Multimeters 
  Making Measurements   
 13 
Power-Up Options 
Holding a button down while turning the Meter on activates 
a power-up option. Table 4 includes the power-up options. 
Automatic Power-Off 
The Meter automatically turns off if you do not turn the 
rotary switch or press a button for 30 minutes. If MIN MAX 
Recording is enabled, the Meter will not power off. To 
disable automatic power-off, refer to Table 4. 
Input Alert
™
 Feature 
If a test lead is plugged into the mA/μA or A terminal, but 
the rotary switch is not set to the correct current position, 
the beeper warns you by making a chirping sound and the 
display flashes “LEAd”. This warning is intended to stop 
you from attempting to measure voltage, continuity, 
resistance, capacitance, or diode values when the leads 
are plugged into a current terminal. 
W Caution 
Placing the probes across (in parallel with) a 
powered circuit when a lead is plugged into a 
current terminal can damage the circuit you 
are testing and blow the Meter's fuse. This 
can happen because the resistance through 
the Meter's current terminals is very low, so 
the Meter acts like a short circuit. 
Making Measurements 
The following sections describe how to take 
measurements with the Meter. 
Measuring AC and DC Voltage 
Model 87 features true rms readings, which are accurate 
for distorted sine waves and other waveforms (with no dc 
offset) such as square waves, triangle waves, and 
staircase waves. 
The Meter's voltage ranges are 600.0 mV, 6.000 V, 60.00 
V, 600.0 V, and 1000 V. To select the 600.0 mV dc range, 
turn the rotary switch to mV. 
To measure ac or dc voltage, refer to Figure 2.