Is there a way to prevent my homemade ringer from getting fried?

[dcspector]

PJ and a pair of cell phones.

What is her hourly rate?...

 

[480sparky]

Again, I don't use a continuity tester to ring out circuits. It won't tell the whole story. It can give you some idea that the circuit is at least complete but, for the work you have to do, it would be better to energize it.

If you wanted to test 10 lights/switches you would wirenut the hot/sw legs in the sw boxes and short the hot to neutral at the lights one at a time. The beeper on blk/wht at the source end will ring each time you short the light wires. If they were cans, you would screw in a good lamp one at a time.

I guess I'm having trouble seeing the value in this test. If all you're doing is checking for continuity in certain portions of certain circuits, what do you gain? The knowledge that it's partially complete?

If you take the time to completely ring out every circuit, that would be an absolute waste of time to me. Instead of doing that, why not better utilize that time and just make sure you complete the circuit when you're roughing it in?

When I rough in an entire house, I box it first. Nail-on boxes, ceiling fan boxes, fart fans, recessed cans.....

Then, when every opening is in place, I start drilling holes. As I drill, I'm laying out the homeruns in my mind. I'm laying out the circuits at this point. This box here will be a homerun, as will this one. This circuit will supply these boxes, this circuit these.....

Once I've made Swiss Cheese out of the studs, I pull all my homeruns to the panel. With every circuit fed at this point, I then complete each circuit one at a time. There's the key. One at a time. I completely wire one circuit in one room before I move on to something else.

Once all the circuits are pulled and in place, I go back and 'stuff and staple' all the NM. Once that's done, I make up all the boxes.

Once everything is made up, I head to the panel to make that up. But I megger everything as I do that.

 

[220/221]

I guess I'm having trouble seeing the value in this test.

Again, again, I don't use a continuity tester to ring out circuits. It won't tell the whole story.

I was simply answering a hypothetical question. I have never tested a house I wired until trim out. I will hot check remodels/room additions but not an entire house.

But you could .....:grin:

 

[cowboyjwc]

Wow, where do you guys think the term "ringing out a circuit" came from?

I understand what you're trying to do and I would agree with Iwire. Maybe just an inline fuse of some sort would work?

Remember that not everyone is a one man shop, sometimes you have three or four guys wiring a house, things get missed, it happens. Better to find it at rough than final.

 

[gar]

090609-1227 EST

zappy:

There are many solutions. How much are you willing to spend? How loud does this ringer need to be? What other functions do you need with it?

.

 

[hurk27]

you could use a 120 volt fire bell, and use a inverter to power it , then you wont be blowing it up when you hit a live circuit