[OZAPRS] Upside down power supplies

[Dave Ingram]

Terry Neumann wrote:
> I'm still immensely annoyed that the extremely useful Clipsal 463 
> piggyback plug was banned from purchase by the common people in 
> Australia some years ago.  They are readily available in New Zealand 
> (branded Made in Australia), but these days they are apparently only 
> available to the theatre industry over here.

I didn't realise that it had disappeared. What a shame.

I miss the PDL split phase plug. It was like a piggyback, but the phase
socket
and phase pin had separate terminations. These were originally used with
external timers and thermostats (before things were miniaturised enough to
fit
into a box like the kambrook timers), but were great for current
measurement.
A loop of wire could be put between the two phase terminals and a tong
meter
could then be safely used to measure current. Other people made the
suicide
version which just terminated into 4mm bananas (and not always insulated).

Darryl Smith wrote:
> Another thing popular in the electrical trade is what is called a
'Suicide
> lead'. Basically a standard plug on one end, and alligator clips on the
> other.

When testing electricity meters we used to use a lot of suicide leads.
Eventually management was convinced to buy 'safeblocks' that allow
temporary
termination in a safe way -- really no excuse for a suicide lead now.

Power station work is certainly interesting -- all my work was on
excitation
systems. You know there is a lot of load on the VTs (110v l-l) when a
simple
VT is rated at 20kVA! The side effects of open circuit CTs are obvious too
(burnt out panels). Office work is however more civilised :-)


Dave.
(ex. generator bender)
-- 
David Ingram (VK4TDI)
Real email: dave at ingramtech dot com
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
http://www.ingramtech.com/
MGRS: 56J MQ 991583    Maidenhead Grid Square: QG62lm
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