Continuity

[lesinutah]

Hey
I'm trying to figure out what wires go together on my old royal vacuum. I have a good multi meter. I know you place 2 wires on to check. I believe I know what setting. I'm just not sure what else.
This is my a pic of my meter I believe it's on the right setting. If anyone could explain a little further would be greatly appreciated.
Les

 

[scudo]

Hopefully someone will have better knowledge on this.
As far as I am aware if there is continuity then the meter will make a buzzing noise. If you touch the 2 probes together you will hear it to check the meter is working, then place the probes at opposite ends of the wire to be checked, it should make a buzzing noise if it has continuity.

And that just about exhausts my electrical knowledge. :-(

 

[lesinutah]

Hey

I touch the a black wire and a white wire. They come up with numbers 0 to 6 I believe close to zero is good but I'm not positive.
Les

 

[compactc9guy]

i think so ya

 

[lesinutah]

Hey

So the wires that are closer to zero go together? Madmen huskyvac?
Les

 

[huskyvacs]

I've never used a multimeter, I'm sorry I can't be of help. As much as I know you have to have it set to a certain setting, oHm's I think, and then test positive and negative terminals, or something like that. Basically whichever direction current flows. That is my assumption.

Madman might have a lot more experience than I do. That looks like a really complex model there, I've only ever seen something like that used by the furnace repairman, the ones I've seen in the store ads are bare bones basic ones with just a few settings.

 

[madman]

All multimeters function a bit differently. Some will make a noise when you have a good connection, or perhaps different noises for varyingly poorer connections. Good continuity is generally acceptable at anything less than 1 ohm. Some things, like car diagnostic instructions, will sometimes say that 2 ohms or less is acceptable. The lower the number, the less resistance, the better the connection. Higher resistance = less connectivity. (And just as an aside, remember that a higher resistance passes less current. Which can be confusing sometimes.)

It appears your meter is in the correct setting, and the test leads are in the right places, simply touch the test leads together to simulate a continuous circuit (the test leads themselves), the meter should read something like 0.1 or 0.2. Whenever I take my meter out, I do this test just to make sure the instrument and the test leads are working well.

Your meter apparently says '0.L' when there is NO connection whatsoever. Also, note on the right side of the display it says 'MΩ', which means megaohms, or million ohms. It will probably also have 'KΩ' for kilo ohms, or thousand ohms. It's important to pay attention to that part of the screen, because you may be reading 0.6, which looks like a good continuous circuit, until you realize it's in kilo ohms, and that's actually a pretty poor connection.

 

[madman]

Also, yes, if you are touching one lead to one wire and the other lead to another wire, and the meter reads less than 1 ohm, those two wires are connected... somehow.

Also also, it doesn't matter which way around you have the test leads attached to what you're checking, because continuity goes both ways... unless there's a diode, but I doubt you'll run into one.

 

[lesinutah]

Hey thanks

I just showing pic of multi metro so people understood my question.
The reviews say it's similar quality as fluke.
Thanks for info I can figure out the rest.
Les