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I'm having laptop battery problems, and the hardware manual gave diagnostic instructions involving measuring the voltage in the battery. So I bought a multimeter (never used one before in my life) and had a go... but the probes are too big. The pins on the battery are tucked into little slots that the probes can't fit into.

enter image description here

What should I do to measure the voltage?

Jack M
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  • anything moderately conductive will do. – PlasmaHH Oct 09 '18 at 13:38
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    @PlasmaHH That's not very helpful advice for someone who's never used a multimeter before, as I said. What does that mean? Should I just wrap foil around the pins? Do I need to buy a soldering iron? Those little alligator clip things? – Jack M Oct 09 '18 at 13:40
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    I find it quite helpful for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts – PlasmaHH Oct 09 '18 at 13:41
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    @JackM Have you got any paperclips? You could "adjust" them to fit onto the probes with one end pointing out. Make sure that they do not touch each other. – Andrew Morton Oct 09 '18 at 13:41
  • As @AndrewMorton said, you can use paperclips to poke down in the little slots then connect your probes to the paperclips. But **make sure the paperclips don't touch each other**. – Elliot Alderson Oct 09 '18 at 13:42
  • @AndrewMorton I think paperclips might still be too big. Assuming I could get thin enough wire, how should it be attached to the probes? Can I just wrap it around, or should I use a clip? – Jack M Oct 09 '18 at 13:45
  • @JackM As a quick bodge, just wrap the wire (from the paperclip or otherwise) around the probe a few times. – Simon B Oct 09 '18 at 13:51
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    @JackM You can thin the end of the paperclip with a hammer and a suitable hammer-resistant surface. – Andrew Morton Oct 09 '18 at 13:53
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    The application of common sense.... – Solar Mike Oct 09 '18 at 14:01
  • Gently push a couple of sewing pins into the contact slots in the battery then touch the probes on the pins. – HandyHowie Oct 09 '18 at 14:28
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    @SolarMike There is nothing "common sense" to somebody new about the idea that all you need to do is wrap any old bit of wire around the probes, and that doesn't risk, say, shortcircuiting and blowing up your multimeter. – Jack M Oct 09 '18 at 14:35
  • @JackM the common sense is about looking at the problem and finding a SUITABLE solution - making errors along the way is part of the learning process. Starting with a cheap MM and as experience is gained then buying a better one is also part of that. – Solar Mike Oct 09 '18 at 14:38
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    @SolarMike I'm not really sure what you're saying. I did find a suitable solution - by asking. You can't just intuit this sort of thing by yourself, and the question is hard to fomulate as a google search. – Jack M Oct 09 '18 at 14:43
  • @JackM I don't agree, some automatically "see" how to get round issues such as the probes being too large by thinking "how do I make them smaller. One other possibility is to find a spare connector and bring wires out to a different size connector - that avoids, neatly, most of the possibility of any shorts... – Solar Mike Oct 09 '18 at 14:48
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    @SolarMike What you're describing is simply the state of knowing more about electronics than I do, not of being more resourceful. – Jack M Oct 09 '18 at 15:02
  • @JackM or perhaps more “this is a problem, how can I get round it”... – Solar Mike Oct 09 '18 at 17:17

2 Answers2

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Do you have a small piece of electrical wire, like loudspeaker cable or telephone cable? You only need about 5 cm.

Strip the isolation to reveal the copper strands inside. Take two of those strands and wrap one around each probe tip. Do not wind the last centimeter but bend it so that it's an extension to the probes. Now you have very thin probes.

Bimpelrekkie
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Many multimeters come with fine probes, and spare probes can also be purchased separately.

enter image description here

Dmitry Grigoryev
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  • Made some like this, as the job needed doing "now" and waiting for the post was too long... but good answer – Solar Mike Oct 09 '18 at 14:49