How to use a Multimeter for beginners: Part 1 - Voltage measurement / Multimeter tutorial

how do you choose his own welcome to the series on how to use a multimeter for beginners: 9 this series will not likes to use of the show you the basics of how to take today electrical/electronic measurements with a multimeter and I'd also like to draw some nice analogies explaining the basics of how electricity works says not just a kinda Pat fashion this is how they measure voltage and this is how I miss you can't hopefully you'll try and get it you get a better understanding of what you are measuring hi alex is the works also owns cover of and some safety in terms of doing these measurements speakers electricity can be dangerous that's one thing I want surely do come true I think there are a lot of videos on YouTube where people to start sticking the test probes the multimeter into the mains pipe to measure AC and I think be happy with what you doing because you can 41 damage or equipment to you could short atcha electricity and and stop electricity working your house and three more importantly you can damage in Digicel so at least take care and just be aware that those kinds of issues surface fall again once thank contest who are the sudden after agents all leak hi i'm for providing me with this multimeter which is very helpful cuz I think sir a nice good entry-level multimeter to come to do this demonstration with I'm also they want to post little quiz question which you guys going on sir I in the comments and then all come up with the on say in the next video in this series with the exclamation so my question to you is which is more dangerous AC power or DC power i'm looking at any more information than that I'm keen few to come up with Aust onset and perhaps some justification to you answer and we'll go issue and the answers and see what's wrong and what's right and why anyway this jumped into the series okay so let's get started and have a look at the basic layout of a multimeter just understand and what the different patterns do and what have you and instead start to get an idea of how we can take measurements now on this small to meet at this multimeter happens to be a few could I'll one double seven minutes that you are miss multimeter and this a kind and malts me to like this is potentiated a good entry point into doing basic electronics and electrical measurement and it has at a hold feature which is is nice I'll see for holding management such it take you can catch a min max you can its or to arrange a multimeter which means you don't have to just four a different ranges but you can select Emanuel range if you want and then you've got a key which basically selects a secondary function on your selection dial more importantly down she you we can see and I'll bring in for a little bit a closer shot and you've got Chu plot points where you plug in your your lead such a gonna take the measurements with you always free or management's have a your black lead typed into this common and then you'll have for the purpose of this exercise as we going to be doing voltage still have your rate lead piped into this bolt each point over here now point tonight is that's some some multimeters and Aldous mention that I've seen precise voltage across a measure current and my small speeches will have full pack points where you can do higher current measurements I acts like 10 amps and then a smaller one we measure millions some multimeters will only have three because they don't do that fine measurement on the current side and then they'll have a laugh track this other multimeters may share some of the day current measurements in this voltage I proble connection point over here now that can be a little bit concerning because if you make a mistake and have your multimeter slates slipped to the wrong setting why you measuring let's say you want to measure voltage Andrew but you have it selected to you current them potentially get it cause shorts and you can hurt a multimeter it you could potentially cause all kinds of issues so I would certainly say try and work with a multimeter that gives you separate plot points for your voltage and your current that something very important tonight also if you follow any of my videos on leads at all I always recommend that you use I really the best quality test leads the cheek and it really does make a difference makes life a lot easier if you can get one's with silicone lead some makes all the world the difference because it means that I get tangled that he's Lee and they can handle higher currents and there's less risk of the starting to you I heat up in mail somewhat happy if you do make a mistake so that's something to be wary of so the name as the name implies a multimeter in essence isn't instruments 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 what voltage its with a little analogy some going to be a little drawing temperature and we'll go through that okay so he I'm drawn a very simple little diagram basically all we Gott a little I'm tap and a garden hose pipe with Wat coming out the end of it I'm in a larger part down here black now this analogy is basically to try and explain what voltages and what current is in terms of electricity and they and their properties we gonna do you current as well even though the management account will be in the next video after this because they'll see do you relate to give you a good understanding of how electricity works 9 essence electricity kinda has the properties hope water flowing in a hosepipe just like you get electricity flowing in a piece of wire that's what we're trying to explain yet electricity flowing into wat in a hosepipe now united under gotten a Jose cut two properties which email may not be aware of when you put your finger over there the internet host you can feel pressure that water's gonna and build up pressure so did two things properties without water coming out you got pressured and you then you've got a volume of water now the pressure if there is a direct correlation to bolt each voltage innocents electricity flowing in a piece of why is like the pressure of the water in a water hose pipe and in essence what what we do with what we gonna measure with a multimeter the multimeter acts like a pressure gauge in measuring water pressure you'd have a little let's say you Tappin a pressure gauge into a pipe in essence that's what you do with a multimeter you just tapping into you i'd a cross eighty electrical components or pieces of wine to measure the pressure all the electricity and the pressure of electricity is voltage so the other components electricity is a volume is the amount of electricity and the amount of electricity correlates to current or amps and there's also a very strong relationship between the two working together which ultimately gives you power now will get on specs as saying in a later video but its good too and gets a good understanding of those basics and we're gonna could continue this in a jigsaw it really is handy 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 so the one thing when you're measuring voltage its its 10 the safer aspects to measure with your multimeter they are certainly other tests like continuity tests which will get into Witcher ready to be safe but voltage in essence if you can imagine this big we've got a big pipe with a large or the above water playing through it and it's got pressure and this pretend that it's catchy and a high-pressure the beaches make a small hole in that metal pipe even though it's a big pipe and there's a fair amount pressure potentially you can actually quartet's with your finger all the coke what have you okay so multimeter can actually measure very high voltages relatively safely because at that same aspect with water playing in a pipe you just have to make a small hole sticking to gauge and take a measurement there are certain caveats to that but basically that is the case things start to change acid will cover this in the next video when you get to measuring amps of current because then you having two major the boy you of blow going here and that's we have to have something in this flow and that's where things get far more interesting because you having to pass or love this flow through your multimeter and that's when you can up 10 she start burning all melting things if you're not careful depending on the limitations of the a multimeter whereas voltage which is basically tapping into the electrical wire a measure the pressure okay so let's move on to how we do that okay so let's get ready to commit to a multimeter that leads into a multimeter to measure the voltage of this AA battery now one important thing tonight yeah is that as you can see we just couldn't measure the voltage up this battery there's no they are no other electrical wires or electrical components connected because we just merely in essence measuring the pressure of electricity inside I'll the potential electricity sitting inside this battery that's very different again if you're measuring current but as a said what I'll just explain on this picture if you've got that hose pipe and you had to clock the end all this big parking placard the end so that there's no flow of water you will still have pressure I can and that's exactly how this patchy is you don't do not have to have like bold or some electrical component connected to measure the potential voltage because just buy meat plugging into the pipe you are still going to be able to measure pressure it's different for current of course because if you don't hate you can't measure the volume all electricity and missus actually flowing and that's where things get a little more complicated still need to have some device or some electrical component using electricity to measure current but that'll happen in it in the next video we're concentrating on measurable measuring voltage we don't need something connected but something tonight as well your voltage pressure will RC death if you do have something connected the pressure is gonna drop and it's the same for electricity what we measure in this battery now is with nothing connected no load connected but as soon as you can make something the voltage potential is going to be different because you've got flow and that potentially is engaged drop the pressure okay so how do you guys about measuring voltage we've got a multimeter it switched off at the moment we've got out test leads retake the black one which is the common and be push it into the port labeled common can see on the smoked malts meter that's on the bottom right hand side and at the pan on a plaque simply pushes in there then we've got the other red flag that goes 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 to do and on here a week we can see that we've gots a bolted symbol and I'll bring in a little bit closer to see that you've got a little voltage symbol with a 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 the voltage day is the strike dash for the dots underneath and that's the symbol for DC voltage now your multimeter might actually have just one voltage option with which consents AC or DC it so you have to keep an eye out for that that differs from all to me to meet multimeter but a month most multimeters you need to make that selection yourself Nailsea ever shared as one for many bolts and the rule of thumb is here its always best I'll see that size smaller reading or bolt each it's always best to start with the larger reading first and it lets to launch go down because in some cases particularly when we come to measure current if he starts have a a large current and start on the smaller reading you potentially E blow a fuse in your multimeter or damage a multimeter so always start with the larger reading first and as well as if you have an altar if you have a manual ranging multimeter you want to start with the larger range first and then move down this one sort arranging so weakens put it straight down into Anna the voltage range now as you know Thomas multimeter that has come up and its and it's noted on shit DC so can you meet tonight that because your multimeter might have various settings and if you have the incorrect settings yet you not going to get the right reading not the most part that might not seem serious but if you do you have you all to meet on the wrong wrong setting you go and take a measurement ok let's say particularly a high-voltage and you have a wrong reading you might think tax what you taking a mission to be safe or not live you can touch it you could electrocute yourself so something always to be wary about is to make sure you do check that united at at best you gonna have a wrong reading and have our own calculation what have you been at worst it could result in in a safety issue said that she has to be wary about so they will go we've got up our multimeter slipped it on DC volts which is exactly what we want for dispatching now we have a red and a black probe obviously the battery it's fairly clear on this battery and on and AA battery the top per share is the positive and you can see the positive sign over there the bottom is negative and sometimes I label it sometimes I don't between oh the one end is positive our raid is positive so we can put that on there and we put out black on the negative trying keep your fingers out the way accepted she can have an influence have your probes go straight onto those sepsis and we can see the measurement there his 1.91 bolts 1.91 vaults and that's about right for this is a rechargeable battery its 1.2 volts in essence and that is showing us the potential pressure of the electricity in this battery and that is how you measure voltage it's very simple and straightforward so I'll get a few other items that we can measure and then we'll move on to measuring AC voltage where we need to take a little 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 is fine here got a nine volt battery on a nine volt battery tonight is that the bigger terminal on the top them nine volt batteries actually the negative American see this see that in the video shot its its night on the plastic hair and then the smaller one is is the positive and that's very straight 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 this battery which is a rechargeable batteries currently sitting at 8-port 8 8.81 bolts this small to meet as you can see has little bar graph at the bottom which gives you some indication but that's if you have a fluctuating voltage but that will demonstrate a little later but there you go very straightforward 8.8 one bolts now move on to this is a sealed lead acid battery it is rated as a 12 volt battery so it is a a little more potential pressure bolted sitting in this and quite clearly on a top that I actually 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 you can see although this is a 12 volt battery Asus 12.92 a little bit image occasionally yet a 12 volt battery in this relates to car batteries alarm batteries in like they generally they fully charge state actually sits around anywhere from 13.22 13 points 6 maltz and when they being charged the and it differs from that the top abacha technology but while they're being charged actually are charged up to around anywhere between forty point2 in fourteen point four faults and that's that pressure in essence the water pressure you trying to push back with the electricity pressure you try to push back into the battery a nice figures can be really critical and that's where having a multimeter can be really handy to make sure that if you charging something or that the state took charge of your battery is sitting at the right level if this back she was sitting test dead on 12 volts and I needed to use something critical be a little bit worried because it's getting close to the point where in essence its empty or the cells inside plants inside will be damaged a bachi like this once a gets below 12 volts like eleven-point thanks 11.52 really needs a recharge Apache when it gets to like ten-point quotes his base leona's classed as dead and it d potentially can cause damage at that level now what happens if I happened to in the probes over tend to put the red pro on the negative and the other one on the positive you'll see I get the reading but there's a little negative sign on the multimeter and that's because the polarity has changed now with DC voltage DC voltage has a palavra T so you can have a positive and a negative side the mechanic going to go into too much detail about that I just want to create your attention that if you are taking measurements and you kinda want to be working on the positive and if things BC the negative I there then you realize that you had to have got you your am approach on the wrong way when she started getting into electronics that axes it on a diagnostic and sometimes you actually want electronic value you want negative values but that's when you start getting to more advanced measurements but just to make you aware that you can have negative readings but if you come measuring a battery that might 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've got his aim pay multiply to multiply strip which I have plugged into the wall here in South Africa our voltages anywhere between 220 and 240 so and I if you do touch yourself or get a shot from that kinda voltage you certainly do you feel it so be very careful so this is a caveat for this these kinds measurements and that's why I don't like jumping in sight are just too cute pair probes into remains out into the measurement if you do it incorrectly you can damage a potentially damage things in your house tripped electricity in your house or hurt yourself so what I have here I have this strip which is connected I'm going to actually switch on the main switch and in fact this this point over here will be live sure night I'm actually played in a little the debt to hear which allows European and US plot points because it allows me easy access the they are covered these apply points are in essence covered for safety service at least allows me to get in easily now on the multimeter as I said before we have to go and select the rights selection to measure AC volts on this multimeter as I noted I'll bring in a little close as we do this there is the voltage with the AC symbol above it on the multimeter use actually see it's got the AC day and its defaulted usage jumping around at the moment cuz its default it's all to raise too many bolts so it's kinda more sense to the round the strange but now we're ready to take the management now AC volts in est doesn't have polarity said doesn't matter which way around the usual probes there is however a in AC a live in a neutral I live is the main feed bring in the electricity the mutual in essence takes the way to lower continuity for electricity but again we're not gonna go it's too much too much detail here it's largely about hi measure AC voltage and again what I can say is be careful did not lie or probe tips to touch each other when you take the measurement to know slide your fingers to be near these because in this instance we not measuring and a low DC voltage we measuring a high AC voltage and it will bite I recently did this to myself and it's not pleasant say even sony's had a little bit experience it can happen very easily and it's not pleasant right so I'm gonna do I make AP in cities probes inside over here and you'll see we've got a reading of close to 230 volts our pool amounts out just come back a little bit so you can get a better view of how I stick those probes in and you can see the management so here we go know it's just be very I'm keeping the probes and angle I'm noting that I'm not gonna cross them with each other in any way my fingers you got the stop points here for safety hi prefer having nothing is even further up the probes K sorry going very carefully a hold them then and there you can see you can see where the or for one with that and outlets power outlet is liable not spiced noting the voltage in the states you'll expect to see 110 120 volts they here in Europe when in the UK and might love europe and here in South Africa anything from 222 240 and I hear obviously even though I've got nothing connected here in the house I have electrical appliances running so this is a voltage pressure relates to what's running in the house have yet to switch everything off from the house you probably find that this goes higher because days the isn't a electricity flow so in essence the ends up being a bit more pressure potentially but we connected to the grid so there's lot of things which can vary things but it's also a potentially good diagnostics make sure you are getting the right voltage and again in a related video our show you some features on this multimeter that allow you to potentially diagnose issues with you all mains voltage so next we'll move on to you and a little demonstration with available power supply and in a TD and what happens if too much multi-channel pressure is applied okay what I've done now these two leads come 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 LED comes on it goes through various promises know what we wanted to share we want to see measure the voltage at which that ATT comes on operates at so what I've gotten this is a helpful tip these crops little cock up close which im getting most electronics or hobbyist shops are really really handy to take doing those kinds measurements if on my hands free wanna make management I can connect them up to the probe this community difficult techno management like that and trying to make a change on the bill will pass a plot so what we'll do here is on the ATT I'm going to connect thats to that side and of course I connected to the rate pro not put it down there ok make the plaque to the negative and will clinics or six other side the plaque on to that and we can see their I've got the we've already got a voltage reading one point eight bolts so let's just play run those two things I want to show you share on the multimeter which are interest not bringing lithgow some to see that as you can see we've got the LED which is coming on at different voltages so this try and catch what voltage it does 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 amounts elimination say anywhere between 1.8 1.9 votes and that's the pressure off the electricity that's required to illuminate this LED now as you saw nom tearing the voltage in the one other interesting thing to note about a multimeter like this which has a bar graph at the bottom you can seek meets certain difficult actually take get a poll teach reading and or to see what's going on in that bar graph at the bottom can give you some indication of what's going on with the ball to jets fluctuating if you cannot see the figures on top that will get we will address them all advanced features what you can do in a multimeter in terms of voltage measurement as saying the latest series where I get where we do a kinda when we step beyond the beginners range on this video series so the one thing we get I'm going to do share for fun I'm gonna stick step up the voltage we're gonna see how far we can take this LED size have to switch off the outputs I had a a limiting something limiting the voltage coming out to rate dropped the voltage to you around one ball tournament put it back on again right well that LED's come on as corn baby bright and you can see the voltage around 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 going into that light is because I've got limits on the amount to the volume of electricity going in there I'm a switch things up for gain arrests which of that limitation and we're gonna try it again this is a fun demonstration there you go because I LED on we've got that voltage pressure I'm not going to limit the amount of electricity 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 I can 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 back down voltage in C'ville come back to life and the answer is No so I've gone appliance too much ball teach to this LED and now I'm gonna blown it and in essence the ATT is like a presc pressure best vessel it's like having a bottle we try to force you need a certain pressure let's say that bottle or balloon a plea might be a better example you need a certain pressure for blooming to inflate Senate essence its provide doing its function I E this a TD providing light but if you push too far beyond that pressure point I E U up the voltage too much what's going to happen to the balloon its gonna boost and in essence that's what's happened to this LED light we'll apply too much voltage and its in essence damage the LED light sets a one thing that's where multimeters of State for measuring voltage I E the pressure of electricity are really helpful because a few apply too much pressure to certain electrical components they will fail anyway that basically sums up the kinda basic beginner's guide on how to measure voltage on what voltage is about I'm I hope that's been useful if it does if you have questions after this a tutorial please do post them in the comments field I want to ask you to do is also keeping on the comments because it's I have some very clever folk following my videos and Eve I've neglected to point something out they will certainly make comments I or about made a mistake they will point it out and I'll certainly try and annotate pick up those corrections so keep an eye there because potentially they all will be good pools wisdom anyway thanks very much for watching this this first series the next and video in the series will talk about current and how to measure current and I will pick 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 like the videos and please give me a thumbs up because it certainly helps I what I'm doing thanks very much for watching and we'll catch E C

Channel: mjlorton

Views: 3,618,163

Rating: 4.8733106 out of 5

Keywords: mutimeters, for, dummies, novice, technician, auto, electrican, multi-meter, voltmeter, volt, meter, electrocution, electric, shock, electricity, electronics, resistance, ohms, continuity, silicone, test, leads, probes, polarity, Automobile, multimeter tutorial

Id: ZBbgiBU96mM

Length: 32min 58sec (1978 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 30 2012