Cable Fault Finder w/ circuit diagram

Feb 11, 2019 2:55 AM

enigma439

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266299

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3058

Dislikes

46

electrician

awesome

circuits

neat

My fault finder and I broke up a month ago.

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Not sure if downvote for pointless music or upvote because I happen to like this particular piece of pointless music.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I'll be honest, I think you could have found the break in the circuit without it

6 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

I'd be interested in seeing it work with a proper plug, and if a machine we're turned on.

6 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

We are turned on, too.

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That music though

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

HSE annoucement: Do not use this to detect is the current off. Only to detect is current live or cable faults.

6 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

ok so how do I detect if the current is off? Because that's pretty much what I use it for.

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I need this for my relationship.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Won't work on DC voltage. Needs AC voltage to induce current on the measuring device.

6 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

This is not magnetic induction. there is no current on that broken wire

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

(a) Nobody said this was magnetic. The AC voltage is making your electric field. (B) Nobody is disputing the example shown. Just won't do DC

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

The big gap in the wire wasn't a clue?

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Neat

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Put it in a plastic housing, paint "Fluke" on it, and charge me $200

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

volt tick

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

If you did this in Australia and you weren't an electrician, you would be arrested

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

looks around, hey guys, there's only 1 wire com8ng out of that socket... what happened to the rest of the circuit?

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

6 years ago | Likes 77 Dislikes 4

You took the most funny scene of the whole series and made a fucking imgur upvote gif out of it? Shame! Shame!

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I didnt. Imgur did. I just used it :D

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Is it just an inductor? I'm guessing it won't work for well shielded cables.

6 years ago | Likes 137 Dislikes 3

Or DC voltage

6 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Think of it more as a e-field pickup antenna.

6 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

Or against neutral.

6 years ago | Likes 71 Dislikes 0

Not a problem when you are working on an IT system...

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 4

Like the Swiss?

6 years ago | Likes 25 Dislikes 0

Shielding only attenuates flux. Theoretically, you could do this for any cable.

6 years ago | Likes 23 Dislikes 2

Won't work on DC, no change in Flux is no induced current to power the LED

6 years ago | Likes 29 Dislikes 0

Unless it's pulsed DC, which does change slightly.

6 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Downvote for completely unrelated and unnecessary sound/music at 10,000db.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Why oh why do they keep adding inane music to gifs. Go back to facebook with that shit.

6 years ago | Likes 39 Dislikes 2

Mute, all day every day

6 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I didn't need to know it had music.

6 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I thinkn the background music to this video is a perfect metapher of why I hate the majority of people and especially young ones.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

well that reminded me to turn the sound off

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

a foreign volt meter? uhhhh....

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Small bottle rocket

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I dont need one for that fault :)

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

one of those dead christmas lights sensor things.

6 years ago | Likes 33 Dislikes 1

Would it really work for that though? The wire would still have power of the bulb is bad.

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Sometimes a bad bulb or damaged socket knocks out the whole line on my tree.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

...I never thought of using it for that!

6 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Do people still buy series instead of parallel christmas lights?

6 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

Mine are a terrible parallel design

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Yeah, that's what they use on stranger things isn't it?

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

a.k.a "chicken stick"

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

You can buy completed enclosef product for under 10€£$. But if you want to make it yourself then carry on.

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Sauce then?

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

https://m.motonet.fi/fi/tuote/385279/Jannitteen-koetin-5-600V from Finland but still valid for price range

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Amazon has a lot of non-contact voltage testers for around $20. I like the Fluke one, but they're probably all made by the same company.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

6 years ago | Likes 166 Dislikes 0

Glad you did that, it was damned hard to get the bugger on the right frame

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

So why are three transistor necessary?

6 years ago | Likes 22 Dislikes 1

I'd guess it's acting as a current divider to protect the LED from burning, but that's just a guess.

6 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 6

Each transistor has current gain. 3 stages amplifies the feeble inductor current by almost 1 million

6 years ago | Likes 55 Dislikes 1

v

6 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I forget, but doesn't the output rely more on the drain than the gate for n-types? Doesn't the gate just have to overcome threshold?

6 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 1

Either way, this doesn't seem like a smart design…

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 5

If it's cheap and works with only few common discreet parts, why is it stupid design then?

6 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

That depends on the type of transistor, some open all the way at a set voltage, others open and close further depending on that voltage

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

In bipolar transistors Ic (current of collector) = β*Ib (gain multiplied by base current). Typical β =~ 100.

6 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

In THIS case it is clear that it depends only on the base.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

There are no drain and gate, there's collector and base. These are BJTs, you're thinking of MOSFETs.

6 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

So it's a non contact voltage detector?

6 years ago | Likes 891 Dislikes 8

Nnnnnnyes

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

a.k.a volt stick

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Wimp Stick

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It senses electric fields I think. Like an antenna but you don't need to interpret the signal. Been a while, I could be wrong...

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Since it’s effective range is about a millimeter I think it still falls under contact voltage detector

6 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 21

You arent contacting the conductor. So you can see if wires are dead. So its noncontact.

6 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

Yea, but still

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 19

If we're really being picky then technically speaking either everything is noncontact or nothing is.

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Yup. Remember when we would go to Radio Shack and buy the parts to make these ourselves?

6 years ago | Likes 97 Dislikes 0

Now you just go to mouser, octopart, or digikey

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Ahh, Radio Shack. The perfect example why a leather company shouldn't try to make overpriced computers.

6 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

Waaait... Tandy was the same Tandy?!!!

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Yep. The Current Tandy is actually "The Leather Experts". They bought the name and leather business when old-Tandy went full time into RS.

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I ‘member.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

No

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

pepperidge farm remember

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Ahhh radio shack. Bankruptcy brother of fellow fossil Blockbuster

6 years ago | Likes 74 Dislikes 0

Blockbuster still exists, it is a danish online rental for movies now

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

That's exactly what it is. It's a fairly simple concept, but really neat to make one.

6 years ago | Likes 292 Dislikes 1

Dot

6 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 1

Daht

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Dawt

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It's a simple spell but quite unbreakable.

6 years ago | Likes 17 Dislikes 0

It detects small changing magnetic fields. The changing B-field comes from the AC mains charging and discharging the severed wire.

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Even though the wire doesn't form a circuit in space, it has a reactance and stores and releases a very small amount of energy each AC cycle

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

So in effect, it forms a circuit in time

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

In effect it's an antenna. Not a very good antenna, but still an antenna

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

AC voltage detector* this thing isn't going to do anything for DC

6 years ago | Likes 56 Dislikes 1

I mean most power networks use AC anyway...

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Well you could spin it really fast to detect DC voltages... :D

6 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Can I expect be made for DC?

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

It could detect a functioning DC circuit. The intensity of the M field is a function of current.

6 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 3

This functions via capacitive coupling from the probe tip, not m-field interactions.

4 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

with a steady current, it will "blip" at best. You need flux.

6 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

You know what? I just remembered my Faraday and his problem with input/output symmetry in coils. You are correct.

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

You'd have to move the coil back and forth like a metal detector.

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

There is no current in the video. The wire is plugged in but no load.

6 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 1

Try this at home and grab or touch that bare spot and see what happens.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

There's a small changing B-field due to parasitic current from the reactance in the attached wire.

6 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Technically the wires act as capacitors and therefore a very small current is always flowing

6 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 3

You're right, people love to downvote tho.

6 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

But that would qualify as AC. And the whole thing is a transmission line?

6 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1