I bought a 'universal' sensor tester that was anything but

Saw this tool online for $45 that claimed to test every kind of alarm sensor. Spent a whole morning trying to get it to read a simple PIR, but the readings were all over the place. Finally opened it up and found a mess of cheap wires and a circuit board that looked like a toy. Ended up having to redo the whole job with my old meter. Anyone have a go-to tester they actually trust for motion detectors?

3 comments

3 Comments

jakef661mo ago

Feels like everything's "universal" until you actually need it to work lol.

wendyc531mo ago

Ugh, right? Universal just means it fits badly on everything.

black.jordan4d ago

Gotta push back a little on this one, only because I spent way too long last week searching for a universal phone mount for my car and found one that actually works great. The trick is realizing universal usually means it has a lot of adjustments or extra parts you have to mess with to make it fit right. Most people just grab the first one and get frustrated when it doesnt clamp tight, so yeah I get the annoyance. But if you read the fine print and get one with strong adhesive or a good grip system, universal can still be solid. Just takes way more effort than it should.