[ddots-l] Re: getting shocked by equipment in home studio, any suggestions?

  • From: "Omar Binno" <omarbinno@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:25:22 -0400

are you using one of those rubber floor mats and a rolling chair? i was having 
the same problem one time, and as soon as i removed the rubber matt everything 
was fine.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Cameron 
  To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 7:13 PM
  Subject: [ddots-l] getting shocked by equipment in home studio, any 
suggestions?


  Hi all.  I have a problem, hopefully someone can give me some suggestions or 
shed some light on why this is happening.

   

  The apartment complex I'm living in now was built in the early sixties I 
believe.  The outlets are not very good, worn out, you can't plug anything into 
the top of any of them because it just falls out.  You can only plug things 
into the bottom plug.

   

  Anyways, when I was using my FW1884, I didn't notice any issues with anything 
except for noise because I am on a dirty circuit/loop being shared by all sorts 
of appliances and god knows what else.  

   

  My current setup is now my ADK rack mount machine, Motu896 MKIII firewire 
interface, and BCF2000 control surface, which is all plugged into a power 
conditioner.

   

  I started doing some tracking with my new gear for a new job this week and 
whenever I used a mic that required phantom power, as soon as the mic was 
plugged into the interface, I would get shocked if I touched anything metal 
that was plugged into the conditioner, including the mic itself computer, 
control surface, interface, etc, .  It's not enough to cause damage, but it is 
unplesent and is enough of a jolt to make you quickly stop touching whatever 
control you're touching.

   

  This happens even when the phantom power is switched off for every channel on 
the interface.  I found out this afternoon that it also happens with dynamic 
mics too.

   

  As soon as all mics are unplugged, everything is fine.

   

  My power conditioner doesn't appear to have a ground lift switch.  Is this 
the issue?  Is there anything I can do to remedy this?  I've got 5 months of 
writing and recording ahead and I really don't want to be freaking shocked 
every time I touch my gear!

   

  I'm going to make this issue known to the apartment manager on Monday but I 
really doubt they will understand what I'm talking about, or give a damn for 
that matter.

   

  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

   

  Thanks,

   

  Cameron.

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