8' drive on PC troubleshooting

[der Mouse]

>> ...can't you take two bog-standard peecee power supplies and connect
>> ground of one to +12 of the other and get a 24V rail that way?  I
>> *thought* the output side was supposed to be isolated.
> Isolated from the power line != isolated from ground

> I would not be at all suprised to find that the 0V line on the output
> side is in fact connected to mains ground.  If that's the case, you
> fairly obviously can't link 2 PSUs in series

I just picked up a handy not-currently-in-use PSU and opened it up.
The mains ground is connected to the chassis; the PC board mounting is
via metal standoffs, and they rest on solder pads which are connected
to the output ground wires.  So you are correct - at least for that
supply, and I have no reason to think it exceptional.

But you probably could do fine, I'd guess, by just cutting the mains
ground connection for one or the other supply, as appropriate.

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML	       mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B