Need help with terminal strip

Just be absolutely sure that you NEVER connect any of the delicate parts to the main.

120 volts AC will incinerate your diode in a nanosecond flat.

Not sure why anyone would "daisy chain" multiple strips with different voltages, I would keep the 120 (mains) strip as far away from the low voltage strips as possible.

Insulate and cover any open connections that lead to your house outlet power (mains)

Click to expand...

WTF? do you know what your on about?? First of all the diode will draw as much voltage as it needs.. the current is what the problem is. Hooking it up as The_Muffin_Man said is exactly right. Assuming he is using labby's they are designed to work of 120V AC... Now unless I'm reading this wrong.. you have no clue what your talking about and now confused him.... Not trying to be mean or anything, but that is completely wrong. This is the correct way to hook up the components and if you think otherwise I'm sure The_Muffin_Man can show you an example of it working set up like that.

Don't worry matt... listen to Muffin and you will be fine.

PS: yes I know you have had worked with lasers for a long time.... so I would expect you to see the fault and understand this is not an attack!

Take care -Adrian

No problem Adrian, I probably should have read muffin mans reply first.

However I do DARE you to hook up ANY module up to a main, please and tell us what you observe. (I was unaware that his labby ran on AC, Shit man my Aixiz units run on 120 AC ,I hate it, I like portable, they won't work with an AC inverter either, I tried it))

I am still confused about "daisy chaining" the terminal strips????

In all my years of working with ANY electronics, we always isolated the primary side of the power supply from the secondaries...... That's just common sense.

Damn.. I just read my previous post, WOW that sounded really mean, I apologize.. it wasn't supposed to sound like that! I'm happy you responded as you did.

BTW as you said yes this would be common practice, but assuming these are lab style lasers they are designed to run off 120v AC, so this is not needed. Since I do not have the components/equipment to recreate this situation, I can not prove it to you. I'm sure Muffin can help us out on this one.

Take care -Adrian

Apology accepted , Like I said no problems.

After spending a bit of time here, I came to the (possibly incorrect) conclusion that there are a lot of "student age" members here.

Yes there are some older seasoned folks, at least a couple machinists and Jerry knows his electronics, But the main posters asking questions SEEM to be student aged people.

I do have mixed feelings when I see the way some people get treated, But it's not my forum.

Over the years I have also been a major forum junkie, I moderated a few times, ran a couple Yahoo groups, and have a VB forum running right now, So I have learned a little diplomacy. (not to mention raising 4 kids forces one to learn diplomacy, especially when 3 of them are girls)

When working with lasers, I will be honest with all of you here, I have always had gas lasers, So power supply isolation and safety were always paramount, However times have changed dramatically.

When designing any sort of amusement display, I still have my big heavy 24 volt supply transformer that I feed into a PC board with 3 regulators on it. 5/12/24. a bunch of filter caps and banana jacks/binding posts for hookups.

I used the 5 to power my TTL circuits, and the 12 to run motors, the 24 ran the power supply for the HeNe tube. (I got a fairly good deal on a supply once because no one wanted a 24 volt unit.) Some of the steppers and solenoids are salvaged from photocopiers, they run on 24 volts as well.

So my methods are a bit different than some, but not wrong either.

If the builder is a rookie with electronics, then the OP does need to exercise great care working with mains voltages.

So anyhow.. I didn't really perceive your post as mean

P.S. I desperately need to clean my workshop so I can start using pictures, But right now the shop is very untidy and neglected.

If the wires carry AC, the only difference between live/hot (black) and neutral wires (white) is that the neutral wire is potentially grounded. I say potentially, because there is no guarantee that it is (bad wiring?). As far as power delivery is concerned, it doesn't matter if they're swapped--just be consistent about which you use. The fact that some plugs have a wider prong (neutral) on them (in the US at least) is only to attempt to ensure that the neutral wire has the same potential as the exposed metal parts (wide prong is neutral). It can come in handy for lightbulb sockets or other equipment. European plugs are symmetrical, so there isn't even a "hot" and "neutral" designation.

This is how daisy chaining works, though with data lines instead of power lines. Just pretend the "Data +" and "Data -" are the hot and neutral terminals respectively. I would not mix and match pairs of wires of different potentials (e.g. 12V vs. 120V); however, you can just run two daisy chains, one for each potential. Make sure the wires you use are sufficient for the load the entire daisy chain carries.

Be careful! Make sure you don't come in contact with the AC power.