olly, then what do you use it for? That's all it does!

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Fine but whatever you do don't rely on a neon screwdriver as you might not be a good enough earth to make it light but a shock from live to neutral can still kill.

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Hero, those AC volt probes are fully insulated, they're not connected to an earth ground in any way shape or form. Playing around with mine and moving it around on various surfaces it will even give brief false positive blips from static charge on just about any object. Can detect a live TV from over a foot away due to the electric field from the tube. The 'sensor' is a piece of metal connected to a low capacitance Mosfet gate and that's fed into an amplifier. The whole thing is encased in plastic to isolate it (mines rated for 1000V Cat IV CE and UL listed) Getting the tip within a half inch of a 120 volt live outlet will cause it to go off. As the instructions say test it on a known live circuit before use but it will detect down to 50 volts AC, maybe lower above line frequency as the capacitive coupling is higher. I wouldn't trust it as an absolute safe way of testing a line, but it's a good final (all clear) once normal precautions have been taken, or a very good indicator for first level trouble shooting.

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Pretty much strictly diagnostic purposes where I just wanted to confirm the presence of a voltage. I used to fix catering equipment and quite often where contactors were involved it was useful as a quick test. Also useful with mains leads, and testing for a floating neutral etc..
I wouldn't say that I never used it for the purpose of checking the status of a live circuit but I would only be happy to see it turn off when killing the power and would never rely on it 'blind'.

I actually remember a couple occasions where the pen did give me false negatives for some reason...

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I've been using mine to test whether outlets are live or not in our renovated-multiple-times home. I test it and get a beep before anyone starts throwing breakers, and when they get the right one it stops beeping. There is so much liability involved with measuring line voltages that I'm sure they've got these things engineered down pat. Some systemic flaw and you've got a major class action suit on your hands.

 

I would only rely on the AC probe to tell me that the circuit was live.
I would never rely on it to tell me that a circuit is off and safe to touch.
Keep one hand in your pocket and you'll live longer.

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A straightened paper clip is invaluable when working on CD and DVD drives. Only way to open the buggers without power.

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Not true, if you hit them hard enough, they open...
Sometimes they even work afterwards, though they can get to a stage where you have to manually put them back in, cause you've hurt them so much...

Btw, earlier on page 1 pins on dip packages were discussed. I always found it useful when working on a new board, cause you can hold the board upside down, and the ic, cause of it's bent out pins, stays in place, much like how you can bend pins on resistors to keep them in place when you're doing a rush job. Works especially well when the holes are drilled finer / more accurately... for a cleaner job...

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It's a classic 'trick' that ought to be taught to anybody that uses a computer, for many times have I seen the dire results of opening the CD/DVD tray with a kitchen knife...lol no..what am I thinking..nobody will ever ask us any us to rescue a stuck disc ever again.

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It may seem like a good idea at the time , but never stir your cold coffee with a soldering iron.

 

I didn't read the whole thread...

My FAVORITE tool for electronics is my tweezers. If i cant pick up a component, or need to put a wire in a hole, a nice round-tipped tweezers is a GREAT tool.

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When you young people get a bit older, your best tool will be your glasses. I really miss the good eyesight I used to have.

 

Besides the soldering iron (I need a proper soldering station but I get by with my old Radio Shack iron pretty well), probably the helping hands get the most use.

Also jeweler's glasses (see my avatar). My eyes aren't really that bad but for smaller things and checking for solder gaps/bridges they are very useful.


Torben

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Yes I agree, but now I also use a lighted magnifier.

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Get a temperature controlled soldering station. The MPJA units are only $50 or so and work well.

I got tired of having to aim the swing arm lamps and installed a 2 x 4 foot 3 bulb florescent light fixture over the workbench. It is a nice commercial unit with a 6 inch tall grid to diffuse the light and prevent glare.

The bulb nearest the edge of the workbench was removed to reduce the light level to where I could my computer on the next table without going blind.

Attached Images

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Hi,

I agree with Jpanhalt.

hemostats, shoud not be used often as they become easily magnetized.

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