Hi ED.

Desktop computers have fully enclosed power supplies. Eassentially they are complete units in their own case. The external connections to the electronics are all below 50V so I would not worry about it.

Treat the computer as a box within a box. The mains bit is in the Power Supply Unit and you are only modifying the box that that fits into. You will usually find one or two earthing cables attached to the outer case but these are for screening and not safety earthing which is handled by the self contained Power Supply.

Hope that helps.

I work in an electronics workshop where we design and build gear for the rest of the Laboratory. We generally use enclosed power supplies in our equipment which deals with mains issues. As we don't sell anything we don't have to worry about CE compliance.

regards Martin

Hi Ed…

I totally agree with Martin. The components your using will be CE marked so I don't believe there's a problem. One thing I will add is if your concerned about the case becoming live – check the continuity between the earth conductor of the three pin plug top to the chassis of your enclosure. You should see a very low resistance on the DMM and that's assuming the earth conductor is the same CSA of the live & neutral for fault current capability. Hope that make sense!

John

Edited By Johnboy25 on 11/02/2015 13:47:18

Edited By Johnboy25 on 11/02/2015 13:48:06

I'd like to describe a situation I found myself in some years ago, and what I did, or rather refused to do, to get out of it.

First, I am, or rather was, an apprentice trained telecomms technician, and as such can be expected to know something about electrics, but not necessarily the finer details of home wiring. Nevertheless, I have successfully, and safely, done electrical wiring and re-wiring in my own homes, including changing/fitting consumer units. This, of course, was pre Part P.

Behind our previous house there is a row of terrace houses and we, as you might expect became friendly with the lady in the house immediately behind us. She developed a problem and my wife asked me to have a look. The problem was that the television had stopped working. The tv was connected to a 5A round pin 3-pin plug which in turn was connected via an adaptor to a 15A socket on the skirting board which itself was about 4" high. The 15A socket was wired to one of two metal consumer units in a corner of the cellar. The consumer units were on adjacent walls and were connected together by means of an earth wire stretched across the corner. Permanent cabling appeared to be a mixture of TRF & Plastic. The cause of the problem was a blown fuse which I changed (rewired). On my way out, I noticed that the hall light switch had lost its cover plate leaving exposed terminals.

When, inevitably, the fuse failed again, I refused point blank to return saying that I considered the installation dangerous, and I wasn't going to risk getting involved with the authorities in case of electrocution or fire. Accordingly, the local electricity board people turned up, replaced the fuse (I presume) and put insulation tape of the exposed switch. Later the house was rewired.

My advice is to always err on the side of safety and self protection. Unless you are in the trade as it were, do not do anything like this for other people because if it goes wrong, then who is going to get the blame? By all means show people what you have done, but let them make their own modifications.

It may seem like a cop-out, but in today's climate where lawyer's are always looking for someone to sue, one cannot be too vigilant in protecting oneself against claims of negligence.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

True for 'internal use' CE marking isn't required, but compliance with relevant directives is required.

Hi, no problem giving your mates or anyone else for that matter a lift in your car, but if you accept any payment, even to cover costs of the fuel you use, you may well infringe your insurance. Why so, because most peoples insurance has a clause excluding hire or reward and any payment whether it's private or business could be seen as hire or reward. If you are accepting money for giving lifts, it may be wise to consult you insurance company first. If you are hiring a car you need a licence to suit the type of hire you are giving.

Regards Nick.

PCV!

Well they were PSVs in my day, youngster!

Neil

Got a friend who has a Daimler Ferrit Scout Car, registered as a Daimler Convertible(no turret version).

Ian S C

Passenger Carrying Vehicle – what a ridiculous term. If you speak English you will know that that must include cars and even horse dawn carts!

Russell.

Point being that you need a proper bus driving licence (and a tacho) to drive a bus, whether or not you are charging for the ride. Previously you could drive a full sized bus ("heavy car&quot on a normal licence as long as you weren't charging the passengers, eg for a works bus or football team. That was ridiculous of course, so it's a good thing they changed the law. It covers anything from a midibus (>3.5t) to a large coach, urban bus or double decker.

To me, the most challenging part of the test is the reverse parking which requires you to position the rear wheels of a vehicle (typically a 13m coach) within a 1m long box. Sounds easy but believe me it isn't. And if you fail that, you fail the test. I passed mine in Norwich around 1990, having learnt to drive coaches around Cambridge city centre and Norfolk. Didn't squash any cyclists but it was an interesting challenge and taught me some useful driving perspectives!

Murray

Yes, I can see where your comments originate but that document is only a guidance document having no legal weight. The LV Directive ( amongst others) clearly states that it applies to equipment "placed on the market" and nowhere does it state that it applies to any other equipment. This is because the intention of these directives is to enable free trade of products across the EU. They are not concerned with anything that is not sold or hired out.

Of course you want in house equipment to be safe and fortunately that is cheap and easy to verify however compliance with the standards that demonstrate compliance with the EMC Directive is difficult and expensive to test (I know, having been involved in the writing of some of the standards).

Russell