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Activities of Sept 29

Attending - Ron Williams, Don Erickson, Frank King, Milt Thomas, Ed Thelen
Special Guest :-)) - Jim Yee, museum volunteer and electrician

Various higher authorities discussed connecting power for a *CONSIDERABLE* (? 1.5 hours?) time.
Schematic
  • the catalog number of the Russell-Stoll 30 amp plug
  • if and how earth/ground was carried through the four pin and metal connector Rusell-Stoll 30 amp plug?
  • can you carry three phase 220 volts phase to neutral through the plug rated at 250 volts?
  • ...

There is an old proverb that "when the cat's away, the mice will play", and so it happened. While the above was going on, we entertained themselves:
examining the 1403 printer chain backing strip with various micrometers, dial gauges, precision? flats, and other toys.
comparing various 1403 printer chain cartridges
And a (pre-approved) raid upon Visible Storage for its 1402 reader/punch (much less rusty, but a different sub-model). This is now side by side with the German earlier sub-model 1402

Jim Yee was given the "go ahead" and neatly connected the Elgar Frequency Converter to the building power as per the above power diagram, seemingly in 5 minutes.

The Elgar Frequency Converter was activated (I couldn't get the fire extinguisher off the wall by the time it was obvious that we didn't need it).
Soon Jim Yee and others made measurements of the output under no load. As the unit is strapped, the output ranges from 0 to 145 volts phase to neutral. We will restrap it to double range - 0 to likely 290 volts phase to neutral.

NOTE TO OURSELVES - A casual twist of a voltage control knob on the Elgar unit, by anyone, can seriously over-range the inputs to the 1402 - like crash and burn! We should make this laboratory style power source more visitor or goof proof!!!

After Jim Yee left, the side by side 1402s were carefully compared. No one from the 1402 group was present for consultation. Dag Spicer has requested that we return the 1402 (maybe with swapped parts) to Visible Storage "in a few weeks". He does not consider the loan of the 1402 to be months long!!

End of Report, Pictures and text by Ed Thelen