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Keithley DMM6500#

Multimeter User's Manual

Keithley DMM6500 Relevant Documentation

Use Case#

A multimeter allows the user to measure electrical properties of components and circuit points. Examples of these measurements include:

  • Direct Current (DC) voltage and current

  • Alternating Current (AC) voltage and current

  • Resistance

  • Capacitance

  • Diode voltage drop

  • Continuity

  • Frequency

  • etc.

Quick Guide#

Probes#

  • The probes in this space have modular tips which can be exchanged for alligator clips or thinner probes

  • To use most features which require a high impedance input (voltage, resistance, diode, capacitor, etc.), plug the probes into the colored ports under Input

  • To measure current, which requires a low impedance input, plug the red probe into the white port instead

  • The Sense 4 Wire ports are used for advanced 4-wire resistance measurements and for the ratio feature. This is unnecessary in most applications.

Basic Measurement Functions#

  • DCV: DC Voltage [Volts]

  • ACV: AC Voltage [Volts RMS]

  • DCI: DC Current [Amps]

    • (Put the red probe in the white port for this)

  • ACI: AC Current [Amps RMS]

    • (Put the red probe in the white port for this)

  • 2W Ω: 2-Wire Resistance [Ohms (Ω)]

    • (Use this for measuring resistance generally)

  • 4W Ω: 4-Wire resistance [Ohms (Ω)]

    • Useful for measuring low resistances very precisely. This prevents the resistance of the probes from interfering with your measurement.

  • Cont: Continuity Check. Produces an audible tone if there is a continuous, low impedance circuit between the probes.

    • Useful for testing if a wire is broken or if a solder connection is properly made

  • Freq: Frequency [Hz]

  • Period: Period of a periodic signal (inverse of frequency) [seconds]

  • Cap: Capacitance [Farads]

  • Diode: Diode forward voltage drop [Volts]

  • Ratio: Gives the ratio between voltage measured on the input probes and voltage measured on the Sense 4 Wire probes [V/V]

    • This is useful for measuring amplifier gain directly

  • Temp: Temperature

  • Must use a temperature probe specifically. The probe type can be set in the settings tab (swipe left on the screen

Pressing the Menu button from any screen will bring you to the screen shown.

Graph#

From the menu, you can enter the Graph app

  • The window size will auto scale by default

  • The sampling rate is 1M samples/s

    • The Tektronix oscilloscopes have a sampling rate of 2G samples/s (2,000 times higher sampling rate)

  • The figure shows a measurement of a Keithley benchtop power supply set to 3.00V

Tips#

  • Use the Help button to the left of the display while a button on the screen is selected to get more information about it.

  • For more advanced features, ask makerspace staff or view Keithley's documentation linked at the top of this page.