Hi All,

The strangest thing happened the other day. I had just made a minor
repair (bad solder joint on the tuner) on an RCA Proscan PS27112/
CTC169CB5 set. With the back cover still off, I unplugged the set (these
ones use IEC line cords minus the ground connection), pulling the cord
from the socket on the back of the set. I moved some loose wires to
their correct locations, then began reassembling the case. With the
cover back on, I was reaching for one of the screws next to the AC line
connector, nutdriver in hand. I was shocked, literally, as I drew a 1/2
inch arc from the A/C connector to the nutdriver, and through me!

I brought the nutdriver back over to the the line socket and got another
(smaller) zap! This happened despite the fact that I was holding the
nutdriver by its insulated grip. It felt like a static shock, only
stronger than the usual type you get touching an appliance or doorknob
after walking across the carpet.

The set was sitting on a wooden table with nothing else on it (except a
couple of tools), and I was sitting on a wooden chair. The set was not
connected to anything, via coax or any other cables. I happened to have
my shoes off, and one of my sock-clad feet was on top of the insulated
line cord I had just unplugged.

Given these conditions, it seems the only explanation is that there was
an excess of static charge on the hot side of the power supply. Yet, it
had to accumulate AFTER I unplugged the set, otherwise it would have
found its way to ground, through the line cord.

My only guess to the cause of this phenomenon is that a wire from the
primary side of the power supply was close to the anode wire, and this
drew some electrons toward it, acting as a tiny capacitor. Then, when I
pulled some of the wires back (I do remember having moved some wires
away from the anode wire), the capacitance decreased to nearly zero, and
the net result was a large number of electrons left behind on the
primary part of the supply.

There is a physics experiment where you can show that for an air
capacitor with two parallel plates Q = CV. If you charge this capacitor
and move the plates apart, the charge should stay constant, and the
voltage should rise as the capacitance decreases. I guess as you move
them far enough apart, you would end up with one plate with positive
charge, and one with negative change.

For this explanation to make sense, my foot must have not been close to
the line cord on the floor while I was moving the wire. I guess I moved
my foot close to the cord sometime just before reaching for the screw
with that nutdriver.

Has this happened to anyone else? Does this explanation make sense to
anyone? Is there an alternate explanation?

This set had no history of any arcing or horizontal problems whatsoever.
Plugging and unplugging the line cord now with the cover on does not
reproduce the problem, and I wouldn't expect it to. In fact, it works
perfectly right now. I think I'm more curious about this more for
intellectual reasons than any concern about the set.

Thanks,

--
Stephen Santarelli

stephen
'AT'
nii.net