Multimeter help?

[Tromain]

I got myself a DT-830B digital multimeter so I could check the resistance of my coils in my vision eternity, but I'm having a slight problem with it. I've got it setup properly to check the resistance( red wire in VΩmA slot, black in COM slot, dial set to Ω - tried all settings in that field)

(Done set at the 200 Ω setting)When I connect the leads to the coil it just flickers through 4-5 different numbers, never settling on a fixed number to tell me the resistance! I'm not even getting a rough idea as the coil when it has 4 wraps is flickering with 11.4, 10.2, 4.3, and 7.6. If I bump it up to 6 wraps it shows 11.6, 10.3, 5.2, 8.3.

Am I doing something wrong here?


This is the meter:

 

[I Shall Not Recant]

Short the two leads together.

If it still dances around then it could be one of the leads.

Remove one lead and put the point of the other into the hole. If it still dances around then the lead you are using could be duff.
Swap the two leads so you can check the other one to see if it dances around.

If at any time during this the reading stops jumping around then you know it isn't the meter.

If it jumps about while using each lead on it's own then it is either both leads or the meter so get a paper clip or other leads and short the two terminals.

Any of this make sense? Basically try to eliminate each possibility.

 

[McAldo]

Another possibility is that the meter battery might be too discharged and need changing.
With a discharged battery, mine will still give me a steady reading of the internal resistance when touching the probes, but jump all over the place when testing wire and atties.

 

[Tromain]

Just checked it on a 306 atty, and it's reading fine at 1.5 Ω, which is what the atty is labeled as. So it's just the coil of the rebuildable it doesn;t want to read properly.

Most unusual.