Bottlehead Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: patm on May 22, 2012, 11:38:03 AM

Title: Power strip project
Post by: patm on May 22, 2012, 11:38:03 AM

I am putting together a power strip from pieces I bought from http://www.vt4c.com. Interesting site he has a little of everything. The project consists of a heavy duty aluminum box with 4 outlets and 4 Hubbell IG8300 hospitle grade receptacles. My question is sense the receptacle ground is isolated from the mounting means, how should I ground the aluminum box? Won't connecting the box to the green ground circuit defeat the purpose of the isolated grounding scheme?

I will post pictures when I finish.

Thanks,

Pat McSween

Title: Re: Power strip project
Post by: Paul Birkeland on May 22, 2012, 04:09:56 PM

From a safety standpoint, you will most certainly want to ground the metal enclosure.  This will create a short in case the hot lead ever touches the metal, without this, you may have a "hot box" that will be somewhat hazardous to humans and quite a nuisance to pets. 

Good catch on the that difference between a normal outlet and these isolated ground outlets!

Title: Re: Power strip project
Post by: Grainger49 on May 23, 2012, 08:54:54 AM

What a disappointment!  There was a link, "DIY Train Room" and it didn't have any rolling stock.  You can imagine my disappointment when I watched "American Pickers" and there was no Bluegrass.

I couldn't find a description of the power strip.  The phrase "isolated ground" can mean different things.  But for safety sake things need to be grounded.  The case of the power strip should be attached to the ground of the incoming power cord.  The same thing goes for the ground lug on all the hospital outlets they have to have their ground lugs tied to that same incoming ground wire.  That is just according to code (NEC).  (I'm working for HFH as a house electrician now.)

Title: Re: Power strip project
Post by: patm on May 23, 2012, 11:17:06 AM

Thank you PB and Granger. That's exactly the answer to my question. That kind of response always blows me away. This forem does so much to raise the level of tube audio for novices like me.

THANKS,

Pat

Title: Re: Power strip project
Post by: Laudanum on May 24, 2012, 03:40:58 AM

Ivw done something similiar before but with multiple boxes (2 or more)  and outlets for each.  Two for the Aquarium, one for the computer and peripherals and one for the "big" audio system/systems.   I only used the hospital grade outlets on the audio system ... not Hubbels though.   Metal boxes were used on the Audio and Computer "strips", plastic for Aquarium.   Anyway,  I agree with Grainger and the others.  All the metal boxes are grounded by way of incoming power cord ground and all the receptacles are grounded to their ground tabs as well.  Be safe.

Title: Re: Power strip project
Post by: patm on May 29, 2012, 11:33:36 AM

Pics of the finished Power Bar http://1161.photobucket.com/albums/q517/Patmcsween/ (http://1161.photobucket.com/albums/q517/Patmcsween/)

Title: Re: Power strip project
Post by: Grainger49 on May 29, 2012, 01:35:44 PM

Pat,

That is a beautiful piece.  Now add a Bottlehead power cord, then arrange the internal wiring like the Bottlehead power cord.

Title: Re: Power strip project
Post by: patm on May 29, 2012, 02:05:41 PM

Interesting idea Granger, I will defently try that. I think I will use it as for a while and then upgrade it and see if I can here the difference.

Pat

Title: Re: Power strip project
Post by: Grainger49 on May 29, 2012, 02:07:40 PM

That is the best way.  I bought ~$120 of upgrade parts for the Eros and I am swapping them in slowly, very slowly.