Anyone dared test an RCD this way ?

[ricicle]

Also remember that if your RCD is covering the installation and you have a Neutral to Earth fault that is leaking say 20mA then you would theoretically need 50mA leaking from Line to Earth (via you body) to operate the RCD ! (although most do trip in the region 18 - 25 mA)

 

[martinxxxxxx]

When I was in college back in 87 a friend of mine got me into fixing up broken TVs which he got from a high street stores trade-ins. Normally the problem would be an open circuit resistor, but which one?

The chassis we mostly fixed had a bank of resistors on a tag board running vertically all the way down the right hand side (inside) of the set.

His method was to run his his forefinger and index fingers down both sides of the tags strip until he got a belt. The open cct resistor having full rail voltage across it and all the others only having a few volts. We made his attic a non coducting location and the whole lot was ran through an isolating transformer.

Personally I made time to just use the multimeter. As it only took a minute to do- his method took about a whole second though.

I never did try it.

 

[securespark]

I've done it by accident. I sliced through a mower flex years ago. Turned out the live only was cut. Stupidly, I assumed the RCD had tripped and picked up the flex.

I got a belt, but it was only a slight tingle. The RCD tripped then.