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Subject:
From:
Dean Kiley <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 3 Mar 2003 12:15:20 -0600
Content-Type:
text/plain
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text/plain (58 lines)
Ian,

Just a guess from my limited time in the military as an electrician... earth=ground, source=from pwr supply, load=out to device.

Hope that helps a bit.

Dean Kiley
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ian 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 2:14 AM
  Subject: [PCBUILD] Question about a power switch


  Everyone who's fiddled with the inside of their computer will be familar
  with the four-wire leads that are used to provide power to the hard drives
  and CD drives. These leads consist of a yellow wire, a red wire and two
  black wires, and terminate in a large white plug.

  The yellow wire carries the 12 volt power feed, while the red is the 5 volt.

  Because of the rather complicated setup I've got, with three hard drives
  running through a drive selector, I've added switches to the 12 volt leads
  on two of the drives, so that I can turn them off when they're not needed.

  These switches are simple 240v lamp switches - of the push-on, push-off
  type.  They have only two terminals, so when the 12v wire is cut, each cut
  end is screwed into a terminal socket.

  Here's my query:  These switches don't tell me if they are on or off, so
  I've bought some 12 volt switches with an inbuilt indicator lamp, the idea
  being that, if the switch is on, the lamp will be lit and vice versa.
  However, these switches have THREE terminals, and I can't work out how to
  set up the wiring. (duh)

  The terminals are labelled 'Earth', 'Load' and 'Supply'.  I guess that Load
  and Supply would be the two cut ends of the 12v wire, which currently
  connect to my simple lamp switch.

  But does the Earth terminal need connecting to the chassis?  Or one of the
  black neutral wires.  Or what?

  Information would be much appreciated.

  Ian Porter
  Computer Guys Inc.
  Arrowtown
  New Zealand
  [log in to unmask]

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