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Measure DC Voltage

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Multimeter basics

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What happens here

To measure direct current (DC) voltage, rotate the multimeter's dial to the 'Volts' (V) setting. Press the 'Select' button until the DC symbol (a solid line with a dashed line beneath it) appears on the display. Then, touch the red probe to the positive terminal of a battery and the black probe to the negative terminal. The multimeter will display the DC voltage of the battery. For instance, a 20V cordless drill battery should read approximately 20 volts.

Goal: Measure the direct current (DC) voltage of a battery.

Tools and materials

  • Black Test Lead — Probing the negative terminal
  • Cordless Drill Battery — The source of DC voltage to be measured
  • Multimeter Klein Tools MM400 — Measuring DC voltage
  • Red Test Lead — Probing the positive terminal

What they say

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volt. If you go down to select, you can choose between AC or DC. Right now we're in AC. As you can see, we're getting 120 volts. That's your standard outlet. And now we'll do direct current for cars, batteries, stuff like that. You can see this battery reads 20 volts. Next up is hertz. And hertz measures frequency. Normal household power operates at 60 hertz. You can see that's 60 hertz. Ohms measure resistance.

Auto-generated from the video audio.