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Author Topic: Bad Power in sound rack??? Dave Williams Wet nipple scene Posts: 1836 From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA Registered: Jan 2000 posted 09-22-2001 02:41 AM                        Get this problem. I have had TWO DTS units go down in the same rack in three weeks. The power supplies are getting blown. And today the center channel HF horn driver blew out. Is it possible that I am getting massive jolts of current that is causing this problem? If so what can I do to stop this? Dave  |  IP: Logged Rick Long Jr Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Jul 2000 posted 09-22-2001 08:19 AM                     WOW! That sucks! How many circiuts feed the rack? What kind of amps? Perhaps a loose connection at one of the outlets? You may want to get a good quality computer surge suppressor for the DTS unit. Could someone have connected the power to the rack incorrectly? I had a weird situation a couple of years ago where at a particular theatre if you turned off the surround amp, the sub amp would go off as well, and vice-versa. Turned out to be a bad neutral connection in the power supply to the rack.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-22-2001 09:41 AM                     I usually put a UPS in the rack for the processor and the digital players.  |  IP: Logged Stefan Scholz Expert Film Handler Posts: 223 From: Schoenberg, Germany Registered: Sep 1999 posted 09-22-2001 02:34 PM                        Is it fed from 3 phase (TNS with N) with neutral starpoint as reference? Then it is very likely that the neutral conductor is loose. I had this happen one time when an electrician was redoing the fuse-box wiring, without prior warning he cut the N conductor, subsequently the switch mode power supplys fed from that line blew, as the primary voltage raised to the phase to phase voltage of 1.7 times the phase to neutral. If it it a system that has no neutral star (IT / TT) this should not happen.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-22-2001 04:51 PM                        Off topic sort of.... Stefan you 3 phase story reminded me of when I was first getting into machining. The place I worked put in a new bank of meters and fuse boxes. About a month later I noticed out the window that there was a bunch of guys standing around the meters in back. Then they came in the back door and took a quick look around and went back out and looked at the meters again. To make a long story short, they guy that installed the meters had wired them so that they ran backwards (I didn't even know it was possible) and the meter reader had come out and read the meter and wanted to charge the company something approaching half a million dollars. (so the story goes) Once they had it figured out it was kinda funny but I bet the owner of the shop was sweatin bullets for a while. ------------------ Greg Mueller Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut http://www.muellersatomics.com/  |  IP: Logged Tom Sauter Expert Film Handler Posts: 163 From: Buffalo, NY, USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 09-22-2001 06:37 PM                        Furman power conditioners are another alternative to a UPS. We had a transformer replaced in our building and an electrician accidentally hooked up ALL of our sound gear to 277V, and somehow swapped neutral with a phase! Needless to say, it cost us $14,000 in Furmans but they saved us $2 MILLION in audio gear.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-22-2001 08:14 PM                     THe furman is basically a line filter only consisting of a set of chokes and GMOVs The better UPS units actually provide the power from the pattery via an inverter that has total line isolation  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-23-2001 11:30 AM                     I have had absolute success with Tripplite. They offer a full range of devices like the IBAR-12 (rackmount) for surge supression, the LCR-2400 for power regulation on top of surge supression, UPS of many different grades. They also insure the equipment plugged into them! Steve ------------------ "Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"  |  IP: Logged

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