My Meggar (insulation tester) came through

[transmaster]

I was having a "check Speaker" shut down of my new Yamaha. I didn't think it was the Yamaha. Checked the resistance of the speakers with the speaker wires no problem. So I pulled out my "megger" and disconnected the speaker wires from both sides. A megger checks the resistance of your installation. I found that there was a problem with the cable for the left surround. Pulled the cable out of the wall, this cable was designed for in wall installation, I found an 8" section chewed up by mice and badly corroded. The Onkyo never had a problem. The is a tribute to Yamaha Engineering it's safety systems reacted. I have a temporary 3.1 speaker setup with what speaker wire I had on hand and I have not had any problems since. Goes to show you the value of test instruments.

The meggar I have goes to 1000V, uses a 9 Volt battery for power. You can spend a lot of money on these things but for casual use the Estone I have does the job. I mostly use mine to test old coax to see if it is still usable. But it sure solved my Yamaha problem. The Estone BM500A is available from Amazon for $22 bucks.

To the moderators it would be nice to have a thread to post info about test equipment.

 

[ConradH]

Cool! I've always had a distrust of in-wall wiring for things like antennas and speakers.

 

[transmaster]

Cool! I've always had a distrust of in-wall wiring for things like antennas and speakers.

One of the primary things a megger is used for is testing transformers, and motor windings.

 

[loopstick]

The only time I used a megger was in ET school - to charge up capacitors and toss them to people in the hall. "Here - catch!". Nerd fun.

 

[Ray Gianelli]

I used to use a megger to check high voltage diodes for oscilloscope CRT circuits. Only thing that would put out enough voltage to forward bias them.

 

[markn2wae]

The only time I used a megger was in ET school - to charge up capacitors and toss them to people in the hall. "Here - catch!". Nerd fun.

NOT when you where on the "receiving end!"

When I was assigned to the "parts room" in electronics school to hand out the parts for that days assignment (and get them back after class) they "found out" that capacitors could be charged up on the bench power supplies and tossed back to me to "put away".

I solved that problem by telling them to put the capacitors in a empty aluminum "TV dinner tray", a little shake, a spark, and presto, no more shock problem (it really saved my nerves as my "assignment" made me a easy "target!". (then , now ).

Mark T.