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Date:         Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:28:19 -0800
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Subject:      Electrical Glitch causiing a dead Aux battery...more..
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"

Sony stereo draining the coach battery. Fixed by adding a secondary switch in the power lead from the extra battery. But here's the Oddball deal...

Many people gave me instructions on using my multimeter to trouble shoot stuff like current drain, etc..Well, I never could get any real readings..I could get DC volts to tell me the battery was down, AC amps to tell me my charger was on, all that kinda stuff, but no current readings no matter how I hooked up or turned dials, etc.. When you don't know squat about electrical stuff, it's hard to know if you should be getting a reading, if you have the probes right, if you are using the right 'scale' etc etc.. So I took another meter I had kicking around and actually read the instructions that I found for that meter I had there in my hand. Of course, I thought it was an old junker..But it turned out to have a dead battery and a blown fuse..which I fixed..That one gave me a good current reading (I think, it has all kinds of strange writing and numbers on the face, but at least the needle moved) Then, I tried my 'good' almost new Radio Shack idiot proof digital read-out one on the very same circuit...It didn't read anything on the DC amps scale..Nuttin! never has..I'm guessing it must have been faulty to begin with and a dummy like me, I just never knew...I thought I was doing something wrong (like trying to use that other one with a blown out fuse) So, just because something is new doesn't mean it will always work properly..I guess.. Why the hell does a multimeter even have a fuse, any how? I mean, you are trying to fix an electrical problem but you shouldn't have to trouble shoot your tool, too, should you? Me dumb! Don Hanson


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