Shopsmith Forums

Ed in Tampa wrote:You under estimate CE's we usually knew what caused the problem, lousy engineering.

Or previous easter egging!:D:D;)


You mis judge me! I have great respect for CEs.

It appears I was not the only one to not notice the clearly displayed notice that multiple selections were possible.

JPG40504 wrote:It appears I was not the only one to not notice the clearly displayed notice that multiple selections were possible.

Nor was I...

This is really not surprising as it has happened several times in the past. What else is often over looked is that an individual response may be identified with the responder name. This is the case in this poll. I mention this because sometimes you may not want the world to know what you are about to post. If that be the case, don't post to the poll.

If you are unaware of this, you might want to check it out. Note that on the poll result page (the page with the horizontal bar graph), there are underlined numbers on the far right side. Click on that number to see the list of responders for each of the questions in the poll.

If any of this alarms you, I would challenge you to think twice about responding to any computer generated poll or questionnaire. A very large amount of data can be gathered in this way without the respondent even being aware. If you get any political questionnaires, and I am sure you do if you are registered to vote anywhere, read the questions very carefully (scrutinize the questions). Note that some questions are asked, in different formats, more than once. Your responses are being cross checked to determine consistency of thought.

lightnin wrote: I doubt I'll ever repair another TV or
Pac-Man.

I was just starting to learn to do "simple" TV repairs when such things went away...


.

saminmn wrote:I own a multi meter, but have no idea of how to use it even for simple tasks. I have used it with someone on the phone telling me what to do and to do continuity checks. Its primary function is to be there if someone helping me with something finds that they need a volt meter.

I have a current problem, and I would hand it off to a service person, if the RV repair place inspired more confidence. In our pop-up camper there is one outlet that has a ground fault detection outlet. Some outlet must be mis-wired as unpluging items sometimes trips the breaker. I need to isolate the problem to better describe.

Quick and dirty guide to basic things anyone can do with a multimeter:
-Continuity check is true/false, usually a beep for true and silence for false. Is this wire end connected to this other wire end? Is this wire grounding through the frame? Is this wire cut?
-Resistance check. Without explaining electrical theory and oversimplifying things, a damaged or corroded (or overloaded and overheated) wire has higher resistance and won't conduct as intended. Healthy range is up to 1ohm.
-Voltage check. Check that all the cells in your battery are operational. With the vehicle off you should see something like 12.1v, and running should be ~13.2v. Don't quote me on those numbers but they are directionally correct.

I also use mine a lot to check the wattage produced by the alternator at various rpm's on motorcycles and ATV's. Lets me know how much power I have available for lights or accessories without robbing the battery.

frank81 wrote:Quick and dirty guide to basic things anyone can do with a multimeter:
-Continuity check is true/false, usually a beep for true and silence for false. Is this wire end connected to this other wire end? Is this wire grounding through the frame? Is this wire cut?
-Resistance check. Without explaining electrical theory and oversimplifying things, a damaged or corroded (or overloaded and overheated) wire has higher resistance and won't conduct as intended. Healthy range is up to 1ohm.
-Voltage check. Check that all the cells in your battery are operational. With the vehicle off you should see something like 12.1v, and running should be ~13.2v. Don't quote me on those numbers but they are directionally correct.

I also use mine a lot to check the wattage produced by the alternator at various rpm's on motorcycles and ATV's. Lets me know how much power I have available for lights or accessories without robbing the battery.

You gots a multimeter that measures Watts?:rolleyes:

JPG40504 wrote:You gots a multimeter that measures Watts?:rolleyes:

If you know the volts and amps, you gets watts.

steve

skou wrote:If you know the volts and amps, you gets watts.

steve

I just can't resist jumping in here and being a smart-alec b4 JPG does!

If you know volts and amps, then strictly speaking, you know volt-amps. Which are related to Watts by phase shift in the simple case, or by power factor when harmonics are significant.

For induction motors, and coincidentally for rectified DC power supplies, the power factor is typically around 0.6 to 0.7. This means that the actual power supplied by the electric company is only 60% to 70% of the volt-amps that your meter will show.

Instruments that measure true power cost a bit more than your garden-variety DVM or multimeter. But unless you are in charge of the power budget of a decent-sized factory, the difference is of small concern.

Knowing Volts and Amps yields Watts ONLY if a DC circuit.

A true Wattmeter is a four terminal device which simultaneously measures Volts and Amps, and historically used a thermocouple device to indicate Watts.

Add to that the typical Multimeter has a average responding analog meter movement. Digital meters are lord only knows what.

Like that other quick responding smart alec said(sorta), do not confuse DC rules with AC rules.

Also only pure resistance follows those DC rules.

A multimeter is a DC device. It may 'measure' AC stuff, but converts it to DC then measures the 'result'.