Anyone have a general theory of rechargeable batteries that might drive
away superstitions. There is a building that is badly wired where phones
sometimes never charge. But intertwined with that I have had certain
chargers and cables not work for a while, than after not using them for a
while, they work. A few times I blame a certian charger or cable, but turned
out to be wrong. Attribution seems impossible. I think there are issues with
memory (maybe the 'bad' building ocnfused the phone or battery, or it gets
confused by discharging too much), or even heat (some superstitions exist
that a heated battery won't charge. Some say you should always keep the
battery between 20% and 80% to extend its life. This doesn't happen
consistently, leading most users to adopt superstitions, and like i said it
comes and goes. The reason I freak out is two months ago it did something
wierd to my SD card's partitioning from which I have not been able to recover
(backup turned out to be ok, but once burnt twice shy).

--
Vasos Panagiotopoulos panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---

<vjp2.at@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com> wrote:

> Anyone have a general theory of rechargeable batteries that might
> drive away superstitions. There is a building that is badly wired
> where phones sometimes never charge. But intertwined with that I
> have had certain chargers and cables not work for a while, than after
> not using them for a while, they work. A few times I blame a certian
> charger or cable, but turned out to be wrong. Attribution seems
> impossible. I think there are issues with memory (maybe the 'bad'
> building ocnfused the phone or battery, or it gets confused by
> discharging too much), or even heat (some superstitions exist that a
> heated battery won't charge. Some say you should always keep the
> battery between 20% and 80% to extend its life. This doesn't happen
> consistently, leading most users to adopt superstitions, and like i
> said it comes and goes. The reason I freak out is two months ago it
> did something wierd to my SD card's partitioning from which I have
> not been able to recover (backup turned out to be ok, but once burnt
> twice shy).

Don't connect any electronics other than computer equipment to a
non-sinusodial UPS. Most produce stepped waves, not sine waves.
Computer power supplies can tolerate and account for non-true RMS power
input, but many electronics require a sine wave for power input. For
example, a new high-efficiency furnace might not start and show an error
code when connected through a non-sinusoidal UPS (as a power backup in
case of power outage). Their logic depends on power being a sine wave.
A UPS should only be used with computer gear unless the UPS produces a
sine wave for power output. Also, there are standby UPSes that simply
pass through the line power until there is an outage whereupon after a
few milliseconds they disconnect the line to provide there generated
power. Then there are UPSes that never supply line power to the loads,
and instead are always generating their own power, and line power, when
available, is used to charge their batteries that are constantly getting
drained. Most users buy standby non-sinusoidal UPSes, because they're
cheaper.

Seems you really need to get an electrician to fix the "badly wired"
problems. Those could be reversed outlets (hot on neutral contact, and
neutral on hot contact). Some electronics don't like reverse polarity.
You figure it might not matter because the sine wave is just 180 degrees
out of phase with other outlets. Often electronics require a clean
ground (no voltage, and no currents on it), and a connected ground (not
open or high resistance).

https://www.fluke.com/en-us/learn/blog/electrical/diagnosing-power-problems-at-the-receptacle

Get an outlet tester. They're cheap, like $5. If you have any GFCI
outlets, get an outlet tester with a GFI test button ($12). If you have
a voltmeter, set to VAC, you should read full voltage from neutral to
hot (large flat slot to small flat slot), full voltage from hot to
ground (u-slot), and zero volts from neutral to ground (they're tied
together back at the breaker box and why the length of ground from
service point to outlet can have some induced AC to show a few volts
no-load difference between neutral and ground). If hot-ground shows no
volts and neutral-ground show volts, the outlet is reversed. Not all
electronics have transformers on power input, so they might care which
contact in the outlet is hot and which is neutral. The above is not
true when measuring voltage for outlets on a power strip with surge
protection.

Don't use the badly wired outlets. If all of them are incorrectly
wired, get an electrician to fix your circuit wiring. Might be a simple
fix back at the breaker box or in a junction box between. If some
outlets are wrong and others right on the same circuit, you've had a
DIYer that didn't know what he was doing, and fucked up the outlets he
worked on. I had one of those: the prior owner of the house thought he
knew how to do small jobs both on outlets and some construction (luckily
he didn't touch plumbing or gas).

Don't connect interconnected electronics across multiple power sources,
like connecting the computer to one wall outlet, your stereo to another
wall outlet, and then interconnecting the stereo to the computer (output
jack to input jack). Interconnected electronics should get their power
from the same point; i.e., all upstream of the same power point. One
reason to do so is power spikes. Over the distance of the wire between
the two outlets (10-12 feet), a 400 volt differential could be induced
between the two outlets causing one end to experience a higher potential
the then other across the interconnection.

Are you near an industrial zone? When they shutdown their generators,
it can induce a power surge in the neighborhood. You could use endpoint
surge protectors, or a whole-home surge protector, or both. I have
both, but I'm not sure how to tell if the whole-home surge protector
(packaged inside the outside power meter box that I cannot get into) is
still okay or not. If its dead without any indication, it's not
protecting anything. In newer homes, the whole-home surge protector
occupies a slot in the breaker box, and usually has an LED to show it's
okay. MOVs work by self destruction: the surge is averted by shorting
out a portion of the MOV. Eventually the MOV is burned out enough it
won't protect anymore, and worse it can cause a fire.

https://www.lowellmfg.com/wp-content/uploads/LowellSSMOV.pdf

I have once seen a MOV that was shorted (their expected behavior to
ground out a spike) that stayed shorted (it didn't burn out). The load
on the circuit was tiny, so it didn't burn out the MOV like a fuse. Had
something to do with a telephone circuit. The tech was there measuring,
found no problem until I asked him about the MOV across a couple of
contacts on a wiring block (it looked pregnant and burnt, so it had
already sacrified portions of itself). He replaced it, phone line
fixed. I've seen a blown fuse that tested okay with an ohmmeter, but
the car radio wouldn't work yet it's clock was working. The fuse blow,
but the burnt ends of the fuse link were touching, so it was a
continuous connection to the ohmmeter but high resistance to the load,
like using a miniscule wire insufficient for the amperage. Needed a
magnifier to see the link was broken but still touching. Not enough of
the flat metal got burned away when it blew. New fuse and problem gone.
Seen that with the old screw-in fuses in a old fuse box, too.

Another type of line protector doesn't short the surge to ground (hot to
ground, neutral to ground, or both), but instead absorbs it (since
surges are short-lived). With MOVs, there are still spikes on the line,
but absorption means a smooth wave form without any spikes. The
absorbed power is pushed back into the line, but at a far slower rate.
Maybe those are called line conditioners or power conditioners, because
they also take care of brownouts, not just surges. Brownouts can damage
electronics, too. A 16A, 120VAC power conditioner could run over $4K,
so end users and homeowners don't have them, but businesses do to
protect their very expensive electronics.

Get the wiring fixed to removed the "badly wired" outlets. Could be
simply removing the outlet, rewire it, push back into the box, and done.
Could be a wiring fuckup back at the breaker box, or in a junction box
where the wiring got reversed. Could be some DIYer boob put the outlets
in series instead of parallel, so a load on one outlet screws up another
outlet. From here, I can't tell what "badly" means.

In article <1gxunmu33blvi$.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH>
wrote:

> Don't connect any electronics other than computer equipment to a
> non-sinusodial UPS.

not true.

inductive loads, such as motors are a bad idea, but just about
everything else will not be a problem..

> Most produce stepped waves, not sine waves.
> Computer power supplies can tolerate and account for non-true RMS power
> input, but many electronics require a sine wave for power input. For
> example, a new high-efficiency furnace might not start and show an error
> code when connected through a non-sinusoidal UPS (as a power backup in
> case of power outage). Their logic depends on power being a sine wave.

no, it has to do with the furnace having a motor and the controller
wanting to avoid damage.