The electrical wiring here is phenomenal!

[vendettav]

What in the world is going on here at my place?

I have this stepdown adapter/conditioner (cause all of my gear is from the US: 110v im in armenia right now: 220v). So I have my 1spot plugged in the stepdown adapter. The adapter itself has a switch that turns of the power (it's a regular physical switch, no relays or any other thing). When the power is off, my pedals (none has a battery inside) get to constantly blink their LEDs. Only few of them do this but they DO that!

Also I noticed same with my LED/Halogen (Im not sure) light bulb, once I turn it off, it's like blinking every few seconds... not full power, but you can see the light....



What in the world is going on, guys? 

Cheers, V

[deadastronaut]

poltergeist....or some form of this going on..?....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEzNcy7oYwc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hKidYAuWNE

[Eric.nail]

Your one spot is shorting somehow. Any loose tips touching a pedal enclosure?

[Mike Burgundy]

Get out the DMM and look - what's happening on the stepdown's output, and what's happening on the wall outlet. Is the stepdown switch breaking one or both connections to the wall (hot and 0)? There used to be outlets that carried 2x 110 instead of 1x220V and 0. I think that's finally done though. If the stepdown is only breaking one contact, does the behaviour change when you rotate the wall connection 180 degrees?

[Johan]

Is your step down transformer a real transformer or one of those with only one winding. If the second, that could explain any strange behaviour you might ever encounter when living with 115 volt gear in 230 land
J
EDIT. Auto transformer was the word I was looking for

[bluebunny]

I believe the 1 Spot will work off any voltage 100-240V (perhaps R.G. can verify?), so if it's the only thing on your transformer, then the transformer is superfluous.

[Mike Burgundy]

Correct (according to the website: http://visualsound.net/1-spot-power-supply/ ), any input voltage between 100 and 240AC will work.
Still curious as to why this is happening, and if it is a symptom of an unsafe situation.

[FiveseveN]

Does the adapter have a neon discharge lamp indicator?

[ghostsauce]

Could it be a polarity thing?

[Johan]

Could it be a polarity thing?

this is why I asked if it is a real transformer (separat windings for primary and secondary) or an autotransformer ( one winding with a tap). if it is an autotransformer and the switch is only one pole, he might be breaking the neutral and the the live on is still "active". if everything is then grounded, there is a very dangerous situation. you might have 230 volts eager to go somewhere but the normal path (through your gear) to neutral is blocked, leaving the route through you down to ground looking like a smooth path.
...here in Sweden ( and possibly in many other countries), auto transformers are banned for consumer use like you describe, for the above reason. you do see them INSIDE the chassis of gear/equipment sometimes, and at repairchops. but thats a different matter..
J

[vendettav]

Hey guys thanks for the replies. sorry it took me awhile to respond.


So here's the deal.  I have a lot of stuff hooked up to the transformer (like the amp, the adapter for my RP355 MFX, the Maximizer, etc) so I just hooked up the 1spot to the 110v so that everything is from the same outlet you know. I know it's 100-240v

now im not sure on the type of my transformer. I'll try hooking it up with the poles reversed and see what happens and also test it out with the DMM. I'm not quite sure how I should go about testing it. Should I just test the voltage when it's on and then when it's off? (I'm assuming I should be getting 0 when it's off).

I think I should also mention that we only have 2 poles on the mains plugs here in this country.

EDIT: I tested it... I'm now pissed! I tested with it being off and it gave me no electricity whatsoever, tried one lug on it the other one the actual ground that I have and bam 220v. turned the polarity thing and I got 0 with all the tests and the LEDs stopped blinking too it seems... damn... now that I think of the risk involved...

[Mike Burgundy]

What no *earth*? Yikes. That means if anything, anything goes wrong, the earth is YOU. Be careful.
Reversing the plug shows you that only the circuit is broken, but 220V is *still* present and available. That combined with no earth can cause weird behaviour such as slightly blinking leds. You probably do have an autotransofrmer, and no galvanic separation between primary and secondary.
Use your DMM to test for continuity between primary and secondary of the stepdown transformer (DISCONNECTED ofcourse, if you measure from outside the box do turn the switch to ON). If it has continuity (or any kind of resistance at all below many, many megaOhms) between primary and secondary, you're definitely working with an autotransformer. That combined with no earth scares the heebiejeebies out of me.

[vendettav]

Wait you mean even though I reversed the plug and now the LEDs aint blinking there's still a threat?
I do have an earth which is wired to my audio chain. Do you think that's enough?

[PRR]

He's got the German plugs. Modern ones have ground tabs, older ones did not. In either case, line/neutral is NOT defined, and appliances must accept that. Lamps (simple) just don't care. Shavers will be insulated equally on both wires, no problem.

Having a "ground" at the outlet is not a cure for all faults. I'm starting to think it is a mixed blessing. However *audio* systems inside buildings with AC wiring really do like to be connected to power-common at a NON-current point.

[Pyr0]

He may not have the current German type, there are quite a few variants of it in Europe. He might have a Europlug.
Lots of details of the different types here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets

[Jdansti]

Pictures of plugs and sockets would help. Also the make and model of your adapter would be useful.

[Mike Burgundy]

reversing the plug didn't change anything, it just proved you have an autotransformer in there.
One wall connection is Hot (220VAC), one is 0. A third can be added for earth (this is NOT the same as 0!!)
For power to be used, 220V runs between Hot and 0, through whatever device you want to use. Break the connection to *either* Hot or 0, and the circuit is broken, no current can flow, device is off. There is no standard as to which conductor carries what (hot or 0), and electrically you don't have to.
Now to your converter. This can be done with a full 2:1 transformer. Break One primary conductor, *nothing* comes out the other end. It just cant. Or it can be done with an autotransformer which has primary and secondary on the same winding. This means that when you break the circuit, you have a 50% chance of live voltage still being present at the output. So treat it not like a power supply, treat it like a socket that is always ON, just to be sure. Even when its off. Autotransformers that are still connected to one primary conductor sometimes produce voltage fluctuations, which accounts for the blinking LEDs. This is part of what that thing is - basically a BIG coil.  This usually goes away when reversing the plug - you've moved the still active wall connection to the "0" side of the converter, where there is no coil at all. Someone else can probably explain the hows and whys a lot better than me ;P

[vendettav]

the plugs are like hte soviet ones. both the plugs and the sockets. there's no 3rd connector or well with the modern plugs they actually have the third one (it's like european) but they remain unwired. so the electricity cable has only 2 wires in the whole house!


anyways here's the question, with the plug reversed and 0 at the output when off am I safe? no LEDs are blinking either.

[Mike Burgundy]

Just as safe as with the plug in the original position. Just NEVER forget that 230V is ALWAYS present inside that unit wether you've switched it off or not, and 115V might very well be ALWAYS present on its output sockets. Assume its a live socket at all times and you're good. I don't like music gear without safety ground (your fingers grasp "grounded" strings), but as far as the converter is concerned, that's it.

[vendettav]

well thanks anyways at least  I got to get rid of the blinking LED