DIY fun: Building a Mains Power Line Sniffer

RE: DIY fun: Building a Mains Power Line Sniffer

jw0752 — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:53:04 GMT

Hi Shabaz - Got a good start on building my interpretation of your line sensor last night. I decided I wanted to power it with a common 9 volt battery so I installed a small FAN1117AS5 regulator on the board. This is my first attempt to use surface mount components so the soldering was interesting and a bit challenging. I used a small SOIC-20 adapter board so the LMP and 1117 both fit side by side. I had several 200 uA meter movements left over from my days of audio electronics servicing. When the dust cleared I could not begin assembly of the rest of the circuit as my assumption that I had every resistor known to man proved false. 100 meg is not that common. So I had to send an order off to the supply house. It was probably just as well as it gave me reason to get more appropriate caps for the unit too. I will have to wait a week or so for the parts but if it turns out decent enough so I don't embarass myself I will send a picture of the finished product with my next comment.

John

RE: DIY fun: Building a Mains Power Line Sniffer

Robert Peter Oakes — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 02:26:17 GMT

Oh, so only good for none North America then huh. I guess I will have to completely re-design for North American 60Htz [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-34d4198d-9f6f-4068-8580-02c41345090f/contentimage_5F00_2516.png:16:16] sensing

RE: DIY fun: Building a Mains Power Line Sniffer

Robert Peter Oakes — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 02:20:12 GMT

love the spider nest construction, thats prototyping at its best

RE: DIY fun: Building a Mains Power Line Sniffer

mcb1 — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 00:11:45 GMT

Nice work.

You can also some of those voltage sticks.

There are a number around that are very sensitive, and therefore useless inside a switchboard for detecting which wire is live.

This would be an ideal extension to that.

Mark

RE: DIY fun: Building a Mains Power Line Sniffer

jw0752 — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 18:28:45 GMT

Hi Shabaz, Thanks for sharing this cool project with us. I have always enjoyed making my own test instruments. It helps not to have a critical application. I can't wait to give this one a try.

John