does anybody have an inexpensive way to monitor drop-outs

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rt66electric

Senior Member
Location
Oklahoma
does anybody know of an inexpensive way to monitor line dropouts??

trpubleshooting Quiz

Without going into specific location.

I need to install a monitor or device to time-stamp power dropouts.

My customer (alarm company monitored) is receiving emails that their "machine" is having power dropouts at random times
Over 8 occurrences over the last month. The Ups keeps the brain working but, the rest of the machine goes into"hardware failure" mode.

The machine is located 125 ft away from the panel via under ground conduits, heavy equipment is blocking the junction boxes and preventing me from checking the "wirenut connections".

I have called the power lineman, he gave he a few failure times, but the power company swicthing times do not match up with the monitoring company times????

Is their a low-cost time/relay machine that I can hook-up at either the breaker -and -or- at the machine to verify the dropouts??

My first guess is that the UPS is too-sensitive, My second guess is power company and wind/trees. My third guess is bad connection at the machine near the underground feed (very difficult to get to the connections) My fourth guess is "We had lots of rain" wait a while till the conduits dries out.

I could put in a line voltage relay and wire it like a "motor stop circuit" that would stop a clock at he first dropout, but that would not tell me if it was the power company dropping out or if it was in the premises wiring??

Dennis
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
I need to install a monitor or device to time-stamp power dropouts.

Is their a low-cost time/relay machine that I can hook-up at either the breaker -and -or- at the machine to verify the dropouts??

Dennis

short of a power quality recorder, i don't know of a simple solution.

you can rent one, or you can buy one. i recently bought one used for $1,000.
about a $4,000 unit new, with almost no usage. someone on here might have
one for sale used.
 

PetrosA

Senior Member
I have a 3-phase logger/analyzer that I bought a few months ago to prove some issues on a job were not my fault and now it's collecting dust. It's raintight when in use and the data can be downloaded to a PC later. If you're interested in details, PM me.
 

junkhound

Senior Member
Location
Renton, WA
Occupation
EE, power electronics specialty
what gar said - for $60 buck you can get a 2 channel usb scope that interfaces with laptop and can record data points for up to 6 days (typical brand is Hantek from china, or picotek (higher $$$) from UK.

I have both, the picotek uses only a $4 chip if you want to build your won, but pricier assembled of course by about a facto of 50X. The pico has 8 channels, the Hantek only 2 which drops recoding time to 3 days I think.
 
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