Thanks. Unfortunately that's a bit over my head.

 

My expensive Fluke DMM says on its face "True RMS". Its measurements are accurate.
Your Cheap meter does not calculate the RMS voltage, instead it simply guesses.

 

As I understand it; RMS is Root Mean Squared, which refers to the usable voltage of an AC sine wave. That usable voltage (forgive me if I use the wrong terminology) is about 70% of the peak wave form (0.7071, which is the inverse of 1.414).

As for what is displayed from a reliable meter - shouldn't that reflect the RMS value when measuring AC? But I don't want to hijack this thread.

When measuring DC, WYSIWYG. Right? If 33V DC is read on the meter then I'm assuming it's seeing 33 volts. Of course when you add a load the voltage will drop because the load reacts in watts based on its resistance or reactance. When you draw current the voltage will drop. I'm fairly confident in that statement - but correct me if I'm wrong.

 

power-supply-circuits
Nothing substitutes reading to learn. This is a link to the textbook chapter on AAC.

@ThePanMan please stop trying to hijack this thread, if you have questions please start your own thread.

 

When measuring DC, WYSIWYG.

Not necessarily. The DC voltage will have ripple on it. That is also likely affecting the OP's measurement.

 

When measuring DC, WYSIWYG. Right? If 33V DC is read on the meter then I'm assuming it's seeing 33 volts. Of course when you add a load the voltage will drop because the load reacts in watts based on its resistance or reactance. When you draw current the voltage will drop. I'm fairly confident in that statement - but correct me if I'm wrong.

The voltage was taken without the cap, so the DC is only pulsed DC...so only god knows what the meter is reading.

 

@ThePanMan please stop trying to hijack this thread, if you have questions please start your own thread.

Not trying to hijack. More of a statement on my part that I don't fully know these things. My apologies if it seemed like I was trying to take over this thread.

 

....
When measuring DC, WYSIWYG. Right? If 33V DC is read on the meter then I'm assuming it's seeing 33 volts.

No, not necessarily, if your meter reads 33VDC, it depends on how much ripple the DC voltage has. Across a capacitor with no load, the 33VDC is probably correct. However, if you have 10V ripple on an overloaded DC supply, that 33VDC may be an "average" reading as seen by the meter. The peak may be in fact higher.
In most cases however, a DC voltage is usually close to the true value, as long as the supply is not overloaded.

 

I just looked at this thread again, and it is reasonable to expect that most do not own 1 12 digit DVM that is accurate.
In addition, some transformers i some cheap supplies have cheap transformers that distort the wave form and that means that an RMS reading will not be what there would be with a perfect sine wave. So there is one more source of different readings. And the copper heats quickly and the resistance changes and then all of the voltages in that cheap supply change. And the $15 meter "RMS" reading is at best an approximation of the average reading at some calibration point.
So the whole discussion has been about reading microns with an old yardstick.