Tip of the Day: Power Off Equipment When Making Connections

[admin]

When making connections to receivers and amplifiers (especially when working with speaker wires), make sure that the equipment is turned off first. It's not required, but it's a lot safer for you and the equipment in the event that you accidentally touch two speaker wires together. A couple of seconds to hit the power button can save hours of shopping for new equipment.


Discuss "Tip of the Day: Power Off Equipment When Making Connections" here. Read the article.

[GO-NAD!]

I can personally attest to the wisdom of this tip. I once sent my RX-V1800 into protection while swapping speaker wires. Certainly made my heart skip a beat. However, it did demonstrate that Yamaha's protection circuitry worked effectively - the receiver has worked perfectly ever since.

[avengineer]

You took all the fun out of it. Working on live gear and wires makes life much more interesting.

Besides, if you turn it off, you can't use the Throw Voltmeter.

(Throw Voltmeter...you get thrown 10' per Kv. Just measure the distance you get thrown when you touch a live wire...then use the formula D/10*1000=volts. There's also a moisture factor, but who's counting.)

[lsiberian]

I always operate on my gear while in the tub. Yes it's a copper lined tub.

[mtrycrafts]

... - the receiver has worked perfectly ever since.

You mean it didn't work before that and this incident jump-started it?

[avengineer]

I always operate on my gear while in the tub. Yes it's a copper lined tub.

Nothin' quite like good ol' grounded copper.

So, 220V mains, or just the wimpy 120?

[highfigh]

When making connections to receivers and amplifiers (especially when working with speaker wires), make sure that the equipment is turned off first. It's not required, but it's a lot safer for you and the equipment in the event that you accidentally touch two speaker wires together. A couple of seconds to hit the power button can save hours of shopping for new equipment.


Discuss "Tip of the Day: Power Off Equipment When Making Connections" here. Read the article.

You should have included something about HDMI cables. They're not tolerant of ANY voltage fluctuations because they're a crappy design. One of my customers sent an e-mail to ask if I could look at their system- it wasn't working. SHe had told me in Feb that they got an AppleTV and I told her to call when they want it set up. I guess they couldn't wait and when they wanted to use it in another area, they'd unplug it and go. When I got there, the system was definitely not working. The power indicator around the switch wasn't lit at all- no green OR red. When I removed the shelf support pins to lower the front of the shelf and slide the receiver out, I saw that the power cord, ethernet cable, Cable HDMI and HDMI to the TV had been unplugged, Once they were back in place, I saw that there was no IP address, not output to the TV from HDMI, yet it worked with the component video signal. I did a hard reset, reset the network card and saw no change.

My guess is that someone tried to pull the receiver when it was powered up and it slid out, yanking all of the cables.

I sent it in for warranty repair and told her that, under no circumstances, should any cables be inserted/removed when the system is on. The repair would have been over $600 if it had been out of warranty because the main board needed to be replaced.

[cpp]

I call it common sense