am2 fault finding

[smileroutkast]

hey everyone. ive failed my fault finding on my am2 twice now and have my retake due soon. as i dont do any fault finding on site at all any help or insight will be helpful. stuff like how to discover faults and the process in which you guys go through to find the faults on the am2. also what are the types of faults? open/short circuit, that kinda stuff. keep in mind i only have a continuity tester in the exam and not a multimeter. i find it alot harder findin faults with a continuity tester, any help or insight will be greatly appreciated, thanks

 

[matt.leung]

just break the circuit down into sections, and use ur continuity tester to test each section at a time.

 

[Andy™]

they also swap conductors, so a brown leaving an accessory may arrive at its destination as blue, and the opposite for the other conductor

 

[Tetley]

If thers a problem with the switching on the lighting circuit and he asks if you want to operate it, do it. Should be able to tell a lot from that and find it quickly.

Also are you explaing the fault properly, cos a lad I know had a n-e short on the ring which he found but didnt investigate it further and say which leg of the circuit the fault was which Im sure they want you to tell them.

 

[das_ist]

yeh your right tetley. they want you to tell them between which points the short is. i just passed mine and all i can say to help is think about how the circuit your fault finding works. and then bell out all cables to where they should go etc. if he shows you the light working and then not working no matter what switches you operate it will likely be a broken perm live, switch live or neutral. if he shows you it working and then working but only certain switches work it then obviously strapper cables are messed up in some way.

 

[smileroutkast]

thanks guys. i find fault finding difficult in general anyways, i had the n-e thing aswell and couldnt find out where it was or what leg it was on, it really span me out, i knew it was a fault but jus couldnt tell where, how would i determine where it was? like which leg its on? on that job card it said the fault existed but the circuit was still in working order. is that right? im not sure! lol

 

[sparks088]

you could find it by breaking the ring at the accessories to narrow down where its broken between. know what you mean about the circuit still working with a fault on it. not sure if the fault rig has an rcbo on the ring circuit....

 

[bengie]

remember your training as fault finding is generally quite simple. there's very few places a fault could occur and thats normally feed, control gear, load. start at the begining and work your way through until you find a fault and then look at it logically until you locate the issue.

i was in the exact same boat, all of my apprenticeship was spent on installation and did no fault finding at all, luckily our company sent us on a refresher a week before the exam and the guys running it were brilliant, they simply asked us what we weren't 100% happy on and thats what they would cover for us rather than just going through a set course

but also remember that some of the faults can be really really simple, one of the faults on my AM2 was a blown lamp.

 

[Bozzer]

I'm in the same boat.. Got my AM2 coming up but not done muck fault finding...

 

[pickleye]

New Am2 has no broken accessories if the lamp is broken that is not the fault, just a sad coincidence.

Bare in mind the only faults they can put on are those they can switch in and out of the circuit. I had two on heating system. Read the fault discription and think about what may cause the symptom, look at the wiring diagram and try to suss it out.

I do very little fault finding as mostly install but staying as calm as possible and taking the time to think, i got all mine sorted well in the time allowed.

Don't get bogged down on one fault, lad i did mine with spent 50 mins or so on one fault, examiner hinted maybe move on to next fault. He ran out of time on the others. I don't know what the pass rate is - don't think you have to get them all to pass. Better to drop one rather than duff the lot.