How Does a DC Clamp Meter Work?
The Clamp The DC clamp has a pair of jaws that are used to clamp on to a conductor of electricity. Clamping the jaws on to the conductor allows the electric current of a conductor to be measured. A button or jaw trigger is pressed to open the inductive clamp jaw. The Indicator The DC voltage or current is displayed on the DC clamp’s indicator as a horizontal bar over a dotted horizontal line (or three smaller bars beneath the solid bar). On the handle is a rotary switch selector, which the operator turns to select the type of current or voltage to be tested. A zero button is pressed to cancel out readings, or refresh the LCD display screen (or digital indicator on older DC clamp meters). Taking Accurate Readings for DC Voltage The operator or technician sets the rotary switch on the handle of the clamp meter to the voltage symbol (indicated as a capital “V” on most clamp meter models). The test leads are plugged in to the jacks on the clamp meter, with the read lead in the V/O jack and
