2 questions...

[jayDC]

1). Does anyone know which pots do what on a cambridge 6580 driver?

2). Does anyone know the correct way to wire a spider cable?.. (ie: 2 110vac household circuits, into 1 220vac plug) I have heard of such a thing, but could not find any diagrams for wiring it online. I have tried to do it, but successfully blew out my muiltimeter, and popped my breakers.

[yaddatrance]

Hi Jay, take a photo of your pots and I'll draw what they do over on top of them.

In terms of AC, I strongly recommend paying a electrician to rig it for you.
Since you can get electrocuted to death only once, you may as well aim for
teslas. But in all seriousness, watch yourself.

But for your information... (I really do recommend someone who knows
what they're doing at least watching over you as you do this for the first time)

For the spider box, the important thing to realize that you can't just
take any two random 110VAC outlets... you must find the one that's
out of phase!!! You're almost guaranteed that you can't use two outlets from
the same recepticle. The spider box is a "trick" which takes advantage of
the fact that when the utility companies send electricity to the house, it
only transmitts 220VAC, the breaker/fuse box then splits the 220VAC into two
110VAC lines which are out of phase.

So chances are, you'll be running a long extension cord for one of the
legs unless you're really lucky.

The way to tell is to put your DMM into Voltage AC mode (make sure it's
rated for 240VAC) take a long extension cord, plug it into the wall.
Then plug the black wire into the upper right hand vertical plug (this is also
often keyed as a small vertical plug vs the larger left hand plug) of the socket
and electrical tape it so it won't slip out and electrocute anyone. You'll be
wandering around the house now plugging that red wire into the upper right
hand plug on each outlet looking for one that gives you 220V... You shouldn't
have blown up your DMM unless you placed it into a mode that wasn't
measuring Volts AC.

After you find it, then just follow standard spiderbox plans... though I have
to add one thing... while I have a commercially built spider box which I got
in case I ever needed one, I've never had to use it... Just take it straight from
the breaker/fuse box and you'll be 100% safer.

[jayDC]

where can I find the plans?..

[yaddatrance]

http://www.laserfx.com/Backstage.Las.../Support2.html

Ah, Sorry, I thought you were following this one. Also note that those
small $5 yellow line testers with with three lights are NOT OPTIONAL.
You must test the outlets to make sure they conform to spec, otherwise
you'll have a tidy electrical fire on your hands

[jayDC]

Okay, I'll grab one from work. When reading the plans, what do they mean by phases? Do they mean two different circuits (ie: Bedroom / Bathroom as long as they are different breakers)? I'll post a pic of the amp a little later, when I get a chance.

[jayDC]

I guess I don't have the power at my apt to run this. Oh well I got to wait to get to work. I tried every circuit in the place, and they are all the same phase, so I'll I get on my DMM 120.

The 6580's look like this:


I yet to have a chance to take a picture yet. Will that do?..

[yaddatrance]

Sort of... If you look at the breaker box, you'll note that the mains (BIG wires)
have three leads, two are sleeved and one is bare copper (or aluminum)

The sleeved lines are both "hot" and the voltage difference between them is
nominally 220VAC...

The interesting thing is that if you measure from either "hot" wire and neutral,
you'll get 110VAC...

US code has consumer accessibly wiring running at a nominal 110-120VAC,
so electricians divide the house between the two "legs" of the phase split.
So parts of the house are on one phase and other parts are on another phase.
We also refer to the split as "different circuits"

What this means to you is that not all breakers will be on different phases.
Although, depending on your model of breaker box, often the arrange it
so that contiguous breakers will be on different circuits. But you will need
to check with a multimeter to be sure.

If you build that spider box EXACTLY as shown, then you can measure the
voltage difference between the 220VAC live wires safely as long as nothing
is plugged into the spider box at the time of testing (or plugging in).

[jayDC]

Well I livr in an apartment, and It seems that there is no 220 outlet in the intire place. All the appliances are 110. My breaker box is inset into a plastered wall, so I have no way of ripping it open, and taking a look. Although I want to. Since I wanted only one outlet on the spiderbox, I never wired the neutrals together, I wonder if that has something to do with it. The funny thing is no matter what I hook it to, it always comes up at 120 on my DMM.

[jayDC]

Well that worked, for about 3 seconds before the breaker popped. I got a reading from the DMM at 208, but then it cut off. Damn these 10 amp breakers. I figured out the phase situation(living room is on the black wire, kitchen is on the red and the meter confirmed 208), but before wiring the neutrals, I still only got 120. There was no load on the spider other then the volt meter when the breaker popped, I'm thinking the tied neutrals was not a good idea, even though the DMM got a 208 reading for 3 seconds. I think I'm done with tring to start this thing in the apt. I talked to one of the techs at work, and gave me 5 locations around the club to tap into, but told me that I would only get 208. I'm thinking of heading over there in about 15 minutes, but I need a hand to load the car, which I do not have at this momnet.It seems that DC's power only comes out at 208, so I hope that will work, and I won't need some sort of step up transformer. I hope this thing is more about the amps, not the volts.

[yaddatrance]

The combined neutrals are generally unnecessary as it makes the
device prone to ground loops, however, combining the two shouldn't have
caused the breakers to go off... I'd guess you were loading more than 10A
of stuff over that 220V line, which would be trivial to do since people don't
bother going to 220 unless they need more than 10A of juice (otherwise 110V
and 20A would usually suffice)

Also, one suggestion. Purchase a buck boost transformer... a 2KW unit
costs $50-100... A "buck" will increase the voltage if the supply is lower
than 220V and decrease voltage if supply is higher than 220V.... I guarantee
this will save your systems a lot of times at places with interesting power.

Also on those amps, I'll need a closeup pic if you can get me one... I don't
have one of those units handy, but I can generally tell you what they are if
I see the trimmers and what chips they're near.