High Voltage testing with SensorLink - Troubleman's kit
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- čas přidán 1. 05. 2021
- Hey Everyone!
I had a few companies reach out to me regarding high voltage ammeters. After talking with a few reps, I figured I'd try out the products from SensorLink. They were extremely genuine with their concern in making sure we as Lineman had the proper equipment that helped make our job safer.
I've been using the ammeter a ton! It works great and is very easy to use. The volt stick is way more diverse then our phasing sticks and packs away nicely taking up very little room in the truck. The voltstick's ability to check high voltage so accurately even allows it to be used when verifying tap positions on voltage regulators!
More info on Sensorlink here:
➡ sensorlink.com/
Hope you all had a great weekend! 🍻👊
** These video's are NOT intended for training or D.I.Y. Only properly trained and authorized personal are allowed to work on this equipment. Always adhere to work methods and procedures particular to the company you are working for. **
Don't forget to drop a 👊 along with where you're watching from!
Huge thanks to my Patreons!
➡ / bobsdecline
Music courtesy of:
"All good in the wood" by Audionautix
CZcams audio
#Sensorlink, #Beingalineman, #Lineman
Another great use for the voltstik - It can verify tap positions on a Voltage regulator!
I apologize in advance for the absolute cheesiness at the 5:38 mark! 🤣 - Have a great week everyone!
Did your company have add it to a list of approved equipment and set up policy on its use
69,000KV??? 69 MILLION VOLTS?
Lol someone else mentioned that! 😳 Ahem * 69kv 🤣🤫🍻🍻
I've used a similar ampstick by the same company. I think it saves 9 measurements and you basically touch the amp clamp to the line and count 4 seconds and it should have a measurement. They come in handy for verifying phasing on relays. They also make a "wide mouth" version.
I'm not sure that I would rely on the voltstik to verify neutral position on a voltage regulator. Specs for the voltstik state plus/minus 1% while one step of a voltage regulator is less than that (5/8th%). It would likely easily detect neutral position but I just don't think I would rely on it as one of my neutral indications. But for troubleshooting regulator trouble, it is a great tool.
I really like the sensorlink products. We use the ampstik quite often when we do recloser maintenance. We verify amp readings from the ampstik to what the recloser control is showing to verify the integrity of each CT and CT circuit.
I love your videos and love the content!
as an HVAC tech its funny to think that to us 240 - 460v is high voltage when there are people working around 10k- up to over 100k lol.
Here in the UK, we have national grid voltages of 132kv, 252kv and 400kv. Local grid voltages are down to 66kv, 33kv and 11kv.
I've worked on some HUGE chillers for refrigerated warehouses that were fed with over 1kV, but that's the biggest I've been around, not counting industrial busbars. I started out with res/com HVAC and moved up to ind refrigeration; best move of my life.
@@RT-qd8yl ind refrigeration. Are you on roofs a lot? Whole reason I don’t want commercial is because I hate roofs
@@michaelguido7505 Quite often, especially RTUs and rooftop condensers. Even if you're not on the roof, you might be crawling inside a Kool-Jet mounted 30 feet up on a warehouse wall. That's one of the reasons I got out of that side of it. I couldn't handle all the climbing, carrying compressors up ladders, etc anymore. Now I work on the factory side of things and stay on ground level, haha.
240 will still pop ya. Doesn’t feel very good. I’m sure you know that though lol
God bless all linemen we don’t have power without them
Eh. You might have a few months in an apocalypse before the power grid stops working. 😆
Hi from the UK 👊 I want to say thank you for your videos. I've never worked in the electricity industry. I am now medically retired but watching your videos is very entertaining and interesting to watch and kills time . I have seen many documentaries on the linesman industry in Canada and the u.s. and is a fascinating subject but your videos are just that bit more informative and detailed and you give a more comprehensive look into the day to day life of a troubleshooter to find what the cause of the outages or issues on the lines are and plans the solution to get power back to your customers. So thank you for all your hard work and videos.
Thanks so much for that Ghost Dragon! It's comments like these that make it worth sharing these videos 👊🙏. Cheers!!
Completely agree your work on videos and effort to show this is high quality and no doubt interesting for those in the industry and still learning.
At 16:11 be careful not to short out adjacent connections with the hook!
Great videos, keep ‘em coming!
I clenched at 16:11 as well.
Why?
Interesting device, the voltstick even has a built in proving unit for testing for absence e of voltage procedure. Thanks for the demo.
Whats up. House looks good. Can’t wait to start getting products to review. Good job!
Thanks T! For what it's worth I'll do another shout out sometime, your vids are always great!
Great video Aaron! Always solid information and attention to detail. Keep up the great work.
Looks like a great and safe bit of kit.
Love the sound when you're near the large power transformers
Wow!! What you guys do is so amazing. So much voltage and amperage
Nice video. I do enjoy your content a lot. I’m glad you got this product. Anything you can stay on the ground to do work with is not only a time saver but also keeps you safer from falling.
I think being a lineman is freaking awesome..... I've always been fascinated with what you all do.. Be safe and God bless...
Another great video :). It’s great to see new products that can make you guy’s job safer.
A few nights ago I got to see a line fuse “get smoked” (the term the utility guy said) and light on fire as well as spark. It had rained earlier in the day but I have no idea why it went crazy. Heard loud buzzing and saw sparks, then saw it was on fire 😳.
I'm just a normal residential electrician. It's cool to watch people working with tens of thousands of volts. Love watching you go underneath those lines buzzing. They just sound badass.
Sensorlink is a very good product and has been around a long time. Thanks for sharing some of their new bling.
12:11 It was really cool how you showed the amp stick some love by belting it in.
Thanks for the new episode 👌🏻
That's an amazing set of tools!
Gawd dammmmmm working with 200+ amps you guys have steel guts ..
Good video, educative montage with unique shots. I hope you will keep on enjoying your job for years to come. I don’t work on stuff above 230v (Europe), because I know others will always be able to do a better job than me.
I think it's awesome that you have a company sending you a free product and it's a great opportunity as long as you give you honest opinion on it, not just what they tell you to say. Which is what you did, but if you get something for free, that makes it sponsored lol. You get a awesome tool, we get a great video, and they get probably the best direct advertising link to linemen. I'm not a lineman, I've just always had a interest in electricity, and I like to know how everything works. Love the vids!!! Great work!!!!
well likely if the product is great the utility he works for will buy some of them. so it pays off nicely for the company. he got a free husqvarna high voltage pole saw which also worked great.
@@ronblack7870 The point is that this IS a sponsored video. Its clearly a good product. I'm not saying he was being dishonest or anything. But this is sponsored.
Right? That is the literal definition of sponsored content haha.
But, at least it was a good review in a detailed way.
Have fun and stay safe! Great video and always great content.
You know that there’s a lot of power running through it when you can literally hear it like moan
Transformers hum because they don't know the lyrics.
@@duckslinger999 :-)
@@duckslinger999 Lol
REALLY MAN.
Schneider Electric bought Power Measurement back in 2005. That ION 7550 has some years on it.
I like the overhead amp stick, but I prefer the hasting phasing sticks especially if you have to check phasing between circuits, also prefer as much as possible to do all of my testing on test points on the underground.
Hand written test and cert is great.
Works on low voltage as well as high.
We've been using these for several years and there are a few issues with the voltmeter. The clamp for your neutral or your 2nd conductor if you're going phase to phase is really cumbersome to take off.. It'll end up having your cord wrapped around the conductor. I took mine off and used a second extendo and and put a single eye log on that lead and just hang the extendo on the neutral or 2nd connector . Also the the power button to the Volt meter you have to take off from the resistor to turn on. As soon as you power up the Volt meter hang it on an energized conductor if possible so so it does not automatically turn back off.
I believe these guys are true emergency first responders. They are constantly dealing with shit that can and will kill them on a daily basis. 👏👏
New to the channel, great videos 👍, greetings from Ireland. Im an electrical engineer by profession so I tend to avoid anything to do with work but really enjoy your videos. I worked on LV and ELV for years but now the bulk of my work is windfarms and grid stabilisation projects. We generally handle from mast base to distribution grid connection. Worked up to 110kv up to now but chasing a 220kv job now. All under ground though.
Great to meet ya Dave! Definitely can't go wrong with green energy projects. I've never been to Ireland, my folks have ... I'd love to visit your country someday! 🍻 Cheers!
@@Bobsdecline if our lockdowns ever end! Let me know if you do and I might be able to arrange a few substation tours!! Be like a working holiday!
That would be really cool Dave! I appreciate that 🍻
Great stuff! Great review!
Nifty tools and meters. To me personally they may seem like inventive toys, to you an inevitable and necesarry tools. 🙂
I was a Lineman for the county, and I drove the main roads.
Used them 25 years ago, but the wireless is a great idea, used to let the extendo extended and drop it down to a second person he would get the reading then toss it back in the air for the stick man to get the next phase
Ah yeah. CZcams recommendations know what I like. I'm currently working in a transformer building company. ETRA
Damn that looks like a very good kit and I have high hopes for it
If that U-shaped pickup had one arm longer than the other it would be easier to get it engaged overhead.
Be safe. Thanks for the info.
Cool video man special effects awesome👌
We use the DVI 500 and the DVM 80 here in Chicago
You inspired me to be a line man
your a lineman out of.... even have a song about lineman. I ran a large data center. High voltage is very important. most data centers cleanup the power and have backup generators. Data Centers never sleep. High voltage lineman and linewoman also have someone working 24 by 7. unsung essential worker. Thank you for what you do.
Care to share some of that datacenter power equiptment porn? Relevent, interests.
Love the pulp fiction nod lol
The Ohmstick would be an awesome tool too. It can measure resistance over a connection.
They sort of have those. They are called thermal cameras 😉 You can see right where you have high resistance connections that are generating heat.
I only mess with up to 24v stuff rn ( but will be forced to deal with higher as ev equipment becomes more common) in school we were told never measure ohms on a live circuit not sire if that changes with lineman applications tho
Thanks for your sharing
great video
Retiree , worked for ( Etobicoke ) / Toronto H . E . C . for 36 years and started in the early 70 's right out of school . Did numerous and different jobs and our highest voltage was 27,000 . Happy Trails . ✌ out 🇨🇦 🇨🇦
✌️🤝🇨🇦
speaking of amps I'd like to hear a linemans take on the initiative to have x-million people coming home and plugging their electric cars into the grid every night at 5 o clock within the next 10ish years
If the cars use somewhat "intelligent" charging circuits and we consider "normal" usage where not all cars are run down to 10% battery or less at the same time, not a lot will happen. Also you will not very likely have millions of people on the same substation.
They did conduct an experiment here in Germany two years ago I think, where they provided electric cars and chargers in the garage of a 80 or so units apartment complex to find out exactly that, as that was what they were afraid might happen. As most cars had not run down that low and most did not even (have to) charge their cars every day, not a lot happened. Additional amperage over the days was somewhere 8 to 20 amps above before readings and we'll within what the lines could handle. This was 230/400 V three phase of course, so for the US a higher actual amperage can be assumed. (Just for perspective, a regular socket here can provide 16 A peak at 230 V)
@@alexanderkupke920 A 50KW charger is a 50KW charger, in Australia most final distribution transformers are 11kV to 230/400V at 150 to 200 kVA feeding maybe 20 to 40 customers. With infill housing development, knocking down one house and replacing it with 3 smaller units, our infrastructure is already taking a hammering. A 50KW charger would require at least a transformer upgrade, or it's own step down charger. Modern infill higher density development without infrastructure upgrading being done at the same time is causing massive problems.
Not a lineman, but the generation, transmission, and distribution would need to be upgraded, which is why there is talk of a million volt line for transmission
@@raygale4198 well, at least around here no one talks about putting a 50 kW Charger in every home. Currently there is a Programm to financially support having Chargers installed in homes, but those are at most 11 kW. Which is plenty to charge a vehicle over night. There are some 22 kW chargers around, but mostly in parking lots etc.
Everything providing more, e.g. 50 or 60 kW usually can be found only on dedicated charging or service stations.
A lot of those charges already are intelligent in a way that a bunch of them can be coupled, so few cars can charge at full power or more cars can charge at an automatically reduced power.
The same technology can be used to control charging load to prevent grid peaks.
Also, what may be important as well, but very often overseen. A lot of electric vehicles cannot even charge at those rates.
@@alexanderkupke920 The newer EV's can take up to 350-400kW of power- that's 800 volts at 500 or so amps. You can find high capacity charging stations at some Porsche dealers.
As far as dead front transformers go I prefer to do all of my testing on the capacitive test points. Also it’s a good practice to do an amp check every time before you pull an elbow, you should have an idea before you pull it if you are dropping load or breaking parallel or if it’s a dead operation, the amp check will confirm what you think you are doing. Amp checks and potential checks will keep you out of trouble.
Maybe you have shown it but can you demo how to splice an HV cable? I went to school for HV splicing. Doing it in warm conditions inside a class room was fine. But knowing that you guys have to do this in bad weather with extreme cold weather wearing gloves still amazes me.
Nice piece of kit. The voltage readings at the end off the padmount threw me a bit, till I remembered canada uses 600v /347ish instead of the 277/480 in the US...
I'm from the UK where it's almost all 240/415 still (despite the nominal voltage being 230/400.) We do have a bit of 480v split phase still around where the farm is at the end of a 1ph spur (actually technically 2ph, we do delta connections on the primary side here, makes leakage easy to detect and trip out on)
Oilfield equipment like pump jacks still use 480/277 in Canada, sometimes you will use 480 single phase. Most other commercial customers are 347/600 if fed off the distribution
@@brenteichel7661 Interesting... I presume to allow inventory control for oil companies that work in both the US and Canada?
@@TheChipmunk2008 likely the equipment is made for the American market, and it’s cheaper and simpler to produce one thing. When we build new 480 v transformer banks we use old transformers. We don’t have any new stock 480v equipment
Im a distribution meter electrician and we use the same amp tong. Great for checking CT'S and testing capacitor KVARS.
I got shocked 😬 thru my phone just watching... now that's some high voltage right there.
SensorLink used to be located in Acme, Washington a while back- I knew one of the higher-ups there.
"shove it up....." is all i heard when i walked back into the room cleaning the house and i'm thinking "he's shoving what where?"
haha nice reference to "Pulp Fiction" at 1:55 🤣
Depending on the manufacturer, I worked at the facility that made those transformers
How do you guys balance the amps between phases when one of them goes crazy? I imagine load across all three is quite different at times
Is this what you use to check and see if the lines are energized during an outage to make sure generators aren't backfeeding into the grid?
Do a whole video on load balancing
Not much has changed in the last 30 years! Looks a little safer than what we had, but basically the same. 🤷♂️
Nice
Only thing I thought could have been safer with testing the low volt side of the pad mount was using a single pin probe rather than a hook just seems like a lot of metal to have waving around those big terminals
Hi Bob. its nice that you dont have to use clam meter but a fork. The substation you were in the video is a little bit noisy. Is that common? thanks
I thought that the interior side of the exit door of metering building should be a full width crash bar, for emergency egress. Instead of the handle ?
Thanks for all the great videos ! From Alaska.
I use car jumper cables and stand in a puddle of water useing a radio shack multi meater.
So what is that buzzing sound at power stations and near low power lines? I’ve wondered that for many years.
9:50 Do enormous ZZZZZZZzzzzz scare the crap out of you as a lineman? "That transformer buzzing is like a tiger and it's just showing it's dominance." 😆
i have a question do you have to be a lineman 1st in order to become a cable spicer?
Would love a suggestion on a long collapsing telescopic pole like you use in order to reach bees nests in the fall before they freeze and birds get to them. I just noticed you refer to it as a hot stick and I’ve never heard of or seen one but being made of fiberglass it should be fairly stiff still when fully extended. More so than plastic like I thought it was made of 🤦♂️. I don’t need it to be rated for electricity though so I wouldn’t need whatcha got there, but I never knew really knew what I needed before 🤷♂️😂. That looks like it would work a treat.
I don't think they're are easily available to the public, but then again, I've never really tried to buy one outside of work!. I did see one for sale at a flee market one time!
There are many different manufacturers including some that are made for arborists that lock together. I've also seen rigid measuring sticks that telescope in this way. Any of these would definitely work for knocking down old wasp nests if you could find one online
This is a great tool. Anything that keeps a lineman safe is wonderful.
Is there a test system to make sure the unit is working correctly?
Let's hope that was the last of the snow. After all we be missing the bug season. There is nothing like being in a bucket at night with the only light on. To have every bitting bug come because of the light.😡🦟🪰
Спасибо за труды и информацию 👍. Сколько стоит такие приборы?
Very interesting. Do you have to get safety approval from your company before using a new bit of gear like that?
was wondering the same thing !
It depends on the situation. In this case, I did speak with my company first. We already have work methods for similar gear and I did receive safety standard documentation
How do you trust doing de energized work on a line if there is the possibility that some ones grid tied solar is also feeding the line and their equipment fails to de energize or worse, it de energizes then randomly fails mid work? Is that even a thing that could happen?
10:06 Is power factor also measured at substations?
I take you guys for granted.
Ну это напряжение 6-10 кВ, для линейных электромонтеров. Я один обслуживал четыре подстанции 110-35-10 кв, и приходилось делать переключения на всех напряжениях с открытыми разъединителями на открытых подстанциях. Well, this voltage is 6-10 kV, for linear electricians. I alone served four substations of 110-35-10 kV, and I had to make switchings at all voltages with open disconnectors in open substations.
at 5:45 i noticed that there were 2 poles just standing there are those new build poles or what
I can't imagine taking the truck home every night. My neighbors would be pestering me to do government jobs nonstop!
I'd be worried about someone breaking into it to steal tools
i'm gonna blame youtube for missing this but probably my fault, truth be told.
i liked the pulp fiction suitcase thing. was funny.
edit: strapping your meter in to the passenger seat while your apprentice goes in the back with the other tools; there is no more high recommendation than that. = too funny.
Hey bud, nice to see ya again. Nice den you have there! That at the new place?
Yea Mike great to see ya too! Yessir, that's the office at the new place 🍻
@@Bobsdecline Beautiful man. Looks great!
Looks like your wearing the salisbury electrical glove.
For some reason I always expected substations and overhead lines all the cabling to be like 10s of thousands of amps...given I know just our furnace sucks up >100 amps at 240 volts. I know wattage and all that's only like 3A at 7200V and would scale down at even higher voltage but its hard to imagine how many houses and businesses are on a line it wouldn't add up anyway.
Power loss in conductors is proportional to the current squared. Step up transformers raise the voltage and lower the current for transport. Transported power remains the same.
The one thing I kept thinking was why don't they make that display a LOT bigger so you can look at it comfy from a distance.
Is there an Amazon affiliate link?😉
Just curious if you've ever had to troubleshoot Radio Interference (RFI) caused by any of the following?
Loose staples on ground conductor
Loose pole top pin
Ground conductor touching nearby hardware
Corroded slack span insulators
Guy touching neutral
Loose hardware
Bare tie wire used with insulated conductor
Insulated tie wire on bare conductor
Loose cross arm braces
Lightning arrestors
Yes, the most common by far would be the bare tie wire on insulated conductor or vice versa. Another common one I've seen is when conductors are touching and of the same potential, but the actual connection is a few feet away.
Had a few from loose insulators/pins or cracked porcelain as well, but those ones usually fail before they get trouble shooted for RFI
I use my craftsman multimeter with the made in china test leads. I never worry I have my barrel insurance paid up.
Ps. I wait until it's raining to be safe.
Australia is now having a big problem with a glut of solar power in the middle of the day. Its gotten so bad, the grid is going to penalize customers for exporting too much power to the grid. Making sure that everything is accurate and accountable is going to be big issue going forward. Anything that makes all those checks and balances easier is always a bonus.
👍👍👍
Single phase service!
4:46 Bruh forget using that silly stick thingy ya got gloves on just wack em on there with ya hands 🤣
hi. can you share a link to your clear/mirrored? safetyglasses please? very intresting channel! greetings from germany!
I'll see what I can find! I picked these ones up at a "Stihl" shop. That's what's engraved on the side. They were only 10 bucks and I love em. They are rebranded tho, I'll try and remember to let you know the manufacturer!
What was the highest voltage you have ever worked with?
345 kV stick and 138 kV "bare hand"
😳
Hopefully you get compensated properly.
Using a new tool and getting a reading of 0 Volts, it'd be hard for me to trust that, especially with that kind of voltage. Even working with 120 Volt residential, I'll try some other backup for voltage check.
While that's a great point!... This product does have very strict and rigorous testing. I received copies of all testing records and certification for this equipment. A great way to confirm a zero reading (and should be done with any voltage measuring tool at each use if possible) is to check the device against a live wire as well .
Cheers Michael! 👊
@@Bobsdecline Thank you for getting back to me. You guys are my heroes, thanks for your videos.
It's current not amperage. Amps is the unit of measurement. I don't think amperage is a real word. With that said, I am fairly new to your channel and have already learned a lot. Clearly you are highly knowledgeable and experienced in this field and I really enjoy your content. Thanks for what you do.
Опа, свежее видео, зачётно...
Excellent
Got a question for you:
You have all of that safety stuff on, which I am guessing is the requirements for doing whatever work you are doing. 👍
Umm, but you have your necklace on? 🤔
Isn't that an open invitation for major disaster?
Battery swap would be a logical solution
Dude, I just opened one the other day that went to a panel room. The developer wanted to squeeze a mandrel in to mandrel the duct run 'real quick'. I had to jump between him and the PAD to keep that idiot from frying himself.
9:44 It hums because it doesn't know the words. 🙄