I'd like to hear that story. I didnt thing you had much chance if 220 got ahold ouf you because you couldnt break free, like you can with 110, been decades since I had my elbows tickled.
Anyone good with tube amp troubleshooting?
- Thread starter schenkadere
- Start date
ABQShredHead
©1970
Electricity is actually somewhat weird - it's the small currents that will kill you based on the functions of the heart. A clear path through your body with a small (if I recall correctly it's in the 300-mA range) current will shock your heart into arrest. The larger currents will not have the same effects, but will pass through your body with more significant burning as the current increases.
HackerX
Member
The combination of circumstances were really all in my favour at the time.
The parents were renovating a room (turning 2 rooms into one larger room) and had removed an interior wall to open up a large area. The wall had previously had a light switch which during the knock down of the wall was left hanging (from the middle of the room basically) for some time until we got around to tidying it all up and relocating the light switch. Just imagine your standard house wiring hanging from the middle of the room with your standard white light switch hanging off the end. The connectors on the back of the switch itself were all taped up, but it was dodgy as shit.
One day switching on the light I grabbed the switch a little to close to the connectors. I didn't actually make contact with the conectors (at least I don't think) but I certainly saw the electricity jump to my hand. The effect of the shock itself basically caused my arm to drop the light switch anyway, so I never got the change to "grip" it. The feeling was entirely localised to my arm though, just one hugh muscle spasm all up my arm to my shoulder, but nothing beyond that. After my arm just felt like your average, slept on it too long dead arm sort of feeling. It just lasted a lot longer.
I didn't even trip the safety switch. God that house was dodgy. I'm quite sure the fact I never made contact with metal was probably highly in my favour.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
J-Dubya 777
It NEVER ends
I got bit just a little from a balllast in a flourescent light. Had I grabbed onto some of the metal hanging up in the ceiling, there would have been a help wanted sign here. burnt 2 figertips. It's not the voltage that will kill you, it's the current, as stated above.... Made sure the lazy asses at work stopped fucking with the lights....
Hacker- If you got nailed by a light switch that was 110/115, you'd have to go to the fuse/breaker box and grab on to both "legs" of the service if you want to check out 220.... lol. Or something like a dryer or stove line, I have most of my shop tools like my air compressor, table saw and welders wired to 220, you draw half the amperage that way.
I get what your saying now ABQ, Im a little dodgy on the current thing. I always think in volts and amperage, I do wish I had gone to school for electronics, I like fixing stuff. Theres really not the demand nowadays because everything is disposable. TV goes, buy a new one, stereo goes, buy a new one. I remember when there was electronic repair places everywhere, now its nearly impossible to find one. I have a Kenwood individual component stack system that needs the CD player fixed, it doesnt pick up the CD's anymore. Then it seems these DVD players are junk, have one of them that the tray doesnt open.
I get what your saying now ABQ, Im a little dodgy on the current thing. I always think in volts and amperage, I do wish I had gone to school for electronics, I like fixing stuff. Theres really not the demand nowadays because everything is disposable. TV goes, buy a new one, stereo goes, buy a new one. I remember when there was electronic repair places everywhere, now its nearly impossible to find one. I have a Kenwood individual component stack system that needs the CD player fixed, it doesnt pick up the CD's anymore. Then it seems these DVD players are junk, have one of them that the tray doesnt open.
Check this story out, way back when we were kids, "record players" were this pot metal and steel type affair. My sister had a birthday party in the garage (concrete floor) and we were all running around bare footed. She wanted to change the record and walked over and lifted the steel(pot metal) needle arm and it locked right on to her, she was vibrating on the floor, we didnt know what to do but fortunantly my mother was close by and ran over and unpluged the record player. My sisters never been right in the head...... lol. This is back prior to the more recent outlet plugs that only let you plug in one way, before if you pluged "upside down" it reversed the polarity and would send the current to ground if the unfortunante bare footed person became the conductor. It sure put a damper on the poor girls birthday party for a half hour or so.
HackerX
Member
Australia runs 240v mains power...
(we don't have issues with dryers or washing machines etc because we run a half decent voltage
)Australia runs 240v mains power...
(we don't have issues with dryers or washing machines etc because we run a half decent voltage
So your saying your lights and electrical outlets are 240 ? I dont think you can plug say guitar amps, table lamps, vacuum cleaners, stereos, computers and such into 240. Everybody here has 220 or 240 at the mains but that is split into 2 half voltage legs for lights and outlets. Wireing for dryers, electric stoves or stuff like the shop tools I mentioned is run off both legs at the service box seperately from the rest of the conventional house wireing.
J-Dubya 777
It NEVER ends
There were bands at Prog Power whose gear required 220 (mostly pedal boards, from what I saw). We had about 10 converters all over the stage just for this purpose.
HackerX
Member
Yup. Like any other country that runs somewhere between 220-250 (i.e most european countries and any related countries), we don't need to worry about this whole "both legs" stuff, since it's inherent in the system . That's something america had to develop since the 110v standard they chose originally, wasn't capable of running dryers etc. Considering everything you listed runs on a whole lot less than 240 volts, so it really doesn't matter. They all have transformers that step whatever the input power is down to their required voltage (12 volts in a lot of cases).
Hmmm, reading up, it seems as though we've switched to 230volts. Wonder when that happened.
Wow, seems you'd be frying alot of small kids with 220 at your outlets and light bulbs. This is something I never knew, I like our system. I got the outlet tingle a few times as a child, Im glad it wasnt 220.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
I haven't read page 3 yet so this is just going off of this one:
Elsewhere in the world, 220 is the standard. Different countries use different voltage standards because a universal standard had not been agreed upon as electricity developed in use. In fact, some countries have hardly a standard at all, like Thailand, where you may find US plugs, Euro plugs, UK plugs, and a variety of voltages as well.
As Mark already said, a device of the same type will typically run at double the voltage, half the current. IE, same power drain. Depending on design. Not the SAME device of course, but a model intended for a particular region.
ABQShredHead
©1970
The rest of the world also runs on 50 cycles rather than the 60 cycles in the US. Big issues there.
I still remember our first week in Brussels when my brother turned on the TV after forgetting to plug it into the transformer first. Oops. Three years in a foreign country without a TV after that one...
I still remember our first week in Brussels when my brother turned on the TV after forgetting to plug it into the transformer first. Oops. Three years in a foreign country without a TV after that one...
