Who wants to take guess?

[jbwhite]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

ok, i have bets for:

light fixture, switch, light then switch, ghost busters, non-animated comic stips.

do we have any takers for tsumami, or volcanoes?

the strike in nyc, and the war in iraq are still not taken also.

this is .05 a bet, so be prepaired to pay when you loose.

[ December 26, 2005, 10:15 PM: Message edited by: jbwhite ]

 

[ty]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

Originally posted by peter d:
Todd,

Nope, try again. It's a tough one, and pretty obscure, so I'll give you a hint. It's from a popular non-animal comic strip.

Well, I'm not sure, but I heard that 20% of all microfleems are subradiante.

So what about the other 80%???

 

[ramsy]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

JimWalker wrote: Just plan on ringing out and marking all the wires first.

Jim,
How do you ring out wires. Is this done with a tone generator on open circuits, or a breaker finder?

 

[ty]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

Originally posted by ramsy:
JimWalker wrote: Just plan on ringing out and marking all the wires first.

Jim,
How do you ring out wires. Is this done with a tone generator on open circuits, or a breaker finder?

My guess is 1 guy with plug-in tester going room to room, and another guy at the panel flipping breakers, one at a time.
Guy with tester yells to guy at panel when lights go on (or off).

Guy at panel marks breakers such as 'washer', 'dryer', 'a/c', 'heater', 'kitchen receptacles', most others are probably marked: 'lighting'. (Or 'friDge' and 'Lites')

This is only a guess. At least if we're talking about how they do tract homes.

 

[George Stolz]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

The above techniques don't do much for figuring out why a mistie isn't working.

Originally posted by ramsy:
How do you ring out wires. Is this done with a tone generator on open circuits, or a breaker finder?

Wirehounds can induce a tone into their neighbors, it's better to use a meter.

I use a regular multimeter, and test for continuity. Shut the breaker off, and verify your circuit's off. Find the neutral back to the panel by testing from neutral to ground. Then wirenut the two travellers together, and test on the other switch. Be sure to seperate them after testing and verify that they do lose continuity when seperated.

Work your way along this way and you should be able to determine where wires of the same circuit are going.

I don't think he's gonna need to go to too much trouble, with the isolated problem described.

 

[ramsy]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

I knew there was a reason for hanging our here. Many Thanks for that George.

 

[charlie b]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

Originally posted by peter d:The problem is quite clearly that the microfleems are subradiante. (Who can guess where that one came from?

Scott Adams. What do I win?

[ December 27, 2005, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: charlie b ]

 

[tshea]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

You guys are too technical. The problem with 3-way switches is always the triple redundancy of the flitzinjammer on the electromag holdit.
Only 1 in a 1000 chances is the HO screwing around

 

[BruceH]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

Well it turns out this was a very simple, uninteresting diagnosis. The homeowner told me there was no power to both switches because he checked them with his multi-meter. What he didn't realize is that being this was a very old house and this particular circuit was original wiring, meaning ungrounded. So when he stuck one lead of his meter to the metal box and one to the switch terminals, the meter read near zero. There actually was power at the switches and replacing the shorted 3 way solved the problem. Turns out that there was also a few circuits that were unprotected (30 amp circuit split up and feeding a ton of 15 amp receptacles and lights on 14 gauge wire-unrelated to the original problem ) so we went ahead and installed the needed feeder and sub-panel in the attic and re-fed the branch circuits. The customer told me he had a hard time beleiving the switch wiring was live because he was holding all the wires in his hand and never received a shock! He understood when I asked him if he has ever seen a bird perched on a power line

 

[charlie b]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

Originally posted by tshea: You guys are too technical. The problem with 3-way switches is always the triple redundancy of the flitzinjammer on the electromag holdit.

Now let's not go making up our own words, here. Peter D was quoting from a real source. Here is a list of someone's favorite quotes from the same author: Dilbertisms.

 

[charlie b]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

Originally posted by BruceH:He understood when I asked him if he has ever seen a bird perched on a power line

Did he understand how lucky he was?

 

[BruceH]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

I'm not sure about him Charlie, but his wife sure had a fit when she found out the switch was indeed live and he didn't know it. I have found that when it comes to homeowner diy electrical work, the wives have far more sense than the husbands. That, I believe, will never change.

 

[jbwhite]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

darn, where do i send my dime?

 

[charlie b]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

You can send it to me. I still haven't been awarded my prize for getting the Dilbert answer correct.

 

[peter d]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

Originally posted by charlie b:
You can send it to me. I still haven't been awarded my prize for getting the Dilbert answer correct.

I forgot that we are dealing with some of the best and brightest minds here.

 

[kalanjeya]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

i would like to share my guess here,

May be one of the three way switch might have shorted on both ends.(by this time they might have solved the problem,i am sorry)

Jeyakumar

 

[DaveTap]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

If they are leviton switches... especially decora. My money is he just turned on a switch and the traveler contacts shorted themselves together... I've seen it more than once

 

[George Stolz]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

Fellas, I think I know what the problem is:

Originally posted by BruceH:
...replacing the shorted 3 way solved the problem.

Case closed.

 

[kalanjeya]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

BruceH

please let all of us knows what the problem was there .

Jeyakumar

 

[Minuteman]

Re: Who wants to take guess?

lol