this these kinds measurements and that's whyi don't like jumping in sight are just too cute pair probes into remains outinto the measurement if you do it incorrectly you can damage a potentially damage things in yourhouse
tripped electricity in your house orhurt yourself so what i have here i have this stripwhich is connected i'm going to actually switch on the mainswitch and in fact this this point over here willbe live sure night i'm actually played in alittle the debt to hear which allows european and us plot points because it allows meeasy access the they are covered these apply pointsare in essence covered for safety service at least allows me to get ineasily
now on the multimeter as i said beforewe have to go and select the rights selection to measure ac volts on this multimeter as i noted i'll bringin a little close as we do this there is the voltage with the ac symbolabove it on the multimeter use actually see it'sgot the ac day and its defaulted usage jumping aroundat the moment cuz its default it's all to raise too many bolts so it's kindamore sense to the round the strange but now we're ready to take themanagement now ac volts in est doesn't have polarity saiddoesn't matter which way around
the usual probes there is however a in ac a live in a neutral i live is themain feed bring in the electricity the mutual inessence takes the way to lower continuity for electricity but againwe're not gonna go it's too much too much detail here it's largely about hi measure ac voltageand again what i can say is be careful did not lieor probe tips to touch each other when you take the measurement to know slide your fingers to be nearthese because in this instance we not
and a low dc voltage we measuring a highac voltage and it will bite i recently did this to myself and it's not pleasantsay even sony's had a little bit experience it can happen very easily andit's not pleasant right so i'm gonna do i make ap incities probes inside over here and you'll see we've got a reading ofclose to 230 volts our pool amounts out just come back alittle bit so you can get a better view of how istick those probes in
and you can see the management so here we go know it's just be very i'mkeeping the probes and angle i'm noting that i'm not gonnacross them with each other in any way my fingers you got the stop points herefor safety hi prefer having nothing is even furtherup the probes k sorry going very carefully a hold them then and there you can see you can see where the or for one withthat and outlets power outlet is liable not spiced notingthe voltage
in the states you'll expect to see 110120 volts they here in europe when in the uk and mightlove europe and here in south africa anything from222 240 and i hear obviously even though i've got nothing connectedhere in the house i have electrical appliances running sothis is a voltage pressure relates to what'srunning in the house have yet to switch everything off from the house youprobably find that this goes higher because days the isn't a
electricity flow so in essence the endsup being a bit more pressure potentially but we connected to the gridso there's lot of things which can vary things but it's also a potentially gooddiagnostics make sure you are getting the right voltage and again in a related video our showyou some features on this multimeter that allow you to potentially diagnoseissues with you all mains voltage so next we'll move on to you and alittle demonstration with available power supply
and in a td and what happens if too much multi-channel pressure isapplied okay what i've done now these two leadscome from a very low power supply that i have met they will pass apply puts out dc voltage which i can vary i've connected up to an led so if i very that bolted you can see the ledcomes on it goes through various promises know what we wanted to share we want tosee measure
the voltage at which that att comes onoperates at so what i've gotten this is a helpfultip these crops little cock up close which im getting most electronics orhobbyist shops are really really handy to takedoing those kinds measurements if on my hands free wanna makemanagement i can connect them up to the probe thiscommunity difficult techno management like that and trying to make a change on the billwill pass a plot so what we'll do here is on the att i'mgoing to connect thats
to that side and of course i connectedto the rate pro not put it down there ok make the plaque to the negative and will clinics or six other side theplaque on to that and we can see their i've gotthe we've already got a voltage reading onepoint eight bolts so let's just play run those two thingsi want to show you share on the multimeter which are interest notbringing lithgow some to see that
as you can see we've got the led whichis coming on at different voltages so this try and catch what voltage itdoes come on times gonna try and i things k-fifty from where i am i can see she s coming on and giving a reasonable about amountselimination say anywhere between 1.8 1.9 votes and that's the pressure off theelectricity that's required to illuminate this led now
as you saw nom tearing the voltage inthe one other interesting thing to note about a multimeter like this which has a bar graph at the bottom youcan seek meets certain difficult actually take get a poll teachreading and or to see what's going on in thatbar graph at the bottom can give you some indication of what'sgoing on with the ball to jets fluctuating if you cannot see thefigures on top that will get we will address them all advanced features what you can do in amultimeter in terms of voltage
measurement as saying the latest series where i getwhere we do a kinda when we step beyond the beginners rangeon this video series so the one thing we get i'm going to doshare for fun i'm gonna stick step up the voltagewe're gonna see how far we can take this led size have to switch off the outputsi had a a limiting something limiting thevoltage coming out to rate dropped the voltage to you around one ball tournament put it backon again
right well that led's come on as corn baby bright and you can see the voltagearound 2.2 bolts so let's take it further consider getting prior to 2.3 if you managed to push more power instead light what's gonna happen now the reason more power is not goinginto that light is because i've got limits on the amount to thevolume of electricity going in there i'm a switch things up for gain arrestswhich of that limitation
and we're gonna try it again this is afun demonstration there you go because i led on we've gotthat voltage pressure i'm not going to limit the amount ofelectricity that can go in there and that's what happened to go up up up up up up 3e four bolts five goals and i if you can notice but ican see that it is actually going della and its flickering seven balls and
pop it's gone out so live in pulp markets come right backdown voltage in c'ville come back to life and the answer is no so i've goneappliance too much ball teach to this led and nowi'm gonna blown it and in essence the att is like a prescpressure best vessel it's like having a bottle we try to force you need a certainpressure let's say that bottle or balloon a pleamight be a better example
you need a certain pressure for bloomingto inflate senate essence its provide doing its function i e this a tdproviding light but if you push too far beyond that pressure point i e u up the voltagetoo much what's going to happen to the balloonits gonna boost and in essence that's what's happened to this led light we'll apply too much voltage and its inessence damage the led light sets a one thing that's wheremultimeters of state for measuring i e the pressure of electricity arereally helpful because
a few apply too much pressure to certainelectrical components they will fail anyway that basicallysums up the kinda basic beginner's guide on howto measure voltage on what voltage is about i'm i hope that's been useful if it does if you have questions after this atutorial please do post them in the comments field i want to ask you to do is also keepingon the comments because it's i have some very clever folk followingmy videos
and eve i've neglected to pointsomething out they will certainly make comments i or about made a mistake they willpoint it out and i'll certainly try and annotate pick up those corrections so keep an eyethere because potentially they all will be good pools wisdom anyway thanksvery much for watching this this first series the next and video inthe series will talk about current and how to measure current and i willpick it up from there and if you think someone else may find value
with this video please do share it and i hope it is a value and a few do likethe videos and please give me a thumbs up because it certainly helps i what i'mdoing thanks very much for watching and we'llcatch e c