On Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 3:27:51 PM UTC-5, Leon Fisk wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jan 2016 11:26:49 -0800 (PST)
rangerssuck wrote:

snip
So, I was at the factory today to fix something completely
unrelated, but I threw the phase detector in my toolbag
just for the hell of it. Having taken care of today's
issues, I spent some time with the maintenance mechanic
talking about their three-phase issues. It turns out (as
it usually does) to be more complicated than originally
stated:

snip
But it was good today to see that the little $20 meter
gave good, believable readings.

Good to hear. After reading a few reviews for some of the less
expensive testers via Amazon people were having trouble with them.
Or they didn't know how to use them. One can never be sure ;-)

Thanks for the followup!

With the current prices, functions/abilities they have, I would get one
if I was still doing that kind of work.

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

Yeah, it's nothing special, but the instructions are in Cinglish, so I can see how people would get confused.

The unit has five LEDs - L1, L2, L3, CW, CCW. It also has three test leads with screw-on alligator clips. All I did was connect the three leads to the appropriate terminals on a mating plug. If you get all three L LEDs, you have all the phases. One of the CW or CCW will light, telling you which direction you're wired.

There's also an anemic buzzer in there, that pulses for CW and is steady for CCW, but I could barely hear it in any of the four rooms I tested in.

There are better, more expensive testers, but this will certainly do what I need for this job.

I mentioned all this to my brother who is an electronics tech at a large USPS facility. He told me about the time they lost a phase and had to replace a LOT of contactor contacts and other stuff. A lot of noise and smoke.

He also said that even though they are meticulous about making sure that everything is wired correctly, and there's paperwork to prove it, they still have an only slightly better than 50/50 chance of being wrong when they install a new machine.