Unused SWA

[davesparks]

While we're on the subject:
Socapex plug spider.

Socapex, that wonderful, better than lectriflex, but still a can of worms, pain in the rear end.
Is it rated for 400V or 230V?
Can we run motors through it or can we not?
Should it be 1.5 or 2.5?
Should it be 10A or 16A?
All 6 on one RCD or RCBO's?
Coils, figure of 8, up and down the flyfloor.

 

[David Prosser]

While we're on the subject:
Socapex plug spider.

Nope no, no, no, there can't be any way a ridiculous device like that should exist !

 

[davesparks]

Nope no, no, no, there can't be any way a ridiculous device like that should exist !

But but but, it's industry standard!
White light, PRG, Neg Earth, SLX, etc etc all have hundreds in stock so it must be OK, no?

 

[David Prosser]

You install them first and let me know how they work out !!

 

[davesparks]

You install them first and let me know how they work out !!

So apex plug spiders have been working out just fine for many years, they obviously aren't ideal but what do you suggest as an alternative?

 

[David Prosser]

I suggest they have nothing to do with spare cores in a SWA cable. If you want to use the carry on.

 

[davesparks]

I suggest they have nothing to do with spare cores in a SWA cable. If you want to use the carry on.

It's not that I want to use them, the industry has hundreds of thousands of them in use and convincing anyone to use an alternative would be impossible.

They have a lot to do with spare cores in an SWA, or any other cable, but with increased risks of accidental contact with the unused cores due to the exposed plug pins.

 

[David Prosser]

I don’t see what they have to do with spare cores in a cable. Could you please explain?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Spiders of both genders are used in entertainment lighting to send six separate 3-wire circuits along an 18-core cable with 19-pin connectors and split them up again at the far end. E.g. it is easier to run ten 18-core cables round a flown truss than sixty 3-core cables.

But, if some 3-pin plugs are energised and others are lying loose, not engaged in sockets, it is possible (and likely) to make contact via the exposed plug pins with unused conductors of cables and multipole connectors in which other cores and pins are energised.

 

[David Prosser]

That interesting and I would imagine a dangerous arrangement. I can’t see them being used on any of my sites.

As there’s still no consensus on a regulation stating the cores must be earthed. I’ll continue to have the spare cores in SWA cables labelled and terminated into MCC din rails as specified by the designers.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

There are also permanently-installed variants where a rack of captive cables with plugs feed into tie-circuits to sockets spread around the building, looking very much like a telephone exchange. A lighting fixture would be plugged into the nearest tie circuit, and the corresponding patch plug connected to the desired dimmer channel. In the days when dimmers were expensive, it avoided wasting channels feeding sockets that were not needed for a particular show. Multiple fixtures in widely-spaced physical locations (but lighting the same area) could also be grouped onto one dimmer without running extension cables between them. One might have 72 tie-circuit plugs that could be allocated to 24 dimmer channels each with two sockets.

In most cases those plug tails would be connected to the fixed wiring (usually singles in trunking) by a rail of DIN terminals, with one layer of insulation between the terminal of one plug and that of the next...

 

[Jako13!]

So connected to earth at the supply side and the other end appropriately terminated in a junction box

 

[Rockingit]

Socapex, that wonderful, better than lectriflex, but still a can of worms, pain in the rear end.
Is it rated for 400V or 230V?
Can we run motors through it or can we not?
Should it be 1.5 or 2.5?
Should it be 10A or 16A?
All 6 on one RCD or RCBO's?
Coils, figure of 8, up and down the flyfloor.

Now I really miss my proper day job ?? ...... feckin' pandemic.