Greg Skipper on sat 13 dec 97
After going back and forth to the Skutt factory (1 hour each way) twice,
and everything kept working there but didn't work at home, I finally
figured out what my problem was. I had a bad ground to the 240 volt
hookup. It's weird. When I took the ground wire off it worked fine but
consistently read "Fail" on the computer controller when the ground was
hooked up. I drove a new ground rod into the ground out back of my
studio and ran a new ground wire and everything works fine! I'm bisque
firing a bunch of stuff now.
Thanks everybody that wrote
Greg
Bill Aycock on sun 14 dec 97
Greg- this is IMPORTANT- you may have a bad wiring setup in your shop. The
ground rod should never be relied on as the primary return lead in a 220
circuit-- it is for safety, only. The primary ground lead should be wire,
all the way to the box, which is where the ground rod should connect.
There are three "active"wires in a normal house or small shop-studio setup.
One is called the "ground" or "neutral", but is really an integral part of
all 120 volt circuits, and is a shared line in the 220 volt circuits.
There is an additional, safety ground wire that is in common 120 volt
houshold wire, that is frequently bare, but color coded green in motors,
etc.
There are two "hot" leads, and the hookup is like this:
"ground" to one " hot" lead is 120 volts
"ground" to the other "hot" lead is also 120 volts
one "hot" lead to the other is 220 volts.
Inside the controller, it is probable that the electronics uses a circuit
from one "hot" lead to the "ground". while the power being controlled uses
the higher voltage, with the two "hot" leads. The controller is failing
because it has no "return" circuit.
Bill- On Persimmon hill- where he worries about things like this.
At 02:52 PM 12/13/97 EST, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>After going back and forth to the Skutt factory (1 hour each way) twice,
>and everything kept working there but didn't work at home, I finally
>figured out what my problem was. I had a bad ground to the 240 volt
>hookup. It's weird. When I took the ground wire off it worked fine but
>consistently read "Fail" on the computer controller when the ground was
>hooked up. I drove a new ground rod into the ground out back of my
>studio and ran a new ground wire and everything works fine! I'm bisque
>firing a bunch of stuff now.
>Thanks everybody that wrote
>Greg
>
>
Bill Aycock --- Persimmon Hill --- Woodville, Alabama, US 35776
--- (in the N.E. corner of the State) ---
W4BSG -- Grid EM64vr --
baycock@hiwaay.net
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