Wiring
 

Ok, when you're looking at the plug on a power supply (where the cord plugs into). and it is right side up (meaning ground is at the bottom), which is the live and which is neutral?

Also, is it ok to use regular solid wire when soldering? I mean wire that isn't twisted from smaller wire. Will the solder stick.

I'm not sure which is which, but you can easily find out by using a multimeter on the power cable.

Solid core copper wiring is fine, it's just really stiff. It's as simple to solder as the multi-strand wiring.

if my electrical knowledge is right, non of them is neutral. The AC current (**alternating** current) changes each wire form positive to negatives at 60hz, or something. Therefore you can consider both to be live.

Don´t know about the soldering though:shrug: .

have fun

The plug is connected to the underside of a piece of PCB. And I'm thinking of soldering the wires right on the top of that PCB. There is solder already there from how they attatched the plug.

I'm trying to get a pic uploaded but the server is not cooperating.

Do you think I should go for it? But I need to know if it matters which side I wire live and which I do neutral.

should be able to just go by the standard wire colors attached to the socket to tell, I forget visual which is which, but I know white is hot, black is neutral, and green is ground.

Correction -In the U.S.:

White is Neutral.
Black is Hot.
Green is Earth Ground.

110 AC swings Plus and Minus (Push-Pull) originating from the black (hot) wire at 60 Hz.
A voltage reading from neutral (white) to ground (green) will be near zero VAC when there is no complete circuit (an open cord or receptacle). I say near zero b/c there is usually a small potential difference from your earth ground to where the neutral is grounded.

If you measure the computer cord with a volt meter, when it is plugged into the wall and free at the computer end, you will see 110VAC between the hot and ground and 110 VAC between the hot and neutral. You will see near zero between the ground and neutral (a few volts is not uncommon).

Hope this helps...

NOTE: When there is a complete circuit, power does go back and forth between the hot and neutral. Therefore if there is a complete circuit at the computer end of the cord and you measure voltage between ground and the neutral wire you will see 110VAC -just as if you had measured from the hot wire!

And since there is no proof that a house is wired correctly (the hot can be at either side of the receptacle and everything will appear to work correctly), checking an open circuit relative to ground is the only easy way to know for sure which is the hot.;)

FYI -electrical charges traval at a fairly low velocity. If you had a battery and wire completing a theoretical circuit with a pretty large current flow (no resistance), and you could see the electrons travel, it would take a pretty good while for them to traval from one end of the wire to the other. You might even have a hard time seeing them move!

In AC circuits the electrons don't really go anywhere. They just push each other back and forth (60 times a second) as they try to maintain a uniform spacing.

Sorry for the hijack. I have been gone for five days and I just really enjoy this stuff!

No, unless you "complete" the circuit with a short. The voltage between neutral and ground will not be the same as the voltage between hot and ground.

CheeseBall,

I don't know what the normal wiring of the the IEC 320 power inlet connectors are. (But there are some words to google if you want to search.) You can test it as CoolRod suggested in his first post.

It is not essential, but wise, to know which is live and which is phase because most of time only the phase line has a fuse.

The scenario is:

Get a short circuit to case and you touch it (providing a path to gound) you get a good tingle :drool: .

Fuses also protect your equipment from being cooked.

If you are attaching additional equipment to the existing AC line and don't know which is which wire, put fuses on both wires and you will be safe.

Remember that a fuse may blow with 5A whereas your power-boards fuse is more likely to be 30A+ (for example)