Help with Electrical Measurements

[Rookie2]

I think I found something that can help, you have an LX450 with the stock CD changer as do I, when mine was cycling it was reading 0.35 amps (350mA), you said you got 3.6 on the 200ma range, assuming our CD changers take about the same current and one woudl not take 10 times as much as the other it looks like the 200 mA range displays in deci-amps, so therfore 3.6 tenths of an amp = .36A = 360 mA

"When I first touch the leads (multimeter on the 200mA setting) it starts around 00.3 and settles to 00.1."

so if I am right .1 deci-amps must be .01 amps or 10 miliamps.

10 miliamps is about 10ma lower than what CPG has been seeing in Toyota vehicles but I think both my and your meter are at the very bottom of their sensitivity.

RT, I think you are right..., and I'm out of fuses. That's why the damn fuses keep blowing. What I thought was measuring 3.5 mA was actually 350 mA (ie blowing these 315mA fuses). The way I was getting these readings earlier, is for some reason one of these fuses wasn't blowing under the 350 to 380 mA load (... can a 315 mA fuse do that??). Well I finished that one off when I went back out to double check my readings the other day and forgot to pull the fuse to my aftermarket amp. I've blown two fuses since as the CD changer starts to cycle.

Anyways, I switched over to the 10A unfused setting (0.00 which I'm pretty sure reads in amps) and it reads 0.35 (AKA 350 mA) as the CD player cycles, and then goes down to 0.01 (AKA 10 mA).

Is it just me, or does my multimeter make no damn sense? I've got one setting that says 200 m that reads in deciAmperes (the other setting is 20 m and appears to read in amps), but the fuse is only rated for 315 mA. IOW a reading of 03.5 (or 0.35 on the 20 m setting) blows the BITCH!

Thanks again for the help,
Rookie2

 

[cpg]

"Is it just me, or does my multimeter make no damn sense? I've got one setting that says 200 m that reads in deciAmperes (the other setting is 20 m and appears to read in amps), but the fuse is only rated for 315 mA. IOW a reading of 03.5 (or 0.35 on the 20 m setting) blows the BITCH! "

the 200 m should be used for a max of 200 ma and the 20 ma setting should be used for a max of 20 ma.

How many digits on your mm and where is the decimal place on the 200m 20m and 10a setting?

Raven

I just got the new battery it is at 12.86 old one is now at 11.95.
I just checked the back up orbital and it is at 13.00 ( been sitting for more than a week!)
Will post what happens with this one.

 

[RavenTai]

"Is it just me, or does my multimeter make no damn sense? I've got one setting that says 200 m that reads in deciAmperes (the other setting is 20 m and appears to read in amps), but the fuse is only rated for 315 mA. IOW a reading of 03.5 (or 0.35 on the 20 m setting) blows the BITCH! "

the 200 m should be used for a max of 200 ma and the 20 ma setting should be used for a max of 20 ma.

How many digits on your mm and where is the decimal place on the 200m 20m and 10a setting?

Raven

I just got the new battery it is at 12.86 old one is now at 11.95.
I just checked the back up orbital and it is at 13.00 ( been sitting for more than a week!)
Will post what happens with this one.

Down to 11.95? that thing defiantly has an internal short.

Was the original damaged in any way (dented corners etc?) or did id die on its own? the first two I got it looked like UPS rolled them from NC to GA, concord sent out two more, the original damaged and leaking ones are in the garage waiting to get recycled and still had reasonable voltage last time I checked at a year or more old. the better of the two saw service in the temp gauge mod.

Kind of curious as these batteries have an excellent reputation in other markets (RV and marine) but not much experience in this application,

I think there are three of us that have them. One out of a handful of batteries one bad is not a good track record but not a good sample size either, I have hopes of good long life out of these.

How is concord treating you?
covering everything?

 

[cpg]

They dont believe it is a bad battery , must not have many bad ones . They say i must have something draining the battery. After disconnecting the battery and it still droping voltage they sent a new one out. They will test at the factory the old.

Installed the new one
in the car installed it is sitting at 12.88 now in the car. The old one in the box now reads a even 12.00 maybe moving it changed the voltage? Car fired up charging at 14.6 volts for 7 minutes drops to 14.4 then at 10 minutes was charging at 14.3.
Turned car off battery at 13.3 turn on highbeams for about 1 minute battery is resting at 12.9 . (Note with the Hellroaring dual batt set up the the combiner light will not go out until the voltage drops below 12.8 or so. I have it turned off fo now) I will test in the morning my 23 milla amp draw should not make this battery drop to 12.6.

 

[RavenTai]

I will test in the morning my 23 milla amp draw should not make this battery drop to 12.6.

agreed

 

[Rookie2]

How many digits on your mm and where is the decimal place on the 200m 20m and 10a setting?

on the 200m setting the display reads 00.0, 20 m 0.00 and 10A 0.00.

Glad you've got your problem figured out cpg. I figured the worst thing that could happen if I got involved in this thread is I might learn something and I have. So appreciate you being patient and letting me tag along.


Rookie2

 

[cpg]

Raven the original was not damaged at all.
This morning the battery was sitting at 12.86 after being connected all night.
Looks like it was a bad battery.

 

[rockclmbr]

CPG and I checked my 80 over the weekend. Aparently my aftermarket alarm spikes so high that I blow the multimeter 500mA fuse everytime I hook it up.

Once I disconnected the alarm, the amps spiked to 250mA and then dropped to 30mA within 10 seconds.

I don't have any concerns on my wiring system as I have run the Engel for 4 days without driving the car and it still started up just fine.

 

[RavenTai]

one trick for avoiding the initial hook up spikes in amperage is to hook up the meter on either side of where you disconnect before you disconnect it, I am trying to remember how the stock cables were arranged and how this would be done with them, might not be as easy,

my meter is fused at 10A but on the other hand it does not read the low milliamps very well either.