Update: Dead USB digital tv stick

History: the above arrived from Hong Kong, worked for 30 minutes or so, died. Swapped all around, nothing, smelled magic smoke. Bugger.

Emailed seller... emailed seller... emailed seller... started Paypal claim and seller immediately wakes up and rolls out the usual guff about USB ports and stuff. Told him it's definitely broken and could I have a new one please? Apologises and asks me to post it to him for inspection. Fairy nuff.

Just been to earth the coax, as suggested previously, and saw pretty little blue sparks when making the final connection from the coax to the pc's case! Oops. Looks like my naughty coax/aerial booster might have killed the tv stick. Surely it must be a bit s**te though, if that's all it took? My meter couldn't pick up any voltage on the coax so there's not very much there.

Does coax usually spark? I've never looked.

Si

Reply to
Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot
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Sounds like a signal earth issue to me....

Reply to
cupra

Mine did - and I could feel a tingle - got about 14 volts with a digital meter. However, I expect there is little current as I assume it is induced - or something to do with the TV Amplifier Power Supply which feeds up the co-ax to the masthead amplifier.

Reply to
John

Never, ever believe a digital meter when measuring low AC voltages. Get something that loads the wires and tells the truth. An old Avo would be ideal. The reason is, is that there can be induced voltages in the cable from others that are along side it.

Having said that, I did get a bit of a shock from the mains cable when I was changing our son's cooker over to a new one. This was from neutral to earth. Unexpected, but quite normal. Wall switch was off, but circuit switch was engaged.

You could be right here, but I would expect the voltage to be DC so that the signal path could pass through capacitors and the power be passed to the amplifier, by bypassing the capacitors.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

I understand about the digital meter - that is why I qualified it as digital in my note. However, whatever is causing the voltage it may well be enough to fry a sensitive electronic device. Do you agree?

Reply to
John

It was certainly sparking quite well so I would think so!

I've stripped off a ring of the aerial coax's outer sheath and connected a wire from the earth braid to a screw in the pc's case. Hopefully that should be enough to stop the replacement stick from 'sploding.

Si

Reply to
Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot

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