let's talk surge protection... - TranceAddict Forums

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-- let's talk surge protection...

Posted by Inertia on Aug-07-2004 08:19:

let's talk surge protection...

i've been reading up on the matter. what kind of protection you guys running on?

me, i live in a country where blackouts are every day occurance, so having a generator for your house is quite common. only my generator fawked the fuck up, and we have a provisional one at the moment. it seems to pump out just a bit more than it should.

i don't have my own setup at the moment, but i get to play with my friend's decks for a couple weeks as he is on a trip. i have 2 tech 12 mk2's and an stanton rm3-s sitting on a table right next to me, plus an oldschol marantz model 1120 console stereo amp and a speaker to use as monitor.

earlier, i had power from "the street", and i spun, all was good. power goes out. generator comes in. as usual, my UPS (un-interrupted power supply) that i have for my PC beeps for about 5 minutes after the generator comes in, and then settles down. now i'm a bit scared to try and spin, as the surge protector i've hooked the decks up to is indicating surge. it also indicates "WIRING", in other words, it allows me to still run stuff off of it. if the surge were too bad, i'd only get the red "SURGE" LED on, not the green "WIRING" one, and it would not feed power to anything.

since the UPS is not beeping atm, i'd figure the surge is small enough to not bring danger to the decks, which are also behind their own protector. i'm a bit baffled, as the generator is outputting constant surge, in other words, the voltage seems to be constantly transient. my TV, playstation 2, dvd, vcr, and all that good stuff is connected directly to outlets work fine.

what do you guys think? should i worry about the decks and not spin when the generator is on? (meaning i'll maybe get to spin an hour a day )

for reference, i run a UL Listed CL-208JRS power strip/surge suppressor, 3 line protection, 15A 125V 60Hz maxload, seems to clamp at 330V.

http://www.allproducts.com/usa/promedia/cl208rjs.html

Posted by tu_face on Aug-07-2004 10:26:

the surge protection things are good, and even if you live in a place with a stable supply of electricity, its always a good idea as spikes always occur for one reason or another. and when dealing with kit as expensive as the stuff that we all have, its just not worth taking any chances.

your best bet if you are worried is to run it through a circuit breaker before your surge protector. if there are large damage-causing spikes in the power supply it will cut out before any damage is done. these are the things they reccomend using for mowing lawns etc, for when you run over the wire with the mower and stuff, so if they can deal with that surge they can deal with anything.

i just use a standard (cheapest) 6way surge protected adapter from argos

if i were you, i wouldn't limit my use because of it.. if you have ample protection, the worst that will happen is your decks will switch off if/when a surge occurs. in which case you will only have to wait a minute or two until the supply is stable again the only problem i can see is if you use cd decks, as these are driven by firmware which can be zapped by such a cut-off.

Posted by amdmaxx on Aug-07-2004 10:52:

if u want good clean contant juice to your amps and DJ equipment, get a line conditioner and other expensive stuff. Monster makes some..

Posted by dj chex on Aug-07-2004 14:44:

There's also furman 19" rack mount power conditioners that start around $50 and go up from there. It's almost a must have.

Posted by sleepydragon on Aug-07-2004 15:43:

yeah i just use a 6way surge protector
i bought it from woolworths

Posted by Inertia on Aug-07-2004 17:51:

hmm, seems i may have interpreted things wrong. according to what i am now reading, just because the protector has the SURGE LED on, doesn't mean a surge is occuring. rather that it could protect me from one in case it happened, and when this light burns out, it will mean it's just a power strip, and protection is no longer available. i noticed because i got to test it when i was sure there was a surge, and what it did was light up the SURGE LED, but not the WIRING one.

coolio, imma spin!

Posted by `pr0digy on Aug-08-2004 02:18:

if your really worried hook a multimeter up to the wall socket...

Posted by beats and beeps on Aug-08-2004 04:02:

Always practice safe sets, use protection.