what is this thing?

[bywc]

Hi all, well I picked this thing up at a garage sale for 50c couldn't leave it sitting there for that price but now im left scratching my head as to what exactly it is and what is its real intended use, any help would be greatly appreciated.

The two little black knobs on the side seem to be used for pinching two wires im assuming for a temperate connection?

and then theres the black box with the circuit board and the wires that run inside the unit??

[PaulMarcel]

Could you take a more focused picture of the circuit board? What's under the ply to the left of the plug/switch in the third picture? Actually, if you take more of the board, maybe take some different angles, too, so we can make out the rating on the resistor and caps.

I assume the wire coming out of the box is the plug. That said, you could use a multimeter to figure this out. If you don't have one, you can get one at HF for < $4. Plug in your mystery box and probe the socket on the 250VAC multimeter setting. You should get 110/120V. See if the switch disconnects that plug or not. Test the black output ports the same way. In voltage mode you are attaching an 'open circuit' between the points so you won't go shorting anything (yes, a theoretical open circuit, but pretty close).

[bywc]

thats whats got me stumped it is putting out 119volt at the plug, in the two wire clamp things are showing 5volt which dont seem to be effected by the on off switch at first I thought maybe the circuit was to lower the volts but it doesn't seem to be doing that unless its solo purpose is to send 5 volts to the two clamps?

I think thats about as clear as this 30 dollar digital cam can handle lol

[samhell]

Its fused and looks like a filter circuit of some type with the inductor and the caps... so I'd say that its obviously a government tracking device. Don't plug in your computer to it....