PLUG-IN MULTIFUNCTION TESTER FOR AC ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

摘要

A portable tester plugs into a receptacle in abranch circuit of an electric: power distribution system toverify protection against arc faults, line to ground faultsand neutral to ground faults provided by a circuit breakerlocated at a remote load center or by ground fault and, orarc fault interrupters in the receptacle, and also checksfor proper wiring. The arc fault detector gates phased backrectified half cycles of the ac power to generate stepchanges in the instantaneous amplitude of current in thebranch circuit which mimic the repetitive striking of anarc. Preferably, only half cycles at least 60 ms apart aregated so that the user can verify the time to trip with awatch and can count the gated half cycles to trip bycounting pulses generated by a light emitting diode (LED) inthe gating circuit.