Test leads for your Multimeter

Mitro & Old, thats why i always post est OTF lumens in addition to current figs. More info is better than no info. :slight_smile:

I thank you all for the excellent explanations of the readings from the Digital MM. I am basically electrically challenged. The information provided here helps me understand things much better!

More multi meters out there than you can shake a stick at ..

What you want is a MM that can read up to 10A [ 10 amps ]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-MultiMeter-Multi-tester-Volt-meter-Ammeter-Ohm-/270854427258?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f102e927a#ht_4369wt_1139

But how cheap ?

I would recommend at least a $10 budget ..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Voltmeter-Ammeter-Ohm-Test-Meter-Multimeter-New-/160429362769?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item255a55ce51

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20-Off-Digital-Multimeter-Economic-Digital-Multimeter-Ohm-Voltage-Tester-/320788003911?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab0747c47#ht_3253wt_1163

I had something similar to start with , but its accuracy was horrible over 1A , it went into the trash ...

I then got the one pictured , and its been real good ..[ OP ]

But remember , the LEADS are cheap , and accurate measurement over 1A ? , I have some quality leads but even they are limited ...

1A is a lot of current , its enough to kill a person , so you may wish to make new leads , especially if you want to measure accurately over 2 or 3 amps ...

You can remove the wires from the leads and solder short stranded 14awg wires to the probes and connectors. You can use bigger wires as long as you can tolerate the stiffness.

14awg is about 1.6 mm solid wire equivalent in diameter. Use 12awg if you can find soft stranded ones.
What size wires did yo use old4570?

Dialcalipers say 3mm

That is big. What’s printed on the wire? The first time I did that I was also surprised by the results. My KD C8 read 2.8A 12awg stranded up from 2.1A stock leads.

Jaycar 12 Guage

Excellent thread.

Quick question for the experts: are there any commercially available DMM leads you'd recommend? I have these from DX, but apparently the new batch is useless for any high current applications and when I am getting people started with flashlights and explain battery safety, I'd rather be able to give them something that looks professional, even if it's inferior to DIY leads.

http://www.robotroom.com/Multimeter-Reviews.html

It seemed a fairly good comparison. When I can afford it, I think I will get either one of these meters. I can't check amps currently.

http://www.amazon.com/Aidetek-VC97-multimeter-Capacitor-Frequency/dp/B004VNF7DW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I166MMMEDA13U&colid=3426XMTDQJOOO

http://www.amazon.com/Sinometer-Manual-Digital-Multimeter-MS8268/dp/B000JQ4O2U/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I28GZUL259QNIC&colid=3426XMTDQJOOO

Too much to buy and so little moneyTongue Out

The closest from standard metric sizes (and quite suitable for measuring flashlight tail currents) is 2.5mm2 stranded (pletenica) wire.

Make your own leads, using banana plugs that you can buy locally, and 0.5m (or less) of that wire per lead.

EDIT: When choosing a DMM, look for standard 4mm connection ports. not the thinner ones (2.5mm, I think they are).

Can anyone point me towards good (cheap) banana plugs that I can build my own with. I have ones that are made for audio stuff, but they screw together and pinch the wire for the connection. There's no good way to solder them (even though I have) and there is way too much exposed metal just asking for a short circuit. Old's look pretty good, are there other options?

Wire is easy enough and I have gator clips I like, I'm just missing suitable plugs.

A measuring lead is a length of wire with suitable plugs on both ends. I suggest plugs of the "4mm banana" type, as they are the most standard in our part of the world and you connect them to most DMMs directly and use the "bananas" on the other end as simple probes, or fit some special attachments to them (pointed probes, alligator clips, whatever).

This is just for the picture, I'm sure you can buy them locally:

http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/huanleijiangxian/product-detailJqxnDrTdJHhO/China-4mm-Banana-Plugs-Set-Four.html

No guarantees , sorry ... I have the UT33C Uni-T multimeter , and everything in this price range seems to be similar , but the original leads were current limited past 1A , the leads I used for a long time came from a better quality analog MM , that my father used in testing TV's ...

Im going to go and buy some more wire [ leads ] in different sizes and see how they perform ... [ Later in the week ]

This is interesting stuff ....

gorann,

You may want to have a look here:

http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/Measurement%20UK.html

Can anybody help me as well. (hopefully this is still on-topic?)
I have 3 sets of leads. With all of them giving different readings.

The lowest reading test leads, I want to cut down, so short, that there is just enough wire left to connect to a flashlight.. About 20cm leads.. Do you think this is a good idea?

I guess that this helps to give me some better reading, less resistance! am I right?

Shouldn't be an issue. Most tailcaps have pretty low resistance from what i measured, even the Yezl. (when i connected them in series to measure current, and compare the current drop)

All you're doing with all of this is fooling yourself and accomplishing nothing. The crazy cheap DMMs are garbage (I owned one) and do give low readings due to crappy leads. I bought an Equus 3320 from Amazon for $15 and nowmy readings match what others are getting from quality DMMs like Flukes and such.

A good DMM comes calibrated for the leads it has and takes into account the internal resistance of the leads. By running crazy thick lead wires just to get higher readings is like baseball players using steroids and blowing the stats curves. It doesn't make your light any brighter and ruins accurate estimates of it's performance. If you are getting more than 2.8A draw from an 8*AMC driver equipped torch running a single cell than you are doing it wrong. Getting 5A+ from a light known to only draw 3.8A doesn't help anything.

Okay, that will let me go ahead, and cut them down... (soon)