Volty Switch Manual

PC Doodle Volty Switch Manual:

CAUTION: Use at your own risk, wear proper safety gear especially with big batteries or high amperage outputs! 

Power Switch:

The power switch disconnects the onboard battery. The switch is a high quality Japanese switch with a Polyamide slider and gold plated internal contacts. Rated for 10,000 cycles.

Behaviour After Power On: 

When you 1st turn on Volty Switch, the green LED will repeatably flash green. This is normal and signals that Sparky and Tempy mode can be activated by taking a measurement. As soon as you do any measurements regarding voltage, tempy and sparky are disabled to prevent interference with your voltage readings. To re-enable Sparky or Tempy, simply power cycle using the switch.

DC Meter LED Pattern (1V - 30VDC):

  • Use Tip (The pointy end) as Positive Terminal and base as Negative.
  • Green 10V each
  • Yellow 1V each
  • Red 0.1V each
  • Reverse polarity protection up to 30 VDC.
  • Accuracy +/- 0.1VDC
  • Induces a small load above 2V.

AC Meter (5-24VAC)

  • Testing AC sources above 24VAC is dangerous and can lead to electric shock and will permanently damage volty switch!
  • Accuracy +/- 1VAC
  • Used primarily in HVAC, CCTV Security, Audio Gear and More!

Shorty Mode:

Emits a solid red indicator when tip you touch the Volty tip to the base. All "Shorty" tests should be done out of circuit. 

  • Test Cables
  • Identify Switch Terminals out of circuit.
  • Test Fuses out of circuit
  • Test HVAC Ignitors, Thermostats, out of circuit.

Body Mode (Low DC Voltage Only!)

Use the tip as Ground to illuminate RED LED while touching a low voltage positive potential with your other hand. 

Sparky EMF Mode (Experimental):

Do not use Sparky EMF Mode for confirming the presence or absence of high voltage!

  • Automatically paused until reboot if other modes are used.
  • Detect if a spark plug wire or coil pack has “juice”.
  • Detects Inductive Coupling between cables with EMFs.
  • Paranormal Research Applications (Ghosty ;).
  • Sparky Mode can detect some but not all EMFs.
  • Sparky Mode has a strange affinity for old Refrigerators and Toaster Ovens.
  • Never rely on Sparky EMF Mode to provide accurate or repeatable readings.
  • Sparky EMF Mode is disabled until reboot if tip modes are used.
  • A green blinking LED indicates Sparky Mode is active.
  • Never directly touch a wire

Rechargeable Onboard Battery:

  • 100% DOD Tolerant.
  • To keep your onboard battery in good condition, please charge it at least once per year.
  • The switch on the back physically disconnects the battery to prevent self discharge.
  • Volty should be powered off and stored properly after taking readings to extend the working life of the onboard battery.
  • Recharge the battery by turning the switch on and connecting any 3-13VDC source and wait 2 hours before disconnecting.

Idle Battery Reminder:

After taking a voltage reading, the system will start an idle counter and start blinking the RED led after 5 minutes of inactivity as a reminder to turn it off.

Calibration and Manual Mode Switcher.

If you short the base to the tip while powering on, the green LED will blink: Release at the blink you want to invoke.

 

Tempy Mode (Experimental):

  • Stores and displays the highest or lowest temperature reading since boot.
  • Temperature Range: 0F - 140F (-18C - 60C)
  • Can be calibrated in 1 degree increments but don’t expect perfect readings across the entire testing range.
  • Not for professional use.
  • Auto Tempy is disabled until reboot if Voltage Modes are used.

Auto vs. Manual Tempy:

When Auto Tempy is set, it checks the temperature at boot. It will then wait for a 10 degree rise or fall before outputting the temperature reading. Taking Voltage readings will disable Auto Tempy until reboot.

Setting Manual Tempy instantly forces temperature readings and also will disable automatic temperature reading even after reboot.

 

DC Parasite Finder:

To Access parasite finder, leave the switch in the off position and wait for 3 voltage tests to finish. Useful for finding circuits that are drawing a battery down. In this mode: when volty is connected to a battery, it stores a baseline voltage reading and will illuminate solid green. If the voltage deviates by 0.05VDC, the LED will turn RED to show the voltage has either dropped or risen. With this mode you can pull fuses / circuit branches one at a time with a small wait period to let the battery recover some voltage or in reverse: remove all fuses and insert one at a time with a wait period for each.

 

Low Temperatures will Disables Some Modes:

Shorty and Body Mode mode get disabled when the temperature is below 40F. If you need to access these modes in low temperature, the heat from your hands holding the unit should be sufficient.