Effect of COLD

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun Jan 25 17:38:32 2004

> I always check both the power leads to ground with a meter before I dare
> plug in anything that I never used before (used dirty equipment). Its

For anything I've not used for some time (or at all), I will

0) Pull the case and check for loose parts that are waiting to cause
shorts, etc

1) Do an insulation test between both mains wires and the case, using a
1000V tester

2) Do an earth continuity test, passing at least 10A through the earth wire

3) Check known failure points that can cause real damage (shorted pass
transistors in linear PSUs (or, indeed, some switch-mode regulators, like
the ones in some HP desktop calculators)

4) And _still_ run the PSU into a dummy load first...

It seems to be sensible to spend some time checking the above to prevent
much larger problems later. Either damage to me (if the casing becomes
live), or more importantly to a classic computer


-tony
Received on Sun Jan 25 2004 - 17:38:32 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:36:47 BST