How to make USB ports more zap resistant?

  • Thread starter Thread starter larry moe 'n curly
  • Start date Start date
Dave said:
Just for grins, how do you handle your plumbing to keep it from freezing?
Click to expand...

When you have a half-hour walk home from the pub on a night like
that, it doesn't matter that you remembered to take a leak before
you left the pub. You *will* need to urgently take a leak while
walking through a residential neighbourhood three blocks from the
nearest bathroom in a cafe/restaurant/pub.

So you detour into a back alley, unzip, pull it out, and you
handle your plumbing *to* keep it from freezing. :-)

Actually, it's not so bad - emptying your bladder involves
pumping large volumes of hot liquid through the "plumbing". It
is the hands that suffer - if you weren't holding onto the ...
ummm ... hot water pipe your hand would freeze.
 
Dave said:
Just for grins, how do you handle your plumbing to keep it from freezing?
Click to expand...

Hi...

A few of the luckier of us have indoor plumbing nowdays...
Whatever will they think of next? :) :)

Seriously, it's no problem... I froze my water line
where it enters the house once many many years ago;
but 'twas my own fault, and easily cured. Finished
the basement, put R40 insulation on the outer walls.
Left the water line (where it exits the meter) tight
against the concrete wall so it was insulated from any
house heat.

One of my neighbors is in the Caribbean as we speak;
I go over daily and empty his mail box; go inside and
turn on one of the cold water taps, flush the toilet
a couple of times, make sure the furnace is still
holding the temperature up, and done. No problem.

Come on up and visit :)

Ken
 
| N
| >
| > Wow, -6 degrees. I feel sorry for you folks; must be
| > terrible! Shall we send emergency aid? :)
| >
| No no need to panic. The cold spell has ended and it is raining and 6
| degrees out. Luckily the rain is now melting that snow we had. We have
| bylaws outlawing snow here. Snow is for the rest of the country. We don't
| allow it here.
|
| > Come and visit Winnipeg. -29 now (mid afternoon; with -34 forecast
| > for tonight. And that doesn't include the windchill... with
| > it it will drop to the mid -40's :
| >
| Only fools and my brother and sister live in Winterpeg. There is a reason
it
| is called winterpeg.

My Grandparents emigrated from Scotland to Brandon, MB, around 1900. It was
so cold there that after a few years they re-emigrated to New Zealand.

N
 
Hi...

A few of the luckier of us have indoor plumbing nowdays...
Whatever will they think of next? :) :)

Seriously, it's no problem... I froze my water line
where it enters the house once many many years ago;
but 'twas my own fault, and easily cured. Finished
the basement, put R40 insulation on the outer walls.
Left the water line (where it exits the meter) tight
against the concrete wall so it was insulated from any
house heat.
Click to expand...

Our water and sewer lines go through the basement floor about 2' from
the exterior wall. They're going to be tough to freeze. Though we do
get a ton of frost. It's not unusual for the frost line to go down
seven feet and break older water mains. Last year we had a bumper crop
of 'em. So far we haven't gotten much below 0F (-7C), though tonight
may get down below -20F (-30C).

My deck pitches up 6-12" every spring. I should be just about getting
to the other end of the 4' sonotubes soon. :-(
One of my neighbors is in the Caribbean as we speak;
I go over daily and empty his mail box; go inside and
turn on one of the cold water taps, flush the toilet
a couple of times, make sure the furnace is still
holding the temperature up, and done. No problem.

Come on up and visit :)
Click to expand...

Wrong direction for me, anyway! Winter is too long here. I'm looking
to move the other way!
 
NSM said:
| N
| >
| > Wow, -6 degrees. I feel sorry for you folks; must be
| > terrible! Shall we send emergency aid? :)
| >
| No no need to panic. The cold spell has ended and it is raining and 6
| degrees out. Luckily the rain is now melting that snow we had. We have
| bylaws outlawing snow here. Snow is for the rest of the country. We
don't
| allow it here.
|
| > Come and visit Winnipeg. -29 now (mid afternoon; with -34 forecast
| > for tonight. And that doesn't include the windchill... with
| > it it will drop to the mid -40's :
| >
| Only fools and my brother and sister live in Winterpeg. There is a
reason
it
| is called winterpeg.

My Grandparents emigrated from Scotland to Brandon, MB, around 1900. It
was
so cold there that after a few years they re-emigrated to New Zealand.

N
Click to expand...

They made the right choice.
 
Hi...

A few of the luckier of us have indoor plumbing nowdays...
Whatever will they think of next? :) :)

Seriously, it's no problem... I froze my water line
where it enters the house once many many years ago;
but 'twas my own fault, and easily cured. Finished
the basement, put R40 insulation on the outer walls.
Left the water line (where it exits the meter) tight
against the concrete wall so it was insulated from any
house heat.

One of my neighbors is in the Caribbean as we speak;
I go over daily and empty his mail box; go inside and
turn on one of the cold water taps, flush the toilet
a couple of times, make sure the furnace is still
holding the temperature up, and done. No problem.

Come on up and visit :)
Click to expand...

I lived in a mini-home for awhile, and we needed both heat tape and
thick insulation for the water pipe behind the skirting where it left
the ground and entered the house. It froze several times on us, and
once frozen, was quite troublesome to thaw. Had it been a metal pipe
it would've been easier, I suppose.

Tom

Tom
 
I lived in a mini-home for awhile, and we needed both heat tape and
thick insulation for the water pipe behind the skirting where it left
the ground and entered the house. It froze several times on us, and
once frozen, was quite troublesome to thaw. Had it been a metal pipe
it would've been easier, I suppose.
Click to expand...

Forgot...I live in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (Atlantic Canada), and it
isn't nearly as cold here as it is in Winnipeg.

Tom
 
Tom said:
I lived in a mini-home for awhile, and we needed both heat tape and
thick insulation for the water pipe behind the skirting where it left
the ground and entered the house. It froze several times on us, and
once frozen, was quite troublesome to thaw. Had it been a metal pipe
it would've been easier, I suppose.
Click to expand...


Hi Tom...

Metal may well have been easier to thaw; just wave a
torch back and forth on it for a while. BIG downside
to metal, though. If it ever freezes solid, it's
going to burst the pipe, and then you have huge
problems to deal with.

Plastic on the other hand has enough give to it that it
doesn't burst.

Ken
 
I lived in a mini-home for awhile, and we needed both heat tape and
thick insulation for the water pipe behind the skirting where it left
the ground and entered the house. It froze several times on us, and
once frozen, was quite troublesome to thaw. Had it been a metal pipe
it would've been easier, I suppose.
Click to expand...

When I was in college *moons* ago (yes, they had colleges back then) we
owned a "mobile home" (a.k.a. tornado target) in cold country. Pretty
much every year we had the heat-tape burn out underneath the trailer and
had to have someone come out and fix it. It generally took an hour or so
for the tech to get it all back together (and a pot of money no college
student has). The tech carried a spot-welder in the truck and hooked it
to each end of the pipe. Instant thaw! Yeah, metal was easier. ;-)
 
Several months ago, a port on an NEC-based USB card failed (a section
of its LM3526 power controller & overcurrent protection chip blew), and
just recently the same happened to an ALI-based USB card.
Click to expand...

Do both cards use the same NS chip?

Is it possible that you have an open ground at your mains outlet? This
would result in a case potential of half the mains voltage.


- Franc Zabkar
 
Franc said:
Do both cards use the same NS chip?

Is it possible that you have an open ground at your mains
outlet? This would result in a case potential of half the
mains voltage.
Click to expand...

The ground seems to be OK (120VAC from ground to hot, 0VAC from ground
to neutral), and the ALi card doesn't use a separate
controller/protector chip but has the USB chip tied directly to the
ports.
 
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