On 01/10/2017 12:27, Cursitor Doom wrote:
Gentlemen,

I've just come up with a very simple idea to massively improve safe-
working in high voltage cabinets where testing has to be done live. In
fact it's so simple there must surely be some flaw in it that I've
overlooked (or there's already some obscure product that covers it). Tell
me what you think.
Firstly, when I say "high voltage cabinets" I'm not necessarily referring
to mains consumer units and whatnot (although this idea is equally valid
for those) I find it easier to visualise (for the sake of getting the
concept across) working on an old analogue TV for example, where you have
all sorts of voltages present, including some highly lethal ones in
excess of 10kV. The main thing we need to avoid is suffering a shock
where the current passes through or nearby the heart. This is *most*
shocks when you're fiddling about inside such environments with both
hands. The standard advice has been "well, keep one hand inside your back
pocket, then" but this means of course you only have one hand to prod
around with which is constricting. I'm proposing to short-out both wrists
using a metallic bracelet on each, tied to one another via a couple of
feet of light, flexible cable. So for example if you're prodding around
with your right hand whilst somehow touching the chassis with your left
and you touch something live, the current will only flow through your
hands and wrists rather than up your arms and across your chest. And
that's all there is to it.
Now, where have I gone wrong? (I must have done somewhere!)

Perhaps you can measure, with a low, safe voltage, current entering the
hands and that passing from one hand to the other with your contraption.

Please do report back with your findings, however I suspect once current
enters the body little will come back out through skin and be bypassed
by your wigget.

BICBW

What you need is what this guy wears! I doubt it take much current though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tzga6qAaBA