There are other ways to probe and test wires, including the often painful process of simply poking the tip of a voltmeter probe through the insulation (and often into your fingertip). That works ...

[Piffpaffpoltrie] had a problem. They found the InLine VA40R to be a perfectly usable multimeter, except for a couple of flaws. Most glaring among these were the tiny sockets for the test probes. T… ...

You’ve probably seen probes that detect live wires in, for example, home wiring, without having to actually probe the wire. These are sometimes used to test strings of Christmas lights, too. … ...

Start by turning on the voltmeter and setting it to measure AC voltage. Carefully insert the black probe into the larger, neutral slot, and the red probe into the smaller, hot slot.

Turn the dial to measure volts. Then, at the same time, touch each electrode with either the red or black probe. The voltage readout should be positive, so if there is a “-” sign switch which probe ...

The integrated voltmeter costs $75; the 1-GHz active probe costs $995. A bandwidth upgrade from 500 MHz to 1 GHz costs $2,340 for a two-channel model and $3,070 for a four-channel model.

Both the 2000 and 3000 X Series now offer the option of a three-digit digital voltmeter (DVM) and five-digit counter that operate through the same probes as the oscilloscope channels.