Newbie: tips on how to start?

Hmm, it hurts..

It makes you see stars, and makes your muscles contract violently. And there might be a small burn mark. Having good quality plastic soles under your shoes makes single contact oke. Dont use leather soles. My limit fo far is 2X500 volt from a falling radio I tried to catch..... We both survived. Automatic reflexes are so dangerous when you work with electricity.

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stay away from sci.electronics.design. ;)

JF

Why is that?

Rui Maciel

Interesting.

Here in US with 120, the danger is almost always from what you end up hitting or falling off (like a ladder) /into than from the shock itself.

I've never been burned from 120 or seen stars or anything like that. I've touched high voltage DC equipment where it doesn't even matter if only one hand is in the pocket or or anything like that. At 8kV you're getting a one handed shock unless you have special boots on.

The last actual line voltage electrocution story from around here was from somebody running an electric drill outdoors on a hot day. They sweated into the drill, couldn't let go and died.

How often do people drop dead from actual electrocutions in places that use 240, just doing plain tasks like you might at home or outside?

Cydrome Leader Inscribed thus:

Possible, but I suspect an urban legend.

People do die from electrocution on 240 volt AC mains. More often than not the reflex action causes you to pull away. I agree with your comment that "the danger is almost always from what you end up hitting or falling off (like a ladder) /into than from the shock itself." DC is far more likely to kill you, simply because the muscle contracts and makes it impossible to let go.

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Best Regards:
                     Baron.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I would hope that to be the fact! :)

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"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"

"Daily Thought:

  SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES. NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT
  THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5"

If the chicago suntimes or tribune had a functional search feature, you could locate the story, but that's a different story.

Is it 240 from either side of the line to ground, or how does that work? I asked all about this when I was in Ireland, but forgot the answer.

No,1 phase and 1 return. The return is actually the centre tap of the 3 phase system(3 X 240 V), and equivalent to ground.

So it's usually some sort of Wye connection where one side of the power would in theory br safe to just touch if you were standing in a puddle?

What's confusing in the USA is the mix of 120/240 and then the 120/208 circuits from 3 phase power in larger settings.

So while most homes may have 240volts available, an office building may only have 208 between any two legs of the three phase power they have.

For a computer, it doesn't really matter, but for things like induction motors, it's more of an issue.

AC can do that too, My dad had trouble putting a skilsaw down after cutting the lead. luckily he was able to out-distance the extension lead. Next time he used it with an isolating transformer.

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Cydrome Leader Inscribed thus:

Normally the centre tap is bonded to earth at the distribution transformer, such that the Neutral and earth are at the same potential. The Blue, Yellow, Red phases supply the 240 volt feed. Often you will find that one side of the street is one phase and the other side of the street is another. They do try to balance the phases by connecting equal numbers of homes to each phase. In the UK its rare to have a domestic property supplied with all three phases.

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Best Regards:
                Baron.

Jasen Betts Inscribed thus:

Nasty ! I'm glad he's OK. I use a GFI on power tool cables.

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Best Regards:
                Baron.

I found the drill story in here, on page 14.

Hi Rui. Electronics is a deep and wide river. Some folks like the analog part which has the audio stuff and the rf stuff. Others cant grok analog, but they love the digital stuff. I'll second the recommendation of getting your own copy of The Art Of Electronics. Having a nice home 'lab' is great... a meter, power supply, signal generator, used scope or a pc scope, those white proto boards, and a blue box of drawers with opamps, resistors, capacitors, leds. The light bulb came on Real Bright for me as I turned the gain pot on an opamp inverting amplifier and watched the output sine wave get bigger. Then I turned the offset pot and the whole wave went up and down. When it hit the top and bottom it clipped, and sounded like crap. Really need the scope in my opinion. Good Luck!

Cydrome Leader Inscribed thus:

Thanks for that very useful & informative info.

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Best Regards:
                     Baron.

und

Yep. RF burns are kinda painful too. But I bet it doesn't compare with that infamous second anode. That one will make you change your shorts for sure. That is if your still able to. Hit one of those when I was in high school. Haven't touched a TV inside once since.

u spare? =A0

Become a part of a forum and mingle with other hobbyists.. It's helped me.. I'm a member at

and everyone there will help you with anything you need.. Also, if you want to start building some fun circuits buy a breadboard and start making some simple circuits, a great site that has some fun circuits is

Good Luck!!

Didn't have them back in 1975, plastic power tools tools were a rarity too.

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