Limitations and Potential of an Analogue Multimeter for Batteries and Sub-ohm Vaping?

[Vaya]

Hey fellow vapers A general question....

i bought an an analogue multimeter the other day, hoping to use it to measure the resistance of my builds on my iHybrid Pure & F3cta. Although I'm not totally sure if this thing can measure sub ohms accurately, I figured I could also use it to test the health of my batteries. This is when I came to the realization that I have no idea what I'm doing, even with the instruction manual!

two questions remain:

A.) For measuring battery voltage, where specifically do I set the dial on the multimeter (pictured below)? Once I get a reading, which line in the analogue display am I reading from?

B.) Is this thing capable of measuring sub-ohms, or even 1-2 ohms? If so, the same questions as above apply.

in advance - THANK YOU!!

 

[Ryedan]

It's been a while since I've used one of these, let's see if I still remember.

You've got the leads correctly attached.

A.) Voltage. The battery will be 4.2v max so that has to be in the range you chose. I would try the green 9V at the bottom where it says 'BAT'. Find 'BAT' where the needle is and use the 0-10 scale right above the red and green BAT arc.

B.) Ohms. I don't know how good this meter is so you'll just have to try it, you can't hurt anything. Set to ohms 'X10'. Touch the probes together tight and wait for the needle to settle down. Using the wheel on the left side where it says '0ohmADJ' make the reading zero. I would try it first with a known atty and read the green ohms scale at the top.

With all your readings you'll have to be careful that your eyes are right in front of the scale, not to one side or the other, or parallax will cause inaccuracy.

Hope this makes sense. Let us know how you make out.

 

[bussdriver]

To be honest. the meter would work fine for measuring batteries, but will be almost useless for measuring ohms (at least the values used in vaping).

Rotate the knob clockwise from the off position to get to the volts area. It is marked by V with straight lines. (V with the wavy line is AC, and not used in vaping). Set the knob to point to the '10' volt scale This means you can measure as high as 10 volts. The reading is on the top black scale, marked V.ma. (NEVER apply more voltage than the meter is set to. It will forcefully peg and damage the meter pointer, ie, don't measure your 4.2 volt battery on the 2.5 volt scale.)

The problem is the ohms scale. You have a choice of x10, which means the number on the meter chart is multiplied by ten, and x1K, which means multiply the reading by 1000. If you look at the ohms scale, you will see that the smallest division shown is 0.2. On the x10 scale, that means the smallest discernible ohms reading will be 0.2 x 10, or 2 ohms. Therefore, the resolution of the meter will not allow you to measure sub-ohms with any accuracy at all; even normal coils would be difficult or impossible to measure.

 

[Ryedan]

The problem is the ohms scale. You have a choice of x10, which means the number on the meter chart is multiplied by ten, and x1K, which means multiply the reading by 1000. If you look at the ohms scale, you will see that the smallest division shown is 0.2. On the x10 scale, that means the smallest discernible ohms reading will be 0.2 x 10, or 2 ohms.

I thought I had missed something

 

[Vaya]

Ok; you both helped me a LOT; thank you!

So both descriptions of measuring the battery worked. As in, the reading ended up being at the same marking. Following Ryedan's advice, the measurement on the fully charged 18500 was 4.2 V; following bussdriver's advice, the reading was at the same location but, following the v.ma scale it was 105, 22 or 4.2 (I'm assuming this one is correct).

As far as ohms go. I calibrated the meter with the leads and tried it out; on a genesis style atty, with how it Vapes I feel it's at about 0.6ohms. However, even at x1000, the meter failed to move past the very lowest value (0.2), which obviously doesn't make sense and is therefore not dependable. Two further questions:

1.) Am I measuring it correctly? The negative lead I placed on the head of the negative screw, and the positive lead, on the head of the positive screw with triple-twisted 30g wire between them around a 35mm long piece of oxidized 400 SS mesh.

2.) can you recommend a meter more suited to my Vaping needs?

Thank you once more for your help.

~ Vaya

 

[johnny madman]

when buying any meter it is important to understand the +/- error ratio. For such things as sub ohm a + or - 5 % range is too large to get an accurate reading.

The meter you should get is a 10 buck Eleaf one for your ohm readings. I have a very good Fluke that I use for everything, will not give me a good reading on small resistance it is almost useless even though it is one of the best meters you can buy for electrical use in general, so don't feel bad about not having a meter that does not do the job, the meter in question was never meant for such small readings anyhow.

Eleaf Ohm Meter Voltmeter Ohmmeter RBA RDA Rebuildable Atomizer 2 in 1 for Vape | eBay

Most regulated mods come with meters in them, if you have such mods you can use them to check the readings and save yourself the meter.

 

[Ryedan]

As far as ohms go. I calibrated the meter with the leads and tried it out; on a genesis style atty, with how it Vapes I feel it's at about 0.6ohms. However, even at x1000, the meter failed to move past the very lowest value (0.2), which obviously doesn't make sense and is therefore not dependable.

With the switch at X1000, the '1' on the scale is 1,000. At 'X10', the one is 10. You're right, it's not going to work no matter what you do with it.

As far as ohms go

2.) can you recommend a meter more suited to my Vaping needs?

Since you already have this meter and it's working well for you for battery voltage I would keep it and buy one of the 'black box' style ohm meters like johnny madman suggests. There are a bunch of them out there ranging form $10 to $20. These are the easiest and most consistent to use for atty resistance readings.

 

[Vaya]

I actually have one of those, have had it for a while, but I can't stick my genesis-style attys on that which is why I bought this multimeter.