Short life of a Multimeter

[CompuTamer]

A multimeter comes home from the store. So happy to have been bought. He's nothing special, just a simple $20 meter.
He doesn't have any bells and whistles. He measures the common things. Voltage, resistance, temperature. No fancy lights. No fancy probes to test your blood pressure while cooking your breakfast.
His new owner takes him out of his box, and plugs his probes in, and turns his dial to "200VAC" and proceeds to plug him into a "dead" outlet.
Positive to positive, negative to negative, everything is correct.
The owner has his friend turn on the breaker to the outlet, and "POP" sparks fly, and the poor multimeter screams his last breath; he is no more.


Okay. End of story time. Someone tell me what happened? Was the meter DOA? It was an "Ideal" brand from lowes. Something simple to test the "obviously working" outlet. It seems like the meter just shorted out the circuit.

 

[Automata]

The only thing I can think of is you had it on the amperage setting and it literally broke it.

 

[Psycogeec]

what he said ^
even if it is on the right setting on the dial, if the probes were in the wrong slots.
(assuming it is that style)

when measuring big amps the probe is moved to the 10 amp side, and internaly they are Connected to eachother with a short wire.
because when measuring Current the meter is not put across the poles, but is used to make the connection itself like a wire would.

(from wall)-------------------- (to psu or whatever)
(from wall)-------------------- (to psu)
say this was your AC wires going to the unit
and your checking for the flow of current through the wire

-----------------------
-----Ampmeter------

the ampmeter sort of replaces the One wire itself , and inside the meter it reads how much current is flowing through the wire in the meter.

so you just break connection with ONE side
-------------------------
--------- . ------------
and insert the ampmeter to complete the "curcuit".

you do not put an ampmeter , or a meter set for its amp settings, onto both poles. that is only done when measuring voltage.

it wouldnt be the first time , someone did this , the paranoia after the first time, helps to remember to check everything later. so your all set now


when measuring small amps using the mA settings, the SAME thing is true, Through the Normal location for the probes, except usually the fuse would break. (there is no fuse on the big amps side, because they cant calibrate to a different fuse, like they calibrate to the wire)
it is generally not concidered safe to rotate the dial , when the meter is connected. at the least a person needs to know what the dial is changing through, when rotating it.
.

 

[CompuTamer]

Hrm... As far as i can remember, i had it on the side labled (400MA fused) but considering the black soot on the bottom inside of the meter, i could have made a dumb mistake.

Oh well. Only $20. I'll try and take it back. If they blame it on me, i'll grab a new one, and be more careful.

 

[Psycogeec]

could be defective, i think more pros eventually make the misteak, than someone who just bought a new meter , because when first starting out shoving loose wires into a AC wall plug makes regular people cringe , and read manuels
.

 

[Bobnova]

400ma fused is almost certainly one of the amperage slots.
You want the one labeled volts/ohms/diode.

 

[onefstsnake]

Yeah and im sure the outlet puts out more than .4A lol

I love my Craftsman in that you cant put the probes in the wrong jack on the meter because of the safety shutters.
http://www.metersupport.com/pages/82175.html

 

[turbohans]

400mA? That's milli-amps! You need somthing that is good to 100A to plug into the wall.

(most wall circuits are like 15-20A but you need something rated to 100A for safety)

 

[CompuTamer]

Yeah and im sure the outlet puts out more than .4A lol

I love my Craftsman in that you cant put the probes in the wrong jack on the meter because of the safety shutters.
http://www.metersupport.com/pages/82175.html

I need that! lol

Took it back, and they replaced it. Not sure if it was my fault or it was defective, but the new one didn't blow up when i plugged it into the wall

 

[turbohans]

Yeah and im sure the outlet puts out more than .4A lol

I love my Craftsman in that you cant put the probes in the wrong jack on the meter because of the safety shutters.
http://www.metersupport.com/pages/82175.html

I need that! lol

Took it back, and they replaced it. Not sure if it was my fault or it was defective, but the new one didn't blow up when i plugged it into the wall

yea that one is a good one! rated at 20A though so nooo 220w or 440w for that hehe

 

[onefstsnake]

I use it for automotive and house hold voltages.

 

[turbohans]

I use it for automotive and house hold voltages.

Yea looks like the one we got at the shop, that one I think has four inputs though but same thing it auto-detects the proper ranges...

 

[CompuTamer]

I may get something more fancy, but i have no need for it. I just need something that can beep at me when a circuit is complete.