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If they only started tripping when you don't have anything plugged into them, maybe there is a loose or damaged piece inside the outlet that occasionally arcs and trips it? With something plugged in the prongs might be pushing it apart/back in/whatever?
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May 21, 2019 15:23
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Maybe but it’s different outlets that have tripped. From my earlier labeling, once it was A and B, once it was A, B, and C, and once it was C and D. First time I think it was all four. For what it’s worth last Friday I plugged the charger into B. Still not tripped.
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May 21, 2019 17:01
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gently caress fire blocks up the rear end with a wire brush. That is all.
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May 22, 2019 02:45
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BIGFOOT EROTICA posted:Can I use one of those round old work boxes outdoors? When I look at the specs they look like they're only listed for indoor use in drywall or similar. Wait, this camera runs on low voltage, right? Not 120V? No 120V lines going through the box? It's still the wild west in a lot of areas when it comes to low voltage/data stuff, in some cases you don't even need a box. But it'd still be stupid to not use a weatherproof box, unless the camera is rated IP68 or better without any kind of box (including all connections). Even then, it'll be offputting if/when you try to sell the house.
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May 22, 2019 06:56
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I've tried skimming the thread but haven't seen my particular problem. I have three outlets that are registering Hot/Ground Reverse. Is there a simple tutorial to test and fix this? I swapped one wire at a time to the same ports on the new outlet, I was very careful to not switch them. I did not however, test the outlets before I swapped them. I would appreciate any help. Also is it going to be dangerous to leave them wired like that while I wait? Should I flip the breakers off?
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May 22, 2019 16:44
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Post a picture of your current wiring?
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May 22, 2019 17:23
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I swapped back to the original outlet to see if the new one was bad 
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May 22, 2019 17:34
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You said you have three outlets exhibiting this issue, can we see all three? One of them is likely the culprit, and the above pictured outlet looks correct, backstabs and lack of pigtailing aside.
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May 22, 2019 17:40
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Bad Munki posted:You said you have three outlets exhibiting this issue, can we see all three? One of them is likely the culprit, and the above pictured outlet looks correct, backstabs and lack of pigtailing aside. Oh man, I just realized one of them is different. I'll run up and grab a picture in a minute and i bet you'll be able to help me sort this out.
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May 22, 2019 17:42
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In general, the white wire goes on the silver terminals and the black wire goes on the brass terminals. Assuming everything else in the house is normal.
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May 22, 2019 17:43
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All of the rooms on the second floor (except bathrooms) do not have overhead lights. Instead they have an outlet controlled by the wall switch. I haven't had any issues so far and this was the last room to be swapped.   Is this what could be doing it? We didn't think to plug a lamp in and test this but this outlet is supposedly controlled by the wall switch.  
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May 22, 2019 17:57
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You need to bend the exposed wire so it hooks around the screw and can't just pull out or be wiggled loose by vibration.
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May 22, 2019 19:04
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GWBBQ posted:You need to bend the exposed wire so it hooks around the screw and can't just pull out or be wiggled loose by vibration. The ones that are on the side posts are fully looped around each one. They are all secured. Most of them are using the rear port. Which method is preferable? Edit: So this red wire isn't a probably cause? Rhyno fucked around with this message at 19:09 on May 22, 2019 |
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May 22, 2019 19:07
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The red wire should be a separately switched hot wire that only controls that outlet, or just half of that outlet, and is what your light switch turns on/off.
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May 22, 2019 22:26
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That's what it appears to be. So what else could be causing this? I fully admit to being a dunce when it comes to electrical.
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May 23, 2019 03:22
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Was the switch supposed to control all three outlets, or just the top half of that outlet with the red wire? And does the switch currently do anything? I suspect your switch is hot on both sides and you need to break the tab between the screws on the hot side of the red/black outlet. Also, always avoid using the rear stab-in if at all possible. Best practice, if you have room in the box, is to connect the two black wires in each box and a third short length of wire, aka "pigtail" all together with a wire nut, and then wire the pigtail to the outlet. Do the same for white wires, and again for grounds. By doing it that way, only the loads plugged into that outlet pass through that outlet, instead of all the load on all the outlets in the circuit flowing through the first one in the chain. shame on an IGA fucked around with this message at 04:33 on May 23, 2019 |
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May 23, 2019 04:20
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As far as I can tell it's only supposed to control that outlet. Each room has a single outlet like that. So it looks like I have a lot of rewiring to do as most of them were wired using the slide ins. Can you show my a diagram of what I should properly do, just so I have a visual aid for the putting the pigtails in?
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May 23, 2019 04:50
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kid sinister posted:gently caress fire blocks up the rear end with a wire brush. This will be me in a couple of hours.
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May 23, 2019 10:12
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Rhyno posted:As far as I can tell it's only supposed to control that outlet. Each room has a single outlet like that. Here's a very crude diagram:  Note I didn't draw the ground here, since it's not complicated, but definitely do connect all your outlet grounds.
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May 23, 2019 15:48
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I figured you guys were all tired of how stupid I am so I went off to Youtube, then Menards and sat down and got to work. All the grounds in the house are crimped together like this. If I clip them off I don't think there will be enough slack to make the pigtail so I didn't modify it.  Pigtail'n  Holy poo poo  So someone said it was most likely ONE outlet causing the trouble right? Well check this poo poo out  All three are now registering as correct. And since I have these open I'm gonna go ahead and pigtail the others since I have the supplies. Thanks guys!
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May 23, 2019 15:55
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Nice work. The crimped ground on the first outlet is antiquated, but perfectly safe as long as the wires are intact.
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May 23, 2019 19:16
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Yeah, I'd leave that ground as-is, but if for some reason you NEEDED to work with it, push-on connectors work great where nuts won't. I've had like <2" poking into the box in a situation where running more wire is not an option, push-ons saved the day.
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May 23, 2019 19:25
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GWBBQ posted:Nice work. The crimped ground on the first outlet is antiquated, but perfectly safe as long as the wires are intact. I am a bit soured on crimped grounds myself.. My house is only 6 years old. The electricians used those drat crimps.. Except they apparently didn't use the proper tool. I have had to remove every outlet and fix the crimped grounds that have fallen apart. Bonus they only left like 1 inch of ground wire coming out of the wall to work with, ended up using push-on/Waygo connectors as there wasn't enough wire to use a wire nut.
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May 23, 2019 19:26
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All the grounds appeared to be in good shape. The house is 37 years old but a lot of the outlets had been updated since then. You guys have created a monster, now I want to go and pigtail every outlet in the house.
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May 23, 2019 19:35
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stevewm posted:I am a bit soured on crimped grounds myself.. Yeah. I'd actually prefer the old school way of like 5+ twists of the grounds in one big lump. Far more robust mechanically than a simple insert and crimp. Especially when, as is common, the proper crimping tool isn't used and the barrel is deformed and weak.
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May 23, 2019 19:38
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Rhyno posted:All the grounds appeared to be in good shape. The house is 37 years old but a lot of the outlets had been updated since then. And here you were apologizing to us. You're the ideal customer.
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May 23, 2019 19:39
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H110Hawk posted:And here you were apologizing to us. You're the ideal customer. I have long doubted my ability to do pretty much any "adulting." But since we bought the house back in November I've learned so much and Goons have been a huge resource. I have a 3 and 4 way switch problem that will need some help with but I won't have time to tackle it for another week.
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May 23, 2019 19:43
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Rhyno posted:I have long doubted my ability to do pretty much any "adulting." But since we bought the house back in November I've learned so much and Goons have been a huge resource. I have learned way more than I ever expected to from these various threads. It's an amazing resource. Rhyno posted:I have a 4 way switch problem. Nevermind just burn the house down.
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May 23, 2019 19:51
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B-Nasty posted:Yeah. I'd actually prefer the old school way of like 5+ twists of the grounds in one big lump. Far more robust mechanically than a simple insert and crimp. Especially when, as is common, the proper crimping tool isn't used and the barrel is deformed and weak. You know how I discovered my ground problem? Went to go do some work on my Plex server and felt the unmistakable buzzing of AC power when I touched the computer case. Testing with a multi-meter revealed 40VAC present between the computer case and just about anything else I touched. Further investigation revealed the entire circuit had lost ground., as had some other circuits in the house. I figured out that the 40V was coming from the monitor connected to said computer. Without ground attached to the monitor. 40v was present on any metal part of the monitor, including the VGA shield wire. That is another electrical failure all to itself right there. I stopped using the monitor after that discovery.
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May 23, 2019 19:54
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I'm going to toss this here, since this thread sees activity, but if you guys think it's better served elsewhere I'm all ears. I want to install LED strip lighting on some exposed beams in my living room. I'm looking at these strips; specifically the Warm White non-waterproof ones. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/159...sAbTest=ae803_4 According to the handy diagram down the page, I should attach the strips to a 12v power supply:  Here's an offering of their power supplies. I don't see a diagram that tells you how much wattage you need. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32827458400.html?storeId=219857&spm=2114.12010612.8148356.1.100a5696qRq2Dw 1. I'm not running the strips end-to-end. All four would terminate in the same general area and then spread out from there. I'm looking at these power supplies, and it looks like the "input" side only has four terminals, even on the largest. Given that, can I solder/clip/pigtail/whatever the four power lines into one wire, and the four ground lines into one wire, and attach those two single wires to the power supply? 2. How do I determine what wattage I would need for roughly 75 to 80 feet of LED strip? 3. Would I run any risks combining two of the LED strips end to end?
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May 23, 2019 20:43
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Rhyno posted:I have a 3 and 4 way switch problem that will need some help with but I won't have time to tackle it for another week. When they get that complicated it's sometimes easier to shell out for the 'smart' switches that all talk to each other and not have to worry (as much) about the wiring.
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May 23, 2019 20:46
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Rhyno posted:I have a 3 and 4 way switch problem that will need some help with but I won't have time to tackle it for another week. Post good pictures like you've been doing and it's fixable.
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May 23, 2019 21:43
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Rhyno posted:I have long doubted my ability to do pretty much any "adulting." But since we bought the house back in November I've learned so much and Goons have been a huge resource. I've found YouTube to be the most amazing resource as a homeowner. I lived in apartments my entire life until I bought my first home 9 years ago. Goons are great as well, but man YouTube is amazing. Drywall repair, Exterior trim repair, pretty much any repair is on the 'tube.
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May 23, 2019 22:09
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B-Nasty posted:Yeah. I'd actually prefer the old school way of like 5+ twists of the grounds in one big lump. Far more robust mechanically than a simple insert and crimp. Especially when, as is common, the proper crimping tool isn't used and the barrel is deformed and weak. The western union splice does produce airtight connections if executed properly. 
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May 23, 2019 23:52
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Rhyno posted:I have long doubted my ability to do pretty much any "adulting." But since we bought the house back in November I've learned so much and Goons have been a huge resource. They're easy once you wrap your head around how the contacts are arranged inside the switches and you do some testing to determine what position each switch is in the string. 
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May 24, 2019 00:04
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also switch problems are fun because they're really disguised digital logic circuits and once you "get it" you also understand how computers work at the very deepest most primitive level.
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May 24, 2019 00:13
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The Wonder Weapon posted:1. I'm not running the strips end-to-end. All four would terminate in the same general area and then spread out from there. I'm looking at these power supplies, and it looks like the "input" side only has four terminals, even on the largest. Given that, can I solder/clip/pigtail/whatever the four power lines into one wire, and the four ground lines into one wire, and attach those two single wires to the power supply? 1. Yes. 2. 5050SMD LEDs are .24 watts/LED. Take feet of strip * LEDs/foot and then divide by 4 (multiply by .24). Then multiply that by 1.5 because cheap power supplies are WAY over-rated. In your example, let's say 80 feet, or 25m. That's five reels, so .24*300*5=360W. 3. Those strips have some maximum current carrying capability, and too many strips end to end will exceed that, and then the strip catches fire. Is 2 too many? Possibly. There's a LOT of current going into a 10m strip of LEDs. By my math, that's 12A at 12VDC, which is a nontrivial amount of current for PCB strip.
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May 24, 2019 04:04
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The Wonder Weapon posted:I want to install LED strip lighting on some exposed beams in my living room. I'm looking at these strips; specifically the Warm White non-waterproof ones. I can tell you from experience, cheap Chinese LED strips can be anywhere from "Outstanding" to "Wildly inconsistent brightness and color from strip to strip and individual LED to LED". It's a roll of the dice, but for diffuse lighting like you're doing you'll probably be fine. quote:According to the handy diagram down the page, I should attach the strips to a 12v power supply: It depends on a lot of things, type of diode, color, LEDs per meter, total strip length. Here's a handy page with some lookup tables: http://www.ledlightsworld.com/page.html?id=38 For reference, the strip you linked is a 5050 LED, 60 LEDs per meter, 5 meter strip, warm white. The table on that page gives you 72 watts per strip. However. You should always derate your power supplies by 20%, especially a cheap Chinese power supply. 4 LED strips at 72 watts per strip = 288 watts. Thats 24 amps @ 12 volts. A 30 amp power supply is what you want here (20% derated is exactly 24 amps so you may consider going higher). There's a 30 amp and 33 amp supply here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/LED-Power-Supply-12V-LED-Strip-Transformer-Switch-Driver-1-5A-2A-3A-5A-10A-15A/32918458668.html quote:1. I'm not running the strips end-to-end. All four would terminate in the same general area and then spread out from there. I'm looking at these power supplies, and it looks like the "input" side only has four terminals, even on the largest. Given that, can I solder/clip/pigtail/whatever the four power lines into one wire, and the four ground lines into one wire, and attach those two single wires to the power supply? The power supply I linked above has 3 output terminals. You could connect two normally and double one up. BUT 288 watts of LED lighting is......just loving absolutely preposterous. It's an enormous amount of light. You're going to need loving welding glasses inside. So I'm going to make a couple of suggestions here. First, get the waterproof LED strip. The cost difference is minimal and it'll greatly increase protection from accidental shorts. Second, put the LEDs in a channel with a diffuser. You can find them on AliExpress as well. This will greatly even out the lighting. Otherwise you'll have a very noticeable and distinctive spot pattern. Finally, use a dimmable LED driver. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Magnitude-LED-Transformer-M300L12DC-Inspired/dp/B01MTG3N12 You can run it through most standard dimmer switches and it does the necessary conversions to make Or something like this in conjunction with a separate power supply: https://www.ledsupply.com/led-dimmers/mean-well-wireless-pwm-dimming-controller Or something like this with a power supply and a 1 gang mounted dimmer switch: https://www.ledsupply.com/led-dimmers/pwm-12v-led-amplifier-repeater quote:2. How do I determine what wattage I would need for roughly 75 to 80 feet of LED strip? Answered above. quote:3. Would I run any risks combining two of the LED strips end to end? Wildly varying brightness due to voltage drop. LEDs have a forward voltage drop so the strips are generally designed in a series and parallel configuration. At the end of the strip you might be down to 6 volts or so. Some strips have additional layers so that the 12v and ground plane extends all the way to the end of the strip, however you still will have voltage drop because you're gonna be pulling roughly 6 amps over 30 feet of conductor.
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May 24, 2019 05:22
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Oh, and at the power levels you're looking at, consider using 24v led strips and power supplies. You'll cut your current in half and the thin copper traces in the LED strip will get way less hot. I mean, the LEDs themselves are still going to get hot as all hell, but at least you'll reduce the waste heat slightly. And FYI, some extremely back of a napkin math tells me that you're putting the equivalent of SIXTEEN 100w incandescent bulbs worth of light in this room. Seriously consider a compatible dimmer. 30 TO 50 FERAL HOG fucked around with this message at 05:39 on May 24, 2019 |
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May 24, 2019 05:35
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 22:41 |
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How hard is it to add a circuit to a breaker box and move part of an existing one to it? I have servers that suck up power and ended up on the same circuit as the A/C unit and it's starting to trip now that it's summer.
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May 25, 2019 03:31
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