My Metrel MFT

[Octopus]

On Wednesday I was in a bit of a panic as I thought my beloved MFT had developed a fault - specifically when taking a Zs reading, the MFT would do the test and keep on doing the test....

So I borrowed a tester to complete the job... and have another now almost ready to use.

I've now tried my Metrel on 4 other installations and the fault has ONLY occured on the customers house on Wednesday and again late yesterday.

I've spoken to Metrel again and all they say is send it in (at my cost) which scares me a bit (feels like passing them a blank cheque!!)

So has anyone got any bright ideas what, if anything, on a clients house, could make the tester repeat its test, again and again.

 

[Guest55]

None , its down to the tester , which sounds faulty unfortunatley.

 

[Octopus]

None , its down to the tester , which sounds faulty unfortunatley.

Yes but what on one site only could do this??

 

[Phil]

If it puts you at ease a little buddy the guys there are cool. i have sat in the back room with them in the repair shop whilst they have been fixing the meters. if its beyond reasonable cost they will tell you if you make it clear that you want a call before any works are carried out. i took a mate of mines down and it had a very similar fault which i think was around £100 to fix (dont quote me on that) as it may not be the same part.
but if i had to send it off i would be more than confident sending it to them knowing i was not going to be ripped

 

[Phil]

btw whats it like on the check box?

 

[MarkieSparkie]

On Wednesday I was in a bit of a panic as I thought my beloved MFT had developed a fault - specifically when taking a Zs reading, the MFT would do the test and keep on doing the test....

So I borrowed a tester to complete the job... and have another now almost ready to use.

I've now tried my Metrel on 4 other installations and the fault has ONLY occured on the customers house on Wednesday and again late yesterday.

I've spoken to Metrel again and all they say is send it in (at my cost) which scares me a bit (feels like passing them a blank cheque!!)

So has anyone got any bright ideas what, if anything, on a clients house, could make the tester repeat its test, again and again.

Which Metrel model do you have mate? Also when you say it keeps repeating the test:- Do you mean it does the test, displays the result and then restarts the test again, repeating until MFT is switched off? Or it starts and restarts test, never displaying a result, repeating until the MFT is switched off?

 

[Octopus]

Which Metrel model do you have mate? Also when you say it keeps repeating the test:- Do you mean it does the test, displays the result and then restarts the test again, repeating until MFT is switched off? Or it starts and restarts test, never displaying a result, repeating until the MFT is switched off?

Eurotest AT
Yes, push the test button once, tester does test, briefly displays result, "automatically" restarts test - so if you look at the screen you can see the result, all be it briefly, so you don't get a chance to push the memory button.

Hope this helps

 

[oldtimer]

Well it could be that it has given up the ghost but that depends on how old it is and how you looked after remember trigger "Look after you broom......................................................."

 

[Octopus]

Well it could be that it has given up the ghost but that depends on how old it is and how you looked after remember trigger "Look after you broom......................................................."

Sure but why has it only done this on one site only??

 

[oldtimer]

Sure but why has it only done this on one site only??

Could be the Dilithium crystal is about to go:yes:

 

[ackbarthestar]

I've now tried my Metrel on 4 other installations and the fault has ONLY occured on the customers house on Wednesday and again late yesterday.

So, what you are saying is that
Last Wednesday the meter threw a wobbly, then on 4 other installations it behaved, then you went back to the problem installation on Friday and the mft on loop test played up again?

Did you
1/ Isolate and test Ze

2/ Set instrument to test on Zs and no trip?

3/Disconnect all appliances and circuits other than the one under test?

If so and the tester continued to give odd operational results then it can only be one of two possibilities. strange harmonic frequencies being generated from a source unknown in or around the installation or the instrument is playing up. Oldtimer may have the answer if the second is true.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

I wonder whether at some time in the recent past you have carried out a sequence of Zs tests on a large installation and somehow these have been stored as a an auto-sequence without pauses. Then when testing at your problem location you have triggered the earlier stored auto-sequence causing the seemingly bizarre behavior you witnessed. It might be worth checking the last stored auto-sequence to see if it is indeed a series of Zs tests.

 

[Octopus]

I wonder whether at some time in the recent past you have carried out a sequence of Zs tests on a large installation and somehow these have been stored as a an auto-sequence without pauses. Then when testing at your problem location you have triggered the earlier stored auto-sequence causing the seemingly bizarre behavior you witnessed. It might be worth checking the last stored auto-sequence to see if it is indeed a series of Zs tests.

Worth a look, the auto sequence is a feature I've never used.

Still doesn't give an idea as to why it only occurred on one specfic site though!

 

[MarkieSparkie]

I can't offer a definite explanation for why it happened at that particular location, but I remember reading on a US forum of a guy who had random behavior with his MFT turned out he was measuring in an electrically noisy environment and the noise spikes were triggering the microprocessor and causing the weirdness, this was later fixed by the manufacturer.