Lectrickery theory and color codes......

mrvette

Phantom of the Opera
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I unnersand electronicus crappicus pretty good, but there is a silly question over the decades I never really understood....

why the diff between AC wiring and DC wiring?? as in GM/most electronic industry is black ground, red/pink/purple varisoud + voltages....

buy why is anything associated with AC household/commercial wiring just the opposite....ie black hot, white neutral/ground, and so forth??

seems to create a bunch of questions with a whole group of newbies to the field....so the question is....WHY the difference???

anyone??

getting back to back when hell froze over and Edison stuck his finger in the 'lectric' socket....


serious question....:cool:
 
here black is switched, brown is phase, blue = null, green/yellow is earth
 
here black is switched, brown is phase, blue = null, green/yellow is earth

Say WHAT^>>>?


what you mean 'brown is phase'??? blue= null? meaning neutral as in same as ground at the panel??

when WE switch 220, for you all I understand it's 440 vac...you all just switch ONE side of the line??

we have contacters/switches on both sides....

:sos:
 
Color of the insulation don't make no difference..
Lectricity is really smoke.
Let the smoke out of a wire, motor, circuit board, etc. and it dont work.
Just member that what ever you do, keep the smoke in and you are golden.
 
I understand TT's reference cuz I'm in the industry.

He means Hot when he says Phase, Null is our neutral meaning zero when measured to ground.

Ground is very misunderstood but it's basically the lifeline you have in case your climbing rope shears, if you get the anology...
 
I understand TT's reference cuz I'm in the industry.

He means Hot when he says Phase, Null is our neutral meaning zero when measured to ground.

Ground is very misunderstood but it's basically the lifeline you have in case your climbing rope shears, if you get the anology...

I know the theory and practice well enough, 3 phase or 2 or 1 phase....neutral and grounds...safety...etc...

the question is WHY the difference in color codes???

:stirpot:
 
That would be an interesting treatise...

Have you ever read of the battles between Tesla and Edison over AC versus DC?

I suspect our answer lies back in those days and what industries adopted what conventions.

The Brown/Blue convention has prickled me since 1984 cuz I can't get it thru my head that blue (sky) is low whilst Brown(earth) is hot. The obviousness of the inverse color code has screwed me forever:lol: Now I just tell myself to think it backward and I'm fine.

I remember doing a fuel pump on the Jag one time and without thinking I hooked white to earth, nuetral, and the black to the hot just as if I was doing a control circuit. Luckily it only took one fuse to remind me that I was doing a mobile circuit rather than a fixture.

I can be remarkably dumb sometimes.....
 
Color of the insulation don't make no difference..
Lectricity is really smoke.
Let the smoke out of a wire, motor, circuit board, etc. and it dont work.
Just member that what ever you do, keep the smoke in and you are golden.
AH! Finally someone else who sees through the conspiracy... :thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
 
Some time back I had a class on the National Electric Codes. Instructor said there was a big feud between Edison and Westinghouse. As I remember his speech, NY state was getting ready to electrocute someone for a capital crime, and one was for AC and the other for DC. When the state decided to use DC for the deed and then after it was done, the other one jumped up and pointed out how dangerous DC current was. From that instructors tale, that's how we came to use AC.

No idea of it's a true story or not, but it did make an interesting class.

I'd guess that's not the real story, since you can use a smaller size wire to carry a higher voltage/current and just use (in a basic sense) one wire for AC and just plug the other lead into the dirt.
Most of the stuff I do uses either 28VDC or 115V/400cycle AC. The 28VDC is nothing, but the 115/400 hurts big time. Can't let it go.

And in the marine world, the Coast Guard mandates what color wire will be used for a specific circuit.
 
Some time back I had a class on the National Electric Codes. Instructor said there was a big feud between Edison and Westinghouse. As I remember his speech, NY state was getting ready to electrocute someone for a capital crime, and one was for AC and the other for DC. When the state decided to use DC for the deed and then after it was done, the other one jumped up and pointed out how dangerous DC current was. From that instructors tale, that's how we came to use AC.

No idea of it's a true story or not, but it did make an interesting class.

I'd guess that's not the real story, since you can use a smaller size wire to carry a higher voltage/current and just use (in a basic sense) one wire for AC and just plug the other lead into the dirt.
Most of the stuff I do uses either 28VDC or 115V/400cycle AC. The 28VDC is nothing, but the 115/400 hurts big time. Can't let it go.

And in the marine world, the Coast Guard mandates what color wire will be used for a specific circuit.

:eek::rofl:

Tim, it's amazing, but you got the same info I have gotten through the years....and same stories.....my mamory is fried....

I remember playing with a HUGE black panel box full of stage lighting transformers and a trick known as UNGAR bulbs....had that large old base for the filament and one pole of the rectifier tube....the plate had the cap on top of the bulbs they glowed orange of course, like any other rectum flyer tube....and they would change color with the amount of current passed through them....blue/green.....like most other higher powered vacuum tubes....

I was like 6th grade, something, maybe 8th at latest....

so it put out 28 volts DC current, the crapassitors were not good in this unit....age or tech, not sure why....but the output was ragged....that much I know from a old Heathkit scope I had one of them Frankenstein things that shows the sine wave on it in the movies....and the non geek audience looked at it like it was outtta here space or something.....

so anyway, the true gig involving that supply was the output was pretty close to 28 VDC.....and the input was 110 VAC....fine for ME, plug it into the light socket....Dads house was wired in steel jacketed cable known as BX back when knights were bold....so I upped the screw in fuse in the panel to WAY over rating.....KEE=RIST why I was not killed I dunno...

so anyway there was this WW2/Korean electronic surplus store on the way home from school, I stopped in every day almost to say hello and buy whatever I could afford, not much I can assure you, but enough to fuck around with....

and in that store was this DYNOMOTOR...that is a motor and generator interwoven on the same shaft....the larger current/lower voltage brushes on one end, and the much higher voltage/lower current on the other end....

keep in mind this shit looked like the input to a starter motor, and the output of say a blower motor....size of commutator and such.....

so I fired up this trick, it was about 4-5" diameter maybe 15" long, had a aluminum mounting plate on it and a round connector on bottom, silver contacts so the thing would wind up pretty good, with no load on it....I mean really torque up like a digger with no wheels/dyno.....

then I would take the 600 volt+ rated output wire and short it out, the magnetics and inertia would do their physics trick, and the wires I had would get hot and fry....

so up the gauge, and insulation....and LENGTH....

keep in mind this shit had a common ground from input to output....just this huge voltage potential differential, and under NO load the thing would wind up like MAD.....

SO I scared the shit out of a bunch of similar minded geek buddies with a demo on what it could do....

as in handle the output cable like a whip, and flash the open end over the common ground.....and the resulting ARC was rather impressive....the poor dynomotor would go into a total stall and destruct mode for a instant....let it wind up and flash it again.....

sparks of burnt/melted copper all over the joint....

mom was scared as to WTF I was doing, Dad was concerned, but not knowing much over 'lectrickery' he let it go.....

I remember a electrician came to the house, and when I told him I was blowing SIXTY AMP screw in fuses outta that old box, he about shit.....warned my father it was going to BE a house fire if I didn't cut that shit OUT, as in NOW....

All true, and all stupid, I swear.....:eek::rofl::rofl::twitch:
 
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Well Gene, You sure piqued my interest with that question. Years ago I taught a basic electronics and photocopier repair class (adult education). I would frequently get asked questions I had no answer for but I would do my best to find the answers. Here's the answer to your question in this wikipedia article. The automotive part is several paragraphs down. I did not know that different auto manufacturers had their own color codes.... you would think that would have been standardized by now too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_color_code

Lee
 
I understand TT's reference cuz I'm in the industry.

He means Hot when he says Phase, Null is our neutral meaning zero when measured to ground.

Ground is very misunderstood but it's basically the lifeline you have in case your climbing rope shears, if you get the anology...

I know the theory and practice well enough, 3 phase or 2 or 1 phase....neutral and grounds...safety...etc...

the question is WHY the difference in color codes???

:stirpot:

NEC has only two color codes.
Grounding conductors are green or green with a tracer.
Grounded conductors are white or natural grey.
Ungrounded conductors can be any color except green or grey.
 
I understand TT's reference cuz I'm in the industry.

He means Hot when he says Phase, Null is our neutral meaning zero when measured to ground.

Ground is very misunderstood but it's basically the lifeline you have in case your climbing rope shears, if you get the anology...

I know the theory and practice well enough, 3 phase or 2 or 1 phase....neutral and grounds...safety...etc...

the question is WHY the difference in color codes???

:stirpot:

NEC has only two color codes.
Grounding conductors are green or green with a tracer.
Grounded conductors are white or natural grey.
Ungrounded conductors can be any color except green or grey.

I forget the marine color code though....used on ocean vessels

for some odd reason, it's different than land/major buildings....

difference between delta and wye on generation???

:surrender:
 
many of these things are completely arbitrary. Why do phasors rotate in the counterclockwise direction? Because some old fart way back when decided so.
 
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