How to Use a Clamp AC Meter
How to Use a Clamp AC Meter
A clamp ac meter provides an easy-to-use way of quickly measuring the alternating current (AC) voltage and current through a single wire or conductor. Clamp AC meters have a set of jaws that open and close with the simple push of a button. Once the wire is inside the jaws, the meter uses the electromagnetic fields generated by the flow of AC current to make current and frequency measurements. One drawback of the clamp AC meter is that you can have only one wire passing through the jaws for accurate measurements. If there is more than one, the electromagnetic fields tend to cancel out each other.
Make sure there are no exposed wires when measuring voltage and current in a wire. Wires should be insulated for safety. The insulation will have no effect on the measurements.
Set the function knob for the type of measurement you want to make, typically frequency or current if you re using the clamp feature, and the range. Most household AC circuits use 120 volts alternating current. If you want to measure voltage, you have to use the probes. Other higher-end clamp meter models have function settings to measure capacitance and resistance.
Press the jaw trigger to open the jaws, position the wire in the middle of the jaws and release the trigger if you want to measure current or frequency. If you re measuring voltage, connect one probe to the positive terminal or wire and the other probe to the negative terminal or wire.
Read the voltage, frequency or current on the display. Voltage measurements are given in volts, current measurements in amperes--or amps, for short--and frequency measurements in hertz. Most household circuits operate on 60 hz.
Write down your measurement with a pen in a notebook. This will help you to remember measurements, and you can compare them with measurements taken at a later date.
Press the jaw trigger, and remove the meter or remove the meter probes. Turn the meter off. http://www.jyins.com/