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RE: The surest way to diagnose high-voltage surge arresters

mudz — Wed, 15 May 2019 17:58:44 GMT

Loved these cameras !!

RE: 10 dumb things smart people do when testing electricity

mudz — Wed, 15 May 2019 17:56:11 GMT

[mention:fee58664ea5a4d57992ff29af8a5084a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05]

Today’s test tools contain safety features unheard of even a few years ago, features that are worth the cost of an equipment upgrade?

Like what?

Are you saying there something better then multi meter 87 v because this equipment is old but trusted one. Have you upgraded this one with modern safety features you are talking about?

Thank you

RE: Five ways Fluke FieldSense technology can help you work safer

three-phase — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 22:35:10 GMT

Mmmm, I have read through this a few times now, and to be honest, I am struggling with some of your comments a bit. Whilst direct contact onto live terminals with test probes carries some risk, given the design of modern instrumentation, GS38 probe design with finger guards and IP2x terminations on equipment, the risk of an arc flash incident is minimal.

The manipulation of wires required to gain access with a non-contact fork can have risks that you have not mentioned. Manipulating wires close to a termination point could cause a wire to break or be pulled out of the terminal. Wire insulation can be damaged during installation that may only become apparent when someone manipulates the wire within an enclosure. For the panels I work in, 75 to 80% of the time I would need to manipulate the individual wire and or adjacent wires to get proper access for the fork.

You are also promoting a test procedure for measuring a voltage from phase to earth. For fault finding on circuits, the earth should not really be used for a reference point. The functional circuit is between phase to phase and / or phase to neutral, that is the voltage you should be predominantly interested in. When using the earth for reference, false readings can be obtained via return paths in circuits.

Phase to earth can be measured under some fault finding scenarios where phase to neutral is not producing the expected readings, but predominantly phase to earth measurements are made during a test for dead, or absence of voltage test. However, non-contact verification for an absence of voltage test should only ever be used in conjunction with a two probe tester and never instead of. To do so is fundamentally dangerous.

I do not have a T6 unit, so I have no specific experience with its use. I did buy a PRV240FS unit and it was not good. Battery life was very poor, four to six weeks. This in itself is a safety issue. Going out to a job and finding that you then need to return back to a workshop to get new batteries could lead to a scenario of an electrician not testing for dead correctly due to time pressures.

The comment regarding testing an instrument before measuring live voltages is an interesting one, and not something I had considered before - specifically measuring live voltages carries a different approach than testing for dead.

Whilst the T6 could prove to be useful under some circumstances, my experience tells me that those scenarios are limited and I seriously doubt that manipulating wiring can be considered safer than carrying out a traditional two probe voltage measurement.

Kind regards.

RE: 10 dumb things smart people do when testing electricity

s8548a — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 08:00:02 GMT

Point #1 used to do when in the beginning, and later such circumstances were become rare.

RE: 10 dumb things smart people do when testing electricity

Gough Lui — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 04:03:33 GMT

I'd probably add:

- Not changing the battery in the meter regularly or when the low battery indicator appears - I've seen a few videos online where the indicator is prominently visible. When the battery is low, the internal voltage reference may not be stable, thus the measured results cannot be taken to be valid. In some cases, the readings can be quite a way off. Aside from that, if the battery is already "low", there's a good chance it might leak soon and damage your meter as well. So make it a habit to change the battery regularly and at every time the indicator appears.

- Not inspecting your meters and leads prior to work - damaged insulation on leads can be rather dangerous, along with mis-connection of probes (e.g. in current position when measuring voltage) which can mean costly (premature) fuse replacements.

- Not checking the meter is operational by testing a live and dead circuit first - sometimes a broken test lead or a bad contact might mislead the user into thinking the circuit is "dead" when it really isn't.

- Trusting every last digit on the meter - just because a digital meter can read-out to a high resolution, the accuracy of the meter may be less than the displayed resolution, thus unwary users may come to the wrong conclusion just by looking at the digits on the meter alone.

- Not compensating for lead resistance for low resistance measurements - this can help improve accuracy with a few button presses.

- Gough

RE: 10 dumb things smart people do when testing electricity

Sean_Miller — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 02:29:40 GMT

Great list. I'd throw in not knowing the limits of the amperage to run through the meter when measuring current in industrial applications.

-Sean

RE: 10 dumb things smart people do when testing electricity

snidhi — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 12:38:18 GMT

The discussion on cheap DMMs is never ending. I tried to convince some companies in the electronics business to stay away from cheap made DMMs. And rather invest in good DMMs such as fluke ones as they will last you a lifetime.

RE: 10 dumb things smart people do when testing electricity

14rhb — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 10:40:57 GMT

Useful advice, thank you. The flurry of Fluke related pdfs currently also make great reading.

Rod

RE: Interesting Thermal Imaging Project: Dolphins

edmund — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:53:51 GMT

Hi,

interesting enough. But any findings to share with us through this Imaging picture ?

Cheers