UPS/SPS testing re: AC protective ground
Gil Kloepfer Jr.
gil at limbic.ssdl.com
Tue Oct 30 17:51:58 AEST 1990
In article <1349 at westmark.WESTMARK.COM> dave at westmark.WESTMARK.COM
(Dave Levenson) writes (in response to my article):
>Did you get this shock immediately as the plug came out of the wall
>socket, or some time later?
I don't remember...
>I just unplugged my Tripp-Lite BC450 from the wall. (I'm posting
>this article on backup-power!) I find that I can touch the plug and
>feel nothing. A volt-meter across the power pins on this plug reads
>zero.
Just to be a little more specific about the posting, after reading this
one, I put a meter on the plug of the Tripp-Lite with my system on
backup power. The (AC) voltage across the hot and neutral are about
1.9 volts (nothing really terrible) *BUT* the voltage from the hot to
ground and neutral to ground are around 60 volts (each!). That would
definitely be enough to give me the tingle I felt when I grabbed the
plug!
>Could your Tripp-Lite be a different, or older, or defective
>model?
Let's compare notes, okay-- I have a Tripp-Lite BC-450-b rev 790. I
just bought it about 3 weeks ago, so my feeling is that it should be
pretty well along in the testing stage from Tripp-Lite.
I can think of one additional failure mode not mentioned -- I'm running
the following devices from this supply:
AT&T 3B1 computer
Telebit Trailblazer-Plus
AT&T UNIX-pc expansion box
Tape drive on a HD case/supply (turned-off)
Could one of these devices be feeding garbage back through the ground?
How does the Tripp-Lite UPS handle "ground"? I betcha that one of the
devices could conceivably be creating an electrical path from neutral
to ground, as I have been bitten by that once already.
This is an interesting discussion - please take a look at your supplies
with a meter and post your findings. I'd like to fix a problem before
it fixes me!
Gil.
--
Gil Kloepfer, Jr. gil at limbic.ssdl.com ...!ames!limbic!gil
Southwest Systems Development Labs (Div of ICUS) Houston, Texas
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