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Re: [OM] Purchase of new camera case successful

Subject: Re: [OM] Purchase of new camera case successful
From: "Jon Mitchell" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:25:31 -0000
Hi,

Apologies for answering my own questions.  Not such an "American" trait in
broadcasting any more though - it's spreading fast.  Not that that's an
excuse ....

Not sure about moving supplier though.  They all get the power from the same
place.  I think of it as a wholesale arm of the National Grid selling the
power to any of the retailers (they are bound, I believe, to give them all
the same deal).  The retailers then sell it on to you.  That's progress for
you !

Now on to a more interesting question for other members of the list (which I
won't answer myself .... 'cos I can't !).  There's a lot of talk about
different power "legs" and "phases" to the same house from our US friends
here.  I have little idea how the power supply works in the USA (other than
it is 110v 60Hz AC), but is the implication that you have more than 1 phase
in your homes ?  Over here you can get either a single-phase supply or a
3-phase supply.  Very few (if any ?) homes have a 3-phase supply, as these
are intended for industry.

Are your houses wired with some sockets on one phase and some sockets on
another ?  Doesn't this pose problems ?  What if you connected 2 devices to
2 separate sockets that were on 2 separate phases - and then connected the
devices together (VCR to TV via a SCART, for example).  At best, nasty
interference.  At worst CABOOM, no ?

And what about balancing the phases ?  When I've played with 3-phase
supplies (lighting rigs, for example) a lot of care is taken to ensure that
the phases are fairly evenly balanced (approx same load on each phase).  How
do you do that within the home, when most home-owners don't understand this
stuff ?

I'm not questioning whether it is right or wrong, better or worse, but am
interested in how it is done elsewhere.

Oh, and most scary thing seen whilst working with 3-phase ?  A colleague ran
a long run of pre-terminated 3-phase power cable (120Amp, or thereabouts)
over the roof of a stadium.  He realised afterwards that he had run it the
wrong way around (male & female connectors at wrong ends for the required
usage).  Whilst I agree it would have been a lot of work to de-rig and
re-rig the cable, I am sure that it would have been easier (and safer) to
chop the ends off and remake them the right way round rather than make 2x
3-phase Gender-Bender cables !  That was one VERY scary cable.

Second most scary 3-phase incident ?  The 3-Phase A0 photocopier we had at
work until a couple of years ago.  I still can't comprehend why you'd need
3-phase power for a photocopier !

Anyway, this is all wildly off-topic (though fun).

Jon


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Barker [mailto:ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: 25 February 2010 21:48
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] Purchase of new camera case successful

Thanks for that Jon.  But there is something you can do about it: move
supplier, complain to your current supplier, to Ofgen etc ...

And, don't you start sounding like an American broadcaster, asking your own
questions ....

... or Conservative MP :-)

Chris
On 25 Feb 2010, at 20:26, Jon Mitchell wrote:

> FWIW, we looked into this at work recently - problems at some of our sites
> with very low voltage.  UK spec was changed recently to harmonise across
> Europe.  I don't have the exact figures to hand, but it used to be
something
> like 220v in Europe and 240v in UK.  Now it is 230v in UK and the rest of
> Europe.  How did they get away without changing all of the National Grid,
> substations, etc. ?  They fudged the error-factor so now UK is something
> like 230v +15%/-6% and rest of Europe is something like 230v +6%/-15%.
> Phase is much more accurately defined, and has a far smaller margin before
> it becomes "out of spec" - but that was always the same across UK & Europe
> anyway.  In reality, nothing has changed in the power supplied either in
UK
> or rest of Europe, but now manufacturers have to cope with a wider voltage
> range if they want to sell products across Europe.
> 
> Anyway, back to the point, yes - in theory the power companies are
required
> to maintain a consistent voltage (within an alarmingly wide margin of
> error).  In practise, however, they regularly do not maintain this.
> Especially in more rural areas.  But who can do anything about it ?  As
> someone else said here - the general attitude of the power companies is
"you
> get what you're given".
> 
> Does it suck ?  Yes.  Does it bother me ?  A little.  I know a couple of
> SERIOUS hi-fi nuts who have taken matters into their own hands and
installed
> some serious power-conditioning units (basically, AC-DC-AC conversion) and
> run a separate ring-main just for their hi-fi components.  Can I hear a
> difference ?  Well, yes - but more to the point is that the cost of the
> hi-fi kit in question means it is worth a sizeable investment in power
> conditioning to stop it going boom when the power drops (or rises) out of
> spec.
> 
> Gosh.  2 topics in a week that I can reply to with some experience !  What
> is this list coming to ... ;-)

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