Tony & All,
On Sat, Sep 6, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
I think you should stop working on the Altair and sort out your workshop
wiring. Before you plug soemthing in with a serious leak and get
electrocuted.
It is sorted.. I'm not using that circuit for my bench any longer. In fact,
Well, that's oen form of 'sorted' I guess...
More seriosuly, I have a healthy respsect for the mains. I am not afraid
of it, I work with 230V (nearer 240V, actually) mains most days. But I
know it can also cauase enough current to flow through me to kill me [1],
so I don't give it the chance.
What I mean by that is that I do not accept anything 'dubiious'. Even
i I know about it, sombody else might make a mistake. In your position I
would sort out the wirign ASAP, make sure all socket outlets have groudn
wires, and so on.
[1] As I was taught many years ago 'It's the volts that jolts but the
mills [2] that kills'
[2] milliamps, of course.
Even woese than having no earth to a socket is the situation where a
numbero f ccoekt outlets ahve the earth pins all linked together but not
then conencted to ground. The reason is that if there is a leak on
anything plugged into one of said sockets, the metal cases of things
pluggedi nto the oterhs will become live. And yes I did once come acorss
such a situation. As soon as I pointed it out it got fixed -- ASAP.
-tony