Hello, I received a new EEDM525E Snapon multimeter today in the mail. Though this is a auto-range meter, it does have a manual range feature. My question is, If I were to set this meter in Manual Range Mode, then measured beyond the manual range that it was set to--if the meter OL'd/attempted to read out of range in manual mode, would this scenario potentially damage the meter? I can't find anything in the instruction booklet mentioning anything about it.
Thanks for help in advance.

 

Hello, I received a new EEDM525E Snapon multimeter today in the mail. Though this is a auto-range meter, it does have a manual range feature. My question is, If I were to set this meter in Manual Range Mode, then measured beyond the manual range that it was set to--if the meter OL'd/attempted to read out of range in manual mode, would this scenario potentially damage the meter? I can't find anything in the instruction booklet mentioning anything about it.
Thanks for help in advance.

Should've mentioned this in my last post, but to clarify, I'm strictly speaking in measuring DCV manual range mode on this auto-range meter.

 

It won't damage the meter. Unless you measure a voltage or current beyond for which the meter is designed to measure.

 

Should've mentioned this in my last post, but to clarify, I'm strictly speaking in measuring DCV manual range mode on this auto-range meter.

Autoranging meters take a fraction of a second to find the right range so there is a delay in seeing the voltage. To eliminate the delay, switching to the manual range is much faster to get updates and see the actual voltage - especially useful when connecting to probes frequently or for voltages that change through several voltage scales of the meter.

 

What I'll say, is that it's time dependent. If you apply 1000 V to the 300 mV scale for an hour, it;s likely the meter would be damaged. 40 v to a 10 V range for a few seconds, I doubt it. In my case the 300 mV range is manual range only.

The attenuator for voltage measurements has a certain power rating or time temperature profile. The amount of overload and how long it is allowed to persist is the issue. It's not easy to quantify.

Current measurement may be protected by a fuse and might not be. For instance I have Fluke 77 and the 10 A range is unfused and it has a time limit associated with it. The lower ranges don't.

line voltage applied in ohms mode is a problem. I think there is a Fluke meter that protects against it,

Manual range is useful to take measurements faster as was described. It also makes the bar display readable with a changing signal.

Ohms is not going to get damaged unless there is potential, so measuring Voltage before ohms makes a lot of sense to do.