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Tim Thomas posted:Do yourself a favor: port and pump the slip ring. Physical barriers are awesome and all, but dust has a tendency to bounce before sticking, and you're fortunately in a pressure regime where you can use flow to your advantage. Even if it's not permanent, add three punchouts on your skirt 120 degrees apart and cap them, then blow out the slipring assembly on a regular basis. Having an exposed conductor (which will at the very least microarc as you move it) near dust isn't something I'd want to leave permanently exposed.
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Feb 18, 2013 19:41
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kid sinister posted:Do you mean "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms"? He's written 6 books on mushrooms... That's the one, sorry. The appendix has some plans for a whole commercial setup but the rest of the book goes into detail on growing all the different varieties, and stuff on packaging, marketing, etc. The grow room plans don't talk much about lighting except mentioning moisture-proof fluorescent fixtures.
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Feb 18, 2013 22:33
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Cpt.Wacky posted:moisture-proof fluorescent fixtures. Crap. Those go for like $50-$75 apiece and don't have a pull-chain. I guess pull chains aren't water tight... I would have to run a switch outside the grow room.
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Feb 19, 2013 20:37
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kid sinister posted:Crap. Those go for like $50-$75 apiece and don't have a pull-chain. I guess pull chains aren't water tight... I would have to run a switch outside the grow room. The clapper. Also, most dry-type fixtures are rated for 0-95% humidity non-condensing. Wet- or damp-type fixtures are for direct water or occasional water spray. Really, putting a fluorescent fixture inside this thing means it's gonna rust up and fail within five years. Since most installations want stuff with longer life than a single lamp replacement, they spec damp- or wet-type fixtures when they KNOW there's gonna be humidity. In your case, when both lamps burn out, you're gonna have to get a new $20 fixture along with the lamps. As far as a switch, cut in a roller switch halfway down the cord. Unless I'm misunderstanding this problem, you're not running a tropical rainforest under this hood, just someplace with reasonably tight controls on temperature and humidity. Normal house fixtures or light commercial fixtures will work just fine. fake edit: I just checked the specs on some fluorescent ballasts. They let you remote-mount the ballast up to 18' away from the lamps, so you just run wires out to your lamp bases and don't worry about the ballast. The switch can go at the remote ballast location, too. Universal's crappiest low-end $8 electronic ballast is 0-105F, 0-100% humidty, type 1 outdoor rated. Don't soak it, it'll be fine.
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Feb 19, 2013 23:04
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:The clapper I actually got one of those as a gag gift from my grandma when I was a kid. It should have been named The "Any Loud Noise"-er.
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Feb 21, 2013 00:10
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Crackpipe posted this in the industrial electricity A/T. This is simply far too good to not cross-post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Kn9JlXE5w "We have a major electrical fire."
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Feb 21, 2013 11:54
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Three-Phase posted:Crackpipe posted this in the industrial electricity A/T. This is simply far too good to not cross-post: Dude, all that's missing is some guitars and swinging hair 
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Feb 21, 2013 16:24
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kid sinister posted:Dude, all that's missing is some guitars and swinging hair I don't know if we absolutely should or absolutely should not send a link of this video to Till Lindemann. Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 00:01
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Electric Goons I need some wiring help. I have a dining room light fixture connected to a single pole switch with power running to my range hood. Everything was working fine then stopped suddenly last week. After tracing, found the problem at a ceiling fan in another room where the power source to the kitchen had wiggled loose. Corrected that, however I failed to take a picture of the wiring before troubleshooting in the kitchen and can't figure it out. Power comes in at the ceiling to the dining light fixture. Two cables run from light fixture. One set of cables run to the light switch. One set of cables to the range hood. 14/2 NM-B wiring. The neutral from range hood was pigtailed to something, but I can't remember what. Initial wire up attempts trip the breaker. Removed the hood range wiring and have light and switched wired this way: Fixture black to black power, fixture neutral to switch neutral. Switch black to neutral power. How do I add the range hood back in to the mix?
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Feb 23, 2013 00:01
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range hood black should be tied in with the black power wire coming in and white neutral wire with the nuetral wire paired with the black power wire. basically ignore the switch loop from the light and picture just sending the power straight through to the hood fan. hopefully that makes sense.
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Feb 23, 2013 04:08
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Kidsmoke posted:Electric Goons I need some wiring help. I have a dining room light fixture connected to a single pole switch with power running to my range hood. Everything was working fine then stopped suddenly last week. After tracing, found the problem at a ceiling fan in another room where the power source to the kitchen had wiggled loose. Corrected that, however I failed to take a picture of the wiring before troubleshooting in the kitchen and can't figure it out. Assuming there's a switch in the hood and it needs no external switching: Connect black power from panel to black wire to hood and black wire to switch. Connect white wire from switch to black fixture wire. Technically the white should be somehow identified as not a neutral. Connect white neutral from panel to white hood wire and white .
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Feb 23, 2013 04:15
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crocodile posted:range hood black should be tied in with the black power wire coming in and white neutral wire with the nuetral wire paired with the black power wire. basically ignore the switch loop from the light and picture just sending the power straight through to the hood fan. hopefully that makes sense. This doesn't kick the breaker, but there's no power to hood light and fan. black power wire - black ceiling light wire - black range wire - white neutral pigtailed range wire white neutral power - switch black switch white neutral - ceiling light neutral And I'll give ncumbered's suggestion a try once my kid is asleep. Kidsmoke fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Feb 23, 2013 |
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Feb 23, 2013 05:01
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Thank you ncumbered_by_idgits, your instructions fixed everything and our house hasn't burned down! Thanks crocodile for your help too. Science bless you goons.
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Feb 23, 2013 18:17
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What is best practice for runs where cat5/coax/similar must run along side or cross over mains? Or does it even matter?
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Feb 24, 2013 20:28
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XmasGiftFromWife posted:What is best practice for runs where cat5/coax/similar must run along side or cross over mains? One of the industrial rules-of-thumb is to avoid running signal wires in parallel with power wires. Crossing at a 90 degree angle is OK. The length of the run also makes a difference - if they are close and in parallel for a few inches or a few hundred feet. It also makes an impact what is going on with the mains - if we're talking about a 12AWG 120V cable that feeds a few receptacles in a room, or three 2/0 cables going between the output of a 480V motor drive to a motor, where you're going to have a ton of harmonic noise depending on the drive topology. If the signal cables are shielded, twisted-pair, or both, they will be much more immune to noise. If the cable is shielded, it must be grounded at one end only to ensure that a ground-loop doesn't occur. The coax will probably be fairly immune, and I believe the cat-5 uses a series of twisted pair wires. Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Feb 24, 2013 |
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Feb 24, 2013 22:52
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Three-Phase posted:I believe the cat-5 uses a series of twisted pair wires. Yup, all CATs use twisted pair. The higher the CAT-number and revisions, the more tightly twisted the pairs are and the less susceptible they are to crosstalk and interference. The code reflects this now, about how low and mains voltage cables aren't allowed to share a raceway anymore. Also from experience, you will want to avoid older non-electronic fluorescent ballasts if possible.
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Feb 24, 2013 23:26
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XmasGiftFromWife posted:What is best practice for runs where cat5/coax/similar must run along side or cross over mains? The rules we use for feeders are perpendicular crossings only, and if runs need to be parallel then they can do so for 10 feet maximum with a minimum separation between power and AV of 48". For CAT5 we say a 12" separation but even then I wouldn't worry about it. The stuff you really have to worry about for interference is analog stuff like speaker cable and analog controls.
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Feb 25, 2013 02:12
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kid sinister posted:Yup, all CATs use twisted pair. The higher the CAT-number and revisions, the more tightly twisted the pairs are and the less susceptible they are to crosstalk and interference. The code reflects this now, about how low and mains voltage cables aren't allowed to share a raceway anymore. If you're using a cable tray, aren't you allowed to have one side for signal wires, and another side for low voltage power wires, as long as there's a metal partition separating them? I've seen some installations where you have several 4-20mA signals, 24VDC power, thermocouples, and soforth on the left side of the tray, there's a metal barrier, and then there's power cables (120V and even 480V, all usually in 600V rated THHN power cable) on the right side. Low voltage only in the same tray. Medium-voltage stuff like 6900V or 14kV was in an armored EPR triplex cable (generally 1/0 to 500kcmil) in a separate tray. Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Feb 25, 2013 |
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Feb 25, 2013 02:14
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Outside of future owners wishing for my firey death, is there anything in code that prevents me from using solid state relays to control lighting fixtures in my (Kansas) house, and having the lightswitches be low-voltage? This lets me do things like control the SSRs with an Arduino or the like.
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Feb 25, 2013 20:27
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insta posted:Outside of future owners wishing for my firey death, is there anything in code that prevents me from using solid state relays to control lighting fixtures in my (Kansas) house, and having the lightswitches be low-voltage? This lets me do things like control the SSRs with an Arduino or the like. I also wanted to do this, but figured I'd run 14/2 (or whatever) for even the low voltage stuff, so I could revert to a conventional system by just tying it all together in the basement (or wherever my SSRs and controller would end up) and replacing the switches. It wouldn't be cheap since you'd end up using a lot more romex than you would otherwise, but at least you wouldn't be pulling wire again down the road. Low-voltage systems were popular around here in the late '60s and early '70s. Probably 24 VAC or something, relays near the power panel typically. Sorry, no idea on the current codes for this kind of thing.
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Feb 25, 2013 21:02
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Would it not be simpler to use regular home automation hardware and a matching Arduino shield? I guess that stuff's expensive, but home automation is expensive in general.
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Feb 26, 2013 02:58
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insta posted:Outside of future owners wishing for my firey death, is there anything in code that prevents me from using solid state relays to control lighting fixtures in my (Kansas) house, and having the lightswitches be low-voltage? This lets me do things like control the SSRs with an Arduino or the like. How low would the voltage be? I actually ran into a problem with that for the switch to my parents' gas fireplace. If I remember correctly, the specs for the relay were so low (1.5V DC @ ~300mA I think) that a regular 120V switch wouldn't close and make contact. One Day Fish Sale posted:Low-voltage systems were popular around here in the late '60s and early '70s. Probably 24 VAC or something, relays near the power panel typically. Lots of HVAC equipment uses 24VAC for heating and cooling calls. Speaking of low voltage, call me crazy but I think that I could see within the next decade or two that some type of USB-like plug will become standard in future homes, combining low voltage DC power and data/home networking. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 03:29
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USB wall outlets already exist. Just for power afaik, though. e: and of course PoE has been around for a while, although I don't think I've really heard of it being used much, if at all, in homes. Noctone fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 04:55
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You can get usb keystone jacks for hooking up whatever you want, within range of usb of course.I'm using one for a computer in my basement, with the tv in my family room. The computer's only presence in the room is a small keystone plate with hdmi, ethernet, and usb, the last of which goes to a small hub in the family room for the wireless mouse/keyboard dongles, and anything else I might want to plug in.
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Feb 26, 2013 05:03
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kid sinister posted:How low would the voltage be? I actually ran into a problem with that for the switch to my parents' gas fireplace. If I remember correctly, the specs for the relay were so low (1.5V DC @ ~300mA I think) that a regular 120V switch wouldn't close and make contact. The trigger voltage for most SSRs I've found is 3-32V at 10ma. I'd probably use 24V, and run thermostat wire or something similar. The Arduino/whatever could use simple BJTs to drive that.
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Feb 26, 2013 20:00
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One Day Fish Sale posted:I also wanted to do this, but figured I'd run 14/2 (or whatever) for even the low voltage stuff, so I could revert to a conventional system by just tying it all together in the basement (or wherever my SSRs and controller would end up) and replacing the switches. It wouldn't be cheap since you'd end up using a lot more romex than you would otherwise, but at least you wouldn't be pulling wire again down the road. Why solid state? It's not hard to use a single fet to drive a real relay which will be much cheaper. A quick look at the Panasonic AQ-A SSR for example shows that it's only good for about 6A without a massive heatsink (despite its 40A advertised rating), and it's $50 bucks. That's pretty much how it is for SSRs. Regular relays on the other hand can do this for a couple bucks.
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Feb 26, 2013 20:18
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Bad Munki posted:You can get usb keystone jacks for hooking up whatever you want, within range of usb of course.I'm using one for a computer in my basement, with the tv in my family room. The computer's only presence in the room is a small keystone plate with hdmi, ethernet, and usb, the last of which goes to a small hub in the family room for the wireless mouse/keyboard dongles, and anything else I might want to plug in. Last I heard a lot of those USB-power outlets cannot charge high-draw items like iPads.
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Feb 26, 2013 23:00
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That may be true, but the keystone jacks are different: they're just a USB connector on each side, so the other side would run via a standard usb cable to a computer, which I'd hope could at least trickle charge an ipad, unless you can't charge them off of computers at all? This is the sort of thing I'm talking about : http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10426&cs_id=1042607&p_id=6561&seq=1&format=2 Front:  Back:  Just goes in a standard keystone blank. 
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Feb 27, 2013 00:53
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Well, that jack is useless anyway. It's two USB-A female connectors. All you can do with that is plug two device cables together. At the very least it should be an A male to an A female, so you can use a USB extension to connect it to a host.
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Feb 27, 2013 03:12
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You can get male-to-male dongles for the backside, actually, at which point everything's sexual orientation adds up. But I agree, it's weird, but I've been unable to find a male-to-female jack.
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Feb 27, 2013 03:19
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Three-Phase posted:Last I heard a lot of those USB-power outlets cannot charge high-draw items like iPads. That really comes down to amperage. All USB uses 5V DC. According to specs, any USB port that handles data is limited to a max of 0.5A under USB 2.0 and 0.9A under 3.0, at least when data is being sent back and forth. The newest Apple plug-in USB charger is rated for 12W. Apply a little Watt's Law and it puts out 2.4A.
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Feb 27, 2013 03:40
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kid sinister posted:That really comes down to amperage. All USB uses 5V DC. According to specs, any USB port that handles data is limited to a max of 0.5A under USB 2.0 and 0.9A under 3.0, at least when data is being sent back and forth. The newest Apple plug-in USB charger is rated for 12W. Apply a little Watt's Law and it puts out 2.4A. Only happened once; I forget what I was doing, but it was an aberration. Still, these can be high-drain devices.
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Feb 27, 2013 03:48
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grover posted:Surprised the hell out of my once when I was (I thought) charging my droid smartphone via USB while using it when a warning popped up and said that the phone was draining the battery faster than it was charging and I needed to be careful. I use an Android phone as my ISP, and the charger that came in the box cannot charge the phone when it's in 4G WIFI hotspot mode. I got a $10 2A power brick, and it works fine. The stock charger is a 1100mA, so that thing is sucking down over 1.1A with all the radios on. Both of my laptops refuse to dump out out-of-spec power to the phone on a data cable (charge-only is fine), but my computer will charge AND send data at the same time; cheap USB chipset, I guess.
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Feb 27, 2013 11:35
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Can I Just want to be able to take the chill off so we can eat dinner out on the front porch in early spring and late fall. edit:wording EvilMayo fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Feb 27, 2013 |
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Feb 27, 2013 20:03
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XmasGiftFromWife posted:Can I install a 1500-Watt Quartz Overhead Electric Heater on my enclosed front porch without burning my house down? The porch has about 9ft ceilings. "Install" is a pretty broad term but you should be fine as long as there's nothing flammable nearby.
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Feb 27, 2013 22:53
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I asked this in the general question thread I got directed over here. In short I am in need of some electrical advice. I have a high voltage, high frequency, low current electrical device, a plasma globe. Now what I need is a way to oscillate it on and off, perhaps a dial that I can use to change the frequency of the oscillation. If it was electronics I would know where to start but with this essentially analog static electricity I'm bit lost. Anyone got any ideas here?
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Mar 2, 2013 22:52
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The plasma globe power supply is just a flyback transformer, right?
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Mar 3, 2013 03:23
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It's a simple rf coil, not a flyback transformer.
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Mar 3, 2013 07:58
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So, I'm kicking around the idea of picking up an electric car (turns out the lease on a Leaf is now roughly equal to my monthly spend on gas for my Ranger) which of course means I'll need to charge it. However, I don't want to garage it unless I absolutely have to. Annoyingly for my wallet, my garage / driveway are on the opposite side of my house from the electrical panel, with a bedroom in between as shown by this amazingly precise diagram:  If I had one of the mirrored layout homes (i.e. like my next door neighbor) my panel would be around the corner from my driveway, I'd pop in another breaker and a L6-20R in an outdoor enclosure, and be done with it. I already have (thanks to the previous owner of the house) a 120V 15A circuit with an exterior outlet box at my panel, makes yard work with electric implements nice and easy - but from there to the driveway is at least 30' and I don't think any sane charge setup will reach that far. In general, what is code like for running conduit / outside outlets? My HOA can be intermittently anal-retentive, but I'm thinking it would be relatively easy to run conduit down to just above ground level, flush up against the outside of the house, and then come back up to a reasonable height and stick the outlet at the front of the driveway where I currently have a broken garage door keypad. Or can I trench it and come up at the driveway? Or am I going to be paying an electrician to crawl around in my attic space and fish cabling over the front bedroom to drop the outlet along the inside wall of the garage, near the garage door?
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Mar 4, 2013 08:04
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IOwnCalculus posted:n general, what is code like for running conduit / outside outlets? My HOA can be intermittently anal-retentive, but I'm thinking it would be relatively easy to run conduit down to just above ground level, flush up against the outside of the house, and then come back up to a reasonable height and stick the outlet at the front of the driveway where I currently have a broken garage door keypad. Or can I trench it and come up at the driveway? Or am I going to be paying an electrician to crawl around in my attic space and fish cabling over the front bedroom to drop the outlet along the inside wall of the garage, near the garage door? It depends on the conduit, really. In general, a strap within 3' of a box and every 10' thereafter. Box must be securely fastened to the wall. Or you could trench. Or you could run through the attic. It's up to you, however you want to do it. I think PVC in the ground would be easiest. What kind of current requirements does the charging setup have?
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Mar 4, 2013 08:09
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