@zetasyanthis exactly what sort of project are you using this for?
@Felthry Essentially a box that lets me test mains appliances more safely. I've got a beefy input filter and ceramic fuseholder, an NTC, an AC (analog :D) ammeter, and a GFCI. https://www.mpja.com/IEC-Power-Inlet-Module-RFI-Filter-Switch-Fuse-Holder/productinfo/33931+FH
@Felthry I don't remember if you're in the US or not, but we don't have RCD/GFCI protection on most outlets. That was the main purpose, to protect against me providing a path to earth accidentally. :P
@Felthry The rest is just because less bangs is good. (Oh, and I forgot the power on indicator light.)
@zetasyanthis "less bangs is good" -> you're clearly not an emo then :P
@Felthry More like, I want to limit the amount of magic smoke a device I'm testing might emit in the first few seconds, hence the NTC and input chokes. (Plus that'll prevent me feeding back goodness knows what onto my power lines.)
@zetasyanthis Are you familiar with what's called a LISN? (yes, pronounced "listen")
@Felthry Yes. (I'm a electrical and computer engineer. :))
@zetasyanthis okay! Just asking because plenty of engineers don't know what that is either. Thought it might be handy to add to your box in place of the input chokes you mentioned, so you have a defined point for noise measurement if you want that.
@Felthry Nah, that I don't care about in this instance. This is mostly "Okay, I've repaired the power supply in appliance X. Let's plug it in and hope it doesn't go BOOM."
@zetasyanthis Hmm. I wonder if they make adjustable circuit breakers. That would be a neat feature for a box like that. Have a circuit breaker you can configure to trip at a little above the current your thing expects.
Actually, if you don't know what you're going to be plugging into this thing, are you sure that ICL won't be a problem? They don't drop to their minimum resistance if you don't give them the rated current.
@Felthry That's in fact the idea. I almost made it bigger and put a couple high wattage power resistors in series too, but the cost + heatsink + cool was quite high. :)
@Felthry Mainly it's there in case I end up with a mains short. Should prevent a huge spark/arc and then the HRC fastblow fuse behind it will nuke the circuit.
@zetasyanthis So, kind of like a crowbar circuit only not!
@Felthry Yeah. The goal is that if I do something stupid it should save my life (GFCI), prevent damage to itself, and minimize damage to the appliance.
@zetasyanthis Just remember a GFCI won't save you if you're gripping both live and neutral!
@zetasyanthis Something else to consider for this: transformers can be remarkably good at preventing too much current flowing, especially air-gapped ones like those used in microwave ovens.
@Felthry NTC is 6A, fuse I'm putting in is 5A max. (Input chokes rated to 6A too.)
@zetasyanthis yeah, we're in the US, and the lack of GFCIs on most outlets is kind of worrying
but also we recently saw someone from Brazil have a "wait THAT's what those are? why don't we have those here???" moment so uh, could be worse
@Felthry Yeah... I've been watching a lot of bigclivedotcom, and the fact that the UK has them at the distribution board level is kind of mindblowing to me. Seems way safer.
@zetasyanthis iwrc that's the standard in all of europe, not just the uk
@Felthry Yeah, I think so. Tbh, we could easily just do it at a circuit level by putting the first outlet in every branch on a GFCI. That'd at least take care of a lot of things. (Lighting circuits would be another issue.)
@zetasyanthis You can get circuit breakers for US use that have integrated GFCIs too!
@Felthry Yeah, but they have to fit the panel, and a lot of older panels, like the place I'm renting right now, won't take them. (Plus, the landlord probably wouldn't want me messing with that. :P)
@zetasyanthis you're probably just as, if not more, knowledgeable about that sort of stuff than a lot of the others who've worked on it!
@Felthry Possibly, but I definitely don't know electrical code requirements. I actually shy away from mains work, hence the overprotective safety box I'm building. XD
@Felthry I suppose I should also say that I got a 20A outlet on it, because sometimes you need to test appliances that only have that plug, and it's super annoying if your place doesn't have 20A circuits. (Obviously nowhere near max load, just quiescent power-on.)
@zetasyanthis A beefy ICL?