Power supply musings

[Rene Schmitz]

At 06:25 11.06.99 -0400, you wrote:

>If you break the audio shields, you are asking for noise problems...so I
>break the mains ground... and isolate the chassis from each other (humfrees
>are a commercial variety of the technique I use, nylon shoulder washers)
>
>Noise is gone. Some say that I am at risk this way (safety)... I think the
>audio cables are more than adequate to handle the fault currents long enough
>for the breaker to trip. Most Audio gear can have the "3rd pin ground"
>safely plugged into one central common point. I pulg into the wall at
>exactly one point, and run a dozen outlets right from that point.

I do it the same way. To add safety when the gear is NOT connected to other
devices (at least one of which must have a connection between circuit and
power gnd) you can place a small neon bulb between circuit and mains gnd.
The bulb is a perfect insulator at small voltages, however a voltage of
about 65V will make it conduct, and relatively low ohmic (sp?). 
Of course you should use a transformer with seperate chambers for primary
and secondary winding, where you are allowed not to ground the secondary
winding. 

Bye
 René 

             ,   : (uzs159 at uni-bonn.de)
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