RoadRanger wrote:
Miko Man wrote:
RR, do you have a "throwing gasoline on the fire" emoticon whipped up yet? ; ) Mark C.I'll get right on that
very nice... not enough fire-ball bleve for my tastes, but otherwise... very nice.
Any chance of including some of this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEQwYryyIWA
theshow wrote:
Craig,
Before this gets out of hand: Theshow, you called Andy a jerk. Don't do that. Name-calling will get you bounced out of this forum in a heartbeat. It's also not in your best interest to insult someone who goes out of their way to write advice to you just because you don't like the tone in which it was delivered. You're getting advice from an electrical engineer with decades of experience in exactly what you're asking about....for free. Feel free to argue about whether or not you can actually get a bargain; Andy is talking from seeing and living the scams and ripoffs, while you're postulating about what might be.
Craig,
I would ask you to go back and look at the posts and understand that I was NOT the one who started throwing insults at anyone first. I was very cordial and appreciative of the suggestions and comments towards my questions and concerns many, many times. I repeated multiple times that I appreciated Agedhorse's comments. Go back and look if you don't believe me. However, I have been on many forums and I understand that when people have been on them a while, they can forget to be cordial back to someone just because they are new like I am.
I repeated multiple times that I came here trying to find a solution to an issue/concern/problem I was having. As such, I wanted feedback. And I got it. And I appreciated it. And I stated so MANY times. But when someone starts insulting me without good reasoning for doing so, I don't believe that's ok. I made the comment about someone being a jerk because I felt they were being that way towards me. And BEFORE it got to that level, I asked them to be cordial with me and they refused and continued to throw insults at me.
If you don't believe me, go back and read the comments. I understand there are a lot now but I wasn't the one who started slinging mean comments towards someone first. They were.
I completely understand it would do me NOT ONE bit of good to go onto a forum and start pissing people off. That would not help me at all and just ruin my chances of getting anything accomplished AND not not start a very good reputation for me. But I didn't deserve to be bullied either.
I received comments and suggestions and I said I appreciated them. And I have asked multiple follow up questions ONLY to get clarafication. I didn't ask questions to be a sarcastic or rude jerk. It was because I wanted to understand every part about the situation. As people have said about the situation with electricity, it IS a very, very dangerous thing to be messing with. As such, I didn't want to go off of "assumptions" of what I thought would be ok or not ok. So, I asked a lot of questions to get more accurate information.
My comments about whether something could be done a certain way or whith certain things were because I have been continually trying to do research all along this process on other sites, Google, and other forums to get the right info. As such, when the discussion went into cable and voltage drops, I simply wanted to try to get the right info. As it turns out, I received conflicting stories or what is acceptable and what isn't. Not just by code but also from a safety standpoint. AND THEN, from a "practical" standpoint as well regarding weight, size, and of course price. So, I tried to do more research to figure out what would be best for the given situation.
As such, I simply tried to report what I found. I did so to engage others in the discussion and let me know if what I found was correct or not and why. I didn't do it to say anyone was wrong but just to simply get more information. I'm sure as we all know there are 1000 ways to go about a situation but any one of those 1000 ways may work.
Towards the end, I felt like I was told that there wasn't 1000 different ways that this situation could be gone in and there was only 1. Well, we know that's not true. But just because I am seeking different ways doesn't justify me deserving to be called names. And so I said so. And I did so first without calling someone a name back because I was trying to be respectful. But eventually, throwing mean remarks at me gets old and I don't felt I deserved it.
I was simply trying to be treated fairly regardless of the obvious difference in experience and knowledge on the subject and how many posts on this forum or others. Although I don't have much knowledge on the subject, to suggest that I ,as an individual, am greedy or dense is just rude in my opinion. Perhaps I am wrong.
I don't know why I am much different than anyone else trying to get the best solution to my situation at the best possible price out there. That doesn't make me greedy, it just makes me like virtually every other person who is considering purchasing something. Everybody is looking for a deal in this world. It's common. But just because I am looking for a deal doesn't mean I am going to compromise what needs to be done to take care of the situation. And as an example, a local Walgreens might sell Advil for $8.99 and Walmart sells it for $4.99. They are the exact same thing but is it wrong to get it for $4.00 less "if" it is possible?
Anyway, as I have said multiple times, I appreciate all of the input and welcome any more.
Geez, that's a lot of words.
The bottom line is that the guys wouldn't be getting an attitude towards you if they weren't getting the distinct impression that you were asking for advice and then second-guessing their suggestions. And I will be the first to admit, no, state, that in disputes the veterans get preferential treatment over newbies. The people here are friendly and forgiving, and many were also given a hard time when they first showed up. Every forum has its culture.
Let's move on.
I still think you will be well served with a 50a distro with several adapter cables to match whatever receps the venues in your area provide, and 25, 50 and 100ft extension cables. You can always add to this inventory if you really encounter extremely long runs on a regular basis. Don't forget rolling cases for the power rig. You *really* don't want to have pounds of copper on display and ready for the scrapper....
Audiopile wrote:
Goodness... I think I must be a lucky SOB.
For years I've been running a generally do-nothing XLR cable along-side the FOH mix position ac power run... so I have a spare XLR cable running from FOH mix position to the stage just in-case some major disaster happens and I need an unencumbered XLR cable now. Which I've actually used a few time... and when I did have the occasion to use it, I was thankful that it was there.
But now I find out that even though that cable wasn't connected to anything while it was laying there unused... it was possibly (or likely) energized all the time... and when I plugged it in to use it, I actually plugged in a possibly leathally energized line to whatever it got subsiquently connected it to... including (on more than one occasion) the microphone I was holding in my hand.
Why aint I dead? I guess maybe ignorance truly is bliss.
BTW: A few years ago a licensed electrician was looking over my power distro stuff and asked me why I'm running all that 6ga. feeder cable, when 8ga. is rated for 50A. I said: "I dunno". Maybe he was talking out of his ass after getting his license from a strip mall... and maybe I've been paying for and packing around 6ga. feeder cable for a couple of decades for no good reason. I dunno... but then I'm only a few miles from "up the Benewah".
Begs the question: What to do about my energized instrument cable that I routinely plug into my bass after I'm done setting up and sparking up all the PA and lighting system?
That XLR is fine, from a code standpoint as well as a common-sense one. It's not included in a cable assembly, which is where the existance of an orphan becomes an issue and needs to be dealt with as Andy described.
Regarding your licensed electrician friend; He was very wrong. SO cable is not rated for the same ampacity as let's say, NM (Romex), and even 8AWG NM is only rated for 50 amps because of rounding up to the next higher OCP rating and if connected devices have 105C temp rating. As an example, the following link has a chart based on UL recommendations. Stats will vary depending upon the specific cable's construction (Mostly it's the insulation that determines the operating temperatures and therefore ampacity) but this is a good guideline:
http://www.stayonline.com/reference-circuit-ampaci
Craigv wrote:I still think you will be well served with a 50a distro with several adapter cables to match whatever receps the venues in your area provide, and 25, 50 and 100ft extension cables. You can always add to this inventory if you really encounter extremely long runs on a regular basis. Don't forget rolling cases for the power rig. You *really* don't want to have pounds of copper on display and ready for the scrapper....
Hey Craig, this smiliey is for you 
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