You are light years ahead of your peers Devian
You are doing fine Devian. Keep the faith.
I think you will find there are two types of electricians; those that replace parts on a hunch that it is the bad one and those that diagnose the problem. I have used the former on occasion when I knew from past experience what the problem was. The lower cost in dollars (higher in your personal time however) is to diagnose the problem and then replace the parts.
With that said let me throw you a bone. You say you don't know how to use a multi meter which tells me that you probably don't understand most of the electrical terms.
First off tattoo this on your brain: V=I*R
Volts (V) -- the pressure that will push electrons through a circuit.
Amps (I) -- the number of electrons (divided by the huge number 6.02X10^23) passing a point in one second in a circuit.
Resistance (R) -- measured in ohms (upside down horseshoe symbol) it is the resistance to current flow (amps).
An illustrative example. The 12 volt battery and the 5/8" wrench.
Once upon a time there was a 12 volt battery. you could measure the voltage across his + and - terminals and read 13.6 volts most of the time. He was a very well charged battery BTW. Alas the only circuits that were available to him was the air gap between the terminals and the thin film of dirt and electrolyte on the top of the him. These circuits had very high resistance and not much current passed through them. He passed most of the winter alone in the basement waiting for the Captain to reinstall him in the boat so he could do his job. Toward the end of winter the Captain checked him by measuring across the + and - terminals and he read 12.6 volts. Time for a top off charge says the Captain. So out comes the trickle charger. + to red and - to black and plug her in. Now the voltage across the terminals is up to 14.1 volts. The captain is curious how many amps the trickle charger is supplying so he disconnects the charger and,with multi meter set to 10 amps, connects the + probe to the + terminal and the - probe to the charger + clamp. 0.5 amps, not much. Must have some resistance in the circuit somewhere keeping all those volts from making the amps flow. The Captain reconnects the charger and starts to test the connections. Since he knows that Vtotal= I*Sum(R) and dV= I*dR and there is current flowing in the circuit (I is not =0) he knows he can measure between any to points and notice a voltage drop that can tell him where the resistance is. First he measures between the + terminal and the + clamp of the charger, 0.1 volts. Next he measures between the - terminal and the - clamp of charger, 6 volts!!! Heck, no wonder the battery is only charging at 0.5 amps it is only seeing the left over voltage of 6 volts. Wiggle the clamp, 0.1 volts. Much better, retest the current flow and he is charging at 2 amps.
A month later our battery is in the truck headed to the boat. while tightening the wires on the terminals the Captain drops the 5/8" wrench across the + and - terminals. WoW!!!! Lots of sparks and the smell of burning metal. The wrench has a resistance of 0.00001 ohms so something like
V=IR --> I=V/R=13.6/0.00001= 1.3 million amps!!!!!! We Be Welding!!!
You are doing fine Devian. Keep the faith.
I think you will find there are two types of electricians; those that replace parts on a hunch that it is the bad one and those that diagnose the problem. I have used the former on occasion when I knew from past experience what the problem was. The lower cost in dollars (higher in your personal time however) is to diagnose the problem and then replace the parts.
With that said let me throw you a bone. You say you don't know how to use a multi meter which tells me that you probably don't understand most of the electrical terms.
First off tattoo this on your brain: V=I*R
Volts (V) -- the pressure that will push electrons through a circuit.
Amps (I) -- the number of electrons (divided by the huge number 6.02X10^23) passing a point in one second in a circuit.
Resistance (R) -- measured in ohms (upside down horseshoe symbol) it is the resistance to current flow (amps).
An illustrative example. The 12 volt battery and the 5/8" wrench.
Once upon a time there was a 12 volt battery. you could measure the voltage across his + and - terminals and read 13.6 volts most of the time. He was a very well charged battery BTW. Alas the only circuits that were available to him was the air gap between the terminals and the thin film of dirt and electrolyte on the top of the him. These circuits had very high resistance and not much current passed through them. He passed most of the winter alone in the basement waiting for the Captain to reinstall him in the boat so he could do his job. Toward the end of winter the Captain checked him by measuring across the + and - terminals and he read 12.6 volts. Time for a top off charge says the Captain. So out comes the trickle charger. + to red and - to black and plug her in. Now the voltage across the terminals is up to 14.1 volts. The captain is curious how many amps the trickle charger is supplying so he disconnects the charger and,with multi meter set to 10 amps, connects the + probe to the + terminal and the - probe to the charger + clamp. 0.5 amps, not much. Must have some resistance in the circuit somewhere keeping all those volts from making the amps flow. The Captain reconnects the charger and starts to test the connections. Since he knows that Vtotal= I*Sum(R) and dV= I*dR and there is current flowing in the circuit (I is not =0) he knows he can measure between any to points and notice a voltage drop that can tell him where the resistance is. First he measures between the + terminal and the + clamp of the charger, 0.1 volts. Next he measures between the - terminal and the - clamp of charger, 6 volts!!! Heck, no wonder the battery is only charging at 0.5 amps it is only seeing the left over voltage of 6 volts. Wiggle the clamp, 0.1 volts. Much better, retest the current flow and he is charging at 2 amps.
A month later our battery is in the truck headed to the boat. while tightening the wires on the terminals the Captain drops the 5/8" wrench across the + and - terminals. WoW!!!! Lots of sparks and the smell of burning metal. The wrench has a resistance of 0.00001 ohms so something like
V=IR --> I=V/R=13.6/0.00001= 1.3 million amps!!!!!! We Be Welding!!!
