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February 13, 2025, 04:10:29 AM

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How could a power cord that looks good be bad

Started by saturated, October 15, 2024, 08:36:48 PM

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saturated

When I was wiring up and putting fuses (a good thing  :lmao: ) in my ugly variac I had a power cord plugged in and a multimeter attached to the stripped ends of the power cord.

Over and over I would get normal readings on the voltmeter gauge on the variac but much reduced voltage through the power cord :grr

I wondered that maybe the ammeter gauge was to blame checking polarity and bypassing it ect...so I kept checking and disconnecting and reconnecting until finally I suspected the cord so I did continuity checks and sure enough the positive prong had no continuity.

So I stuck meter leads into the socket and it worked correlating with the voltmeter on the variac.
Turning to the cord wondering why I had wasted like two hours and a couple awg fuses
It wasn't some old relic either it was from a cheep Walmart box fan that had a melted switch
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So I continued on with the continuity test but while flexing etc never could get it to work.  So then I started stabbing it with meter lead prongs piercing the insulation there was a looks like crimped in grommet but even right behind the plug there was nothing.

Even now I still find it hard to believe it doesn't work  :loco
I ask stupid questions
and make stupid mistakes

criticism, critique, derision, flaming, verbal abuse welcome