DRofElectricity

Alright members, time to whip out those homemade troubleshooting tools. Seems that there is always something on our mind at the end of the day that we should make to make things that day 'so much' easier. Share with us tools you have made that have made troublshooting a breeze or tools/equipment on the market that not many people know about. Share your insight, Lighting, ballast work, motors, motor controls etc. lets hear it!

erics37

I rigged up a couple of miscellaneous adapters (various twist-loks, screw shell things, etc.) with a 15A 125V female cord end so I can plug my circuit tracer into all sorts of circuits.

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- Eric

480sparky

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In winter, why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

Frank Mc

I have made a couple of Homebrew testers..

Point to Point tester ...
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z.../PTP%20TESTER/

4 to 20mA signal generator

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z...ent_Simulator/

Frank

erics37

I dig the 4-20 mA generator gizmo! That is rad.

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- Eric

Frank Mc

Hi Eric

It was quite an easy project to build so long as you can read basic electronic circuits....


I got the basic schematic of the net...

http://www.piclist.com/techref/microchip/aout.htm

Added a serial LCD using the Sparkfun serial adaptor board

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/258

Then added a pic micro on some breadboard and wrote some code (in ladder logic)....

http://www.cq.cx/ladder.pl

HTH
Frank

zoltan

Where can I buy the flasher insert?

Nevermind, google found it.

piperunner

I like making tools for the electrical trade . I dont sell these anymore and iam not in bussiness so this is not a sales pitch Jencore has been gone a long time ago !

76nemo

"Homemade" and "testing tools" sounds like "bad idea"

I don't even make test leads........

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"To live outside the Law, you must be honest"~B.Dylan

BBQ

I have used a battery like this ....




... with a bell like this taped onto it ...




.. with a set of 6' leads wired to it with alligator clips ...



... as a loud kick ass continuity tester.

I have also set it up from ground to fire alarm conductors while the sheetrockers were doing their thing so if they ground faulted a conductor I would know. No ground faults happened while I had it set up but I still think it is not a bad idea.

480sparky

Google is our friend!

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In winter, why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

DRofElectricity

Anybody know where you can find a electrical diagram of a phase/motor rotation meter?

cdnelectrician

I always wanted to make one of those, but then thought about using it on 600 volts...probably a bad idea. A schematic would be cool though! Anyone?

piperunner

This is as simple as it gets but today you would use leds with a circuit a little logic and a few devices and you have it .






This ones a old time logic with a few parts and home bru stuff

Lone Crapshooter

I have made 2 wire sorters and several continuity testers over the years. The wire sorters one will do 10 wires and the other will do 20 wires.
Basically a voltage divider made up of several precision resistors all of the same value and a lead coming off between each of the resistors.
Ground the common end of the voltage divider and connect the other leads in numerical sequence. Take a DMM to the opposite end connect one DMM lead to ground and begin sorting . The wire with 1000 Ohms is wire 1 2000 Ohms is wire 2 and so on.

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Electrician licensing without continuing education is just another form of TAXATION

piperunner

We made a tester a few years back it kinda uses just simple diodes nothing else each diode must series via the next you must test number one wire thur diode one this loops thur to wire two which now flows thur next diode and next wire three each diode is in series with each wire you can test 150 wires if you like if you dont match the correct input to output polarity wise on your diode your not going to get a led to lite up test stops and your now hunting for the next match .

We mostly used it for multi numbered control wires to help with lost numbers or incorrectly number stuff .

Lots of fun making testers and using them out in the field but with microchips today this stuff is kinda out of date .

sseivard

Frank MC,

Where did you get the meter housing?

Big John

Was digging through a box of old tools today and found this one-hit-wonder I built back when I was an apprentice to verify faulty GFCIs. I thought I threw it out or lost it years ago.


You select your current in mA with the red knob, then you lift the missile launcher switch and push the test button and it creates a ground fault at that value, so you could find out how far away from nominal your GFCI was tripping.

It's a shame, I don't even think I even used it but about a dozen times before it got put away.

-John

scott_8222

Do you have a schematic for the point to point tester? Would be able to be set up for 30 conductors?

123electric

Light bulb, pig tail, in series across the short. Of course with an extension cord in sight while using it. Am I showing my age? Carter system anyone?