Another Harbor Freight Visit

[rake60]

The wife decided we were going Christmas shopping today so I went to Harbor Freight
to stay out of the way.

One of my new toys is another non-contact voltage detector for my work tool box.
It is an $8 knock off of a name brand device.

If you don't have one, they are well worth that cost!
When you bring it near a live AC circuit a LED flashes and it beeps to indicate a voltage.

They are pretty idiot proof. Here's an example using the power cord to my lathe.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZwHGwZfWf8[/ame]

It sure beats licking those terminals to check for a live circuit!
Just remember this one will detect ONLY AC Voltages.

Rick

 

[rcmadness]

Rake60, I want to share my experience on these little devices but in no way do I want to offend you in any way. So if I do I apologize in advance in case I do.

They are great little gadgets and they have come down a lot in price in the last few years. I bought 250 of the original big name brand ones and put them to work in an area I was overseeing. The guys thought they were great until the electrician did some testing with them.
1. they don't work on DC current which isn't a big deal in most cases. (Rake already pointed out)
2. they don't work on AC 3 Phase Delta voltage. (evidently this type uses earth grounding for the ground leg thus nulls out the signal for the device)
3. all of our big equipment used 3 Phase Delta for power which made the detectors non effective for the service I intended.

Now for the good news I doubt may hobby machinist have 3 Phase Delta running in their shops so this can be a life saver and a great little problem solver, but if were to take them to the industrial setting they could cause you a problem. I must say that its been 10 years since I ran into the problem and something might have changed. I was told buy the manufacture at the time that they could not overcome the 3 Phase Delta issue with this technology.

 

[rake60]

Another good point rc!

Rick

 

[Twmaster]

Idiot proof? They have not encountered this idiot...

 

[BlakeMcKee]

I do commercial electrical work, I prefer a klein or greenlee stick for just a few more dollars (~$15ish). They do work great, but sometimes they "bleed through" (IE: Two hots touching each other will cause the device to go off, even if one of the legs are OFF, causing the need to still use a volt meter).

And for the idiot thing, we had a temp on one of our jobs (oddly enough, we shared the same first name -_-), he was using his "hot stick"(as we call them...) incorrectly, majority of the time they do not read through mc cable. He cut through two hot cables, twice in a row. He should have stopped the first time his side cutters blew up right??? Lol.

My 2 cents and an added nickel....