May be handy for a few DIYers
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if there any left (some are).
Not a match on the Fluke but for £2.44 for DIY use!
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8 years ago
Volt stick
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8 years ago
It's more than just a voltage detector it comes with built-in bright flash light, I don't think any fluke has that !.
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8 years ago
Mine does. Though as it was a present I have no idea what it cost...
Andy
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8 years ago
Thanks for that. Picked one up today and have just had a play with it. Seems dead easy for sockets, FCUs and 6242. But on some flex I had to roll it all the way round the circumference to get a positive reading; in other words, it would have been easy for someone less paranoid to get a false negative. I've no idea if that's just the sign of a cheap detector or a possible fault. Either way for ?2.44 I'm not complaining.
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8 years ago
Even my Fluke has problems with flex! You need as you say "to roll it around". I can also suggest that you may get better results when testing flex by holding the pen in parallel with the flex when rolling it around and not holding it at 90deg to the flex. Try it and you will see.
It seems you bought the last one:-)
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8 years ago
I homebrewed one of those volt detectors in the 80s, it never had any probl em detecting live cable. Very simple circuit.
NT
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8 years ago
Thanks again.
Doubt it. I bought it online half an hour after your post on Thursday but was too bloody idle to collect it sooner.
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8 years ago
i bought one of these as i thought i had lost my old style Fluke
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£1.06p works just as well and has a light
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8 years ago
In message , Mark writes
How the hell do they sell those things at that price, including postage? Do they really work?
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8 years ago
As i said mine works fine and the seller has sold over a thousand of them but how they can do it for that price including postage is beyond me ?
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8 years ago
OK, thanks. At that price, I'll risk it :-)
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8 years ago
I'm gonna live dangerously. I've ordered three. ;-)
Tim
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8 years ago
Any idea why flex has that effect?
The volt stick I have (from TLC) will pick up live T&E in plaster & even in a studded wall, but sometimes does what you describe there with flex.
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8 years ago
They are something I simply don't trust. If they say volts are present, I'd take precautions. If they say they aren't, I'd still take precautions. ;-)
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8 years ago
Presumably it doesn't work when N is close to the detector, and screening capacitive pickup from L.
NT
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8 years ago
Cheap labour. Proper CE certificate?
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8 years ago
Well, I ordered two 25th Feb, and they arrived this morning, six days later . Put in two AAAs and it just works. How do they do it at 1.06 including postage from China. As Mark says above, there is even a light.
When touched against a kettle lead, the end flashes red and it beeps. Same with the live area of a wall socket.
Graeme
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8 years ago
Well, I always check that it beeps on something live *after* checking it doesn't beep on what I think I've disconnected. I also usually poke the volt stick around inside the box after I open it but before I stick a screwdriver in it.
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8 years ago
On flex you get the wires often twisted, and presumably, this can null out the field that is being detected in some circumstances. Hall effect and other types of sensor are only measuring the field changes in one place after all. I'm sure a really good one might heave more sensors to try to pick up the field.
Brian