Breaker Breaker, Where is the Breaker?
None of this is a problem for those of you with someone else in the house. Just make a mobile phone call and have the other person stand near the circuit you are testing. Sure Sure. But I live alone.
A switch in the back bedroom / Computer room was bad. It was not making a positive connection so the light would flicker when the switch was thrown or wiggled. So, how to find the breaker? How about the Breaker Finder Tool I purchased a while ago?
This tool makes a beeping noise when the probe is brought near the breaker where the other end is plugged in, or screwed into a socket. Nice theory at least. And it has worked before for me. But in this case the tool made a horrible screeching sound when the probe was anywhere near the panel, so it’s not working at all in this case. No clue why.
Enter Discord.
Discord You Say?
Can we use Discord to find the Breaker?
Well this light controlled by the switch is right across from a computer – 4 actually. But you might have a laptop with a webcam or other computer to put near the circuit in question. Of course a laptop is nice since if you turn off the power, it will continue to work, which is essential. Also your network needs to continue to work, of course.
In my case I hooked up a webcam, which was duck taped to a tripod, then installed Discord and logged into my second discord account.
Then installed discord on my phone and logged in with my primary account. Then shared video from the webcam to the phone – and muted audio on both ends. It’s hard to show you the phone screen, but you get the idea. The phone can see through the webcam while I try the breakers.
Problem Solved
Now I can walk to the breaker box and find the breaker that controls the circuit.
In my case, switching off the computer while I was trying breakers was no problem since all computers in my house are protected by UPS devices. But of course you don’t want to turn off your network router. And using a laptop will prevent turning off the far end of the discord that’s watching the circuit.
So, for me, problem solved. Glitchy switch replaced. And while I’ll use the breaker finder tool in the future, this is actually a lot better since it gives more information more reliably. The breaker finder always made noises on the wrong breakers anyway.
Cheers,
:ww
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