Date:         Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:42:50 -0700
Reply-To:     David Vickery <david_vickery@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Vickery <david_vickery@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Multimeter help for the idiot
In-Reply-To:  <A65497510B73418C83887F8C41A58848@MainComputer>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Yah it must be the settings you are using, or the ports you are plugged into.  Or something funky with the MM.  I've done what you're doing and it works well.  I forget what my draw was.  You can also do it for individual things, like I connected power through the MM to my LP furnace to see how many amps it was using.
http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Parasitic-Battery-Drain


--- On Fri, 10/21/11, Courtney Hook <courtneyhook@SHAW.CA> wrote:


From: Courtney Hook <courtneyhook@SHAW.CA>
Subject: Multimeter help for the idiot
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Friday, October 21, 2011, 6:03 PM


I was trying again to see if I had any current draw so did some internet sleuthing to help me figure this out. I can rebuild engines fine, tune motorcycles, etc, etc, but when it comes to multimeters I am an idiot. I think I did it right, but want some backup on this. I put my MM between the + terminal on my new battery and the + cable. I then set my RadioShack MM to the notch marked 200 DCmA which also had a solid line beside it with 3 dots under it. I then took the reading, and it said 00.0 ??? I reversed the leads and it then said -00.0   
Does that mean I have no current draw at all?? I am lost, because I have a small digital volt gauge plugged into the lighter that MUST be drawing something??
The MM reads voltage across the battery fine, at 12.74volts, so I think it's working fine. What am I doing wrong??
Courtney