Multimeter Problems

[HaGGardSmurf]

Hey guys, I am no electrician by any means, but I'm going to be adding a little pc fan to a project ive been working on. So I dug around and found an old multimeter, and examined the pcb and found a positive and negative lead that powered something I no longer need, and had snipped it. I want to test it so I can find out what voltage fan to buy.

So I checked the power adapter to check if its ac or dc and what voltage is going in to it. It said the output is 9v = 1.5a

Here's the multimeter I'm using:

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and here is the scale on it:

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So I set the multimeter to dc 15, test and the needle fly's to the max, so I set it to 150 dc, and test and this is what I get:

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Just for kicks I set it to 1000 and this is my reading:

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I'm not quite sure how to read it but I'm thinking its 4v? I tried to measure the amps so I set it to 150ma DC and got no reading, then if I took it off, the needle would go up a bit then back down.

Any ideas?

[CoFree]

if im looking at it right
i would say your are right
its reading 4volts

[HaGGardSmurf]

Im going to take it to a friend of mine's house tomorrow afternoon, he's an electrician, he should know what its saying.

I should really invest in a digital meter or at least learn to read this one.

[tonyuk73]

im sure its 40 v D.c but that can not be right for the max voltage the power pack says 9v but there again its got to be more than 15 v dc because its shooting of the scale when set to 15 v dc on the meter.....and advise on finding current you can only get what amps its pulling if there is a load on the circuit,and you put it in as a bypass through the + side ( live )and at 150mA thats not much to make your meter to go pop if its not got a fused lead.the best way to get a bearing with a meter is put a new 1.5 v batt on it.

[HaGGardSmurf]

I think I ended up breaking that meter, I was tinkering with it, and the lead's and it ended up not working. I think I may have broken a lead, so I went out and bought a digital multimeter, I tested the points again with the new meter and was getting much different readings.

I ended up scrapping the project, I dont really need the fan anymore.

[tonyuk73]

I think I ended up breaking that meter, I was tinkering with it, and the lead's and it ended up not working. I think I may have broken a lead, so I went out and bought a digital multimeter, I tested the points again with the new meter and was getting much different readings.

I ended up scrapping the project, I dont really need the fan anymore.

glad you are all sorted even more you got a real meter.it had me and my boss thinking what the hell was going on with the scale on the darn thing( we are both are sparks).

[HaGGardSmurf]

haha yea I have no idea what was happening, I chucked that meter.

My new one is a delight to use. It's got voice playback, so if you hit the button (on the pos lead) it will read out whatever your measuring. It's got lighted lead's, so you can see what your touching, and it automatically changes the scale when you measure things.

Glad my old meter broke so I had to go buy this new one