Tips for Digital Multimeters

A digital multimeter is a necessary tool for the person that enjoys tinkering with electrical circuits. This versatile tool is useful to troubleshoot electrical circuits in the home, at work or on your automobile. The digital multimeter or DMM is useful in measuring voltages, currents and resistances and comes in a variety of price ranges. Whether you choose the expensive economy version, follow these tips to get readings that are more accurate.

Connect the probe leads in the correct location.

Get in the habit of always using the red probe for the positive lead and the black probe for the negative lead. Doing so will remove any doubt when monitoring values on the meter display.

Always select a good ground point.

Select a ground point that is clean and free of dirt, oil and corrosion. The ground point is the reference or "zero volt point" the meter uses to calculate voltage.

Select the proper resistance setting.

Many meters have resistance settings in which to select. These settings usually range from 200 ohms up to 20,00M ohms. Always select the valve that is the next step up from your resistance measurement. For instance, you are going to measure a 10k (or 10,000 ohm) resistor, you must set the meter on the 20k setting. Setting the meter to a higher setting is okay but the displayed value won't be as accurate as on the lower scale. If the meter is set to a lower value, it will display an error message.

Use one hand to troubleshoot an active circuit.

When troubleshooting an active or powered circuit, try to use only one hand. Remove the normal black probe from the meter and use one with an alligator clip. Clip the black probe to the ground reference point. Use a free hand and the red probe to probe through the circuit, doing this will avoid accidentally shorting out a circuit with the probes or with your hands.