# Costly Goof....



## eroc731 (Aug 4, 2010)

Ok rookie mistake....After spending a couple of hours making and setting up new power leads for the RR, I also created a two prong plug lead for my track power lead with a corresponding receptacle on the ned of the track leads....this way it would be easy to plug in my MRC AG990 transformer to BOTH power supply and rails....well silly me.....BOTH my power supply plug and my rail power supply plug are white in color.....FIRST MISTAKE.....well in my zeal to test my new wiring I inadvertently plugged the rail power plug into the extension cord supplying the power TO the transformer....1st thing that happened was my outdoor speakers, hooked to my stereo inside the house went silent....I then unplugged the cord realizing my mistake...figured I tripped a breaker....WELL no breakers tripped, but managed to kill the digital receiver/stereo eventhough it was plugged into a surge protector....BUT it gets better....late yesterday I realized we had no hot water......NOW my hot water heater is on the fritz!.....It now has an electronic fault......ARGGHHHHHHH!

Long faces and pouts on the Red Dog Rai Lines this AM......


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## Robert (Jan 2, 2008)

Ouch, sorry. I guess the silver lining is no one got hurt and no fires were started. Best of luck.


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

Ugh! Now,_ that's_ a definite "oops!" I sure hope the electronics on your water heater aren't fried!


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

Der ya go! The above is exactly why I don't really mess with electronics on anything unless I am sure I understand what I am doing, and usually don't and to my fellow electronics helpers now you know why I always tell you probably NOT when you tell me oh that's simple it's just a soldering a couple of wires. I am doing way more now than a year ago, but make sure I understand from them exactly what I need to do with pictures and or telephone, and or live channel help!! And I still sweat it out when testing whatever out afterwards! So far I have only let the smoke out on a couple of things nothing real serious yet anyway! Hah LOL That way if something goes wrong, I can blame it on them!!! LOL Regal


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Do you have GFI circuits? Sometimes half the house goes dark until I reset a GFI in a bathroom. Yup I can lose power outside and have to go to that GFI in the potty! 

I hope the lesson learned was not to use parts commonly used with house current.... 

John


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I'm with John, sure sounds like a breaker of some type, (A ground fault interruptor is also a circuit breaker). 

It does not make sense that your track was a dead short (of course it could have been), but a GFCI would have tripped. It also does not make sense that this damaged anything else. 

I would check all the GFCI's in the house, usually located in bathrooms, and often one in the garage. 

The water heater might just need a reset. 

Let us know.... 

Greg


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 07 Sep 2010 08:25 AM 
Do you have GFI circuits? Sometimes half the house goes dark until I reset a GFI in a bathroom. Yup I can lose power outside and have to go to that GFI in the potty! 

I hope the lesson learned was not to use parts commonly used with house current.... 

John 

Yup, a definite No-No... NEVER use a 120V AC plug or socket for anything other than 120V AC items.

Even if "you" know that some plug or socket is for some other application, that does not mean that when you are dead and gone, someone else will know that little fact. Even if you put bright and gaudy labels on them, there are lots of people that do not read labels.

Cut them suckers off the cords! Use either binding posts and bare stripped wires (tin them for strength) or some sort of oddball miniature plug/socket that does not match anything else, ESPECIALLY such a configuration that the plug cannot be inserted into a standard AC outlet. It is usually not quite as bad (health/life wise) to accidently plug a 120V AC device into something other than a 120V AC socket, but although a life may not be in danger, the device might not like being attached to DC instead of AC and could be ruined by doing so.

If your water heater was damaged by this happenstance, then I think you may have some real serious wiring error in your house! I would suspect that some devices are not grounded properly.

If a GFCI on one circuit seems to affect some other circuit, then there also I think there is some serious wiring error in the house. Although it is permissible for one GFCI to be wired (daisy chained) to more outlets, that is okay as long as the number of outlets is limited to what the GFCI is rated for (should be printed/embossed on the socket body which you would have to pull out of the wall to read). But there should be no interaction with seperate circuits in the house.

When I moved into this house, it was apparent that some previous owner fancied himself an electrician, but was DEAD wrong! (Or well, maybe he had not killed himself, but it nearly killed ME!) Someone had wired the round grounding pin on a socket in the garage to the HOT lead of the garage circuit. If I had plugged in a device with a metal case into that socket the case would have been "hot" with the full 120V AC house power circuit on it. Also, the circuit for the dryer had been wired for 240V, but was misswired such that a standard 120V socket had the full 240V across it... plug a 120V item into it and it would get the full 240V. I have fixed everything I have found, but I am constantly worried about what I may not have seen yet!

I am very glad your "goof" was not as "costly" as it could have been!


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## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

I have seen electrical screw-ups as the main ground to the house is hooked to the metal ground pipes BUT just under the soil was all PVC!, So the main ground to the house was not grounded - VERY dangerous (happen to a friend of mine). Best to find an electrician buddy (I got a great guy that's in my club) and do a few tests on your house wiring, just to be safe.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Ow!

Yes, you definitely want to change that to some other kind of connector.

I'm guessing here, but I'd look for a GFI on your water heater.


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## eroc731 (Aug 4, 2010)

UPDATE
Thanks all for the input, been on the road all day for business..... here's the latest: hot water heater turned out to be totally coincidental...it was a bad flame sensor! the repair guy did tell my wife that for another $20 he would swear it was my fault!! LOL!!! yes he was joking....


LESSON LEARNED: DON'T USE house current stuff for these connections....I am not an electrician but have done my share of wiring around the house without incident....this was more a mistake of haste/excitement but the point about different connectors is well heeded! 


And yes I supervised the building of my house and the electrician still managed to do some weird things....like a GFI in my master bath connected to the outlets in my garage!....SO this leaves the issue of the dead stereo receiver which still has me baffled when everything else plugged into the same surge strip was fine....very weird indeed.... the upside on that score is that the receiver was given to me, so at least if it's toast I'm not feeling really bad about blowing a unit I paid for....plus I have a spare so all is well......


tomorrow I cut off those &^%%$## plug ends!

Thanks again all!
Evan


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## Russell Miller (Jan 3, 2008)

Buy a trailer plug at your local automotive store. They only fit together one way and are made for outdoor use. I trimmed the rubber back on part of mine so that my then 7 year old son could easily plug in the transformer and play trains. No problems now for 8 years. 
Russ


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## eroc731 (Aug 4, 2010)

NOT SO COSTLY AFTER ALL....
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE!
Ok took me a while but I finally got a chance to open up the "blown" stereo receiver and there it was a blown 6 amp fuse on the inside of the unit....new fuse inserted and we are back in business! SO the costly goof turned out NOT to be so costly but great lessons learned about using house current connectors for the railroad.....i.e. DON'T!!!


Thanks again all!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Good, it did not make sense that it damaged other stuff.... 

Glad to hear all is well... 

Greg


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## SteveF (Jan 2, 2008)

OK, I just gots to say it.

Battery power.









Ducking and running!









Glad the water heater didn't explode. That would have been my penance.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Fails the 3 question test... 

Is it kind? 
Is it true? 
Is it necessary? 

But so does mine! 

Greg


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 12 Oct 2010 12:34 PM 
Fails the 3 question test... 

Is it kind? 
Is it true? 
Is it necessary? 

But so does mine! 

Greg 

Whutdaya mean "fails"? 

Is it kind? Sure it is... would it not be kind to tell someone that is attemptiing to lift an object that the object is bolted to the floor?

Is it true? Sure it is... except Live Steam is even better!

Is it necessary? Well... okay, not everything is necessary... but it sure can be fun!


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## rreiffer (Jan 14, 2009)

All,

Side note on why the GFI is wired into the garage outlets is because ANYWHERE there is a chance of water the outlets need to be protected by a GFI. So this means not only bathroom but outlets where water can be splashed (wet car) or hose out let in the garage might effect it. Some localities even have GFI's in the kitchen. 

Glad things are working to your betterment!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Semp, referring to SteveF's post... 

dredging up a month old thread 
bashing track power from a battery guy.. 

you never see the track people invading a battery thread, but the battery guys always have to come out of the shadows whenever there is a conductivity problem or anything else... 

so I saw the post as unnecessary... no kind... but my response was also not kind or necessary, just as this one is, other than a vain attempt to explain to you and disagree with you... 

Greg


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## Tom Bray (Jan 20, 2009)

A general comment about the varioius power systems used and connectors ... it is wise to make sure that you make it a practice to have different connectors for incompatible voltages. I ran into a oops not long ago where I accidentally plugged a DCC booster output into a DCC programming connection ... didn't like that at all, cost me several weeks without my programmer while it was getting fixed. If you have lighting circuits that aren't compatible with 24V, make them so you can't connect them accidentally to track power. 

Tom


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

ok, so did I over look the damage to the transformer, or was it un-hurt? 

Randy


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