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often what I do in this sort of case is just buy a matching 'pin' for the connector in somewhere like Halfords and hold it with the croc clip
There are lots of options for meters, but it is important to get one that is safe and rated for use with 240v , fused and insulated.
I just wanted to reiterate this. Goo multi metere have double insulated plugs and leads plugs, are fused, have a arc gap in the circuit board fuse. All of these things are designed in so if A fail we have B we have C .
I personally have an extech multi meter and have used it on all sorts of low voltage circuits / installations (N.B. low voltage actually defined as anything under 1000v ).
Something with true RMS is useful and a sign of a decent meter.
As for knowledge it depends where you are starting from. What's your maths like are you a technical guy already? Understanding impeadence I personally think is easier if you have a solid understanding of basic maths, by which I mean Lowe aleverl upper GCSE.
Impeadence then leads on to phase shift for which an initiative understanding can also be developed but again personally I find the road is another by good basic maths. I.e. really understanding trig and also trig functions as in their graphs and shifting them around.
Sources of information. I can only speak from my own pov as I am not a teacher but for me I already had a good science / maths knowledge but I did
1. Watched a lot of YouTube,
2. Bought an electronics dictionary,
3. "how to repair just about anything electronic" book
4. Read some of (but only bits it massive) of "The Art of Electronics".
5. I bought / was give
broken stuff and repaired (and failed to repair).
I also ended up in a job in industrial automation for about 5 years that helped and did level 2 electric installation and wiring regs. However the knowledge from this is fairly basic from a technical pov but good for best practices how installations should be done etc but not that relevant to fixii general aplicences. I only have very narrow knowledge and have forgotten most of it but you are correct fixing things is very satisfying and always worth a go.
P.s. never overlook a dodgy connection.
I’ve a follow on multimeter question. I’ve a reasonable multimeter and a variety of probe leads, and I have a need to test some car multipin connectors
Do you have any back probes?
These can help on auto electrical systems but not always.
Once the smoke has come out, you can't put it back i again 😉
I had a multimeter with a push button on switch. Which meant it was always flat, it would turn itself on in the toolbox, in the car if it rolled over, and even closing the tool chest drawer.
Dial on is much better. One thing I would like is an audible indicator built in.
If you want something for use on car or trailers a probe like this is great, you give it a 12v power source and you can test components and wiring, apply voltage etc, it's also got a scope function for signals.
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All my probes are too fat (crocodile clip will only fit if there’s 5mm clearance on all sides, and the spikey probe is way too fat to fit in the female multipin connector), what I really need is a “male pin” connector and a “female pin” connector, but my GoogleFu is failing me. What do I need to look for?
Get down to the local old school scrapyard and just chop off a pile of connectors. You can 'de-pin' them with special tools or just destroy them to recover the pins. Another trick is to use sewing machine needles in a choc block with a bit of wire in the other end. These also work as cheap wire piercing probes as well. Seal the holes afterwards with liquid tape.
NB: This is for 12 volt car stuff only. DON'T use it on the mains.
Search for a test probe kit