Not a common tester for you EE guys here, but I want to share my experience. This is 120V AC receptacle "quality" tester for US market. GFCI testers are pretty cheap and you can get them for a few bucks in almost any major retailer store. Now, how about the AFCI (arc-fault-circuit-interruptor) testers? The NEC (national electrical code) originally required the arc fault breakers to be installed in bedrooms and sleeping areas when they were introduced to the market around 2004. These days AFCI breakers are required to be installed almost everywhere in the house including kitchen and for appliances like dishwashers, disposals etc. As you can see from the pictures, to test the AFCI breaker, there is little bit more involved in the tester itself. This tester failed the same day it was purchased. Only couple of test were done and the fuse blew. it is 10A 5x20 fuse. What was strange is that, when testing the AC receptacles, there was a 50% chance the receptacle (or the breaker) wouldn't trip when test was done compared to other receptacle on the same circuit that the breaker did trip when tested. The tester runs on 3 AAA batteries, so it powers on and looks like everything is fine but it can not test with blown fuse. When plugged in, it looks like there is no power present in the receptacle but in fact the receptacle is live. They cover their ass in manual, it says "Test before use on known live circuit". So if your ass gets fried because you think the circuit is dead, it is your problem and you should read the manual and should know better.
I just personally think they could do a little bit more from engineering point of view to include a check LED for self diagnostic of the tester or LED that checks the fuse. It is very impractical to verify if the tester is in working order every time before you test the outlet especially if you have to test 200 of them!
Anyone can reverse engineer from the pictures the way it simulates the arc fault?
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