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Multimeter dead on arrival?

vinceverc

Hello, a week ago I decided to buy a multimeter from a known brand. Prior to that i just used a cheap chinese one. But i never felt really safe when meassureing voltages around 230 volts, knowing that it might blow up, or electrocute me.

So i bought the fluke t5-600. Now when I wanted to test it I noticed something. The voltage meter works ok. But the continutity says 1 when i touch the leads, shouldn't it say zero?
And when I wanted to test the current jaw (the thing you meassure current with without actually exposing the test leads to the wire) I saw that I just stayed at 0.01. When I turn the deivce on (on the amp settings) For a split second I see it saying 0.0 But after that it just says 0.1 Amps. And when i insert a wire between the jaws (which I know current flows through) it stays at that. For example, I put my wire coming from mais to my computer PSU between the jaws and it stayed at 0.1 when i tested it with a lamp, exact the same result. Am I doing something wrong, or could it be broken?

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    Hi Vincent,

     

    Unless you're qualified, it isn't good to probe around mains voltages. That type of multimeter is for electricians, who deal with AC mains. A value of 1 is likely acceptable for resistance measurement; it means 1 ohm, and that may be within spec, you'd need to check the multimeter datasheet.

     

    Similarly 0.01 may be within spec for a current measurement when there is no current.

    For current measurements, your computer PSU cable won't work, it needs to be a single conductor that is fitted inside the jaws. The computer PSU cable has (at least) two conductors.

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  • 0

    Hi Vincent,

     

    Unless you're qualified, it isn't good to probe around mains voltages. That type of multimeter is for electricians, who deal with AC mains. A value of 1 is likely acceptable for resistance measurement; it means 1 ohm, and that may be within spec, you'd need to check the multimeter datasheet.

     

    Similarly 0.01 may be within spec for a current measurement when there is no current.

    For current measurements, your computer PSU cable won't work, it needs to be a single conductor that is fitted inside the jaws. The computer PSU cable has (at least) two conductors.

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