Freaky Amazing DMM?!

The problem is with transient voltage. I have seen event logs with transients of over 3KV. That will blow that homemade heathkit meter to hell. If you are holding it you will continue life with a pair of stumps.

You do not know anything about working with mains power...stick with your radio shack electronics kit.

I do not agree with MT often, but he is correct here.

The low impedance only dopes are undereducated, and the folks that know how to use their tools to ensure that proper data is recorded is in the right.

No, it will NOT. It MIGHT arc INSIDE the meter, BUT can only last for the duration of the transient, and NO meter is protected to that voltage, you retarded twit! Sure the meter will be broken, but "blow that meter to hell" is pretty much stupid misinformation.

Ya, you are bare assed alright. Shame one of those transients did catch you in the ass, right where your brain is. Oh... that's right... it appears that one did. That accounts for the stupidity.

More total bullshit.

Then the idiots at the IEC and ANSI wasted a lot of time developing standards for modern meters used on high capacity circuits. If they had only consulted you....

Safety experts disagree. Somehow I trust them.

It=92s the patented Archimedes logic. Your namesake would be proud. But why do you want your logical masterpieces erased after only a few days???

When they vaporize there will be less metal to condense on the electrician.

Transients, far above the nominal circuit voltage, can break down a meter that is not designed to handle them. Transients are more likely to be present on high capacity circuits. Result - internal arcing and rapid circuit reconfiguration in multiple directions.

And although you never make mistakes, mere humans do. Cat rated meters are protected in the case a mere human tries to meter on the wrong range.

If you were familiar with modern safety practice you would know about both.

Using a meter that is not Cat rated may only result in your wearing the meter. Or, if you are less lucky, the failure can propagate back to the switchgear.

Arc flash is a serious enough problem that it attracted OSHA. That is arc flash at =93low voltage=94 - below 600V. The defacto standard for worker safety is NFPA 70E ( a cousin to the NEC which is NFPA 70). A major piece of 70E is arc flash protection. Why does 70E require =93low voltage=94 electricians to wear arc flash suits in some environments?

You are out of touch with =91current=92 safety practices. What a surprise!

-- bud--

Even easier for Arloe.

It=92s the favorite nobody-knows-anything-but-Michael argument.

Not the issue, of course. Any tool can be used. The question is what is appropriate and efficient. High z meters do not help you on power circuits, but you can use what you want. Arloe is entirely reasonable to use a low z meter.

-- bud--

"rapid circuit reconfiguration"? Is there anything that you do not make up some lame phrase to describe it? A meter which experiences an arc internally where it should not be will most certainly fail. That's not a 'reconfiguration' you retarded f*ck, that is termed as a 'failure mode' or a 'catastrophic failure'. I wouldn't expect a twit like you to know what the word mode means, however. Either way, your description isn't one.

You are a VAPID circuit reconfiguration.

I made on, thinking that you have half a brain.

How would you know, since you do not qualify?

Modern meters auto-range, you retarded, Chinese cheap shit f*****ad.

I have used meters on 50kV before, floating.

A test circumstance a pussy like you doesn't even have the balls to try, much less LEARN how to perform. I know EXACTLY how to meter ANY source, fucktard.

You are so stupid, you likely do not even know what Fluorinert is.

Or, in the case of experienced users, WILL only result in a proper and safely obtained reading being taken.

You're an idiot... A complete retard. I have seen high capacity lines dancing on the street before. *Those* current spikes made it to the switch gear. A failed DMM would not even make a single event that matched any one of those arcs dancing on the roadway, and very likely would appear as a mere glitch on the switch gear, at best.

You act like someone is throwing a 2 inch diameter Copper bar across the taps. Sorry but the are no meters made that react like a 2 inch Copper bar when they short an AC source. Perhaps you should re-examine your claims.

Because they are painfully aware of the average IQ of the majority of electrical workers involved in such activities.

No. I know them quite well. I also know what is required to perform a given operation.

You are like a QA inspector with no education, who only inspects things by looking at a picture of the finished item. All you can do is quote chapter and verse, but your actual hands on knowledge appears to be nil.

Are you an office fucktard that sits at a drafting table doing estimations?

Yes. And the copper MELTS and SPATTERS, it does NOT "gasify" then "condense", you clueless, make it up as you go twit.

If you are hooking up meters ACROSS a source on amps settings, you need to have bad things happen to you to get you OUT of an industry you have no business being in. Just like flying a passenger jet, there is no margin for retarded mistakes, and to say that it just happens doesn't mean that the person that does it is not dirt stupid as it relates to his chosen field, REGARDLESS of any scores he got in his schooling of it.

ALL modern meters have cat ratings these days. D'Oh!

You are EXACTLY just as retarded as I knew you to be. Condense that, dumbfuck.

Anyone who isn=92t already familiar with arc flash may be interested in:

=93This massive energy discharge burns the bus bars, vaporizing the copper and thus causing an explosive volumetric increase, the arc blast, conservatively estimated, as an expansion of 40,000 to 1. This fiery explosion devastates everything in its path, creating deadly shrapnel as it dissipates.=94

Geez - that=92s what Arlowe just wrote. And what I said.

And vaporized copper will condense. Some of it can condense on an electrician. Like the one I know that it happened to.

You have no clue what arc flash is. Explosion. Searing hot gas, metal vapor and radiant heat. Shrapnel. Blinding light. Deafening sound.

Shit happens.

So do transients Arlowe cites transients of over 3kV. A Cat IV nominal 600V meter is protected for 8kV transients.

Only in the alternate universe where you live.

You are stupid. You do not know the limits of what you know. You are not willing to learn. Just like Roy.

-- bud--

Any retarded twit that gets near power transmission lines with a handheld meter deserves whatever he gets, regardless of the from it takes.

Proof that its easier for him?

You are starting to sound like your hero, the cut & paste 'surge protector W_Tom'.

Arloe can use anything he wants to. No one else cares, but a lot of what he posts is old wives tales.

Bullshit. Prove me wrong.

It is not uncommon to read mains voltage, not some BS 83VAC like some have referred to, but MAINS VOLTAGE on a conductor that is isolated.

When you have a panel where the active cables are segregated form the neutrals, you can get very strong, alternating magnetic fields depending on the current draw.

If you put an isolated cable in that field you will measure voltage on that cable with a DMM. An electrician can not rely on reading an "incorrect" voltage as an assurance that the cable is dead. He has to be able to PROVE IT. Some will use an analog meter, I don't, I use test lamps that have the correct CAT rating for the enviroment. I follow up by testing my lamps on a "known supply" ie. a supply that I verified live before I performed any testing, just to prove the test lamps are functionimg as intended.

Call it crude, I don't give a f*ck, it works, it is failsafe and it is fast.