Why buy a $20 AC outlet tester, when you can build one for free?
The parts necessary are:
- 1 – old AC plug. I got mine from an old power cord.
- 3 – 100K Ohm resistors in parallel. This keeps the power dissipation down so they don’t get hot.
- 1 – LED. I chose red, size T-1 3/4
- some heat shrink tubing for electrical insulation between the leads
NOTE: this circuit will not detect reverse polarity of the AC lines, or missing earth ground, etc.
man, you are smart! I don’t even know what you need an outlet tester for!
hmm…after some analysis–is it for testing outlets?
Couldn’t you just take a lamp or an alarm clock around to each outlet and plug it in to see if it works?
Lol! The female mind constantly… surprises me. Just when I think something is self-evident… very good question. Yes, it’s to test outlets. Especially when you just move into a new place and there’s like 3 switches that don’t seem to turn anything on.
The alarm clock/lamp approach would work, true, but they are unwieldy. 🙂
Unwieldy????
“Difficult to carry or manage because of size, shape, weight, or complexity” (so says Dictionary.com)
🙂
I guess I could’ve looked it up myself!
Very cool. I would so totally hurt myself if I were to try that though…I’d be safer toting around the alarm clock!
So…what do the resistors and LED cost if you don’t have them? I’m guessing it’s a “free” $10 outlet tester…or something like that.
Hope you’re doing well up there my friend!
Ahh, very good point, Jesse. 😀 Same could go for the soldering iron, solder, shrink tube, and solder sucker (when you mess up!). That brings the price up to, oh… about $150?
In that case, Evie’s, Melissa’s, and Ciera’s methods are much cheaper. 😉
:roll:What a great idea. I guess I would have to go with the other females in the room, I would have just carried around something and plugged it in. Wish I knew how to do stuff like that.
Miss you and hope all is going great!
Funny stuff! I was interested in the whole method until you rang up the grand total…
Very sweet.
As I already bought a circuit alert pen & receptacle analyzer (open & reversed wiring & what not) and have some lamps 😛 I’ll stick to those 😉