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Author Topic: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution  (Read 17264 times)

Mike Sokol

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2014, 07:27:00 AM »

I never verified this information but, I was once told by an electrician that the MOVs in surge protectors can in some circumstances leak voltage on to the ground, causing GFCIs to trip.

That is correct. MOVs in cheap surge strips will typically have 2 or 3 mA of leakage from the line to the safety ground. So plugging one "Surge Strip" into a GFCI with a 5 mA threshold won't trip by itself, but plugging two Surge Strips into a GFCI outlet may result in a random trip, even if none of your gear has a ground leakage problem. Here's a pair of No~Shock~Zone articles I wrote on GFCI theory and troubleshooting:

http://www.noshockzone.org/rv-electrical-safety-part-viii-gfci/

http://www.noshockzone.org/rv-electrical-safety-part-x-%E2%80%93-gfci-troubleshooting/
« Last Edit: January 09, 2014, 08:11:43 AM by Mike Sokol »
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Cailen Waddell

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2014, 11:26:58 AM »

We use the Tripp light strips in all of our racks. We like them.
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Jamin Lynch

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2014, 12:54:32 PM »

Mike,

I've heard that the typical surge protector will not protect you from a lightning strike because it is too slow to react. By the time the surge protector trips, the lightning has done its damage.

Is that true?

Thanks
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Jonathan Johnson

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2014, 02:23:51 PM »

I've heard that the typical surge protector will not protect you from a lightning strike because it is too slow to react. By the time the surge protector trips, the lightning has done its damage.

The problem is most surge strips don't necessarily "trip." The MOVs shunt excess voltage to ground, which *may* act as a short circuit and trip the built-in breaker, but it might not trip the breaker. And once the capacity of the MOV has been used up (they are a sacrificial element), you have no protection at all while power still flows.

If the MOV does pass enough current to trip the breaker, chances are good that the surge voltage is high enough to arc across the contacts of the breaker and anything else in the strip which could lead to an explosion of the device.

EDIT: For Mike's answer, look here: http://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,147759.0.html
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Tommy Peel

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2014, 01:07:13 PM »

To follow up on this topic, I finally bought and installed the aforementioned Trip-Lite unit in my rack. It helped clean things up in the rack a bit though, because of the length of most of my in-rack cables, it's still more of a mess than I'd like.









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Frank DeWitt

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2014, 08:38:06 PM »

To follow up on this topic, I finally bought and installed the aforementioned Trip-Lite unit in my rack. It helped clean things up in the rack a bit though, because of the length of most of my in-rack cables, it's still more of a mess than I'd like.


You can buy 12 or 18 inch power cords on Ebay

Frank
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David Sturzenbecher

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #16 on: March 25, 2014, 11:08:19 PM »


You can buy 12 or 18 inch power cords on Ebay

Frank

Or monoprice.com 1ft, 2ft, 3ft increments in 14, 16, or 18 AWG
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Tommy Peel

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2014, 12:01:28 AM »

Or monoprice.com 1ft, 2ft, 3ft increments in 14, 16, or 18 AWG


You can buy 12 or 18 inch power cords on Ebay

Frank

Yeah I may have to pick some of those up. Monoprice is pretty cheap.  More of a problem than the power cords though are the 10ft 4ch insert snake, 2-10ft insert cables and 4-10ft trs cables... I bought all of those when the outboard was in a separate rack and haven't replaced them with short ones yet. Does anybody know a source of cheap, short(~18in) 1/4in insert cables? Monoprice doesn't carry them.

Sent from my Nexus 4 running OmniROM 4.4 KitKat using Tapatalk Pro

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Frank DeWitt

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2014, 09:38:58 AM »

Perfect opportunity to polish your soldering skills.  If you have no soldering experience to start with, poke around your church.  someone there knows how to solder.

It is a very handy skill for a sound tech.
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Tommy Peel

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Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2014, 11:48:44 AM »

Perfect opportunity to polish your soldering skills.  If you have no soldering experience to start with, poke around your church.  someone there knows how to solder.

It is a very handy skill for a sound tech.
I suppose so. I've done a fair amount of soldering and I guess the advantage of building my own is I can custom make the lengths. I might even make a custom panel for my outputs(which have to be TRS to XLR).
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Mixer Rack Case Power Distribution
« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2014, 11:48:44 AM »


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