Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house?

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nobbie48 said:
A Wheatstone bridge is handy for locating ground faults. Invented by a guy named Christie and improved by Wheatstone in the mid 1800's, they still work today. In a pinch, a voltmeter and battery can do the same thing if you know math.
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Megger helped me find a fault at my parents. Gas line installers nailed a wire in the wall. They pulled the nail so it was no longer a dead short. Megger let me know which wire had taken the hit so rewire was faster and easier.

I've used wheatstone bridges long ago for strain gauges. I've never tried using one for fault finding. I used to have one but I think I got rid of it.
 
nobbie48 said:
A Wheatstone bridge is handy for locating ground faults. Invented by a guy named Christie and improved by Wheatstone in the mid 1800's, they still work today. In a pinch, a voltmeter and battery can do the same thing if you know math.
Click to expand...
I have never used a wheatstone bridge in that context. For this fault it came down to regular troubleshooting, just time consuming and basic EE troubleshooting.

Volt meter to check voltages.
Swap to another breaker to see if the fault follows the line/circuit or breaker.
Temporarily floating ground stopped the tripping.
Determine if it is neutral or hot to ground with the meter.
Disconnect and reconnect the circuit (at boxes) half way and then at branches to narrow down the location.
Once got it down to between two boxes (getting to this is the time consuming PITA), no issues in the boxes, replace the cable, miller time.

I used leftover lengths from another job to do short runs. Turns out it was one of these... :mad:
 
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