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kid sinister
Nov 16, 2002

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I need to splice together some ground wires for a low-voltage device (a game controller; I'm wiring up the buttons).



I'm a relative newbie when it comes to this kind of electrical wiring. What I need to have is basically a "main" ground wire that has short runs that T off of it to go to individual buttons. I could presumably do this by taking a wire, removing the sheathing from a short section, soldering a wire to that, etc. But that sounds kind of fragile. How do people who actually know what they're doing handle this kind of situation?

I bought a "wiring harness" for this job, which is plug-and-play: it has wires that terminate in sockets which fit over the prongs on the buttons, and it daisy-chains the ground wires together using those sockets. But I can't use the harness, because of specific limits on how my project is laid out and the amount of room I have available.

On a related note: recommendations for flux for electrical soldering? Or is that not needed? My prior soldering experience is all either jewelry or plumbing.

We do have an electronics thread here in DIY. I'm on mobile otherwise I'd link it. We love helping newbies!

That being said, since this is a ground wire that won't be exposed, you could just run a bare wire and solder to it where needed. You can make any wire bare with a razor blade. You don't even have to make the entire wire bare, just cut back spots to solder to along the length.

Most electronics grade solder now is rosin core, so it has the flux inside it already. Just use an electronics grade solder. You can't use the stuff from plumbing.

kid sinister fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jun 25, 2023

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TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

DaveSauce posted:

Terminals, or wire nuts if you have to.

What size are the wires? Wago 221 series lever nuts are probably a good option and they go down to 24 AWG.

The wires on the harness I bought are pretty small. I'm not 100% confident in the size since they're from a metric-using country, but I can strip the sheathing off with the 18ga hole on my wire stripper, so 1mm seems like a pretty safe bet. Inside is twisted aluminum. I dimly recall that copper is easier to solder than aluminum. I can use the same size in twisted copper as the aluminum, right? I can't just re-use the wires from the harness for everything, unfortunately.

Thanks for the lever nut suggestion; I hadn't realized that they were for small/low-voltage jobs too, though it totally makes sense. Definitely easier than manually soldering a bunch of stuff together. I can't find ones that are specifically made for small wires, though, so they'll take up more space inside the box. But I'm pretty sure that won't be an issue. This product page says that one connector is about 3"x2"x.75", and I'd need four of 'em (16 buttons, each 5-port box can convert a single ground wire into 4 ground wires).

kid sinister posted:

We do have an electronics thread here in DIY. I'm on mobile otherwise I'd link it. We love helping newbies!

That being said, since this is a ground wire that won't be exposed, you could just run a bare wire and solder to it where needed. You can make any wire bare with a razor blade. You don't even have to make the entire wire bare, just cut back spots to solder to along the length.

Most electronics grade solder now is rosin core, so it has the flux inside it already. Just use an electronics grade solder. You can't use the stuff from plumbing.

Thanks! I'll find that electronics thread and ask there.

Hed
Mar 31, 2004

Fun Shoe

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I need to splice together some ground wires for a low-voltage device (a game controller; I'm wiring up the buttons).



I'm a relative newbie when it comes to this kind of electrical wiring. What I need to have is basically a "main" ground wire that has short runs that T off of it to go to individual buttons. I could presumably do this by taking a wire, removing the sheathing from a short section, soldering a wire to that, etc. But that sounds kind of fragile. How do people who actually know what they're doing handle this kind of situation?

I bought a "wiring harness" for this job, which is plug-and-play: it has wires that terminate in sockets which fit over the prongs on the buttons, and it daisy-chains the ground wires together using those sockets. But I can't use the harness, because of specific limits on how my project is laid out and the amount of room I have available.

On a related note: recommendations for flux for electrical soldering? Or is that not needed? My prior soldering experience is all either jewelry or plumbing.

If a bunch of stuff needs a common ground you could use a terminal strip block to bring the connections together: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CLW5FPS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 one ground goes to each position and gets screwed down, then the other side has a common comb-like structure that ties them all together. If you have a space constraint everywhere (not just up against the buttons) this probably won’t work. I agree you should ask in the electronics thread in that case.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Hed posted:

If a bunch of stuff needs a common ground you could use a terminal strip block to bring the connections together: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CLW5FPS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 one ground goes to each position and gets screwed down, then the other side has a common comb-like structure that ties them all together. If you have a space constraint everywhere (not just up against the buttons) this probably won’t work. I agree you should ask in the electronics thread in that case.

Yeah, I asked them and they said to use the lever nuts or terminal blocks. :v: I ended up ordering some terminal blocks solely on the basis of them being smaller. I don't know exactly how the interior of the controller will be laid out, and I want to make sure that I have options.

Skunkduster
Jul 15, 2005




TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Yeah, I asked them and they said to use the lever nuts or terminal blocks. :v: I ended up ordering some terminal blocks solely on the basis of them being smaller. I don't know exactly how the interior of the controller will be laid out, and I want to make sure that I have options.

Since it is all low voltage and low current, I'd think a solderable breadboard would be the way to go. The long rows between the mounting holes are all electrically tied together, so you would solder a ground wire to one of the holes and solder all the wires you need to be grounded to the other holes in the same row.

https://www.amazon.com/SchmalzTech-Protoboard-Solderable-Breadboard-ST-PROTO-1-2/dp/B0BK76L5BD/

babyeatingpsychopath
Oct 28, 2000
Forum Veteran


TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Yeah, I asked them and they said to use the lever nuts or terminal blocks. :v: I ended up ordering some terminal blocks solely on the basis of them being smaller. I don't know exactly how the interior of the controller will be laid out, and I want to make sure that I have options.

I would recommend daisy-chaining the grounds together. I think you said the factory harness does that? I know you can't use that harness, but do the same kind of thing. Have two ground wires in each of the terminals connecting the buttons together.

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shame on an IGA
Apr 8, 2005

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

I would recommend daisy-chaining the grounds together. I think you said the factory harness does that? I know you can't use that harness, but do the same kind of thing. Have two ground wires in each of the terminals connecting the buttons together.



this is the way buttons were done in every industrial panel I've ever been inside. What kind of terminals do these buttons have, solder points, spade connector, screw terminals?

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

shame on an IGA posted:

this is the way buttons were done in every industrial panel I've ever been inside. What kind of terminals do these buttons have, solder points, spade connector, screw terminals?

The buttons look like this:



The main concern I have with daisy-chaining them is that I have to run the wires through holes I've drilled in the wood. That is, the controller doesn't have an open back with free access to everything. I'm going to be fishing wire through holes, and that's a lot easier if all of the wires terminate in the same place.

It'll use more wire, of course, but I think it'll make the assembly a lot easier. Not to mention that if I need to repair or replace one of the buttons, I won't have to touch wires for any of the others as part of that.

nwin
Feb 25, 2002

make's u think

God dammit. Replacing the old light fixtures in my bathroom and this doesn’t look right….



I want to keep the location the same but I’m guessing it at least needs an electrical box instead of mounting the light mount to the stud.

Blackbeer
Aug 13, 2007

well, well, well

nwin posted:


I want to keep the location the same but I’m guessing it at least needs an electrical box instead of mounting the light mount to the stud.

Look for a "round pan box" (sometimes "shallow pan box") that is the depth of the sheetrock. You might have to get shorter screws or cut off screws to mount the bracket to the box.

nwin
Feb 25, 2002

make's u think

Blackbeer posted:

Look for a "round pan box" (sometimes "shallow pan box") that is the depth of the sheetrock. You might have to get shorter screws or cut off screws to mount the bracket to the box.

Thanks that’s what google told me. An old work shallow pan box.

This is original wiring from 1987. I know codes change, but the other side has a legit box on it. There’s no way this was ok, was it?

devicenull
May 30, 2007

Grimey Drawer

nwin posted:

Thanks that’s what google told me. An old work shallow pan box.

This is original wiring from 1987. I know codes change, but the other side has a legit box on it. There’s no way this was ok, was it?

No, but it's incredibly common anyway

StormDrain
May 22, 2003

Thirteen Letter

nwin posted:

Thanks that’s what google told me. An old work shallow pan box.

This is original wiring from 1987. I know codes change, but the other side has a legit box on it. There’s no way this was ok, was it?

For some reason I come across this all the time in vanity lights, no box at all. If someone knows why I'd love to know! Both of my bathrooms were this way.

Shifty Pony
Dec 28, 2004

Up ta somethin'


There was a photo posted a while ago to r/electricians of electrical rough in for a bathroom vanity with an absolutely absurd amount of extra romex. Everyone in the comments was commiserating about the number of change requests they've gotten for vanity fixtures. A lot of them saying they've actually had to re-run romex because "this is the for-real absolutely final light fixture layout and box position, we swear" got followed up three weeks later with a change request because the builder/owner wanted a different design.

So I could definitely see an owner, flipper, or less than honest spec builder balking at the time and price to call the electrician out to redo it correctly and just saying "gently caress it, once we get sign off we are moving the existing wire, don't bother with a box."

kid sinister
Nov 16, 2002

Blackbeer posted:

Look for a "round pan box" (sometimes "shallow pan box") that is the depth of the sheetrock. You might have to get shorter screws or cut off screws to mount the bracket to the box.

There are also saddle boxes if you need a little extra room for wires.

kid sinister fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Jun 26, 2023

Blackbeer
Aug 13, 2007

well, well, well

Shifty Pony posted:

There was a photo posted a while ago to r/electricians of electrical rough in for a bathroom vanity with an absolutely absurd amount of extra romex. Everyone in the comments was commiserating about the number of change requests they've gotten for vanity fixtures. A lot of them saying they've actually had to re-run romex because "this is the for-real absolutely final light fixture layout and box position, we swear" got followed up three weeks later with a change request because the builder/owner wanted a different design.

So I could definitely see an owner, flipper, or less than honest spec builder balking at the time and price to call the electrician out to redo it correctly and just saying "gently caress it, once we get sign off we are moving the existing wire, don't bother with a box."

Between vent stacks and customers not knowing/changing their minds on vanity mirror sizes/heights I usually just leave the vanity light wire in the wall and cut it in after the mirror is up. Def get the "gently caress it" impulse.

kid sinister posted:

There are also saddle boxes if you need a little extra room for wires.

Prob the best choice; don't keep them on hand and didn't even think of them.

Kaiser Schnitzel
Mar 29, 2006

Schnitzel mit uns


Theoretical question, I will not try this at home etc etc.

I know an AC electric motor can be used as a generator, but what does it output and how is that determined? Say I have a 1725 RPM, 60hz, 220v single phase motor rated for 20A with two hots and a ground connected. If I hook up the pulley to a 5hp gasoline engine and spin the shaft at 1725 RPM, will that generate 220v of 20A current at 60hz on the wires connected to it? What if I slow down or speed up the motor? Does that change the frequency or voltage or amperage or what? Will it output less than the nameplate if there is no load?

My old boss used to generate the third leg of his three phase with a big three phase motor which fed the third leg back into a 3 phase panel and I’ve always wondered how that really worked. It was basically a rotary phase converter where the big 3 phase generator had 220v single phase fed into it, a single phase motor was connected to the shaft and was turned on to get the three phase motor up to speed and then turned off and the three phase motor would then run on single phase (presumable at a 2/3 the rated hp? It was a big fuckin motor so I don’t think it mattered in practice)

movax
Aug 30, 2008

Kaiser Schnitzel posted:

Theoretical question, I will not try this at home etc etc.

I know an AC electric motor can be used as a generator, but what does it output and how is that determined? Say I have a 1725 RPM, 60hz, 220v single phase motor rated for 20A with two hots and a ground connected. If I hook up the pulley to a 5hp gasoline engine and spin the shaft at 1725 RPM, will that generate 220v of 20A current at 60hz on the wires connected to it? What if I slow down or speed up the motor? Does that change the frequency or voltage or amperage or what? Will it output less than the nameplate if there is no load?

My old boss used to generate the third leg of his three phase with a big three phase motor which fed the third leg back into a 3 phase panel and I’ve always wondered how that really worked. It was basically a rotary phase converter where the big 3 phase generator had 220v single phase fed into it, a single phase motor was connected to the shaft and was turned on to get the three phase motor up to speed and then turned off and the three phase motor would then run on single phase (presumable at a 2/3 the rated hp? It was a big fuckin motor so I don’t think it mattered in practice)

Output frequency will be directly tied to the number of poles on the motor / generator and the rotational speed -- the synchronous speed of a motor is (120 * frequency) / number of poles. This is why you'll typically see a 1800 RPM genset for 60 Hz (1800 = (120*60)/4) and 1500 RPM for 50 Hz, assuming a 4 pole construction (pretty typical). Note that I said synchronous speed -- an asynchronous machine (like a typical inductor motor) will require some amount of slip as running at the precise synchronous speed will result in no flux / no torque. An externally excited induction machine will not have this problem nor would a PMSM -- both get around the slip problem by maintaining an external source of power for excitation of the stator. This is why black-starting an induction generator requires some type of battery / external power source whereas a permanent magnet generator doesn't. You get the best of both worlds often by having a pilot permanent magnet exciter to support the larger induction machine, as PM gets expensive and difficult as power scales.

Google videos of the Aurora generator test if you want to see what happens with a de-sync'd genset connected to the grid writ large.

For voltage, the EMF equation governs that as a function of the field strength, excitation current and a few other constants / factors -- specifics vary on the type of electrical machine (DC brushed, AC induction, synchronous, reluctance, etc.).

Your specific questions:

1. No load condition -- Power = torque * speed. If the prime mover is regulating to speed feedback (via encoder/resolved/back-emf) then it will just spin at the target setpoint. As you load it down (opposing torque), power will decrease unless you increase speed. A genset would spin up (inject more fuel) to maintain target RPM to provide power.

2. Speed up / slow down the motor -- for an AC output, assuming no other regulation or circuitry, changing the speed of the motor will primarily change the output frequency of the waveform which is a big no-no unless you're just going to rectify it to DC immediately. Affecting the 'amperage' / 'current' depends on your world view -- most of us are used to the voltage-view of the world where things are constant-voltage / voltage controlled and current is a function of the load. Rotary electrical machines are not typically designed to be current sources -- they're designed to be regulated voltage sources that can support some amount of current draw for the load.

3. "Say I have a 1725 RPM, 60hz, 220v single phase motor rated for 20A with two hots and a ground connected" -- there are generally two parts to an electric machine / motor, the stator/rotor. What I think you're describing there is a single-phase generator with two leads attached to the stator as your "hots". "Ground" is meaningless unless you have a rod planted in the ground as a reference / protective Earth. Next question is how many poles are on that rotor -- it'll be 2 at minimum, possibly more (it won't be 1 unless you're trying to be that episode of Outlaw Star where Gene escapes with a magnetic monopole...). 1725 = 120f/2 -> 28.75 Hz. If it's 4 poles on the rotor, you're at 57.5 Hz. The volts you get out will depend on the amount of excitation current flowing through that rotor, or if its a permanent magnet rotor, what the field strength of said rotor is + ratio of windings.

There is probably a good YouTube video series / lectures on this, more than I can type over lunch.

movax fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Jun 27, 2023

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

movax posted:

Google videos of the Aurora generator test if you want to see what happens with a de-sync'd genset connected to the grid writ large.

It instantly synchronizes what's the problem? :v:

RoastBeef
Jul 11, 2008


Creative vanity wiring is the gift that keeps on giving (me extra work)

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams
What, the wire's in the box, what more do you want?

Kaiser Schnitzel
Mar 29, 2006

Schnitzel mit uns


Thanks! That is mostly way over my head but it does clarify my question a bit.

Do regular AC induction motors have permanent magnets in them or is the magnetism all induced?

What really got me thinking about this was that I was moving the shaft on an unplugged motor and wondering if I could get shocked. I'm gonna guess if the magnetism is induced the stator/coils and not permanent, then the answer is that 'no, you can't won't get shocked and also your motor cant be run in reverse as a generator'?

Ledhed
Feb 13, 2006
Doesn't believe in the letter a
Hi wiring thread. I just finished swapping out a faulty breaker in my home's breaker panel. Everything went smoothly and the faulty circuit is now repaired.

The only trouble I had was I was unable to loosen the nut holding the faulty breaker's neutral pigtail to the neutral bar. I tried both a square driver and a standard driver, but stripped the screwhead completely. For fear of possibly damaging other nearby wires, I opted not to try and loosen this further. Instead, I clipped the wire with a few inches left and wrapped the exposed end in electrical tape.

I'm a complete amateur with power and wiring, so my question is: is there any consequence to leaving that bit of wire attached to the neutral bar? There are plenty of other spaces on the neutral bar for any future breakers. But if there's any real risk to leaving it that way, I'll remediate it.

e; Thank you for the reassurance! And yes I will look into those bits.

Ledhed fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jun 29, 2023

SpartanIvy
May 18, 2007
Hair Elf

Ledhed posted:

Hi wiring thread. I just finished swapping out a faulty breaker in my home's breaker panel. Everything went smoothly and the faulty circuit is now repaired.

The only trouble I had was I was unable to loosen the nut holding the faulty breaker's neutral pigtail to the neutral bar. I tried both a square driver and a standard driver, but stripped the screwhead completely. For fear of possibly damaging other nearby wires, I opted not to try and loosen this further. Instead, I clipped the wire with a few inches left and wrapped the exposed end in electrical tape.

I'm a complete amateur with power and wiring, so my question is: is there any consequence to leaving that bit of wire attached to the neutral bar? There are plenty of other spaces on the neutral bar for any future breakers. But if there's any real risk to leaving it that way, I'll remediate it.

It's not a big deal as long as the stub of wire you left can't interfere with any other wires or breakers. Assuming that's your main/only panel, the neutral and ground bar are bonded together in that panel and the metal box itself is grounded, so even if the neutral wire is bare and touching the metal cabinet, it won't matter.

However, I recommend picking up a pack of these ECX bits for future work. I've had a stripped breaker screw on a $100 breaker and I was able to tighten it down to the proper torque speck using these when the SQ2 and even a flat head bit failed me. https://www.acehardware.com/departm...cB&gclsrc=aw.ds

movax
Aug 30, 2008

Kaiser Schnitzel posted:

Thanks! That is mostly way over my head but it does clarify my question a bit.

Do regular AC induction motors have permanent magnets in them or is the magnetism all induced?

What really got me thinking about this was that I was moving the shaft on an unplugged motor and wondering if I could get shocked. I'm gonna guess if the magnetism is induced the stator/coils and not permanent, then the answer is that 'no, you can't won't get shocked and also your motor cant be run in reverse as a generator'?

I'd say your average / most common AC induction motors have no permanent magnets. Residual magnetism on a motor of the size you're talking about doesn't really stick around very long.

If you spin that one around for funsies, you aren't going to get electrocuted -- if you wanted to be sure, you can put a DMM on the leads to see if voltage is generated, or short them together as well -- they won't get hot.

babyeatingpsychopath
Oct 28, 2000
Forum Veteran


Kaiser Schnitzel posted:

Thanks! That is mostly way over my head but it does clarify my question a bit.

Do regular AC induction motors have permanent magnets in them or is the magnetism all induced?

What really got me thinking about this was that I was moving the shaft on an unplugged motor and wondering if I could get shocked. I'm gonna guess if the magnetism is induced the stator/coils and not permanent, then the answer is that 'no, you can't won't get shocked and also your motor cant be run in reverse as a generator'?

Couple of ways of doing it. Either you've got a starting circuit that applies a small DC voltage into the field as you're starting up and that bootstraps everything, or your field core isn't made out of the absolute best steel you can get (deliberately) so it retains some magnetism.

If you're running a motor as a generator, then the output delivered by the generator is controlled by the voltage in the field winding. You make sure your prime mover is at constant speed so you have a constant number of flux lines cut per second, then your field voltage affects how much magnetism is induced and therefore how much power is output.

For a squirrel-cage motor, the rotor has no field windings, the induced current is all in the "bars" which are shaped to produce the speed and torque curves you want your motor to have (max slip, max torque, etc). So for your average AC motor, there's nothing magnetic spinning in the center. The rotor bars are ultrapermeable steel (retains no magnetism) with copper or aluminum conductors roughly parallel to the shaft. You can't use this type of motor as a generator at all.

The kind of motor you can run as a generator is (as movax said) a synchronous motor; it's going to have some way of getting magnetism into the field, so there will be commutators/slip rings to get some field current into the motor.

For your boss's rotary phase converter, he was single-phasing a 3-phase motor and using the self-inductance to get a third phase. 57% is the maximum possible efficiency for a setup like this; he's basically got a 3-phase transformer with built-in phase shifting. It's woefully inadequate; having the single-phase motor spinning can get you nearly 100% of the single-phase power delivered as 3-phase power.

vessbot
Jun 17, 2005
I don't like you because you're dangerous
Open grounds. I've been on a learning journey about all this and seeing all the solutions, summarized as:

1) if the box is grounded, connect to it via a pigtail

2) if it's not, (and you're unwilling to fish new Romex with a ground wire to it, or otherwise connect to some ground inside/behind the wall) then you can not have equipment ground, but you can install a GFCI outlet

For situation 1, none of what I could find answers: is it legitimate to have ground not via a pigtail, but by the contact of the bare metal of the bottom flange of the receptacle, and the flange of the box you screw into. I have an outlet that checks OK with the tester, where, once I opened it up, this was the grounding method (there is no wire attached to the green screw). Another outlet checks as "open ground," and when I opened it, there is 120V between hot and the box; so the box is grounded, and presumably if I sand the oversprayed paint/spackle off the box flange, it should get a ground the same as the outlet in the previous sentence. Is this safe and code compliant?

Shifty Pony
Dec 28, 2004

Up ta somethin'


If the box is grounded and flush mounted you can use a self-grounding receptacle without a pigtail to the ground screw. The receptacle will have a little copper contact plate where the bottom screw connects the receptacle yoke to the junction box to ensure a good connection.

The box being flush with the finished wall is important though.

vessbot
Jun 17, 2005
I don't like you because you're dangerous

Shifty Pony posted:

self-grounding receptacle

Thank you! That's the key word I was looking for.

babyeatingpsychopath
Oct 28, 2000
Forum Veteran


Metal boxes shall be grounded.

The self-grounding receptacle is authorized to ground the receptacle to the box, not the other way around.

Use any listed method to attach the ground wire to the box.

vessbot
Jun 17, 2005
I don't like you because you're dangerous

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

Metal boxes shall be grounded.

The self-grounding receptacle is authorized to ground the receptacle to the box, not the other way around.

Use any listed method to attach the ground wire to the box.

Yes, this is what I intend to do. I just got done watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRK8JluQwj4&t=574s video, which is doing it backwards to what I (and your post) understand the self-grounding clip to be for. I was glad to see other comments calling out the same issue.

In the boxes behind my outlets, there is no ground wire. There is 120V between the hot and the box, which shows the boxes to be grounded. I did read that in older houses (which this is) it's common to have ground wires going to the back of the box, that are thinner gauge than currently required (matching the gauge of the actual circuit). Hoping this is not the case here. There is modern romex coming out of the breaker box, but this does not necessarily mean that it goes all the way to the outlets. (On another circuit, there is romex coming out of the breaker box and disappearing into the walls, and knob and tube to all the outlets in the room). Is there a way to check this without tearing up my walls?

vessbot fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jul 1, 2023

SpitztheGreat
Jul 20, 2005
Ok, so I have a small project that opened up a can of worms. Our front doorbell (wired) hasn't worked for a long time- the button itself came apart. I decided that I was going to tackle replacing it and started poking around today. It's been pretty straightforward, and I've gotten the replacement to work, but the wiring is ancient. The house was built in 1912, and while the wiring isn't that old, it's still brittle and the insulation is tattered. I spoke to an electrician who suggested that it wasn't a fire hazard, but would probably continually short and cause the bell to not work. His recommendation was to replace the wiring entirely, but I estimate that there's probably 30 feet of wiring between the button and the chime. How hard would it be to replace that much wiring, and am I better off going wireless. I don't want to replace batteries every 4 months, but neither do I want to get into a bitch of a project pulling wire out of my ceiling.

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

SpitztheGreat posted:

How hard would it be to replace that much wiring

The length/amount is basically meaningless. The exact specific details of your home and the areas in which it will need to be run are what matters here.

Unfortunately this is a thing you need to get someone experienced to look at in person for a real answer. Renovation/old work wiring is a hard earned skill and familiarity with the typical construction of your area/your house is a huge bonus.

In a typical scenario you may be able to simply remove interior door trim and/or cut a few holes in the plaster/drywall behind the bell and near the floor so you can reach the basement and assuming it's unfinished do whatever you need to down there. Then ??? for re-running to the chime since we don't know where that is but likely similar.

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

SpitztheGreat posted:

Ok, so I have a small project that opened up a can of worms. Our front doorbell (wired) hasn't worked for a long time- the button itself came apart. I decided that I was going to tackle replacing it and started poking around today. It's been pretty straightforward, and I've gotten the replacement to work, but the wiring is ancient. The house was built in 1912, and while the wiring isn't that old, it's still brittle and the insulation is tattered. I spoke to an electrician who suggested that it wasn't a fire hazard, but would probably continually short and cause the bell to not work. His recommendation was to replace the wiring entirely, but I estimate that there's probably 30 feet of wiring between the button and the chime. How hard would it be to replace that much wiring, and am I better off going wireless. I don't want to replace batteries every 4 months, but neither do I want to get into a bitch of a project pulling wire out of my ceiling.

You should also consider that the wiring for the doorbell might be fine, and the transformer or chime is what's broken.

As for the rest of the house, a whole home re-wire with new panel is a great improvement to peace of mind, plus you get a bunch of extra outlets, modern panel that works, etc.

SpitztheGreat
Jul 20, 2005

Motronic posted:

The length/amount is basically meaningless. The exact specific details of your home and the areas in which it will need to be run are what matters here.

Unfortunately this is a thing you need to get someone experienced to look at in person for a real answer. Renovation/old work wiring is a hard earned skill and familiarity with the typical construction of your area/your house is a huge bonus.

In a typical scenario you may be able to simply remove interior door trim and/or cut a few holes in the plaster/drywall behind the bell and near the floor so you can reach the basement and assuming it's unfinished do whatever you need to down there. Then ??? for re-running to the chime since we don't know where that is but likely similar.


H110Hawk posted:

You should also consider that the wiring for the doorbell might be fine, and the transformer or chime is what's broken.

As for the rest of the house, a whole home re-wire with new panel is a great improvement to peace of mind, plus you get a bunch of extra outlets, modern panel that works, etc.

To be clear, the doorbell is working. I hooked the new button up to test, and it worked. It's just that the wires and their insulation are really old, and that worries me about the bell's long-term reliability.

The rest of the house by and large was rewired in 2010. There may be a stray wire here or there that I don't know about, but the vast majority has been upgraded. I knew the wires to the front door would be old.

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006
What's going to make it stop working is loving with it. Do you live in earthquake country? :v: Either way, I would tackle it when it's an issue unless you deeply need a doorbell. Can people just knock? Half the time I wish I put my doorbell on a lightswitch so it only worked when I was expecting company.

SpitztheGreat
Jul 20, 2005

H110Hawk posted:

What's going to make it stop working is loving with it. Do you live in earthquake country? :v: Either way, I would tackle it when it's an issue unless you deeply need a doorbell. Can people just knock? Half the time I wish I put my doorbell on a lightswitch so it only worked when I was expecting company.

That's more or less what I've decided, if it ain't broke don't fix it applies here. It's temperamental, but I've secured the wires better than they were and now I'm just going to leave it the hell alone. There's no reason to replace the wires for now.

DaveSauce
Feb 15, 2004

Oh, how awkward.
I replaced my dishwasher a few days ago. It's a 1999 house, so the dishwasher is hard wired but also has a wall switch to control power locally.

In this box there are 3 switches, 1 for the dishwasher, 1 for the garbage disposal, and 1 for the over-sink light.

First thing I noticed was that the breakers were labeled backwards. Or at least I thought they were... no guarantee that the circuits didn't get switched by the PO (or a contractor) at some point. But the one labeled "dishwasher" was for the disposal and vice versa.

But the other thing I noticed was that there's only 2 circuits here. One supplies the disposal, and the other supplies both the dishwasher and the over-sink light.

I know this isn't going to start a fire, but just curious, is any of this correct? Mainly, I thought both the disposal and the dishwasher were supposed to be dedicated circuits. Maybe not in 1999 though I guess?

edit: part of why I'm asking is at some point we're going to get some work done in the kitchen, which includes electrical work to add lights. Would like to know if this is something to keep in mind and fix when we have the opportunity.

babyeatingpsychopath
Oct 28, 2000
Forum Veteran


DaveSauce posted:

I replaced my dishwasher a few days ago. It's a 1999 house, so the dishwasher is hard wired but also has a wall switch to control power locally.

In this box there are 3 switches, 1 for the dishwasher, 1 for the garbage disposal, and 1 for the over-sink light.

First thing I noticed was that the breakers were labeled backwards. Or at least I thought they were... no guarantee that the circuits didn't get switched by the PO (or a contractor) at some point. But the one labeled "dishwasher" was for the disposal and vice versa.

But the other thing I noticed was that there's only 2 circuits here. One supplies the disposal, and the other supplies both the dishwasher and the over-sink light.

I know this isn't going to start a fire, but just curious, is any of this correct? Mainly, I thought both the disposal and the dishwasher were supposed to be dedicated circuits. Maybe not in 1999 though I guess?

edit: part of why I'm asking is at some point we're going to get some work done in the kitchen, which includes electrical work to add lights. Would like to know if this is something to keep in mind and fix when we have the opportunity.

They are allowed to be dedicated circuits, but not required to be. If they are dedicated, then the outlet must be a single with appropriate rating, no 15/20 duplex.

When the electrician is there to look at the lights, see if you can slip them a sixpack to figure out the dedicated circuits. Doing it on the clock is gonna be :shepspends:

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H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

They are allowed to be dedicated circuits, but not required to be. If they are dedicated, then the outlet must be a single with appropriate rating, no 15/20 duplex.

Here they wire it as a tandem shared neutral duplex outlet. Or at least my electrician did it that way. Technically I could make a single 20a 240v outlet under my sink. "will it blend" indeed with my new 6 horsepower insinkerator.

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