Hi
I am new to electronics. I would like to know if it is possible to find out if a battery is working or dead using just a multimeter? If yes, then how can we do that?

One more question, for someone has to start microcontroller projects, what is the best way to start?

Thanks

 

Do some research yourself. You won't get a lot of responces to questions like this because even a few minutes of research using Google, or Wikipedia will give you the answers.

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Yes a multimeter will tell you if a battery is dead or not but not necessarily how much capacity is left. Some battery types like nickle cadmium have a very quick drop off when nearing their end of capacity, where others like lead acid have a near linear drop off of terminal voltage Vs remaining capacity.

Also measuring the battery voltage while it is actually supplying the load is more reliable then reading the battery voltage while disconnected.

2nd Q, there are many many ways to get started but you will have to supply more information to get a useful suggestion. What software language do you wish to use? How much money are you willing for an inital investment? What type of applications or problems do you wish to work on?, etc, etc, etc..

Lefty

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Measurement changes behavior

 

Thank u.
Information was helpful.

I want to use BASIC and not spend a lot of money (budget is somewhere around $100-$200). I want to first build a basic microcontroller development kit for my future projects.

 

I searched the internet for the multimeter usage, couldn't get an answer for this specific question.

 

The AVR Dragon programming board is about 52 dollars from Digikey, but it does require a minimum of soldering header connectors onto the board. You can fill out the rest of your 100-200 dollar budget on AVR chips and discrete components and breadboards for real circuits. You can program AVR's with SRAM using basic C or ASM. I'd highly discourge using Basic as it's great for getting quick results for very basic situations but will not hold out for anything more complex.

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Well if wanting the smallest investment and using Basic, Picaxe is something you should check out. You could spend well under $100 to get started. The PC based BASIC programmer/editor software is free. I'm having a lot of fun with my Picaxe chips.

http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/

Lefty

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Measurement changes behavior

 

Or program your own PICs with the PICBASIC compiler $99
http://www.melabs.com/products/pbc.htm

That plus a good PIC programmer like a PICkit 2 or my Junebug

Much faster and more flexible then a BASIC Stamp or PICAXE with a interpreter.

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Bill
Smart Kits build Smart People
http://www.blueroomelectronics.com/