Good Old Sears

Obviously Sears had some problems or they would still be selling stuff.  But things Sears did well included: catalogs, parts AND documentation.  I was thinking of repurposing an old meter as a battery tester to join the Sears VOM I already have.  I tried a search:  sears vom manual   and found this:

https://www.manualslib.com/download/1674923/Sears-5205.html

It has some interesting info including measuring inductance and capacitance that I'd not considered before.  In addition it also had the schematic which is what I wanted:

AND the manual also tells what the test conditions are, nice !:

After looking at the schematic the battery test setup is a load resistor in parallel with a voltmeter (voltmeter is a current meter with a calibrated direct reading scale in series with a resistor).  So it's just a matter of getting a switch/s, load resistors and calibrating the bad / good readings.

Why not look at the manual for the Sears VOM you already have ?  I did, it didn't have a schematic or the battery test conditions, sometimes Sears had feet of clay :(

Why not just buy another VOM or DVM with battery test ?  Several reasons:  I've already got meters that I no longer use that could be repurposed.  People want what I consider too  much for used meters on ebay.   Even the more deluxe meters won't necessarily do what I want (test a 12V battery made of AA cells or a 9.6V battery of AAA cells) - those could be added to a custom meter.

The problem is that while I know I've got this stuff I don't know where it is right now :(

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm