Resistance question

If what I read is right, I would need to move the decimal to the right by 3 places.

So 24,600 ohms?

Sounds good to me.

Thats right. The K is for thousand (or 3 zeros) and if a M six zeros or million. So you have 24.6 K or 24,600 ohms.

Probably. Does the selector knob, or something on the display, say KOHMS?

Measure a few known resistors to figure out what that DVM does.

Good grief, $6.99 on ebay with free shipping from China.

Here is what my meter looks like.

"

Do not use on line power.

I paid $2.95 at a local Harbor Freight store. Works as well as the better ones and it is handy for the glove compartment and another I keep as a back-up.

I expect Trump's tariffs will change that soon enough.

What is on line power?

Sorry,

In the US, mains electric power is referred to by several names including "household power", "household electricity", "house current", "powerline", "domestic power", "wall power", "line power", "AC power", "city power", "street power".

I call it Mains power over here, but I digress.

Really cheap unprotected meters can be somewhat explosive if accidentally connected across the mains - especially with that 10A unfused option.

Also given the cost, source, and look of the PCB, I'd not trust it.

Perfect for low voltage projects though.

Ok. So don't measure anything with the 10A, but the rest of the current ranges are ok?

I have use them before.

Andy

current ranges are ok?

I think he means don't measure 120v/240v AC, or other high, dangerous voltages. If you're not experienced, those voltages can KILL.

The 10A current range can be OK, esp for automotive, but you can get some good sparks if you touch the wrong thing.

Not sure if this applies to you, but one thing about low-cost multimeters; they often come with a time limit (10 seconds) for measuring current on the 10A range, so take measurements quickly on that range.

HTH

The combination of the 600 volt ranges, the PC board, and the CE mark is funny.

Ok. I would never measure any AC current.

Just voltage.

Andy

We get it.

The internal 10 shunt is usually a piece of heavy gauge wire. On a 20 amp circuit the circuit breaker goes before bad things happen. (as one of our technicians proved time and again...)

There's a good reason for using honking big wire for the 10 amp range in addition to making it hard to kill. They don't want too much heat so the resistance of the shunt remains constant.

I've got one that looks like his and it has proved good enough for me, I do measure the mains voltage too. I had a nice expensive Fluke, ruggedized case..., true RMS meter, with bells and whistles that lasted until it dropped on the floor from about two feet.

Most of us learn to be careful. My lesson was as a kid (8-9 years old

- still used vacuum toobes, that's "valves" to you) I had this ~500 VA plate transformer plugged in and measured the voltage 375 volts to the center tap. Somehow I left it plugged in came back to it later and was straightening out the leads and ran my fingers down across the full 750 volts. I never made that mistake again. That was a sit-down and shake experience.

In the navy I saw one of our techs working on a transmitter. He did use the shorting bar (but it's ground wire was broken inside the insulation) and the thing does have contactors that discharge the caps when the covers are off. But none of that worked and he sent a spark from his ass to the scope cart behind him.. He seemed fine right afterwards, then he want into shock when he had time to think about it.

I built telsa coils with 1,000 VA spark exciters and work with one hand only and keep end of the power cord in my pocket... and discharge the caps.

The Extech DVMs are much higher quality, and most come with thermocouple inputs, which is very handy for cooking and such.

CE just means "Chinese Export" judging by the quality of some of those things. Much better than they were 20 years ago, though. They've come on in leaps and bounds. HOWEVER, when it comes to measuring anything mains- related I would never use one. I've got a Megger for such occasions. The equivalent in the US is Fluke. These two brands have *proper* protection from high voltages at high energies. The cheap Chinese meters simply aren't up to that sort of job.