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On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:08:15 -0600, Mike Raiford <"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>Yeah, The EE knows the theory behind what he is doing. He knows WHY you
>want, for instance, equal potential on all ground connections.
>
>The electrician simply knows that he'll get flagged if he wires the hot
>wire where the neutral was supposed to go. He may even be vaguely aware
>that it might pose an electrocution hazard. :)
A common misconception especially amongst graduates. Most of the electricians
that I've worked with could turn their hands to repairing a whole range of
equipment from instruments to power generators including the prime movers. On
the other hand I wouldn't let most EEs loose with a multimeter never mind a
screwdriver.
--
Regards
Stephen
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Stephen wrote:
> A common misconception especially amongst graduates. Most of the electricians
> that I've worked with could turn their hands to repairing a whole range of
> equipment from instruments to power generators including the prime movers. On
> the other hand I wouldn't let most EEs loose with a multimeter never mind a
> screwdriver.
You haven't seen the electricians they hire to wire homes around here.
Some are downright dangerous. :)
--
~Mike
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Invisible <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
> Still, I went on an IT course that was labelled "HND/BSc Computer
> Science". ;-)
At school we have a "Computer Science and Engineering" building a short trek
away from the "Electrical and Computer Engineering" building. The name of the
department is Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Not my
field, but I'm leaving soon and I still look for non-existent rooms in the
wrong building.
- Ricky
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On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:40:25 -0600, Mike Raiford <"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com>
wrote:
>Stephen wrote:
>
>> A common misconception especially amongst graduates. Most of the electricians
>> that I've worked with could turn their hands to repairing a whole range of
>> equipment from instruments to power generators including the prime movers. On
>> the other hand I wouldn't let most EEs loose with a multimeter never mind a
>> screwdriver.
>
>You haven't seen the electricians they hire to wire homes around here.
>Some are downright dangerous. :)
Well, there are electricians and electricians :)
--
Regards
Stephen
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Stephen wrote:
>
> Well, there are electricians and electricians :)
Got it :) The one I liked was the whole getting our apartment complex
"up to code" by installing GFCI outlets. They hired a subcontractor to
perform the work.
We now have about half a dozen (3 in the kitchen alone) that seem to
control every circuit in our home. You have to be very careful that you
don't plug something in that might trigger a GFCI breaker, or something
that would be adversely affected by the breaker tripping. The affected
outlet locations seem almost random...
In the process of doing that, they managed to break a seemingly
unrelated circuit: The lighting in the hallway (it was a 3-way switch,
So you could turn it on or off at either end...) After their handywork,
turning on the light caused it to come on dimly, then throw the breaker
on the main panel.
After our call to maintenance, who had a decent electrician still on
staff, the came out and checked out the light ... they wired the ground
hot on the light (or rather one of the switches, so that a certain
combinaion of switch positions resulted in a short, and other
combinations resulted in no light, but a hot fixture, or light and a hot
fixture). He was just thankful we never messed with the fixture. There
were other problems with their wiring, and he wasn't sure why they did
what they did...
--
~Mike
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Invisible wrote:
> ...showing a member of staff how to operate a piece of software when you
> don't actually know how to operate it or what it's supposed to do.
I just walked (on the phone) my brother thru setting up Time Machine to a
new blank zeroed-out USB drive on his Mac. Note that I'm not sure I've ever
even touched the keyboard of a Mac. :-)
> But hey, I'm sure people probably think that a car mechanic can fix any
> imaginable device as long as it's purely mechanical too...
My dad is a car mechanic. He pretty much can fix pretty much any mechanical
or electromechanical device. He fixed TVs, washing machines, vacuums,
automobiles, central heating units, built his own lawn mowers and fences and
laid his own patio, built extensions onto the house (including a door from
outside into the basement thru the basement wall), etc. Of course he
maintained all the equipment it takes to run a garage, too, like the tire
machines, alignment machines, air compressors, etc. And of course the vehicles.
Indeed, killing the termites and replacing the central heating unit was the
only things I can remember he ever hired someone to do it for him. (Well,
other than rebuilding the house when half of it burned down.)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Ouch ouch ouch!"
"What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
"No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."
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Mike Raiford wrote:
> The affected outlet locations seem almost random...
Heh. I tripped a GFCI breaker over the master bathroom sink. It wouldn't
come back on, so I replaced the breaker in the master bathroom closet. Two
days later I finally figured out that the breaker that had tripped was the
one in the garage, on the other side of the house, on the wrong floor. WTF??
I still haven't figured out what the one in the bathroom controls. Probably
the kitchen.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Ouch ouch ouch!"
"What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
"No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."
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On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:40:25 -0600, Mike Raiford <"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com>
wrote:
>Got it :) The one I liked was the whole getting our apartment complex
>"up to code" by installing GFCI outlets. They hired a subcontractor to
>perform the work.
>
>We now have about half a dozen (3 in the kitchen alone) that seem to
>control every circuit in our home. You have to be very careful that you
>don't plug something in that might trigger a GFCI breaker, or something
>that would be adversely affected by the breaker tripping. The affected
>outlet locations seem almost random...
>
I know what you mean about RCCBs (that's what we call them here). Especially
when they are in lighting circuits they seem to increase the rate of failure of
incandescent light bulbs. In the UK all changes to domestic circuits need to be
checked by an independent inspector.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 2/9/2009 7:15 AM, Invisible wrote:
> And it often comes as a shock to some people that a radiochemist might
> not know the neurotoxic properties of tetrododoxin, for example.
Heh, we just watched "The Serpent and the Rainbow." Great scare :)
(Odd that the book was non-fiction, yet the movie was as fictional as
you can get)
--
...Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com
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> A common misconception especially amongst graduates. Most of the
> electricians
> that I've worked with could turn their hands to repairing a whole range of
> equipment from instruments to power generators including the prime movers.
But that is exactly what causes disasters when they don't fully understand
something. Most of the time, sure, it will be fine, but one time they will
try to turn their hand to something that they are not trained in "because it
looks the same" and the result will be at best a broken device and at worst
fatalities.
The list is endless of Engineering disasters that were caused by people
working outside of their specialist field, for example when a construction
engineer decides to change the design of a structural engineer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse
> On
> the other hand I wouldn't let most EEs loose with a multimeter never mind
> a
> screwdriver.
True, the problem is when people don't realise they are out of their depth,
most of my EE friends wouldn't even attempt to rewire a house.
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