Measurement categories for electrical measurement equipment such as multimeters.

CAT I equipment is not suitable for connection to the mains supply, CAT II and above is, but the distance from the energy source is important, with CAT IV being nearest to the energy source such as where power enters a building.

Dave demonstrates why gold plated multimeter probes matter, and why you should be using them for all your electronics measurements.
NOTE: Many people didn’t understand the point of this video. It’s about oxidisation of contacts, gold basically doesn’t do this, other probes can.
Also gold probes are not necessarily recommended for regular high current, high power electrical use, that’s what I mean by an “electronics use”, as opposed to “electrical” use which is why Fluke for example don’t offer gold plated leads.

Mavromatic reviews a few Digital Multimeter (DMM) probes. The TL-910 from Fluke, the 34138 from Agilent (comes with Agilent 34461A Bench Multimeter) and the 8044SK from Probe Master that are Made in America.

http://www.mavromatic.com/2014/04/probe-master-quality-dmm-probes-that-are-made-in-usa/

A Probe Master 8017s and 46″ of Belden 0905 8899 002 test lead wire is tested to destruction. Two banana jacks are attached to the Belden wire for testing. Both are swept from 2 to 20 Amps and then from 5 to 60 Amps.

After doing my $50 multimeter shootout, I started to see a pattern. Most multimeters have crappy continuity testers. (At least in the $50 range.) But the crappiness wasn’t consistent. Sometimes it seemed they responded quickly, and other times, it didn’t. This was a clue. It told me that the probes might not be giving a clean connection and causing the multimeter to appear to have a bad continuity tester. But could be crappy probes be at fault?

In this video we look at various multimeter test leads. We test unbranded leads from Aneng, and Owon, branded leads from Uni-T, Mastech, Fluke, and Probemaster. We conduct a subjective continuity test, and an objective four-wire resistance test. Watch the video for the results.

#288 Multimeter Test Lead Set Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5fZylbaGA4

How do you kill a multimeter? Well it depends on the multimeter!

Short video showing the difference in how a gas discharge tube will clamp compared with a MOV when a 5KV transient is supplied. This video does not suggest which technique is more robust. Nor does it prove or disprove if a meter that uses GDTs will survive a surge test or not.

Learn how to use a multimeter so you can start diagnosing some of those electrical system gremlins yourself!

In this quick multimeter tutorial I take you through all the functions you’d use for DC circuits using simple examples you can try yourself.

How To Use a Multimeter (For Beginners)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciyWwcKmPC4

MAGS How To Videos – How To Use a Multimeter (For Beginners)

In this video I will help teach you how use a multimeter to test volts (AC & DC), amps and ohms. I will also show you how to test for both resistance and continuity.