Cheap AC clamp meter reading DC current?

[Clarkdale44]

Pretty s

Hi,

Yeah i had a battery that was combobulating and using the discombobulation switch on the charger cleared it right up

Congrats to Clarkdale for success with the second test.
I could not find any good data on the meter except that the frequency response is 50 to 60Hz, which of course means AC.

If you have the 200 amp AC model a trick to get it to read like the 20 amp model is to use a small coil of 10 turns of the wire or if testing AC appliances make up a plug in adapter with a coil with 10 turns of wire and clamp those ten turns all at once. The meter will read approximately 200 amps for a 20 amp real life AC current.

Yeah my meter has two ranges, 200A and 1000A.
Pretty sweet trick... Gladly it works great. Now i can read the current draw even on small appliances. Thanks

 

[Tony Stewart]

Greetings MrAl,
I agree wrapping one current carrying conductor many times around the current sensing loop will increase sensitivity by n loops,

but not improve accuracy of DC average the OP wants to measure.

It will still measure peak AC and scale down to 70% of peak thinking all inputs are 50/60Hz sine waves.

I would use a DC Ammeter or Kelvin shunt and mV meter

The meter is good however for incircuit current measurements , where you do not want to interupt the AC circuit wiring with an ammeter.

You may be able to correlate DC current with AC peaks if you know the ESR of the battery and load, but not predictable without better tools.

 

[MrAl]

Greetings MrAl,
I agree wrapping one current carrying conductor many times around the current sensing loop will increase sensitivity by n loops,

but not improve accuracy of DC average the OP wants to measure.

It will still measure peak AC and scale down to 70% of peak thinking all inputs are 50/60Hz sine waves.

I would use a DC Ammeter or Kelvin shunt and mV meter

The meter is good however for incircuit current measurements , where you do not want to interupt the AC circuit wiring with an ammeter.

You may be able to correlate DC current with AC peaks if you know the ESR of the battery and load, but not predictable without better tools.

Hi,

Who said it increases accuracy, and who said DC?

QUOTE from post 17:
If you have the 200 amp AC model a trick to get it to read like the 20 amp model is to use a small coil of 10 turns of the wire or if testing AC appliances make up a plug in adapter with a coil with 10 turns of wire and clamp those ten turns all at once. The meter will read approximately 200 amps for a 20 amp real life AC current.

Disagree as much as you like the above is still true and works fine for the most part

 

[Tony Stewart]

As I understood the original question it was concerning accuracy of a DC charger using an AC current meter, where charger current went down as the load current went up.

I am not disagreeing with your experience on a different application.

 

[MrAl]

As I understood the original question it was concerning accuracy of a DC charger using an AC current meter, where charger current went down as the load current went up.

I am not disagreeing with your experience on a different application.

Hello,

Yes but the intent of the statement was for a side issue, a side fact, not a direct response to the accuracy.
Disagreeing means you MUST see every statement as pertaining ONLY to the original question, and no room for side facts that may also help the individual. So if i say, "The sun is bright today", you'd have to disagree because it does not help improve the accuracy of the DC reading

By stating that the extra turns helps the AC readings for low current levels, that helps with other measurements that might be made by the same individual. The intent was to help get better readings for a cheap AC clamp meter similar to a more expensive one. That should help in situations where the current level is lower to begin with.

 

[Tony Stewart]

I agree , It could have been my phat fingers on iPad,, Just spent an hr. on the phone with Apple support in NM and an update corrected a SAFARI glitch I was having. I actually don't even remember clicking on disagree. sorry

as for the OP. use a DC ammeter and use this free meter for AC equipment.

 

[MrAl]

I agree , It could have been my phat fingers on iPad,, Just spent an hr. on the phone with Apple support in NM and an update corrected a SAFARI glitch I was having. I actually don't even remember clicking on disagree. sorry

as for the OP. use a DC ammeter and use this free meter for AC equipment.

Hi again,

Oh sorry to hear about that, i know that can be a pain when an update screws up the system. I hear this from people all the time too. I have to wonder who the heck is behind these updates sometimes. I dont use any Apple products but MS can be a big pain too, as you probably already know

I will also have to try to remember to type something like "Side issue or fact:" when my additional text is about something other than the direct response to a question.

In any case thanks for letting me know.

 

[schmitt trigger]

A little humor here.....

I believe that smart battery chargers must be wifi enabled and have at least on social network app installed, such that the individual cells can communicate their staus among each other:

Cell 1: What a wild load we had last night! Lots of current surges! I am exhausted and need a good recharge.
Cell 5: Not me. My voltage is currently 2.175 volts, I hold a charge of exactly 17.35 Amp-hr at 24.7 degree Celsius.
Cell 3: Naaah, cell 5. You are always boasting your voltage!
Cell 7: Hey guys! I got some gossip! Did you know that cell 9 actually went negative last night?
Cell 1: No kidding..........I'm the closest cell to ground, and know this is actually true.
Cell 2: I figure that one of these days, cell 9 is going to short out.
Cell 8: I got a good joke! Do you know that there are 10 types of cells? Those who understand binary and those who don't?
Cell 3: Good one!
Cell 10: I don't get it......................