Help with Measuring Voltage on Vivitar 283

[Rhombuss]

I'm using a multimeter to measure the DC voltage going through my newly Ebay acquired Vivitar 283. My Micronta multimeter has DC in ranges of 15V, 150V and 1000V. I'm a little unsure of how to interpret the results.

On the 15V range, the reading gives me about 4.5-5.0 V when charged.
On the 150V range, the reading gives me about 45 V when charged.
On the 1000 V range, the reading gives me about 150 V when charged.

Any suggestions on what's actually going on? :confused:

[propwash]

The trigger voltage from the Vivitar 283 depends on its age. The unit I have is from about 1977, and its trigger voltage is over 250 volts. I have been told that some of the later models have much lower voltages. If you have a multi meter with different scales on it, then you generally have to plug your test wires into different holes on the meter for different ranges. I used to have a meter similar to yours and it had three or four different holes into which you could plug the red wire. Each hole corresponds to a different voltage range. You have to read the voltage measured on the scale which corresponds to the hole into which you plugged the red test lead. If you take your flash into a Radio Shack, I'll bet they would let you use one of their new digital multi-meters to measure the voltage. Turn the flash on and wait until the ready light glows, and then measure the voltage at the two contacts on the shoe. Good luck.

[Rhombuss]

Well, only 2 independent contacts on my multimeter. I'm using 3 different voltage ranges, but I'd assume they'd all give the same reading regardless of range. Obviously due to the range differentials, only 1 read-out SHOULD make sense, as it's only sensitive to that range of voltage, the other 2 read-outs should either be at minimal or maxed out. For some reason however, I'm getting different readings at all three ranges (this is assuming I'm reading off the voltage scales correctly, which seems rather straight-forward).