Personal safety

[dave_h]

Gents -mods ,et all .

Lots of people giving advice strongly advise “no live testing” – I strongly agree for those that don’t know that mains + water = trip to the morgue .
But still some innocents will buy a cheap DVM and look for loss of volts ,whilst thinking that the cheap leads may be capable of handling 250v AC – AND AGAIN as new they might .But ( and I’ve seen it ) , after a bit of mistreatment ,dirt /grease etc , those cheap leads suddenly can’t handle the likes of mains voltages .OK- you’ve got one probe clipped to chassis of washing M/C – but the other – it’s in your right hand -and now two scenarios come into play—

1) – your left hand touches chassis and mains leaks through leads ,through right hand ,through chest ( and heart ) – and you get a trip to hospital ,or a visit to coroner ( and a stone memento saying “Volts kills”).
2) voltage passes through probe to right hand and to wet floor via those wet non insulated shoes -result nasty burns/nerve ending burns .

My kit is proofed to 1kv,my work boots are isolated , I’ve worked on isolated floors ,and I won’t do it – WHY – IT’S NOT SAFE .

AND THAT’S(one reason why) WHY THE PROS DON’T ADVISE LIVE TESTING .

Me – I’ve worked on live 1000v AC stuff , entered 4.5KV cabinets ,held 660v ac safety certs .So -perhaps I can advise .

[philfish]

Re: Personal safety

I totally agree with you safety is paramount NO LIVE TESTING EVER! no need for it!!

Its not the volts that get you it is the current (amps) under the right circumstances has little as 300th of 1amp which is very very very little can be lethal.

Never ever test live!

Phil

[admin]

Re: Personal safety

What !!! you mean the tried and tested way of licking your finger and putting it onto a cable isnt safe anymore to see if its live ….

Thats really gonna spoil my fun ech day..

Bryan

[SAMURI]

Re: Personal safety

I Think this subject is shocking. 😆

[ratbag_359]

Re: Personal safety

For me when I have to do live testing i don’t like doing it so when I do I use a isolating transformer so the only risk then is phase to neutral which is harder to do but still a shock risk 🙁
As for my work on electronics SMPS are the devils work.

[ratbag_359]

Re: Personal safety

oh sorry I grave dug.

[Author]

Posts