Good day, tumpang thread kejab

I haz got my first multimeter, it's uni-t that cost me 50 bucks, I just wanna know if my dumbass has fucked up the meter already, I buy this to do one thing only, to read the lamp current drawing off a compatible ballast.

Here is what I do, I just do what some utuber did anyway



I turn the dial to 6 o'clock, which says "10A", if I understand correctly it mean it would read up to 10A and anything above would blow the fuse after 10 seconds? I've tested several lamps that ranging from 0.37A to 3.25A operating current but all it does is 0.00 on the LCD, the lamp do fire up normally. Or maybe I connect the wrong way or something? Any inputs from otai sifus will be appreciated.

Yes, I did tried the mA reading but all ended up showing 0.00 on the LCD, I do use the ohm setting to check the fuses and it seems to be reading ok? It measures something then quickly drops to 0.00. This is due to the fact that I suspect I blew the fuse from improperly operating the thing, like at the mA volt position I measure something as big as 247v which resulting in OL "overloading"

It's for some old HID lamps, the highest one will draw 7A from the ballast, for some lamps I don't have the ballast designed for it anymore, so I found some that were originally designed for other lamp types but it were overdriving them very slightly and some were underdriving it which resulting in ballast overheating also not good for the lamp due to them operating on cold cathodes mode, that's only basing on the spec on the ballast. Need to get some reading to select the best option, I do however have the details for the lamp operating current and voltage.

This post has been edited by Bug Juice: Dec 2 2021, 04:08 PM

I wasn't be able to get the readings of amps draw so I gave up. Because I suspected some ballast using the wrong label to run different wattage lamps, like manufacturers trying to save cost by making one ballast for 40W fluorescent lamps, then they also put a different label on the same ballast to run 20W lamps which severely overdriving a smaller lamp, they are the same thing with different label but they don't care since it could light up both lamps but doing so will kill the lamp and overheat the ballast so much quickly.

I've tried various settings and it never went pop so I'm safe, at worst I may just trip the circuit breaker.