3 phase 5 wire electrical tester

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wplash420

New member
Location
california
Hello, first time posting here. I'll keep it short.
I've been looking for a three phase 5 wire tester. I would like to use it for startup testing. This would be advantageous in the fact that I could simply attach the 3 phases, one neutral, and one ground leads onto their respective lugs, busses, or bars. And then simply leave the leads running out through the deadfront. Then replace the panel cover, and energize it. This would allow me to test for proper voltage, and then de-energize and remove the leads. Which would conform to NFP70E.
In short, has anyone seen a tester that would work this way? Or should I simply stick with the old single phase at a time tester?
Thanks for your time.
 

LEO2854

Esteemed Member
Location
Ma
Hello, first time posting here. I'll keep it short.
I've been looking for a three phase 5 wire tester. I would like to use it for startup testing. This would be advantageous in the fact that I could simply attach the 3 phases, one neutral, and one ground leads onto their respective lugs, busses, or bars. And then simply leave the leads running out through the deadfront. Then replace the panel cover, and energize it. This would allow me to test for proper voltage, and then de-energize and remove the leads. Which would conform to NFP70E.
In short, has anyone seen a tester that would work this way? Or should I simply stick with the old single phase at a time tester?
Thanks for your time.
You will have to simply stick with the old single phase at a time tester.:)

Welcome to the forum:thumbsup:
 

iceworm

Curmudgeon still using printed IEEE Color Books
Location
North of the 65 parallel
Occupation
EE (Field - as little design as possible)
I've got a Dranetz PX5 that will do this. One connect the leads to the buses/terminals, ties/tapes the door shut on the leads - and powers the equipment up. Voltage L-L, L-N, L-G simultaneous with L-N only minorly tricky, frequency, phase angle, rotation

I recall seeing a smaller 3ph fluke that should do at least basic measurements as well.

Just curious, how are you planning to get the leads run out the deadfront? Same way I do?

ice
 
OK at the risk of sounding like an advertisement we have designed and sell a device that may be of use. It measures up to 8 channels of AC or DC voltage at up to 300V with respect to neutral. It can't do L-L though. You don't need cables through the door. You use your smart phone or laptop to connect to the device via wifi. One of the big questions during the design was what connections can you use to connect to recessed terminals eg DIN rail, relay, instrument terminals. Answering this question burnt some R&D hours!

The motivation for the instrument was allowing live testing/fault finding without exposure to energised circuits. We wanted it to be multiple channels so that you can deenergise, open the cabinet, attach to multiple circuit nodes, close the cabinet, energise and measure at multiple nodes at once to diagnose an issue. A single channel device would be useless for this.

Let me know whether this makes sense and I can send a personal message so that I am not in breach of the forum rules.
 

Barbqranch

Senior Member
Location
Arcata, CA
Occupation
Plant maintenance electrician Semi-retired
Does the wireless signal escape through the metal enclosure, and isn't held captive?
 
Perhaps I'm wrong but the the Fluke device is single channel which means you need a few of them if you want to do normal circuit fault finding otherwise you'll be forever switching off, opening up the panel, moving your probes, closing the panel, energising, taking a measurement, switching off, opening up the panel........etc. To put it is perspective how many times do you take one measurement and find the fault in the panel? In addition, you'll need a few to read simultaneous voltages on a 3 phase system.

We have tested our unit on closed mild steel, stainless steel, aluminium, polycarbonate control panels, switchboards and MCCs and quote a minimum WiFi range of 10m. Perhaps I'm mistaken but I haven't seen any other product as yet quoting a working range external to a closed panel.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
Just out of curiosity and not because it is going to be common, have you tested with a metal gasketed enclosure specifically designed to shield EMI?
 
Just out of curiosity and not because it is going to be common, have you tested with a metal gasketed enclosure specifically designed to shield EMI?

No. Good point. I should have mentioned that. To be honest we were a bit surprised at the success we had. On some panels we achieved 30m range! All panels we tested on had gaskets. We hope to do some testing on some flame proof enclosures soon. Getting a signal on these may prove difficult!

The radio path science is a bit hard to model and model accurately for the variety of panels in the market place. We have taken the approach of experimentation instead.
 

kentirwin

Senior Member
Location
Norfolk, VA
Perhaps I'm wrong but the the Fluke device is single channel which means you need a few of them if you want to do normal circuit fault finding otherwise you'll be forever switching off, opening up the panel, moving your probes, closing the panel, energising, taking a measurement, switching off, opening up the panel........etc. To put it is perspective how many times do you take one measurement and find the fault in the panel? In addition, you'll need a few to read simultaneous voltages on a 3 phase system.

We have tested our unit on closed mild steel, stainless steel, aluminium, polycarbonate control panels, switchboards and MCCs and quote a minimum WiFi range of 10m. Perhaps I'm mistaken but I haven't seen any other product as yet quoting a working range external to a closed panel.

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/inen/wir...luke-cnx-3000-Industrial-system.htm?PID=75018

Scroll down for the specs.
 

I note that this one is now discontinued and the 3000FC replaces it. In addition, they now quote a range of 3.5m outside a panel door so my apologies. A comparison we had done previous revealed:

AtrributeFluke Connect CNXCircuitSpy
Voltage Channels3*8
Voltage TypesAC Only or DC OnlyAC and DC
3 Phase 480VAC, 415VAC MeasurementsYes*Yes
Fixed Installation CapableNoYes
Test Pins (DIN Rail Terminals)04
Alligator Clips6*4
Magnet Electrodes (Tunnel Terminals)04
Web Browser ViewingNo**Yes
Batteries Required9 x 1.5V, AA1 x 9V
Size0.0011m30.0004m3
Weight1.0kg< 0.15kg
PriceApprox 800 USDApprox 885 USD

* When 3 x CNX Voltage Modules are used
** Need special software installed

Some hold the view that a smaller device is more likely to be in a toolbox and therefore used rather than having to return to the truck/workshop to get the instrument case.

Thanks for making me look into it again. We need to stay abreast of the competition.
 
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