ADVC-100 - connecting hot DV cable.

[skull950]

Canopus says to shut off your computer and whatever else you have connected to the ADVC-100 before you connect the DV cable or it might damage the device. I have hot connected the cable and did notice some small sparking when it touched it, fortunately it still works fine, but I won't be doing that again.

It's a pain in the arse to have to turn everthing off, and since I don't want to keep a cable connected all the time, does anybody have any ideas how you can hot connect the DV cable safely? Anybody make an on/off switch that won't surge when throw it?

[redwudz]

If it's a six pin Firewire cable, it carries power and ground along with the signals. That would be the spark. If it's a four pin, you have a problem as there is no power, only signal.

I'm guessing your unit runs off the computer power? Anyway, it probably wouldn't hurt anything, but you would be better off not to unplug or plug it in when it's drawing power. Don't you have a off switch on your ADVC? Just turn it off first.

[skull950]

It is a 4 pin DV cable. There must be some kind of power leak on my TV or cable TV antenna. I've noticed whenever I plug the cable TV antenna into something it sparks and very small amount. Little spooky whne connecting it to my computer.

I do turn off the ADVC-100 when I connect the DV cable, but Canopus says to turn everyting off. I guess they have had trouble with this before.

[redwudz]

If you have access to your cable TV where it comes to your building, check the ground connection. They use a ground stake and ground wire on the outside of the building. This may be loose or not connected.

If you don't have access, call your cable company and tell them there is power on your cable line. There shouldn't be power on the cable line, especially if it's on the shield or outside connector of the cable.

You can get a coax DC block from Radio Shack or others to block power.

If you are on a distributed or amplified antenna system, it sounds like the DC block isn't working. Again, the RS block should stop this.

Hopefully you have properly wired 3 prong wall outlets. If the cable is not the source of the leakage, you may want to have your outlets checked.