I have this exact setup and have only electrocuted myself twice, you’ll be fine.
7 Likes
I even got a small plastic plate (that orange thing in the first photo) to cover the screw terminals, which I forgot to install before taking that second photo. One day I’ll maybe even start to use safety glasses when drilling stuff!
3 Likes
I’ve found that the danger zone is right here:
Fiddling about in the box without looking? That’s a zap. European electricity is also a good deal spicier than what I grew up with…
6 Likes
Seriously, this stuff can kill you. Any place you can get your fingers into where you have exposed conductors connected to wall voltage is potentially deadly. Plastic boxes, acrylic covers, and so forth are cheap.
10 Likes
I just about sh!t my pants the other day when my beatstep fell off the back of the couch where i had it balanced and all the cables ripped out of the back of it - only to have one of cable plugs fall right onto the mains connection of the PSU literally the tip was sitting on neutral and the sleeve on live…and the whole synth turned off and wouldn’t come back on at all.
Turned out the reason it wouldn’t turn back on was because the beatstep fell onto the powerstrip and turned it off just in time. Zero damage.
0_0
I know what my next synth project is.
[edit: artist’s recreation of the situation / i.e. how to bypass every psu safety feature imaginable]
7 Likes
oh shit that could have been a disaster !
sounds like cover the leads to the psu and a case , rack , desk is in order .
The only visible metal part is ground in that connector & power switch. Those blue terminal connectors cover the voltage parts completely. Or they should, I probably need to check that they are fully inserted.
Even with cases that only have low voltages inside I don’t fiddle or connect things while they are powered, it seems to be quite easy to accidentally short something.
But you can never be too careful with electricity.
2 Likes
I used the exact same power inlet; as long as the horizontal as well as vertical parts of these two terminals are covered
you’re probably fine (with the orange piece in place of course).
I try not to, but mistakes happen.
2 Likes
I’ve often wondered if is worth putting a fuse my case. For reasons.
If you have wall voltage going into the case, yes, it is. (The above power inlet has a built in fuse holder.)
4 Likes
Hourly reminder to everyone not to go cheap or get lax with safety around wall power. Literally the most Important part of any setup is to make that wall power nowhere near you, or anything that conducts electricity that can touch you. There is no compelling reason to have the wall power itself anywhere near inside a place where your fingers could be when plugged in. We all have to step down and condition the power anyways, so there isn’t any reason I can think of to not have all of that outside in a proper container, and just feed the safer conditioned power to the synth.
8 Likes
There are a few reasons. Portability would be one, for some people. Another is minimizing opportunities for voltage drop and noise pickup on the ±12 V lines. Best to keep distance from regulator to modules short. Wall voltage is to be respected but it’s entirely possible to have it safely isolated in the synth case.
4 Likes
And minimizing the amount of wall warts that take too much space and don’t fit next to each other. Also, the small plug from them is not very securely connected, at least compared to power cord. Those can be a big thing when playing live.
A button to switch off everything instead of disconnecting the wall wart is a good thing too. Of course you could use a multiple out extension cord with a power switch, but there you got again the problem of fitting multiple of those wall-things next to each other.
I also have blank plates to cover the empty spots in that rack when it’s in real use.
Also, that power inlet has a fuse in it, I wouldn’t dare to put it there without that.
2 Likes
Then there’s these
there’s a fuse that was between the plug and that point, but i mean they’re not instant and the other end of the cable was plugged into a vco. bad scene. i’m gonna fix it before i patch again.
2 Likes
yeah, that whole setup was quick and janky. no worries, i’ll make it nice.
3 Likes
Saw this elsewhere and thought of you:
5 Likes
5 Likes
Must be something in the air (probably ozone), this cropped up today:
5 Likes
