[sdiy] iec connector confusion

[Graham Atkins]

I would be careful here. It is my understanding that in the US, your  
Live &
Neutral are split 50/50 with respect of earth. so your potential  
ideally on either
leg would be no more than 55V in theory. As the IEC is used in many  
countries
now it can be much different. In the UK we have 240V but the Neutral  
is (In
perfect conditions) at the same potential as earth with the Live at  
240V so it
is seriously important that the Live, Neutral & Earth are connected to  
the
defined L,N & E terminals.

Graham

On 28 Oct 2008, at 15:22, Jason Tribbeck wrote:

> Hi,
>
>> The :"neutral" (a white wire or silver/tin terminal) connection is  
>> the
>> grounded line, "ground" is the mains/earth ground line, hot should go
> to the
>> other (usually a black wire or copper/bronze terminal). Never connect
> the
>> hot wire to the case!
>
> It was my understanding that the three connectors should be labelled
> with "L", "N" and an earth symbol.
>
> They are also in this shape:
>
>
>    []
>
> []    []
>
>
> The one in the middle (top) is earth. The other two are live and  
> neutral
> (doesn't matter which way around it should be).
>
> If N was connected to the case, then I believe that would be a  
> **very**
> bad thing to do.
>
> Oh - I'm assuming it's an IEC320 C13/C14 style connector.
> (Unfortunately, the Wikipedia article -
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_connector - does not mention which is
> which).
>
> A quick bit of searching has produced this:
>
> http://www.powerfig.com/iec60320-15-amp-power-cords.aspx
>
> Which means:
>
>        [] EARTH
>
> LIVE []    [] NEUTRAL
>
> (assuming it's the socket on the back of the unit, rather than the  
> plug
> itself).
>
> -- 
> Jason Tribbeck
>
> _______________________________________________
> Synth-diy mailing list
> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>