Continuity test on multimeter

Set to continuity (piccy of diode) or select a resistance range (Ohms)

MAKE SURE THERE IS NO POWER IN THE CIRCUIT.

Place one probe on one end of the bit you want to check electrikery is going through and the other on the other end. If it beeps/shows zero or any other figure than 1. , you've got continuity.

RTFM ;-)

If testing a fuse, or some other passive compinent, find the Ohms sign (?) and put the probes on it on each end. If it reads Zero, then it is good.

You'll need to explain what you want to test on the multimeter.

Any figure close to zero, anyway. 14.38Mohm is not continuity. :-)

Conor explained on 24/01/2007 :

piccy of diode is not a continuity test. It applies a voltage across the diode and displays the resultant voltage of a forward biased diode. This approximates to the voltage dropped across the diode in use.

Which if approximately zero tells you there's continuity.

Duncan Wood expressed precisely :

In my experience some do not show zero when shorted on a diode test, so it cannot be generally relied upon - what is wrong with using the ohms range, this was designed for the purpose.

That implies they're not to relied on anyway. More to the point quite a few have the continuity beaper on the diode test range, not the ohms range.

Duncan Wood explained :

I'm not suggesting you are wrong on that last point, except that I have never seen it. I have around 15 - 20 of them and not one has a beeper on the diode test. Some have a separate button for the beep, others a separate switch position at the low end of the ohms range, others just beep with no option to turn it off.

As an obvious example, most of the Maplin ones

A decent meter will have a continuity tester which bleeps below a certain resistance.

I've got a Maplin kit one which varies the tone according to the resistance - quite a useful tool, but no longer available.

Presumably the ones which "just beep with no option to turn it off" beep only on a specific switch position, e.g., the diode test position?

This thread at least convinced me to track down the schematics for my cheap multimeter, and allowed me to discover that, as I thought, (and despite the claims on the box) it has no continuity test buzzer.