Loop in 12v socket

bumpity bump

Halp. Google let me down.

>>15235144
Can't see what the red lead is touching. Can't see what the meter is set to.

No resistance means what youre measuring is a short

I'd say that the relay controlling your acessory power switches to ground when it's not energized (switched off) it's a fairly common thing to do it stops transient currents in the wires and does some other shit that I'm not sure about.

>>15235144
>what kind of circuit
It's not a circuit. That's the point.
When you turn your car on it will be a circuit.

>>15235144
dude, your multimeter is on resistance reading...you are literally measing the interal resistance in Ohms of the internals of your multimeter plus resistance of the probe/lighter connection

>>15235901

Red lead is touching the red (+) cable that goes to the 12v socket (I unpluged it).
Meter is set at 1k ohm, measuring resistance.

>>15235913

How can I be sure it's one ? How would I locate it ? And if everything works fine when I turn on the ignition, wouldn't it mean there is no short ? My battery holds the charge for days, just fine.


>>15235938

That's sounds like what's happening. I haven't read enough about car's continuous duty solenoids (which are often used to do this kind of on/off switching via the ignition switch) but after drawing the circuit on paper I kinda see how it could make a non-energized loop. In any case, if that seems like a "fairly normal" thing to you, I'm reassured. But it's a good reminder to be extra careful when tinkering with car electronics...

>>15235987

That was the goal. Measuring resistance. I was trying to locate a "short" with a high resistance (meter reading something like 50 ohm between a non-energized positive cable and the car body/ground), which turned out to be my GPS tracker (I still don't know how to get rid of that sucker's "short"). Anyhow, when I plugged my meter on the positive and negative lead of the 12v socket and got the reading on the picture, I thought "wtf".

File: asdf.png (2KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

2KB, 640x480px

>>15235144
It looks like you are measuring about 1k of resistance, so thats not a short.
That resistance could come from anything that is connected in parallel with the socket, which is probably everything on that side of the ignition switch.

>>15236533

I need a digital meter... that thing only gets me more confused than I already am when dealing with circuits. Your graph helps a lot though, I guess I have nothing to worry about. Problem solved. Thanks for your time!

>>15236627
>I need a digital meter

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-multimeter-digital-with-8-functions-and-20/p-03482141000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1

$10. no one has an excuse for not having a digital multi meter

>>15235144
That's the fucking ground you cuckold

>>15236678

I think I bought the analog one because it was the cheapest ($7). I'm such a fucking jew sometimes...

>>15236690

Tell me about it. One issue that took me a while to figure out was that my fingers were touching both leads. "Why is that damned needle moving!" I thought.