Help with measuring Amps

[Fu Manchu]

I love figuring out electrical stuff but I’m no electrician.

I’m adding floor lighting and going to use LED.

I got these at JayCar. A string of these. Perfect light after a test in the dark with a 9v battery.

*Edit Camt add the photo of the set up.

Multimeter reads -0.01 Amps.
If I reverse the polarity, the LEDs don’t light up.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Ok. Photo upload works now.

This is how I have set it up.

Will have four of these. All interior lights will be LED.

Am I doing this correctly?
Why the negative Amps?
Does this indicate it’s using 0.01 amps?

 

[lmoengnr]

LED's don't need much current, and they are polarized.

 

[Fu Manchu]

I guess the reason Id like to keep an eye on the amps is I’m adding 4 floor lights, and later I’ll be adding a bigger LED strip light to the hard lid.

Once that is added, I don’t want to overload the interior wiring circuit or damage the BCM.

 

[MuckUte]

Jaycar spec says 50mA per section at 12v for those leds.

Wouldnt hurt to use a lower range on your multimeter, it will be more accurate measuring on the 200mA scale as opposed to the 10A scale.

 

[shane_3800]

Change the side of the meter the leds are on.

 

[chrisp]

You’re on the 10A range and are reading about 10mA (0.01A). Now that you know that the current is lower than 200mA, move the red lead to the centre terminal and change the dial to 200mA range.

 

[shane_3800]

And you have the meter polarized wrong just swap the meter leads around. Don't touch the battery leads.

 

[Fu Manchu]

And you have the meter polarized wrong just swap the meter leads around. Don't touch the battery leads.

Got it.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Ok. I wasn’t too concerned about measuring the exact milliamps. The 10amp range still sets a good idea of what I’m using.

I got a reading as described above of 0.01 Amps off one segment of lights.

The whole string was 0.04 Amps.

You are all awesome. I’ve learnt something today. Thank you.