OT for a sec: US wiring sources of info

[Jules Richardson]

Ethan Dicks wrote:
> On 10/7/05, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>>We've got a cable decoder box here that trips out the house breakers
>>when plugged into certain outlets - irrespective of whether it's via a
>>surge protector (probably not surprising there) or of what other loads
>>might be sharing the same wiring to that outlet.
>>
>>It works fine in other outlets though, which seems like a strange
>>problem - but I have no idea how US houses are wired (and the wiring in
>>this place is ancient anyway!)
> 
> 
> Check to see that you don't have neutral and hot swapped in certain
> outlets. 

Hmm, just had a quick look and no problems with the outlets which have 
been causing problems - unless the whole lot's miswired where it exits 
the breaker(s). I'll check that. And yep, it's all the old 60A 
three-cable stuff.

The plot thickens somewhat after getting some more info out of the SO 
and doing some poking around.

The problem only happens on certain outlets when the TV and cable box 
share any of the problem outlets, and the aerial's hooked up between the 
TV and cable box. (so I was incorrect about it *just* needing the cable 
box plugged in to cause problems)

So it seems to be something to do with the TV and cable box having a 
connection via the aerial lead that's causing trouble, but only when 
they're using certain power outlets. The lead between power outlet and 
cable box is a moulded thing and can only go one way round at either end 
(the socket's PCB mounted at the cable box, so it can't be mis-wired 
internally either). The TV has an integral lead, although I tried 
swapping wires at the plug without any luck (it refuses to startup with 
them swapped)

So it'd seem like some other issue - possibly a fault within the cable 
decoder of some description, or maybe something else which is sharing 
the cable feed (there's a cable modem on there too, and also another TV 
without any decoder in one of the bedrooms)

Anyway, still looking for suggestions of places to ask all of this so 
it's not on the list!

cheers

Jules