testing electric fence?

There are two parallel wires along the tops of the ties. One is connected to ground.

Remember it worked for years, until this summer. What I am going to do on my next visit is to visually follow the wires around and see if I can spot some damage.

Don.

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Reply to
Don Wiss
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On 07/05/2016 8:51 PM, Don Wiss wrote: ...

What's to know? Either there's output or there's not.

Simplest way to check is simply take a screwdriver(*) and touch the hot to ground and see if get a hot spark...if not, you've either got a ground or an open.

Disconnect the fence/wire at the charger and check the outputs there the same way.

Don't know anything about the specific unit; older ones used a electro/mechanical "chopper" that could fail--a plug in unit looking physically much like the old turn signal chopper; functions same way. Some, in fact, actually used them altho afaik now if it's not all solid state they're 3- or 4-prong "timers"...same function.

(*) Dad always carried a pair of CeeTee pliers which have no insulation on handles. _IF_ you are sure to get a good ground against the post, you can do the above test without getting shocked yourself. It does, however, take some practice to do it right every time... :)

Reply to
dpb

Doesn't anyone own a neon tester anymore? Just getting it close to the wire should light it up. OTOH you could just touch it with the back of your hand. It won't kill you. If you are wearing rubber soled shoes it won't even hit you that hard.

Reply to
gfretwell

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Sure, but they're _way_ overkill for the job at hand... :)

Reply to
dpb

Grab the wire. If it doesn't set you on your ass it's not working.

Are the wires mounted properly on insulators??

Chippies can jump over / between the wires without touching the wires

- and definitely without touching both wire and ground. To be effective you need wires stretched about 1.2 -2 inches apart - alternating between grounded and powered so the have to touch both going through.

Reply to
clare

Standard fence insulators are very effective and reasonably priced. Something like ten bux for 30.

Reply to
clare

Jast grab on. If you can hold it - it's not working. It won't kill you - it'll just "recharge your batteries" (unless you have a pacemaker).

I've dealt with electric fences for years as a "farm boy".

The "agway" is likely a store brand - rebranded from some other manufacturer - and likely old enough not to have any reference on-line.

I wouldn't recommend grabbing on to a "bull - dozer" or "weed chopper"

- but just about anything else is just VERY uncomfortable - not dangerous. The Dozer or Chopper will put you on your knees.

Reply to
clare

So is a blade of grass. A "weed chopper" will latch on and burn off the grass or branch (and has started MANY grass fires) - bu the puny little Agway won't stand much of a chance.

Reply to
clare

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com posted for all of us...

There are no manly men left.

Reply to
Tekkie®

The animals have to be able to complete the circuit, or, nothing will happen. You can hold a hot wire all day long, as long as you're not a source to ground. You might want to change your search parameters. Lowe's carries a simplistic one for less than ten dollars; Neon lights and resistors, I don't remember the exact range limit...5kv.. mebbe 10kv.. I don't think it'll do much

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it's around $50 or so. Digital, more in lines of what you're looking for. You might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere, though.

I know you said your meter says all is well, but, it does sound like you've got a short circuit in the fence wiring. If you don't resolve it, you can damage the chargers internal circuitry upto and including it's coil.

It's important to have a good ground and a ground 'bed' too. I run multiple wires myself. Switching between ground and 'hot' as I go. That way, the animal has a better chance of completing the circuit if they come across it. I don't have to rely on the critter to be standing on the ground and have the ground moist or anything to make it a good conductor. Redundancy is achieved with my additional wires on the fence that are ground wires. As in, ground, hot, ground, hot, ground, hot, etc.

I also have three wires in close proximity to each other across the top. The middle wire is hot (it's sitting on a thin piece of plastic on the top of the pole, so that it isn't shorted out as the pole is ground and has ground wires attached to it), the left and right are grounds; so if a critter decides to try some high tight rope walking, I *should* still get them. Unless the little bastard has small enough paws to walk the middle wire without touching anything else. I've yet to see one do that, though.

Funny story concerning continuity testing with a meter. I noticed wiring a house once, on an especially long run, the meter showed no short circuit, but firing the breaker for that wire resulted in a trip right away. A hard trip, so, yea, a short circuit. Nothing was plugged into the receptacles on the line; so it wasn't an issue of a plugged in device having a short. It was my meter not using enough juice for a continuity test of the distance I was trying.

Yours may also have the same problem.

Google is very helpful. I found instructions/schematics for building my own. So far, it works well, too. [g] It's using a coil intended for a v8 though.. Likely putting a lot more on the lines than I need, but, it's keeping critters away from my moms garden, quite nicely. Why, it's even removing weeds near the fence line. ROFL. And, it's made me want to piss myself on more than one occasion when I screwed up and made contact with it while it was energized.

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If you follow that wiring suggestion, you'll have better results with the electric fence.

Here's a nice schematic for one that I've tested based on it and succesfully built. A word of caution, when assembling/playing with these devices, do not touch any components while it's energized. you'll feel like you got kicked by a horse, hard! You might think a

12volt power source won't do anything, but, by the time it's coming out of the device, it's not 12volts anymore.. and, it'll do more than tingle.

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That doesn't include the time I was using a push mower and got too close to one of my hot wires. It arced and I got it. Ouchie #2

Good luck and happy experimenting!

Reply to
Diesel

It could be.. It could also be a relay that completes the circuit to the coil briefly. Some use solid state relays, some don't actually use a relay but an IC performing the same task, instead. Others, use a mechanical relay and/or the same type of flashing relay on a car; hence the clicking sound.

Reply to
Diesel

Sounds like something along the line(s) changed. If there are branches in the circuit, maybe you could troubleshoot by opening some of the branches to find out which if one is shorting out the line.

Reply to
Art Todesco

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