splitting the mains
splitting the mains
(OP)
What are your preferred techniques for splitting the mains (AC lines - hot, neutral, and ground) once they come into a chassis?
I have a system that brings power in through an IEC-620 filtered inlet and has to feed two power supplies in a 19" rack-mount enclosure. I wire from the inlet to the first supply, and have two wires crimped into that contact to daisy-chain the mains over to the next power supply. I could crimp two wires at the inlet contact and have a star configuration instead of a daisy chain, but I'm still not thrilled with multiple wires in a crimp contact. Am I overly concerned or is that as unreliable as I'm imagining?
I can bring the mains to some multi-tab terminal strips, but that leave the mains a bit exposed within the chassis; I'm not thrilled with that either.
What's your experience/recomendations?
Z
I have a system that brings power in through an IEC-620 filtered inlet and has to feed two power supplies in a 19" rack-mount enclosure. I wire from the inlet to the first supply, and have two wires crimped into that contact to daisy-chain the mains over to the next power supply. I could crimp two wires at the inlet contact and have a star configuration instead of a daisy chain, but I'm still not thrilled with multiple wires in a crimp contact. Am I overly concerned or is that as unreliable as I'm imagining?
I can bring the mains to some multi-tab terminal strips, but that leave the mains a bit exposed within the chassis; I'm not thrilled with that either.
What's your experience/recomendations?
Z





RE: splitting the mains
http://ww
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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...
RE: splitting the mains
Those black terminals strips with the big flat-head slot screws are pretty 1930s. The newer (geesh, 1970s) white ones are pretty much totally enclosed. Sorry I can't recall or never knew the proper names for these items.
RE: splitting the mains
Piggy backing the mains terminals with fastons is not ideal either.
How about hard-wiring the end at the mains inlet, ie soldering two wires to each terminal. They would of course need to be wrapped joints to satisfy the regulations.
RE: splitting the mains
log - I'm not sure if you are referring to soldering into the crimp terminal. I have a coworker who swears against it because he said all the stress ends up where the solder stops so the connections tend to break at that point. Does anybody make faston terminals designed for soldering?
Z
RE: splitting the mains
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I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem...
RE: splitting the mains
no I meant directly soldering to the faston spade that comes out of the IEC inlet. Sometimes they have a hole in them to poke wires through which makes it easier. The only problem is possibly over-heating the faston when soldering.
I wouldn't put two wires into a faston crimp recepticle and then solder it. Ugh!
RE: splitting the mains
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Something like these connectors perhaps? They're popular in the white goods market where quick assembly and low cost are as important as reliability. Reliability is fairly good as long as they are not mated and unmated too many times.
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Well they may be OK for the assembly guys, they are good for me because I am in maintenance and they provide me lots of job security in trouble shooting problem resolution work.
Better yet use those nylon plug bodies. We spend hours chasing down bad connections inside those.
Dan Bentler
RE: splitting the mains
You can use the [quote] and [/quote] tags to put material in quotes like;
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[quote ssn596]Well they may be OK for the assembly guys, they are good for me because I am in maintenance and they provide me lots of job security in trouble shooting problem resolution work.[/quote] (This used [ignore] and [\ignore] tags to make the other tags visible.)
RE: splitting the mains
Log - ah, soldering to the lug makes more sense. Thanks.