yardsale1
Orange County, California
Senior Member
Joined: 09/22/2007
View Profile
 Offline
|
Just got done reading the thread on why polarity matters.
So here is my question. I have a TV in the garage of my fifth wheel. It is in a white cabinet. Since I wanted the instalation of the TV to look "clean," I cut off the television cord and replaced it with a two prong household extension cord. FWIW, the connection between the extension cord and the stub of the factory TV cord was soldered and shrink wrapped for safety.
The stock factory cord had two wires, one was black cased, the other had a white tracer.
The new plug has polarized prongs. I probably should have looked at the old plug to see if the black wire or the white tracer wire went to the polorized prong, but the plug is in the trash now.
Does it matter if the TV wires are hooked up opposite of how it should be? Obviously, I have a 50/50 chance of doing this right, by fluke, but I am curious how I can tell if I did it backwards or if it even matters.
2007 Keystone Raptor 299MP
|
yardsale1
Orange County, California
Senior Member
Joined: 09/22/2007
View Profile
Offline
|
I just called the local geek at the electronic parts outlet. He said it does not matter since it is AC, alternating current. True?
|
stacaz822
Phoenix, Arizona
Senior Member
Joined: 10/21/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
If it's backwards, you could get shocked by touching something that's grounded on the TV. It needs to be wired hot to hot, and neutral to neutral. The case of the TV will be tied to what it's expecting to be the neutral/ground, not the hot wire.
Stacaz
|
yardsale1
Orange County, California
Senior Member
Joined: 09/22/2007
View Profile
Offline
|
stacaz822 wrote:If it's backwards, you could get shocked by touching something that's grounded on the TV. It needs to be wired hot to hot, and neutral to neutral. The case of the TV will be tied to what it's expecting to be the neutral/ground, not the hot wire.
So how can I tell/fix it? Are you sayhing I can take apart the TV and be able to tell? Which side of the polarized plug is hot?
I need a real basic answer here. I'm no electrician.
|
yardsale1
Orange County, California
Senior Member
Joined: 09/22/2007
View Profile
Offline
|
I did a little internet research. It appears the black wire is hot, and should be connected to the smaller prong on the cord??
|
|
|
stacaz822
Phoenix, Arizona
Senior Member
Joined: 10/21/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
Correct. the black wire is HOT, and should go into the smaller slot on the outlet.
|
yardsale1
Orange County, California
Senior Member
Joined: 09/22/2007
View Profile
Offline
|
stacaz822 wrote:Correct. the black wire is HOT, and should go into the smaller slot on the outlet.
Thanks.
|
wa8yxm
Wherever I happen to park
Senior Member
Joined: 07/04/2006
View Profile
Offline
|
White = Wide (makes it easy dosen't it)
IN the old days Televisions were often "AC/DC" and if plugged in backwards could put you on your kesiter quick
However they have not used that design in a long long time.
(AC/DC means 120 vac DC by the way, not 12 volt)
Modern AC/DC sets are 120 volt AC, and 12 volt DC
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business
John is Near Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
|
YC 1
Yuba City Calif.
Senior Member
Joined: 01/11/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
The correct answers are listed but here is why it use to be important when I worked as a tv repair technician. The metal chassis' of some televisions were wired to the neutral side of the AC cord. The AC cords have a large and small size so you can't turn them over. Since we had to remove the backs of televisions to service them we would use our own "cheater cords" because the ones that came with the televisions were clipped into place so they could not get turned over and replaced backwards. With a cheater cord we could easily and often did get the "polarity" reversed which led to some horrific shocks and cuts when trying to get away from a hot chassis. I haven't taken a tv apart in a long time but I bet the Underwriters lab have changed that so all chassis are isolated with a transformer.
|
nbounder
Arizona mountains
Senior Member
Joined: 11/26/2006
View Profile
Offline
|
If you look real closely at the cords, you'l very likely see a rib or some molded writing along one wire. That's the "hot" in virtually all cases. Just be sure the 'ribbed' TV wire connects to the 'ribbed' line cord wire. Or, written to written, etc. Make sence?
Joe
|
|
|
