battery being drained what can i do?

Supradude,

read the first part of this topic and it'll tell you how to find the culprit.  Basically you read current draw, then pull fuses one at a time until you find the problem.

what about on  the face of the dmm its confusing on some?  For instance set the dmm to  DC mA but    .5, 50 or 250  DC mA   Then on a real cheap one we got its has DC 0-50-100-150-200-250  then right below it it has  0-10-20-30-40-50  but no label i assume that the 0-10-20-30-40-50 are mA correct.    kinda confusng

Snapper

Supra,

when measuring for current draw, make sure your leads are plugged into their respective slots on the multimeter.  Many times the positive lead will need to be plugged into a different slot for current than for voltage.  Sometimes you'll have more than one current slot/setting.  Start out on the highest scale, and work your way down until you can get an accurate reading.  If you're doing all this, and notice no major issue, only normal draw, I'd check the battery.  11.7 at rest is not where it should be- check the fluid levels and if they're okay, I'd replace the battery.  When you first turn off the engine, you'll notice a higher than normal voltage, then after it sits a few minutes, it will level off and you should have at least 12.6 volts.

Snapper,

you are correct, a cheap multimeter will read in mA.  More expensive ones will measure up to 10 amps.  Clamp type meters can measure much more since they only sense current, and are not connected in series.

ok fellas

i found the short in my tahoe. ( my meter's fuse's were blown, i used my friends meter and it worked )

as soon as i connected the meter it read 145.5 mA , the it droped to 115.5 mA , then it finally came to a rest at 44.9 mA.

i pulled the alarm and it automatically went down to 14.60 mA  i found which wire it was is the alarm and pulled the fuse for it.

is 14.60 mA a good resting point or is there something else still drawing?

the alarm i have is the autopage RS-850LCD

the problem wire was on a 5 pin white plug.

it was the RED wire that has a 3amp fuse on it. it controls the system 12 volt power / constant and is also connected to RED w/ WHITE stripe wire which is the Parking Light Relay Power Input.

now do u guys think this is something i can fix, or is it internal and i should  send the brain back to autopage ?

thanks for everyones help i really appriciate it alot 

Geepherder, I have a Wavetek model #CDM600 ac/dc clamp-on multimeter also. Would this be better to find the problem with? I've tried it set on dc at 200A and haven't seen it move from zero also.

Vic, that draw sounds reasonable, but you can contact Autopage to ask them the spec or it may be listed in your manual somewhere.

Supra, a clamp on meter is best suited for higher current applications (a few amps or more)- just look at the scale you set it on- 200 amps.  If you're sure you have the leads connected properly, check for the internal fuse.  The radio and some other electrical components that use constant power have a continuous draw (however so slight) that can be measured with a multimeter.  Cheap meters many times only measure up to a couple hundred mA, so if you had a door open, or the light under the hood was on, the internal fuse would easily blow when you tried to measure current.