Electric circuit "detective"

[David Nebenzahl]

Just a note about those circuit-tracing doohickies. I had (but recently lost, due to stupidity) the Harbor Freight "Circuit Detective" tracer, which worked fairly well; it would reliably find the breaker for a circuit most, but not all, of the time. (It also had an annoying design flaw: if you left a battery in it, it would quickly drain because part of the device was always "on" waiting for a press of the power button; I corrected that by installing a small slide switch to disconnect the battery.)

Today, I used another tracer working on a guy's house. Don't remember the brand, but this one was red (the HF one is blue), and it works a

*lot* better, mainly because it has a sensitivity adjustment (the HF one has none). You back off the control until it stops beeping, which makes it just sensitive enough to find the right breaker. I highly recommend it.

[Stormin Mormon]

Sounds a lot safer than using the dead short method of finding the breaker. I've always figured on a duplex outlet you could usse two heating devices, and deliberately overload. Two hair driers, for example. More than 20 amps, sure to trip anything but a FPE breaker.

[The Daring Dufas]

I have one like it, I believe it's a Gardner Bender older model. The new one is yellow and is also branded A W Sperry.

TDD

[aemeijers]

I finally bought me one of the HF cheap units a couple weeks ago, on sale. And yesterday, I remembered to buy the screw-in plug adapter so I could trace the ceiling lights that use normal-base bulbs. Guess I will have to guess on the other ceiling fixtures, based on whatever else goes out.

Now to get off my ass and actually map out the panel here, after 5 years. Wish I had somebody else living here- even with the tone unit, gonna be a LOT of trips up and down the stairs. A bright kid and a pair of walkie-talkies would make it a quick job.

-- aem sends...

[HeyBub]

A better retort is: "I distinctly remember forgetting that."

[HeyBub]

Think cell-phone. All kids, bright or no, have them.

[The Daring Dufas]

One of the areas I work in besides electrical is the telecom and data field. I use a telecom toner to trace de-energized electrical circuits too. Since I'm used to working on my own, I've had to develop strategies for doing what may be considered two man,....er person jobs. If the breaker panel is downstairs, I will disconnect the wire from the breaker and connect the tone generator there. That way, I can go around to the various devices upstairs and map it out. There are other slower methods but a tone finder only needs to touch most devices to detect the tone. In the past, I've mentioned "The Jesus Method" for finding breakers which is also a good way to test them. You take a couple of feet of #12 stranded wire, attach it to a plug and with it plugged in, turn your face or use a welding mask, touch the live wires together while yelling JESUS during the blinding flash, you can then go find the tripped breaker.

TDD

[aemeijers]

I have multiple ways available to set up the comm link. What I don't have is the KID. Or spouse, or SO, or whatever. Siblings are hundreds of miles away. There are friends at work I could tap for an URGENT project, like tarping a roof after a storm, but this hardly falls in that category. They all have families and houses of their own to deal with. Living alone is a PITA sometimes.

-- aem sends...

[David Nebenzahl]

On 11/15/2009 8:36 AM HeyBub spake thus:

Wait--shouldn't that be "I distinctly forget remembering that."? Nah; guess that wouldn't make sense (more surreal, though).