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[Brian Jojade]

Anyhow- is it normal to have "live" cam-lock tails?  Or was the genny operator thinking that the breakers to the legs were open or something?

No, absolutely not.  Cam-lock connectors are not rated for make/break connections under load.  Open cams are certainly large enough for little fingers and whatnot to jam inside.

The only maybe possible reason to have an energized open connector would be for metering purposes before turning it off and connecting it to the final gear.  Even then, most times camloks will be running into another distro or another piece of gear that will have a disconnect point as well and the operator should be metering the lines before turning them on.

[Tim McCulloch]

Proper procedure is to make all connections unenergized, inspect the entire cable / connection run and only then turn on the circuit breaker for shore connections ( shore in this instance means an installed electrical service point )
For generators there is an extra step. After making connections its important to test the service voltages between all legs and the legs and neutral+ground. Large generators can be set up for a variety of industrial loads beyond the usual single phase / three phase 115/208 VAC we are used to.
We for many years had an exceptional special event generator vendor who always sent a trained operator for set up instilling a lot of confidence in all of their customers. One event came up in which our customer hired a generator from a new supplier but assured us that a trained operator would be on hand. Come set up morning - in the dark of course - we provided tails and let the get op do his thing. Started the first chain motor and it moved all of about two feet and poof a bit of magic smoke came out. I checked the front of our PD and all three of the voltage meters were dead. I ran down to the generator and asked what's up. The Gen op said its all good here. I looked at the meters on the genny and found it was set for 460 VAC. The "trained generator operator" turned out to be simply the truck driver.
Trust but verify.

Similar story, but without the Majik Smoke.

Pulled up to Party on the Prairie (Little House was optional), generator loaned by local industrial manufacturer and it was sitting about 50 feet from the stage.  I started it up in absence of a Responsible Person, found it to be putting out 480V.  Told the promoter and eventually someone came out to *re-strap* the genset for 120/208 3 phase Wye.

[Ike Zimbel]

I'm still new to working with power distribution... I've only been working around that kind of power distribution for a couple of months.

All the times that I have seen tails tied into the wall or a generator, we've hooked them to the distro before energizing them, and I am trying to think about what situations would happen where it's necessary to have power on camlocks before tying them in, but I can't think of them.

Anyhow- is it normal to have "live" cam-lock tails?  Or was the genny operator thinking that the breakers to the legs were open or something?

No, absolutely not. This genny op needed to be sent to the seal room, to think about what he'd done... But seriously, it was very poor practice to do what he did. I should have, but wasn't really in a position to, demanded that he de-energize the tails before he left.

[Art Welter]

Yes. I guess this was at a point in my life that I still believed that people could be expected to actually do their job...

I stopped trusting before you, but still had problems..

Everything checked out properly on day one of a two day hotel gig.  My brother flipped on the main breaker in the distro on day two, instantly almost all the fuses in all the FOH and monitor mix gear blew, the amps were undamaged as they were all turned off, but we always just killed the main breaker rather than turning off individual front end stuff.

Turns out a rookie house electrician had untied our tails after we had left, thinking we were loading out in the morning, then realized we were in for two days, then re-tied us swapping a hot for neutral.

Fortunately he had logged his action so we were able to get some money for the stuff that burnt up instead of blew fuses.

You just never can tell what will happen from day to day...

Art

[Adam Kane]

I stopped trusting before you, but still had problems..

Everything checked out properly on day one of a two day hotel gig.  My brother flipped on the main breaker in the distro on day two, instantly almost all the fuses in all the FOH and monitor mix gear blew, the amps were undamaged as they were all turned off, but we always just killed the main breaker rather than turning off individual front end stuff.

Turns out a rookie house electrician had untied our tails after we had left, thinking we were loading out in the morning, then realized we were in for two days, then re-tied us swapping a hot for neutral.

Fortunately he had logged his action so we were able to get some money for the stuff that burnt up instead of blew fuses.

You just never can tell what will happen from day to day...

Art

Years ago, we used to have an old dimmer rack that was 100-A single phase. For a particular show, we handed the tails to the city electrician, or "electrician" as it turns out. The tails were the normal color for something like that: Black, Red, White, Green.

I got kind of a weird vibe from the guy, so I felt more inclined than normal to double check things. Turned on a breaker for a single edison recept on the distro to meter and had 208v from hot to neutral, and 120v neutral to ground. Mr. "electrician" was nowhere to be found. We had to get moving with setup so I went to check the panel he tied us into. I noticed that there were only 3-pole breakers in there. I figured he probably would have just used 2 of the 3...but whatever. I pulled the cover off and found that he landed the Black, Red, and White on the 3-pole breaker, and the Green with the other Whites on the neutral bar. Fantastic. I moved everything around where it should be, and the show went well.

Up to that point, I *usually* metered before we turned anything on...especially if I wasn't the one making the connections. Since then, I've done it every time, no matter what. I also make it a point to check voltages periodically while the system is fired up and running before showtime. Doing this, I've found the occasional loose connection with enough time to take care of it well in advance of the opening number.

[brian maddox]

Proper procedure is to make all connections unenergized, inspect the entire cable / connection run and only then turn on the circuit breaker for shore connections ( shore in this instance means an installed electrical service point )
For generators there is an extra step. After making connections its important to test the service voltages between all legs and the legs and neutral+ground. Large generators can be set up for a variety of industrial loads beyond the usual single phase / three phase 115/208 VAC we are used to.
We for many years had an exceptional special event generator vendor who always sent a trained operator for set up instilling a lot of confidence in all of their customers. One event came up in which our customer hired a generator from a new supplier but assured us that a trained operator would be on hand. Come set up morning - in the dark of course - we provided tails and let the get op do his thing. Started the first chain motor and it moved all of about two feet and poof a bit of magic smoke came out. I checked the front of our PD and all three of the voltage meters were dead. I ran down to the generator and asked what's up. The Gen op said its all good here. I looked at the meters on the genny and found it was set for 460 VAC. The "trained generator operator" turned out to be simply the truck driver.
Trust but verify.

Pat [ or perhaps "the PatS" ] were the absolute best ii've ever worked with. The only time using a genie that you could just 'forget about it'....

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