Trying to build a simple solar system, but need some help

[Mike90250]

never used an ohm meter before

was a red flag for me, as meters are all different, I can't tell you to put the black lead on the 3rd terminal and clip it to a wire, and the red lead on the first terminal, and clip it to the other wire. The terminals change with the function - there are useally at least 3 and sometimes 4 or 5 terminal jacks on a multimeter. They work in conjunction with the dials, with lines and colored dots to indicate which terminal to use for what function. Can't be done via email very well.
And all the smoke comes out of a meter (quickly) if you try to measure a battery voltage, with the meter in ohms or amps setting, or the leads on the wrong terminal.

[inetdog]

And all the smoke comes out of a meter (quickly) if you try to measure a battery voltage, with the meter in ohms or amps setting, or the leads on the wrong terminal.

z:
And when dealing with batteries and their relatively (from the meter's point of view) high current output, you will be lucky if only smoke comes out of the meter. Sometimes much larger pieces come out along with the smoke.
A DC fuse on the + battery terminal is a very good place to start in making your system safe, regardless of what fuses or other current limiters are included in the equipment you will be connecting.