Powering a Fluke multimeter from a Constant Power Supply
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Posted by TheRain on August 25, 2008, 12:56 pm
Please log in for more thread options Hi, I work for a software company and recently we have had to start doing some electronics testing in relation to our software. The problem we are running into is that we have these mid-grade (~ $500) multimeters run out of batteries before the hardware we are testing does, and the test we are running is to benchmark current draw over the life of the battery. The multimeters run on 6 AA batteries in series which should be about 9V if each one is 1.5V. When we connect our Constant power supply to it's battery terminals and try to run it with 9V, the meter does not turn on. I've tried overpowering it a little by running 10V but this also did not work. Our CPS is 3A so that should not be the problem. I'm wondering, what could cause this? Is there a solution for it? Any thoughts or advice would be very helpful! Thanks, Collin | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Tom Biasi on August 25, 2008, 1:34 pm
Please log in for more thread options A $500 dollar multi meter usually has an external power provision. If your unit is truly 9 volts and you are supplying 9 volts with enough current I can only guess that you are not connecting it properly. Make sure the supply is not going into current limiting. Tom | |||||||||||||
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Posted by TheRain on August 25, 2008, 2:06 pm
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This meter doesn't seem to have any available accessories to run from anything but it's batteries. Current limiting is something I thought of this morning and seems like a possibility. I think that in all cases we had the power supply making all 3A available. I'm fairly certain we are connecting it properly. Plus and minus are clearly marked on the battery pack and we lined these up to the contacts multiple times to make sure we were tapping the right ones. Thanks for your help, thoughts and suggestions! | |||||||||||||
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Posted by John Larkin on August 25, 2008, 8:26 pm
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On Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:34:44 -0400, "Tom Biasi" >
>> Hi,
>> >> I work for a software company and recently we have had to start doing >> some electronics testing in relation to our software. >> >> The problem we are running into is that we have these mid-grade (~ >> $500) multimeters run out of batteries before the hardware we are >> testing does, and the test we are running is to benchmark current draw >> over the life of the battery. The multimeters run on 6 AA batteries >> in series which should be about 9V if each one is 1.5V. When we >> connect our Constant power supply to it's battery terminals and try to >> run it with 9V, the meter does not turn on. I've tried overpowering >> it a little by running 10V but this also did not work. Our CPS is 3A >> so that should not be the problem. >> >> I'm wondering, what could cause this? Is there a solution for it? >> >> Any thoughts or advice would be very helpful! >> >> Thanks, >> >> Collin >
>A $500 dollar multi meter usually has an external power provision. If your >unit is truly 9 volts and you are supplying 9 volts with enough current I >can only guess that you are not connecting it properly. Make sure the supply >is not going into current limiting. > >Tom > In some dvm's, the battery must be truly floating. If your supply is grounded, and the voltmeter input low side is grounded, bad stuff may happen. Try a floating wall-wart and see if that's any different. John | |||||||||||||
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Posted by John Fields on August 25, 2008, 2:03 pm
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On Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:56:51 -0700 (PDT), TheRain >Hi,
> >I work for a software company and recently we have had to start doing >some electronics testing in relation to our software. > >The problem we are running into is that we have these mid-grade (~ >$500) multimeters run out of batteries before the hardware we are >testing does, and the test we are running is to benchmark current draw >over the life of the battery. The multimeters run on 6 AA batteries >in series which should be about 9V if each one is 1.5V. When we >connect our Constant power supply to it's battery terminals and try to >run it with 9V, the meter does not turn on. I've tried overpowering >it a little by running 10V but this also did not work. Our CPS is 3A >so that should not be the problem. > >I'm wondering, what could cause this? Is there a solution for it? > >Any thoughts or advice would be very helpful! --- What do you mean by "Constant power supply"? JF | |||||||||||||
>
> I work for a software company and recently we have had to start doing
> some electronics testing in relation to our software.
>
> The problem we are running into is that we have these mid-grade (~
> $500) multimeters run out of batteries before the hardware we are
> testing does, and the test we are running is to benchmark current draw
> over the life of the battery. The multimeters run on 6 AA batteries
> in series which should be about 9V if each one is 1.5V. When we
> connect our Constant power supply to it's battery terminals and try to
> run it with 9V, the meter does not turn on. I've tried overpowering
> it a little by running 10V but this also did not work. Our CPS is 3A
> so that should not be the problem.
>
> I'm wondering, what could cause this? Is there a solution for it?
>
> Any thoughts or advice would be very helpful!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Collin