Inexpensive volt/ohm meter you like?

[Cary]

By the way, how about a Fluke for under $50?
Fluke DVM

[JoeH]

Cary wrote:
You have to work really hard to have problems with a car battery.

Not really. Just hookup a test instrument with an internal short across one and see what happens. Not a problem with a known working item, but as mentioned the meter being checked on might have had a problem.

[Racer X]

freeradical wrote:
[quote=Cary]
[quote=Bernie]
I would try an AA 1.5 volt over the 400 amp car battery.

Even an A/C wall socket will shake you loose but a D/C Car battery is not something I would do with a FAULTY meter.

:oldfogey:

I don't really understand this statement. An AC line voltage wall socket has the potential to kill you.

A 12v DC car battery? You can grab the leads with your bare hands standing in a puddle of water, and nothing will happen.

If you're talking about high voltage EV or hybrid batteries, or the ignition coil output, that's a different story.

Automobile batteries can provide lots of current. I knew a guy who was installing a second battery in parallel in is his VW Bug who failed to take his wedding band off. His wrench touched ground, and the inner surface of his wedding band was momentarily molten metal. He got lucky and got to keep the finger.

I used to work on comm systems with 48 volt station battery. The 4 rectifiers in parallel could supply 800 amps continuously, and 1200 amps momentarily. The cables that ran to the batteries were as big around as your wrist. A guy I worked with accidentally touched ground with a very large screwdriver (the shaft was at least as big as your pinkie finger) that was touching -48 volts. The screwdriver exploded, and the room went white with the flash. Luckily, nobody was injured or died.
I briefly fused my metal watch band between my + battery clamp and my radiator. I yanked it free, but it was stuck briefly. To this day, I have a very faint waffle-weave scar on my wrist from the intense flash heat. HOWEVER, my Casio marine digital watch kept going for another decade.

The old Sea Scout boats I worked on were ex Military, either 24v or 32 volt. 4 massive 8 volt industrial batteries, or 2 8D 12v diesel starting batteries. A thousand amp draw for a few seconds for the starter motors. Ever see a screwdriver shaft vaporize?

[Bernie]

Good Morning.

My Electrician humor caused quit a stir it did.

A DC shock is constant voltage.

DC electricity grabs and is harder to break free from than the 60 cycle AC that cycles from 120 volts to zero. Thus the joke of AC shaking you loose or free from the electricity.

Being retired I will admit to getting Zapped from time to time. DC is worse.

oapbox: