Help! My equipment keeps shocking me!

[kylejun06]

For some reason, my equipment has been shocking me. I've dealt with it for the last half year or so, but now it's really annoying me. Plus, I'm afraid it's going to damage my equipment.

When I touch parts of my equipment, i feel a little unpleasant surge go through my fingers.

I run all my equipment through my mixer, into my computer speakers, and everything is plugged into a Belkin power brick.

I have a microkorg, a electribe emx-1, and even my MXL mic shocks me when i put it in. I can't even plug my guitar into my mixer without the strings surging through me.

Should I just get a new power brick? Or is it my mixer?

[nathanscribe]

When I touch parts of my equipment, i feel a little unpleasant surge go through my fingers.

You can get therapy for that.



Seriously though if you think your gear is a potential hazard, stop using it andd have it checked thoroughly by someone who knows what they're doing. Faulty electrical stuff is not worth the danger of leaving unfixed.

[Synthaholic]

Does it feel like static shocks (like when you walk across a carpet and touch metal), or is it more "electrical" in nature?

Unplug everything, then plug in one piece at a time and see which piece causes the shocks. If it's just one piece of gear, remove it from your setup and get it repaired. Also, get an outlet tester and make sure the outlet is wired (and grounded) correctly. If it's not, have an electrician fix it.

[Pilot352]

Does it feel like static shocks (like when you walk across a carpet and touch metal), or is it more "electrical" in nature?

Unplug everything, then plug in one piece at a time and see which piece causes the shocks. If it's just one piece of gear, remove it from your setup and get it repaired. Also, get an outlet tester and make sure the outlet is wired (and grounded) correctly. If it's not, have an electrician fix it.

Another possibility is that there's nothing wrong with your equipment. You may have a ground loop in the house wiring. As Synthaholic says, unplug all your gear and add one at a time until you identify which unit(s) are causing the problem. I would recommend using an AC volt meter instead of your fingers, though. It's allot safer and hurts less.

Find pairs or groups of synths that don't have the problem to start with. Then add synths one at a time. If the synths are found to have AC voltage between the grounds but are on a separate outlet, unplug the "hot" synth and plug it into the same outlet and test again. If the problem still exists with the synth plugged into the same outlet, then the synth is bad. If the problem goes away, look at the house wiring as the source. I would suspect house wiring problems before I would a faulty synth. Not to say that synths can't cause this type of failure, but more likely house wiring.

This also assumes you are from a country that uses unbalanced power such as the U.S.

Also, when you hook up the synths, remove all other connections like MIDI and Audio outputs.

-Pilot

[Stab Frenzy]

My Behringer mixer does this to me as well, the chassis isn't earthed so if you touch it and a synth that is earthed you get zapped. Same if you're holding a lead that's plugged into either. I really should throw it away but I use a mixer so rarely that it's not worth buying another one.

A quicker way to work out what's causing the problem (if you own a multimeter) is to find something that you know is earthed correctly by making sure there's continuity between the chassis and the earth pin, then measuring the voltage between the chassis of this and the chassis of other things when they're plugged in but not connected with audio leads.

[kylejun06]

My Behringer mixer does this to me as well, the chassis isn't earthed so if you touch it and a synth that is earthed you get zapped. Same if you're holding a lead that's plugged into either. I really should throw it away but I use a mixer so rarely that it's not worth buying another one.

Yeah, i've found out that it's my mixer that's shocking me. I have an Electribe EMX-1, a Microkorg, and a condenser mic running through my mixer to my speakers. When they're connected to the mixer, they shock me, but when they're not, they don't at all. Should I just get a new mixer? And do I have to put it on the ground or something to "earth" it? Haha. I'm retardeddd.

[desdinova]

Is it actually shocks or does your skin feel like it's vibrating when you run your fingers over it? Assuming your house is wired correctly (big assumption, some places) it might just be a polarization problem. Look for gear that doesn't have polarized plugs (one blade larger than the other) and flip the plug around. One at a time. Good luck!

[Dreamscape325]

Im getting shocked by my sub 37(metal case).
I tracked 44 volts to the audio output.
I get no voltage across audioleads or power rails but if i hold one lead in my hand and touch the audio plug (or case for sub37) i get 44 volts.
Same with my new pro 3(3plug), and my minibrute (wall wart).
Thing is the power strip is OFF.
i still get shocked.
I noticed this in my old apartment before i moved.
I unplug the unit... no voltage.
As im plugging in my sub 37 Bzzorch!!!!
Im assuming this has something to do with 12volt pwr rails but....
Pro 3, no voltage across audio plug but when i hold the volt meter lead in my hand.... 44 volts, unit is off, power strip is OFF, I have to pull the plug out of the back of the unit for there to be zero volts between me and the headphone jack.
Rather annoying.
Any ideas?
Im going to take it to a friends house to test again.

[meatballfulton]

Sounds like you've got a very bad and dangerous ground loop. Even with the strip off, the power ground is still connected. You can verify this with an ohmmeter...unplug the strip from the wall, turn it off and check the ground on the synth (or even just the ground on it's power cord).

You should try unplugging the power cord of every device in your rig to see if the synth no longer has the 44V differential you measured. If so, one by one start plugging the power cords back in until you find the culprit causing the loop.

[crochambeau]

If you don't have a wall outlet tester I would invest in one post haste. Insure your outlets are wired correctly. I had a floating ground once that settled at about half the AC mains, in my case 60 volts, that was across any "earthed" chassis in relation to anything plugged into a correctly wired outlet. Made a h**l of a racket through my monitors as well.

[blueknob]

Firstly, need to know in what country you are. I'm very familiar with UK mains and would not comment on any non-UK mains. For example USA has a very different system.