This is a multimeter that tests volts, ma, and ohms. It is average size though it's cabinet is made of wood with dovetailed corners. When I disassembled it it had 3 Ray-O -Vac Pinlite batteries hard wired in it that said 15 cents each on them. On the face it says Radio Kits Co Multitester Model M3C. There is no other information avalaible.

Sure. Radio Kits Co. made a variety of test instrument kits right after WWII. Yours is a typical wood-cased multimeter of that period. When new, it sold for eight dollars. Leaving out battery clips was one way to keep the cost down, though changing the penlite cells is a pain when they are soldered in place. My info shows the company went under in 1956. With new batteries, it's still useable, though I'd be careful not to use it for measuring resistance (ohms) on modern digital electronics.

I have a 2001 VW Passat and the battery suddenly died. I have had a charger running on the battery for the last 4 hours. The charger is showing that the battery is only at 1.5 amps. Is that normal? How many amps do I have to let the charger get up to until the car will have enough juice to turn over?
It is a 6 amp charger and the battery is about 4 years old.

Battery technology gets complicated, so, here goes!

A new, fully charged battery produces 2.1 volts per cell or 12.6 volts for a 12 volt battery. You must understand what voltage and amperage mean. Voltage is a measure of electrical pressure. Amperage is the amount of current passing through a conductor. As a battery discharges - goes dead - the electrical resistance increases especially with todays maintenance-free batteries. A 6 amp charger probably will not fully charge your battery since the internal resistance of the dead battery is so high. You should slow charge the battery but I recommend a charger with an output of 10-12 amps, see if you can borrow one. With all that being said, replacing your battery is probably the best thing to do because today's cars operate at very high operating and underhood temperatures and this tends to prematurely kill batteries, especially in warmer climates such as the southern or southwest states. Further, as a battery ages, it's electrochemical action to produce electrical current to your car's electrical system is no where as good as it was fours year ago, when it was new, since the battery plates tend to shed the lead oxide over time. So, pop for a new battery, afterall, one wrecker or service call could pay for a couple of batteries for your car and unfortunately you cannot predict where you'll be when the battery dies and leaves you stranded at some strangers mercy! Good luck.

I just got a digital camera and, as we all know, these suck all the energy right out of your batteries and in a hurry! So, what batteries are best? Do they make special AA batteries specifically for high powered devices … or are rechargables best? Or … what?

NiMH rechargable batteries are the way to go. There are two types of NiMH batteries, standard and the newer low-discharge. The standard NiMH batteries that you find at the drug store have a shelf life (battery sitting on a shelf not doing anything useful) of about 2 to 3 weeks before needing to recharge them. The newer low-discharge types have a shelf life of months.

Standard NiMH batteries are fine if you use your camera a lot and find yourself recharging the batteries once per week. If you find that the camera sits around for 2 weeks doing nothing, then get the low-discharge types. Best to get two sets of batteries so you can use one set while the other set charges. Plus, you'll have a spare set when you need to shoot lots of pictures.

If you can't find low-discharge types locally, then mail order. Be sure to get a good charger. Maha is considered good.
http://thomasdistributing.com/shop/-nimh-low-discharge–aa-nimh-low-discharge-c-122_141_142.html?osCsid=7c7t6aha72ofb6tpjtg3eb9hp5

I had my alternator replaced & got a new battery w/ new terminals, had my starter tested and my car still is showing 13ish on a battery/alternator tester and drops to 12ish then jumps around between 12-13 when anything is on. It then started jumping and cutting out after I stopped, backed up, and turned today so I went to have a diagnostic ran and I then replaced the ingnition coil. It ran fine with no change in the voltage for a few hours then started to jump and cut out again. Anyone have a clue what could be going on? It's a 01 Kia Spectra.
Forgot to add this but I have new belts also .

The thought comes to mind that you may have a bad Alt gage. When you say new terminals are you talking about completely new cables? It's possible you have corrosion inside the insulator on one of the cables. I will always replace both the positive and negative cables when I replace the battery. This way I am assured a true connection between the battery and ground. Just a thought.

I am planning a 6 day camping trip, but my camera battery will only last about 1 day. I could buy 6 batteries but that would cost hundreds!

I do have a battery charger (plugs into a wall outlet)… does anyone know of a small generator or maybe a battery that gives power to an AC outlet that I could take along? It wouldn't take much power to charge my battery, I just need a way to do it from the top of a mountain.
No cars.. this is the top of a mountain!

I use a small solar panel to recharge my SLA's that I use for my backpack ham radio station.

The panel is from Volkswagen! They ship cars with a solar panel to keep the batteries alive in transit and storage. Then the dealer pulls out the panels and can sell them or return them to Volkswagen. They end up on eBay for about $15.00 each.

My mom's girlfriend gave us her old digital camera it's like 2 years nothing wrong with it, but it didn't turn on. I went and bought new batteries but it still wasn't working. The old batteries inside of it said digital camera batteries. This might sound stupid, but there is no difference between the 2 right?

digital camera batteries usually have greater power and thus last longer, but if they are AA batteries, regular AA alkaline batteries such as a duracel or energizer batter should work just fine. It may not last very long, but it would work.

I recently had a new battery put in my 1973 Super Beetle along with some other repairs. On the way home the car was perfect. Didn’t drive it for a couple of days. Took it out one night after dark a couple days later and hear a strange noise coming from the back of the car. Like a bubbling noise. Come to find out, some acid had come out of the battery. Took it to Auto Zone where they hooked it up to the battery tester and said the battery and everything else was fine.Hasn’t done it since except a barely noticeable amount of acid around the battery.
I had never put the back seat back into the car after repairs. The guy that worked on it has done so several times in the past and is excellent and has been working on Volkwagens since the 70’s. He’s one of the best around. He said the only thing he could think of would be the alternator, but that checked out fine at Auto Zone. What could have made that acid bubble out that one time and not since? Car is running fine now. Thank you!!

New battery was proll’y overfilled. Batteries bubble a bit as they charge. Some bubbled out until the battery could vent properly. Neutralize the battery acid that spilt with Arm & Hammer baking soda or you will have holes in the floor under the battery, if you don’t already. It is acid you know. Just mix up some water and and baking soda, lots of baking soda, and soak the area thoroughly

My laptop hasn’t been working on battery power lately and I want to know if it’s a problem with the actual battery or my laptop. Like I said, the battery power button DIRECTLY ON THE BATTERY is indicating 25% and 75% and that doesn’t make sense to me. Thanks in advance for the help!

A few possibilities come to mind

1) You have a 2 battery system
2) You have a bad battery
3) Your power supply inside the computer has something wrong with it.

Those are just a few reasons, there are still others. Without further information on your system, I can’t give you a more definitive answer.

I am needing to know if the special rechargable batteries last any longer than regular batteries in both of these, and also if you do use regular batteries, do they have to be a high voltage kind, or can you just use the kind you get at the dollar store? How long do the batteries last in both of these in general. Rechargable, and regular.

The Nintendo Wii Remotes are notorious for using up battery power fairly quickly…

It all really depends on how much you use them. If you are someone who plays EVERY day, then you might want to invest in the rechargeable batteries or one of the rechargeable docking stations.

If you only game once or twice a week, then you could probably just stick with regular batteries.

One thing I’ve noticed is that if you leave a Wii remote just sitting around for awhile, sometimes the battery power seems to drain even when you aren’t using it… (I don’t know if it’s actually true, or not, but a few people have noticed this same thing) So, if you know you aren’t going to be using the Wii remote for awhile, you might even want to take the batteries out.

And, you don’t have to use any “Special” high voltage kind of battery… regular cheap dollar store batteries work as well, they just might not last as long as a more expensive brand.

Hope there is someone with good electrical knowledge on here i need a wiring diagram for a battery tester/timer.

Spec's:
* For testing 6v - 8ah and 5ah batterys
* It needs to use no more than a 24v supply
* i want it to do a count to 10 lighting up 10 leds (using a 555timer and a decade counter) - as this is happening i need the
0 - 7 voltmeter to check the battery that will be hooked up and when all the leds are lit (after 10 seconds) for it to all reset/finish testing

So basically as i am at a total loss on how to do all this, very limited electrical knowledge! i would greatly appreciate any suggestions!

i hope someone will have the time to draw me a wiring diagram of how i can do this! as i am totally at a loss when it comes to compiling all this or knowing what resistors and types of chip etc. that i need

i have access to all the components i need resistors, leds, etc.

I hope someone will point me in the direction of help!

please contact me via E-mail if you can help!
If you are good at this sort of thing but un-wiling to spend some of your time on this as it may take a while to do, or possibly 5mins if you are really good?

I would consider some type of compensation for your time taken for a good wiring diagram $

thank you in advance! please e-mail me! stephenwilson5050@yahoo.com
still searching for help!!

this is a major project. But your specs are way incomplete. The first and most important part of any project is a complete and comprehensive set of specifications. You can't start the design until you have that, and you are far from that point.

"testing a battery" means what?

simplest is just to measure the voltage.
second is to put a load on the battery and see how much the voltage changes, and calculate the state of charge.

what is the counting LEDs for? They seem useless to me.

"reset/finish testing" means what?

"0 - 7 voltmeter" is this a 7 volts FS voltmeter?

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