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by **Easy** on Wed May 08, 2013 7:58 pm

Do any of you guys know how the F you ground an Econolite type F controller? :blink:

What do you have to remove? before you ground the cabinet?

by **mcha9797** on Wed May 08, 2013 8:11 pm

I'm not sure that this will answer your question, the user manual is available in the archive with instructions for connecting power to the cabinet. There is reference to hot, common, and ground connections in the manual. I believe the terminal in the very lower left corner of the back panel is the ground.

by **Easy** on Wed May 08, 2013 9:06 pm

mcha9797 wrote:I'm not sure that this will answer your question, the user manual is available in the archive with instructions for connecting power to the cabinet. There is reference to hot, common, and ground connections in the manual. I believe the terminal in the very lower left corner of the back panel is the ground.

Where is the link to the archives? :scratch:

by **notMUTCDcompliant** on Wed May 08, 2013 9:18 pm

links in the upper right corner, doc archive

by **mcha9797** on Wed May 08, 2013 9:40 pm

C'mon Easy, surely you have checked out the archives before. :scratch:

Here's a link to the GE/Econolite Type F manual...

http://signal-archive.d-domains.net/

by **BigTbird1974** on Wed May 08, 2013 10:25 pm

And back to the original question. In short, you wanna remove the (any!) electrical connection (bond) directly between the AC neutral bar and the cabinet itself, the process otherwise known as "isolating the neutral".

To do this on my Kentron controller backpanel, I simply added a small piece of plywood behind the neutral bar (attached w/original machine screws) with the bar itself re-fastened to the wood above with short wood screws.

by **Easy** on Wed May 08, 2013 10:32 pm

BigTbird1974 wrote:And back to the original question. In short, you wanna remove the (any!) electrical connection (bond) directly between the AC neutral bar and the cabinet itself, the process otherwise known as "isolating the neutral".

To do this on my Kentron controller backpanel, I simply added a small piece of plywood behind the neutral bar (attached w/original machine screws) with the bar itself re-fastened to the wood above with short wood screws.

That's the question that I was asking! :Wink2:

How many points are the commons connected to the cabinet? I'll post pictures of the neutral bar tomorrow. I can see 2 places where the common is connected to the cabinet, but I want to make sure that these are the only ones before I power up the controller.

by **Magnetboy** on Wed May 08, 2013 10:59 pm

BigTbird1974 wrote:In short,....

BigTbird1974 wrote:you wanna remove the (any!) electrical connection (bond) directly between the AC neutral bar and the cabinet itself, the process otherwise known as "isolating the neutral".

This is beginning to sound just like the conversation we all had about my load center in my garage a while back. :crazy:

by **BigTbird1974** on Wed May 08, 2013 11:35 pm

Easy wrote: How many points are the commons connected to the cabinet? I'll post pictures of the neutral bar tomorrow. I can see 2 places where the common is connected to the cabinet, but I want to make sure that these are the only ones before I power up the controller.

Guessing the 2 places you're looking at are the two bolts that hold the busbar itself to the cabinet/backpanel? :scratch:

Those are by far the easiest to fix! :good:

Just make sure (by whatever means) that the screws that hold the busbar (connecting to it in process, by default) don't actually also connect to the cabinet. Note that simply adding plastic (etc) washers between the busbar and the panel to physically 'seperate' them will NOT do the trick -- :nono:

they must be "electrically" seperated.

I can't say with any knowledge what's going on beyond that with your typeF, since I don't have one and haven't yet had the chance to play with somebody else's. :Phil:

Any particular multimeter/tester with a "continuity" setting is your friend here, as you look for other places where ground-bonds might exist. My meager experience so far suggests there WILL likely be others...one also has to remember that all these toys we love to play with were originally designed as "service equipment", like the electric meter hanging offa the back of the house. (and UNlike any-other-odd thing we otherwise would normally buy and plug into the wiring beyond said meter...)

by **64ragtop** on Thu May 09, 2013 12:11 am

Hey Easy! Here's the little bugger that bleeds current to the cabinet.

I'm not sure if it's some kind of capacitor or a noise filter, but it does have some voltage spikes big enough to feel.

I could find no other points from the back panel though that carried any voltage to the cabinet. I don't have the extra equipment in my cabinet that you have, but even if there is another place that transfers voltage, you still need to ground it.

This is how I grounded mine. Since my type F is mounted in the garage, the ground wire in the photo goes all the way back to the main ground spike at my main panel. This completely solved the problem. Since yours is mounted outside, you could just drive a ground spike in the ground right next to it (giving you an isolated ground). This would save you the hassle of getting a ground wire back to your main panel.

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