Hipot tester
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A hipot tester is an electronic device used to verify the electrical insulation in a cable, printed circuit board, electric motor, transformer or other wired assembly. A Hipot tester is used to perform a high potential test. Generally a hipot tester consists of:
- A source of high voltage,
- A current meter,
- A switching matrix used to connect the high voltage source and the current meter to all of the contact points in a cable.
In addition to these parts a hipot tester may also have a microcontroller and a display to automate the testing process and display the testing results.
A hipot tester can be very similar to a cable tester and often the two are combined into a single device.
A hipot tester is used to verify that circuits that should be insulated really are well isolated. It does this by applying a high voltage between the circuits and making sure no current flows.
In a typical wired assembly a hipot test should connect all circuits in common to ground. Then, one by one the tester will disconnect a given circuit from ground and connect that circuit to high voltage. The current that flows is monitored to verify that it is low enough.
