UT-61E: Why does it beep in "Peak" mode?

[rolandpenplotter]

I turned my UT-61E on, dial straight to volts mode, and pressed "Peak". I have a small 12 DC motor attached, and I want to find the peak output when I spin the shaft. I spin it a couple of times, then the meter starts double-beeping, about once  a second... any ideas?

Here's what it's doing:

[Rerouter]

What reading is it giving while spinning, upon breaking contact on the commutation plate it could be generating a spike like any other inductive load.

[rolandpenplotter]

What reading is it giving while spinning, upon breaking contact on the commutation plate it could be generating a spike like any other inductive load.

Hard to tell; I've updated the OP to show the video though.

Thanks.

[Rerouter]

Well we can either investigate the motor, or the meter, in this case i would say motor,

grab a 220nF to 1uF capacitor, and a generic 1n4004 diode to make a crude little peak detector, measure after the diode with your meter and spin the motor to get an approx peak voltage

[rolandpenplotter]

Well we can either investigate the motor, or the meter, in this case i would say motor,

grab a 220nF to 1uF capacitor, and a generic 1n4004 diode to make a crude little peak detector, measure after the diode with your meter and spin the motor to get an approx peak voltage

Good idea, thanks

[rolandpenplotter]

Okay: I made that test circuit, and it slows the peaking right down; the bar graph is easily hitting "OL" (overload). I take it that with the negligible currents involved, no harm has been done?

Thanks again.

[dr.diesel]

no harm has been done?

Nope, meter is unharmed.

[tom66]

Quite possibly an alert telling you that you have exceeded the maximum voltage rating of the meter, a little motor shouldn't cause any harm though.

[Rerouter]

now to actually measure the voltage your aiming for, are you planning to use this motor as a generator? if so then good, work out a rough load you will be measuring and try measuring the peak with that load (resistor) in parallel

[rolandpenplotter]

now to actually measure the voltage your aiming for, are you planning to use this motor as a generator? if so then good, work out a rough load you will be measuring and try measuring the peak with that load (resistor) in parallel

Don't worry, this meter is going nuts, beeping on "peak" range when I hold a steady 5V DC on the probes :-/ talk about weird, and it goes "OL" with that same 5V DC only on "peak" mode...

[Rerouter]

Found your problem , when you enter peak mode the range gets changed to manual,

[rolandpenplotter]

Found your problem , when you enter peak mode the range gets changed to manual,

It says "MANU", yes, but I don't understand...

[EDIT]:

This site is well laid out, and seems to explain a few things, but doesn't explain this crazy manual mode in peak mode:

http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20UNI-T%20UT61E%20UK.html

[Rerouter]

either set the range to say 100V before entering peak mode or try pressing the range button once in the peak mode 

[rolandpenplotter]

either set the range to say 100V before entering peak mode or try pressing the range button once in the peak mode 

Ah! Now I've cracked it; you set the range manually before entering "peak" mode. What a stupid manual; it doesn't even mention this. That's what happen when you release a crappy "Chinglish" manual to cover several models - they couldn't obfuscate it more if they wanted to!

Thanks for your help mate

[PedroDaGr8]

either set the range to say 100V before entering peak mode or try pressing the range button once in the peak mode 

Ah! Now I've cracked it; you set the range manually before entering "peak" mode. What a stupid manual; it doesn't even mention this. That's what happen when you release a crappy "Chinglish" manual to cover several models - they couldn't obfuscate it more if they wanted to!

Thanks for your help mate

Actually, I am pretty certain I have noticed this behavior on a variety of meters. Peak mode is typically intended to find the peaks on what appears to be a stable voltage. So you basically, feed it the voltage. Let it get roughly stabilized (then hit peak).

[gxti]

Fluke 87 works the same way. Precision varies with range, so you don't want it auto-ranging while you're capturing min/max/average.

[rolandpenplotter]

Fluke 87 works the same way. Precision varies with range, so you don't want it auto-ranging while you're capturing min/max/average.

Very true

[PedroDaGr8]

Also, why is this in general chat and not in the Test Equipment section.

Moderator: Done!

Edit: Damn son you are fast!

[GeoffS]

Just coincidence that the move was made so soon after your post.
A couple of people had reported this thread via the Report to Moderator button and I was responding to that.
This is the best way to bring any thread/post  to the moderators attention as it sends a message to all moderators and one of us is likely to be on line.