Does a parrot's foot conduct electricity?

No but you obviously have no experience in insulation testing.

Arrogant shit.

We've already figured that out, so stop bragging.

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Yes. At a fraction of a volt it doesn't penetrate the dead skin. At a hi gher voltage it does. 24VAC is the limit for low voltage wiring because of this after you pass that limit you will start to feel a tingle. Keep raisin g it will cause electrocution. I was outside my business one day. I watched a squirrel bite into the primary 7200 volt line. He exploded and took out about 12 blocks of downtown Eustis, Florida for several hours. They had to clean up its remains, and replace damaged hardware before they could replac e a fuse on the primary side. Once the voltage is high enough to penetrate the sin, the resistance drops down into the hundred ohms range.

I don't think you can count on that. The 9V battery in a multi tester may not be enough to form the current paths in the material being tested.

A high enough potential, and wood, drywall, carpeting, some plastics, etc., may be good conductors. (things you learn playing with Tesla coils)

And you shouldn't discount mitigating circumstances if safety is involved. I was working on my boat, hands covered with salt-water and figured I'd have no problem with 12V, yet touching the battery leads reminded me of every little cut, abrasion, torn cuticle, etc., on my hands. Not lethal maybe, but disagreeable.

I'm using one of those so-called space blankets (aluminized polyester film) to shield the light emanating from a indoor hydroponic planter. With all the timers, pumps, lights, and fans, it seemed like a good idea to check the conductivity. One side is an insulator the other reads zero ohms everywhere I checked, even 5 feet apart. The stuff isn't totally light proof it just attenuates the light ~80%, so I know the aluminum coating can't be very thick.

Ah, that's why they use those criminally damaging testers for electrical safety tests. The ones that can actually destroy computer equipment.

Not sure how I can perform this test then. I don't want 240V anywhere near her foot for testing.

I doubt it was even possible to harm you, even a 9V battery on your tongue just stings. Mind you if you're up a ladder anything that gives you a fright can make you fall off. I was painting my neighbour's eaves once and his stupid wife tried to have a bloody conversation with me from below. It was the only time I've used rather strong swearwords at her. Her husband found it amusing.

One day that will fall down and short something and cause a fire, I'd be careful if I were you.

Hello,

With all the long conversation on the issue, and not.

Nobody has mentioned the use of a Megohmmeter or Megger to test the quality or effectiveness of an insulating substance.

A Megohmmeter is designed for and used for that purpose.

So connect your parrot to a Megger and crank it up. The parrot may talk or not afterwards.

You all may now resume the previous activities:

Destructive testing is not useful testing. Are you one of those people that goes round companies doing "safety tests" on equipment and blowing up the electronics inside with high voltages?

Something similar seems to go on with measuring very low ohms too. A substantial current may be necessary to accurately measure the resistance. One place I worked had an ancient mirrored galvanometer in an apparatus that dated to the last century - but it was the gold standard when it came to accuracy at low ohms. Four leads to test too

- two for current and two for voltage drop across the R under test.

Just keep the bird away from the voltage? A little hot sauce on the wire insulation?

The salt water and battery thing wasn't dangerous since there needs to be sufficient current through a vital organ. (the Navy said 100 milliamps - but not how they arrived at that figure) It was disagreeable enough to make it hard to work on the system.

The potential is there. The lights use a current limiter, but the open circuit voltage is 80 VDC. Current limiting (300 ma) and the voltage is 30 volts or so. The pumps are 120 V submersible types and the prime danger IMO. There is a GFI and 5 amp circuit breaker built in too.

It weighs 50 pounds or so with a large footprint and low center of gravity,

Is that due to the lack of having a sensitive enough voltmeter to measure the drop? Or do conductors actually change resistance with current? I thought that only happened at really high temperature, like with lightbulb filaments.

Never thought of adding something disgusting. Mind you, I'd have to pick something that wouldn't poison her. Probably easier to put something physically in the way of the wires.

I heard something I believe is a myth, that someone in the army gave himself a heart attack from a multimeter on resistance mode by holding each end with a cut finger. No way there's many milliamps from those things. I think the accepted amount for death is somewhere around what you said the Navy said (hence breakers trip at 30 or 50mA).

You probably don't need much current to set fire to that blanket. Is it flammable?

My house still has fuses. I detest nuisance trips.

You mean marijuana farm :-)

I did a few days back, I called it by its other name "insulation tester" and got a response from Phil A.

------------------

Refers to a high voltage ( 500 or 1000VDC ) ohm meter - with a dial calibrated in megohms. Human skin would likely show as a dead short.

** A rather funny one.

... Phil

The temperature coefficient never came into it - the object was to read the resistance at room temperature. We were making current sensing resistors for a power supply we made. The mirrored galvanometer was an old adaptation to get a very sensitive meter without tubes or transistors. The whole instrument was in an oak box with brass fittings and brass plugs to set the range.

Those old hand-cranked "meggers" (insulation testers) were reputed to give an impressive shock. I never used one that was the bailiwick of the antenna people. At a transmitter site I saw one guy have a spark jump from his ass to the scope cart behind him when the safety discharge contactors and his shorting stick failed. Old WW2 large HF transmitter. He wasn't killed but did go into shock after laughing about it, we had to get him off the mountain and to a hospital.

It is plastic so I expect it is flammable, but from my experience with Mylar, it takes a high temperature without melting.

I just tried it. It wouldn't light readily with a match but the torch did the job and it sustained a flame once lit.

My wife's house had plug fuses, fabric covered wiring, and no grounds. The copper was all black with either oxidation or some coating, and the enclosed lights had insulation that was falling apart.

She paid an electrician some $3,000 to bring it to code. I thought that was a good deal considering the amount of work involved. The electric range needed 4 wires, and the wall outlets went from 14 AWG to 12 AWG and 20 amp breakers. I think the only thing that guy didn't change were the light switches and light fixtures.

I've done some wiring in her house, but I didn't want to tackle that job.

Sorry, I must have missed that one. I use to use a Megger to test the insulation on large DC motors. NEVER considered touching anything to see the intensity of the output.

Did think it would do similar that of a Bell Telephone generator to get night crawlers out of the ground. My dad had one and it worked quite well. I suspect the Megger would do the same.

As for the Parrot for this thread, it is a innocent bystander. And as such, should not be used in a lab experiment.

Actually no. My marijuana days are over. Too many side effects like gallons of mint chocolate chip ice cream...

I bought my wife one of the Aerogarden planters for Xmas a year ago, and was so impressed with how well it worked that I had to have one, so I built it.

I got her the "harvest" version and paid $129 at the time.

I already had a light frame for growing seedlings, and got tired of bending to tend the plants so built a table for it. After seeing how well her Aerogarden was working it was a small matter to add some tote boxes with lids for nutrients plants and small submersible pumps for spraying the roots. I can grow plants ~2 feet high, and have space for 14 plants. The thing really works well. I have cilantro, basil, and Swiss chard - growing fast in the dead of winter, with next to no effort.

The controls were all off-the shelf timers, switches and power supplies. I added temperature switches and a few tiny 5 V fans to cool the lights and a level sensor that tells me the water level needs to be topped off. Everything else is just a little woodworking.

I suspect they'd be a good investment. They have a good range of products, Scott (lawn care, Miracal Gro) has a large stake in their stock already, and their larger "farm" size planters are turn-key marijuana factories. With the legalization of pot they are poised to really take off. In my opinion... Also, while the design is easily copied and will be, they have a good head start and the prices of their products keep dropping so I know they are going for volume and will set the standard for the competition to match or beat.

The wife has cherry tomatoes growing in her planter now and is already harvesting them. I did try a tomato plant in mine but the variety was not small and it was taking over the entire planter so I stuck it outside where it promptly froze and died.

See the above video showing someone in India who is not affected by

The thread can't end without hearing from Monty Python!

Considering how much that hurts, how much damage do you think you're doing to the equipment you test with it?