hi servoguy, were at it again....I actually don't have one of those meters, saw one once, but got sticker shock! But I do have a cool toy I use. Especially on the tin man favorites, we set up lengths of 10 pieces and then hook up a 5oo watt ohmite variable resistor, I think it is 50 ohms but not sure. It came from a church that used it to dim the sanctuary lights before the days of solid state control. Originally I used it in our shop to check out DC low voltage power supplies. Anyway we set it for a 3 amp draw with 15 volts at a transformer and premeasure the volts at the point of the load which is moved now to the end of the string. Over 11v we consider a pass.
Thought of you the other day, about done with the switch inventory now, went thru about 300. I ended up with about 10 or so that I just did not want to spend any more time with. Got a reverse senior moment and ordered some 14mm 1 amp reed switches. I want to try to hot glue them next to the slide switch, wire them across the switch, hot glue a magnet on the slide, one for red one for green. Seems logical, and will be a fun experiment. Total cost maybe a buck and 1/2 a switch. Will let you know how I come out. If it turns out to be a slam bam thank you sam fix, we might just incorporate it as a regular feature included in the recon process. I am thinking of just removing the slide contacts all together if it works, but I don't know. I can of course set it up for continuous draw, because some of the coils do draw over the ratings of the switch, but I figure for only the 1/2 second or so we should be ok.
I did find a reasonable source for LED bayonet bulbs that work ok and are the right height, with all the electronics built in, but getting complaints that the color is not very nice. Thinking maybe of painting orange? Neat stuff. Shame you and I aren't neighbors, we could have a lot of fun with this stuff. Most folks as I am sure you are aware of think I'm a little weird getting a high over these kinds of things.
