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Topic: Ground Faults and other issues (Read 1116 times) previous topic - next topic
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Ground Faults and other issues

I watched an interesting case on The People's Court the other day, in which a DJ was hired to host a Karaoke session for a venue, and their equipment shorted out there. Appointed arbitrator, Judge Marilyn Milian, did not understand the actual subject matter, and the plaintiff did not spend the money to hire an expert witness.

The plaintiff arrived on the scene, with his powered sound board, powered speakers, and a laptop, which was not connected to power or ground. He plugged in his speakers and sound board, then connected a line cable from his sound board's input to his laptop, and promptly heard or possibly saw a spark, and noticed a smell of burnt electronics. From that moment forth, his laptop either stopped working, or the USB and onboard audio stopped working.

The defendant denied that their electrical system was faulty, and even had the replacement entertainer as a witness to attest to the fact that their own equipment did not fault on their electrical system.

The plaintiff lost the case.

To me, this whole thing sounds as if the defendant's electrical system had a hot ground in their system, and that their witness used ungrounded power supplies for their equipment.

This makes me think that if I were ever going to be visiting a site that I did not control, and that I ever needed to plug into their electrical systems, I would always bring a line tester, like one of these. No way I'd plug my expensive equipment into a strange receptacle without being sure it at least tested to be wired correctly.

Re: Ground Faults and other issues

Reply #1 –
Those testers use little neon tubes, and as I understand it you need > 50v to ionize such a neon/argon mixture. 

IOW I would not rely on one of those if you're looking to protect equipment from a "hot" ground.  The only issue they are guaranteed to detect is a miswire in the electrical system, not an attached component feeding back to ground.
Creature of habit.

Re: Ground Faults and other issues

Reply #2 –
I was only operating on the guess that it was not his mixer board at fault, but that there was some ground fault in the wiring of the venue. Faulty equipment on his part may well have played a part in his laptop being fried.