Rack Power

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chip Hitchens
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Chip Hitchens

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I've recently purchased my first rack case, and I've got some questions about powering it:

1) Power Conditioners - Is there much difference between the brands/prices? The $40 ART is looking a lot better to me than the $80 Furman. (at this point, anything would be better than the power strip I'm using that I probably got at the grocery store while I was in college)

2) Cords - Does anyone make short power cords? Is it safe for me to make my own power cords? Does it not matter? Most of my rack gear uses power cords like a PC uses, but they're all like 6 ft. long and I'd rather do without the clutter. They just cleaned out the IT department at my work and I grabbed a whole bunch of standard PC power cords that they were throwing out. I was thinking of buying some DIY plugs and using the free cables as the cord parts to make some short power cords, but most of my soldering experience is from screwing around with guitar electronics...nothing that ever touches 120 VAC. Am I going to introduce more noise by making my own than I'd save by just using factory made stuff?

Thanks.
 
<<(at this point, anything would be better than the power strip I'm using that I probably got at the grocery store while I was in college)>>

that $40 ART is likely no better, really. it's prolly closer to an 'overpriced powerstrip' than anything.

for under a couple hundred, you're not gonna get real fantastic surge suppression or true power conditioning, but the Furman PLUSD (around $120) is about as low as i'd go and would prolly serve you well. i'd be leary of that ART.

<<Am I going to introduce more noise by making my own >>

likely, yeah. or maybe blow up/fy something or possibly even start a fire if you've got a problem that you're unaware of. Power (and AC in particular) is the one place where cutting corners is a major no-no IMO.

i'd suggest getting a couple packs of those velcro cable ties and using them to bundle/tidy the cords up, instead. they'll set you back about $5 for 6, and are a far better idea than modifying power cables.


wade
 
There is nothing wrong with making your own cords. Just make sure that the connectors are grounded and they have the proper strain relief for the cable.

As far as actual power conditioning, unless you get in the units that actually divide the positive and negative wave signals among the hot and nuetral,(instead of 110 volts potential between the ungrounded conductor and the grounded current carrying conductor, this unit phases the positive +60v signal to the ungrounded conductor, and then a -60v wave signal to the grounded current carrying conductor. This is true power conditioning) then all you have is a glorified power strip. Use what you have anyway if it has a power surge protector. But if you want actual clean conditioned power, you will need to spend some big dough.
 
Thanks for the replies. I feel like I have some idea of what I need to do (i.e. spend) now!
 
The main thing to look for over a standard power bar is RFI filtering which both the ART and the low end Furman units have.

The only time you need more that this is when you are still having alot of noise problemes after you have checked out your grounding and installed RFI filtering on everything. The next step would be to move up to a ballanced/differential power conditoner. This unit reduces the potential with respect to ground to 1/2 the normal line voltage(120/2 = 60V) by droping the potential on the netral to -60 V(its normally ground, 0V) . By spliting the voltage between the two conductors you basicly reduce the rf emitted from the power lines by a factor of 4. Also if the power cables have the netural and the hot twisted the e and m waves will cancel and there will be very little rf emitted.

Its farily complicated but the thereoy is pretty much the same as unballenced audio and ballenced audio cables.

Basicly what it comes down to is get a power Conditioner with RFI filtering, the nice rack lights, and power meters are also nice too if your going to be mobile with the rack.
 
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