Outlet Voltage ( High, Low, or Fluctuating Voltages )

[blackcat4866]

It's Advanced Test Equipment:
Advanced Test Equipment Rentals - Complete Test Equipment Rental Solutions

The Fluke 101S is the one I used. The great feature about it is that it can record up to 4000 events, and the software produces nice concise reports. One drawback is that it needs a serial connection to your PC. I had to buy an adapter from USB. Most laptops don't have serial or parallel ports any more.
Fluke VR101S Voltage Event Recorder System - Advanced Test Equipment Rentals

Have fun. =^..^=

[OMD-227]

My advice would be to get any Dranetz device that records onto a roll of paper internally. No serial cables, no extra plugs or wires.... just plug it into the power, plug the copier into the Dranetz, and wait for the results. The print out (like a cash-register roll) records everything that happens with the power. On our machine you can set it to only record actual events, or print a graph of what is happening at all times.
Although Blackcats device would be fine, the idea of serial cables and software to drive it sounds prehistoric. Our Dranetz isn't new, by any means. It looks older than me, but it definitely works.
Pay the extra money and get a Dranetz. It has saved us many times, actual printed proof that there is a problem with the clients power supply. Can't argue with that.
As Blackcat has said previously, digital machines dont like unstable power supplies. A Drantetz will prove it. Then its not your problem anymore.

Pretty easy with a Dranetz. These guys should pay me for the name drops. Cash for comment specialist.

[n25an]

Most manufacturers use the same specs: 120VAC +/- 10%

That's 108 to 132VAC. But that's not the whole story. Ground to neutral must be less than 0.5VAC.

I remember a service call on a Mita DC-4055, ~15 years ago. The customer had lost electrical service, and was attempting to run the entire building off a portable generator. The resulting power to the Mita was 89VAC, and miraculously it worked just fine other than the fact that LTR-R images were over 17" long. I think the main motor was expecting a little more juice. This was a bare bones analog. Digital copiers are not so tolerant.

In real life, on digital equipment, momentary spikes or sags of 15% can cause MFPs to drop network connection, jam, and pull error codes. I have documented spikes over 400VAC before the surge suppressor. The only way to properly document these situations is to set up a power quality analyzer for a few days. =^..^=

when I run my voltmeter between ground and neutral on an outlet... I get 5 VAC one way and 118 VAC when I switch... I know the 5 VAC is bad but my question is... Is it normal for the Voltmeter to react like this... when leads are connected one way... it reads a short and the other way it reads an open... ???

[blackcat4866]

It sounds like you've got a floating ground. Simply, the ground prong is open to the circuit box, but occasionally some grounding results from another draw on the circuit.

You can get some truly strange results. Anything over 0.5VAC ground to neutral is unacceptable, so there's no doubt you've got a serious power issue.

[davidj7]

agrees with blackcat 100%

[Herrmann]

You should be careful in interpreting the results of a normal ( worse: digital) Volt meter. These are known to have a very high inner resistance, so the only thing, you get as result if you connect the meter to a wall socket between ground and neutral is the capacitive and inductive Voltage, coming from the "Hot" Line running parallel to the other lines. Take a meter, that is specially designed to measure this issues and meter only with mashine plugged in and running to get serious results