Post by thread:Marketing Tricks (Re: fuzzy logic -Reply ) -Reply

I was working on my old color TV that was a transformer less wonder. I forgot to float my scope and when I hooked up the probe ground... POW! Vaporized to lead. - -Mark "what ever floats your 'scope" Jurras >>> Martin McCormick <spam_OUTmartinTakeThisOuTDC.CIS.OKSTATE.EDU> 1 November 1996 7:17 am >>> If some of you who are new to electronics ever run across one of these sets, procede with absolute caution. They were VERY dangerous with the chassis being a floating ground and a 50% probability that mains voltage might exist between it and Earth.

In message <.....s279c4be.018KILLspam@spam@mail2.allegro.net> PICLISTKILLspamMITVMA.MIT.EDU writes: > I was working on my old color TV that was a transformer less wonder. I > forgot to float my scope and when I hooked up the probe ground... POW! > Vaporized to lead. It's common practice to remove the earth lead on test equipment, this is far less dangerous than leaving it connected!. When I do this, I disconnect the earth lead in the plug and pull it back so it projects ouside the plug, this makes it fairly visible that the earth is not connected. This is using UK style 13A plugs, probably the safest plugs around?. > If some of you who are new to electronics ever run across one of > these sets, procede with absolute caution. They were VERY dangerous with > the chassis being a floating ground and a 50% probability that mains voltage > might exist between it and Earth. The older ones still were even worse, the neutral side of the mains lead connected directly to the chassis of the TV. If the lead was plugged in the wrong way around the entire chassis was connected directly to live!. I heard that the reason for changing to full wave rectifiers was at the demand of the electricity companies, with an entire street only using positive half-cycles this tended to pull the mains away from been symmetrical about zero volts. Nigel. /----------------------------------------------------------\ | Nigel Goodwin | Internet : .....nigelgKILLspam.....lpilsley.demon.co.uk | | Lower Pilsley | Web Page : http://www.lpilsley.demon.co.uk | | Chesterfield | | | England | | \----------------------------------------------------------/

Mark Jurras wrote: > > I was working on my old color TV that was a transformer less wonder. I > forgot to float my scope and when I hooked up the probe ground... POW! > Vaporized to lead. > > - -Mark "what ever floats your 'scope" Jurras > > >>> Martin McCormick <EraseMEmartinspam_OUTTakeThisOuTDC.CIS.OKSTATE.EDU> 1 November 1996 7:17 am > >>> > > If some of you who are new to electronics ever run across one of > these sets, procede with absolute caution. They were VERY dangerous with > the chassis being a floating ground and a 50% probability that mains voltage > might exist between it and Earth. Don Lancaster highlighted this very same scenario in a Nuts & Volts issue a few months ago. I never gave it a thought either until I read this article. Moral of the story is to get a good isolation transformer and stay away from grounds, all grounds ! Chris -- The GNU math: LinuX * X = Linux2