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Questions tagged [mains]

Mains electricity, typically a higher voltage AC waveform used to deliver electrical power to households. In North America 120V, 60Hz, in most European countries 230V, 50Hz. What most people will plug appliances into.

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I'm planning to use a DPST rocker switch as follows: To be more explicit I want to use the switch as follows: Both wires to the DPST SW above will be line wires not neutral. The switch is from here ...
cm64's user avatar
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I have been learning about clearance and creepage of AC PCB design. I need to add a gate resistor to my triac which will drive a insertion heater component. I am thinking I can use an 0603 size for ...
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I know disconnecting earth plug of oscilloscope is viable way to measure Line voltage with passive probes. But it is a hassle to prevent and un-prevent Earth connection for each time I make a quick ...
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The usual triac dimmer circuits cannot fully reduce power to zero. The diac trigger voltage can be lowered below the typical 20V (for 120Vrms US mains power), and the RC time constant can be ...
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We have installations with several powerful motors and transformers (up to 2 MW) which are driven by VFDs. Due to some geometric constraints the VFDs can't be placed near the motors. To minimize ...
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I've worked on several projects that use an external power brick for power, which also require an earth ground connection. This can be accomplished by including a special grounding terminal, but many ...
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I’m looking for schematic references or design examples to understand how supercapacitors are typically integrated into electronic circuits. I want to use Supercapacitors as a power backup for ...
akash Pulikkal's user avatar
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I am designing a relay PCB for an application rated upto 16A. The space is a constraint for me so for better connection, I used a copper pour for the line on the top layer and neutral on the bottom ...
ASY's user avatar
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There is an one watt 1K resistor in between the broken terminals. I could not show it because not able to find the part number. The unpolarized capacitor is 100 nF and X2 rated. The circuit will be ...
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I want to switch AC ventilation fan and several LED bulbs with a custom made Solid State Relay. Line is 220VAC and max current will be 2A. The fan won't be bigger than 150W. The loads are not exactly ...
CaveScientist's user avatar
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How does the on-grid inverter send power to the grid? Like for direct current, the power goes from the higher voltage to the lower voltage. For reactive power in alternating current system that is ...
Ahmad Waheed's user avatar
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With an oscilloscope and a 1 m wire at the probe for electrostatic induction I measure 50 Hz electric fields from my mains at a fixed spot in my house. I model reading voltage V_1 at my oscilloscope ...
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Today I just learned that the neutral wire is bonded to the grounding electrode rode. However, this raises a potentially naive question on my part (very rudimentary background in electrical ...
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I observe strange STAT behavior at LTC4412ES6. It is always low, no matter which power source is attached or not attached (measured the voltage on STAT pin). As you can see, there are two possible ...
timur beganovic's user avatar
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I guess because the 120 V in the US compared to the 240 V used in the EU, the electric currents in general will be higher in the US. Nevertheless, I am not so sure if this necessarily translates also ...
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Tl;dr: is my attempt at protective impedance on neutral going to render my system inoperable or unsafe? I'm looking for some feedback on a modification I am planning to incorporate into a design based ...
IamNearl's user avatar
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I have been perplexed recently with regards to people on a forum, stating that it is unsafe to put 240vac directly into a basic potential divider. The divider was literally 210k ohms, with 3 resistors....
Cheesus Toast's user avatar
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I'm examining the Live detection feature in my Uni-T UT89X multimeter, where: Touching the red probe to a Live wire produces continuous fast beeping Touching Neutral produces slower intermittent ...
Osultan619's user avatar
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I would like to measure how clean my 120V AC circuit are using an HP 1744A oscilloscope and isolation transformer. Here are the proposed configuration for the measurement before and after the ...
atod's user avatar
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I found a nice PowerLine Adaptor from TP-Link: In case I plug a simple SMPS next to it, bandwidth is greatly reduced to about 1-2MBps. Otherwise, when I plug the same SMPS into it, bandwidth is ...
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I have a SMA Sunny Island 8.0H-13 230V 50Hz Inverter. When supplying linear loads (100W incandescent or 750W heater) I measure no voltage at 3.2kHz. But when supplying fancy electronics (8W LED,...) ...
Hansebenger's user avatar
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On the mains supply socket, I'm only getting the tester light on the Live Wire, but when I connect my extension box to that socket, I'm getting tester light in both Live (Bright) and Neutral (dull) ...
Cinverse's user avatar
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I have recently started a project for lighting my garden. For I have decided to use 100 VDC and will be bucked for each led strip (there will be several led strips rather than a single led strip for ...
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I was looking through the datasheet below for a power transformer, but its pin layout was not clear to me. It seems there are 8 pins on each side (each physically grouped in pairs) yet the labels are ...
makotoyuki's user avatar
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The metal chassis (the outside of the plug, I don't know what the correct name is) of this 4-pole Mini-DIN DC output plug from a 12 V Mean Well switching power supply (GSM120A) is connected to the ...
Tintenfisch's user avatar
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I'm making a piece of machinery for a customer in Mexico, and they insist that their mains voltage is 460V between phases, 230V between each phase and ground, 3P-N-PE. Only if this was a split phase ...
Ömer Gezer's user avatar
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1 answer
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As part of a bigger project, I'm designing a circuit that would be used to source a constant current (100uA-1mA) regardless of the output voltage. The circuit will be powered from a *5V DC source ...
Proxy Tuna's user avatar
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I want to put an electronic timer switch in parallel with my electronic humidity sensing switch for my bathroom exhaust fan. I want to be able to turn on the fan for one-of-four preset times when the ...
mr coffee's user avatar
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I have been renovating my kitchen and when the contractors were installing the backsplash, they removed the fascia from the under mount range hood. When reinstalling the fascia there was a moderate ...
Matt's user avatar
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I wanted route a Cat6 unshielded cable to my PoE switch from my IP camera. I saw many sites telling me that you should not run an Ethernet cable alongside a main line to avoid EMF interference. I ...
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In every AC plug, there is a "hot" wire and a "neutral" wire. What makes the former the dangerous wire and the neutral one the "0V"/safe one? There are some things ...
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I was playing around the other day with the AD2 (analog discovery) and I discovered that when I touch the positive terminal of the scope with my fingers, I see a sine wave with a period that matches ...
AccidentalTaylorExpansion's user avatar
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I'm currently designing some audio amplifier with mains-powered linear transformer supply. While working on my design, the idea hit my head and I suddenly created Ground Loop Breaker circuit. Here's ...
xeroname's user avatar
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I came across the following module that one can purchase online here Product description/title claims to filter EMI. No schematic diagram available and by looking at the picture there are Capacitors ...
Electronic Novice's user avatar
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I'm designing an AC charger for a EV side that uses the Type 2 standard. I dont have the full 62916 spec document but I'm using this as my reference point So far my design looks like the following I'...
dazzleworth's user avatar
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1 answer
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I want to possilby make a DIY True RMS meter that displays RMS value on an OLED screen. It would plug into a wall and hang from the outlet. Pretty much the AC goes to a Step-Down Power Module that's ...
xena94's user avatar
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I measured a distortion at the secondary of a 230V AC supply (a transformer in a housing, nothing more). So I connected its primary to a frequency generator and voila, a nice sine as expected. And ...
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I bought a cheap Chinese inverter with no serial number, I thought it be a fun little home project to check if the AC voltage it provides is a true sine wave. I tried using an arduino with a ...
Rikus Coetzee's user avatar
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1 answer
159 views

I am looking to build a ~170V DC power supply by using a full bridge rectifier on wall outlet 120V AC. After some googling I've come to learn I really need the output to be isolated as I'll be ...
frank's user avatar
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I want to ask a question about electricity meters. The amount of current in the cables coming from the network to the house and distributed to the sockets is determined by the resistance and is fixed. ...
Ahmet's user avatar
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I'm trying to design a PCB that is pluggable into another PCB, each one being inside separate plastic enclosures. I'm having a hard time finding a component that I can solder on a PCB and that can ...
Ohmnivore's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
512 views

I have a project where the requirement is that if a light switch is turned on, one load will be turned on, but if the switch is toggled first before being switched on, a second load will be powered as ...
notloc's user avatar
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In practical use - think of touring musicians - equipment designed for a mains voltage of 115 V may end up being used with autotransformers (non-isolated!) on 230 V outlets. In these cases, it may not ...
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I live in an apartment complex. From time to time I would hear a buzzing on my UPS. At first I thought it was defective but then, when I disconnected it and plugged my PC directly to the outlet, the ...
Alexandre Borela's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
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I have the following situation, where there's a sensitive scale connected to mains voltage (but they have their own AC-DC power supply). Someone connected a device that requires very high power in the ...
Tino D's user avatar
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I'm confused how make line input accept 220 volt from this transformer. Where the right wiring combination. I found this transformer from local trash. In my country standard main line voltage is 220 ...
Puyup's user avatar
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2 votes
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I have designed a mains powered flyback. As a newbie I am well informed about the danger of mains voltage if measured incorectly. Still I want to measure a few points in my circuit to better ...
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Fellow tinkerers, reading the manual of my brand new 5V power supply (MeanWell RS-150-5), I've come across the requirement, that I need to secure the PSU with a residual-current circuit breaker (RCCB) ...
isync's user avatar
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Edit 3: in summary I want a make microprocessor-controlled dynamically-variable voltage source. With a range of 100v to 350v dc which can supply approx 10-20ma. The voltage would change quite ...
Guy Taylor's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
213 views

I'm designing a flyback power supply for medium LED (10 W) which powered from mains voltage (90-240 Vac). I followed the rules regarding clearance and creepage DIN EN 60664-1 (VDE 0110-1) for my ...
FrancisS's user avatar
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