Obviously I KNOW 😉
I´m freely translating fron Spanish and the meaning is clear, given the thread subject anyway.
🙂
FWIW I made my own differential breaker even before they were widely available or used, straight from Popular Electronics magazine, which posted it as a project.
I had to hand wind my sensor coil and it used an Op Amp (741?) to trigger a regular relay.
That said, it worked quite well, but had a highish threshold, not sure now but might have been as high as 20mA.
It certainly tickled 😱
I figured.
Bad wiring is a pet peeve of mine. I have seen some horrible residential wiring.
Wiring should only be touched by qualified personnel. It's not for DIY.
Bad wiring is a pet peeve of mine. I have seen some horrible residential wiring.
Wiring should only be touched by qualified personnel. It's not for DIY.
THAT.
Not agreeing yet not much worried about people´s preferences about cap colour, silver wiring, burn-in, etc. but quite intolerant of glaring SAFETY issues.
Death, grave injury or burnt down homes are not funny stuff.
I laid off the booze last year after a decade of over-consumption, that thing looks like something I could have built on a saturday night after a bottle of Jack D...
People need to be aware of building codes, including electrical, structural, and most importantly if they're in the repair business or manufacturing, liability issues.
And in many cases, they must have certifications, a license, up to date, in order to legally perform work.
The trouble is, these things are unknown or ignored by the common diy'ers, because they have no idea or background of the ramifications should a problem or hazzard arise.
Look at how this building was added on to. It looks like a "brother in law" weekend project.
India: Sudden collapse of three-storey building caught on camera - YouTube
Sudden collapse my foot. It was a failure waiting to happen.
India: Sudden collapse of three-storey building caught on camera - YouTube
Sudden collapse my foot. It was a failure waiting to happen.
KABOOM! 😱
I've seen a lot of stuctures collapse in various countries.
Russia, China, India, you name it.
One has to wonder, who are these construction companies/architects, and what qualifications do they have?
A part of these catasrophies are due to inferior building materials too.
I've seen a lot of stuctures collapse in various countries.
Russia, China, India, you name it.
One has to wonder, who are these construction companies/architects, and what qualifications do they have?
A part of these catasrophies are due to inferior building materials too.
Yes to inferior building materials.
Also I have seen in many videos the second and third story add-ons. They often look poorly thought out, like the owner and his brother in law just did it themselves.
Add a second story, move in. Then add a third story to rent out. Never mind the building inspectors. Never mine an engineering analysis. Just put it up.
I read in India that there's a huge problem with stealing electricity. I saw a video where they just reach out the window and hook up to a wire outside. Ground return is via the plumbing. Yeah! Transformers burn up because engineers have no idea how much electricity is being stolen. I saw a video where residents were throwing wet sand on an overloaded transformer, because they didn't want to call the authorities and have all their illegal hookups disconnected.
We don't need no stinking engineers or building inspectors!
Also I have seen in many videos the second and third story add-ons. They often look poorly thought out, like the owner and his brother in law just did it themselves.
Add a second story, move in. Then add a third story to rent out. Never mind the building inspectors. Never mine an engineering analysis. Just put it up.
I read in India that there's a huge problem with stealing electricity. I saw a video where they just reach out the window and hook up to a wire outside. Ground return is via the plumbing. Yeah! Transformers burn up because engineers have no idea how much electricity is being stolen. I saw a video where residents were throwing wet sand on an overloaded transformer, because they didn't want to call the authorities and have all their illegal hookups disconnected.
We don't need no stinking engineers or building inspectors!
You know .... if you touch the "live" with your thumb and the index finger in the form of a tweezer, they will close and you will be stuck.
Then, hold your breath and with the arm jerk, I pinched the back of the palm of my hand to the live pole.
The power cut was so fast that I didn't feel anything at all.
It was a good protection device!
Here we have 220 VA
Disclaimer:
Do not try to do the same experience at home.
In the days of lead water leads, it was a very common practice here as well.
If you think about it a bit, it's almost better than a grounded javelin.
Nowadays, with plastic water pipes, the problem is worse, nobody wants to put javelins in their homes.
A neutral wire is the safe way to wire. Returning current through conduit or plumbing pipes is so very dangerous.
The conduit, and the service box ground connection to the plumbing, are for conducting the ground faults only. The neutral and ground are to be connected at only one point, and that's inside the service box. The neutral is called the "designated conductor" because we force the return current to pass through it, instead of the conduit.
An example of why it's unsafe was right inside my house. I was setting up a work area in my basement. I plugged my outlet tester into a duplex outlet. It showed open ground, to my surprise. I reached up and wiggled the conduit and the tester light blinked. Tightening a locknut fixed the situation. Now, if the outlet had been wired so the current returned through the conduit (I've actually seen this in really old wiring), then I would have gotten a big shock when I touched the conduit.
That's why it's important to leave it to people that know what they're doing. If Uncle Harry wires an outlet wrong, it might still work when you plug a lamp into it; but someone is going to get a big shock.
The conduit, and the service box ground connection to the plumbing, are for conducting the ground faults only. The neutral and ground are to be connected at only one point, and that's inside the service box. The neutral is called the "designated conductor" because we force the return current to pass through it, instead of the conduit.
An example of why it's unsafe was right inside my house. I was setting up a work area in my basement. I plugged my outlet tester into a duplex outlet. It showed open ground, to my surprise. I reached up and wiggled the conduit and the tester light blinked. Tightening a locknut fixed the situation. Now, if the outlet had been wired so the current returned through the conduit (I've actually seen this in really old wiring), then I would have gotten a big shock when I touched the conduit.
That's why it's important to leave it to people that know what they're doing. If Uncle Harry wires an outlet wrong, it might still work when you plug a lamp into it; but someone is going to get a big shock.
I once knew this guy, Frank, in this 30's......
He offered to repair another friend of mine's table lamp.
Now Frank was the kind of guy who always seemed to know everything, and was somewhat aggressive in his personality.
So my friend gave him the lamp to fix.
I happened to be at my friend's house when Frank stopped by with the lamp.
Well, my friend put a new bulb in it, plugged it in, turned it on...... and POOF...... blew the circuit breaker in the mains box.
End of laughable story.
He offered to repair another friend of mine's table lamp.
Now Frank was the kind of guy who always seemed to know everything, and was somewhat aggressive in his personality.
So my friend gave him the lamp to fix.
I happened to be at my friend's house when Frank stopped by with the lamp.
Well, my friend put a new bulb in it, plugged it in, turned it on...... and POOF...... blew the circuit breaker in the mains box.
End of laughable story.
Wiring an outlet (or any residential circuit) properly really ISNT THAT HARD. Most of it is just common sense and understanding a few conventions. Uncle Harry probably couldn’t make an amplifier that works, either.
There's several ways to wire it wrong, and it will still work. Most common mistake by far is to switch hot and neutral.
It's a good idea to have one of these. https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-R...ocphy=9021475&hvtargid=pla-569358703601&psc=1
It's a good idea to have one of these. https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-R...ocphy=9021475&hvtargid=pla-569358703601&psc=1
I figured as much.
N/G is the least likely mistake that could be made. But it is possible. And the outlet would still work.
N/G is the least likely mistake that could be made. But it is possible. And the outlet would still work.
But if you bother to look at all the other outlets in the house you will notice that the black wire goes to the brass terminal. If it happens more often than not, you should be able to infer that it means something.
It’s not any more basic than making sure you’ve installed all your electrolytic capacitors properly. If you wanted to make sure you’ve got something more subtle correct, like having the right size wire for so many amps and the length of a run, or how fat apart the staples need to be you can Look it up in a BOOK. You do that when deciding what op amp to use, right? I had a big green hard cover book on the National Electric Code when I was a kid. If you’re afraid of Google tracking you, buy the damn book (from a second hand book store).
It’s easier than learning to design audio amplifiers, trust me. I made my first REAL (that is, over 50 watt, low distortion, 2 ohm capable) amp work properly my second year in college (I had to learn Nyquist first to make real progress). I was rewiring our trailer more than a decade before.
You are correct that the third wire to ground is currently the best way to do a good electrical installation.
But I was referring to when all the outlets were only two poles, a live (which so many people confuse by calling it positive, when it comes to AC, and the polarity changes according to the frequency of the network, as you know) and neutral (again, misnamed negative). Here we have 220 Volts 50 cycles per second. A very high and dangerous voltage for a home network.
The use of the javelin was a good practice, because the electrical appliances, the radios, etc., had metal casings that became conductive if the "live" touched the chassis due to a bad assembly or bad repair.
I remember the radii of both valve currents.
The knobs of the potentiometers or the switch keys could be energized or not, depending on how you put the wall plug, because the clamping screw of the same could be touched when manipulating them!
Here you can see the death machine and the nefarious element, a wire resistor instead of a transformer, to power the rectifier valve plate.
So for the newbies, if your grandpa gives you an old radio to play with, the first thing is to see if he has a power transformer or a big resistor like the one in the diagram. In the latter case, touch the chassis with a pole-finding screwdriver. If the light comes on, turn the wall socket over.
You also have to know what can or cannot be touched inside the chassis, obviously ......
