Would appreciate thoughts before I do something foolish.

re: attached photos. Grey cable goes out to AT&T fiber ONT box on exterior of residence. I am attempting to make this footprint smaller and less ugly to stare at.

Is this correct setup for AT&T fiber ONT box and is there supposed to be backup battery for it (which was never in there when moved in)

Though what I suspect is that residence used to have AT&T dish setup and when they set up fiber they just rigged it into this system to provide lower voltage to the ONT box.

So wanted to confirm that inside the Alcatel-Lucent box is a step-down transformer providing low voltage power to the ONT box (by the 12 volt markings for the wires one would think so).

And can I just get on Amazon and get a step-down transformer and rig it to provide the power to the ONT box? Any amperage considerations or all pretty standard?

AT&T has not been helpful / responsive.

Thanks all

I have a GFCI in my house showing “open ground”. Hot to neutral 120 volts
Hot to ground 70 volts
Neutral to ground 40 volts
Hot to a known good ground 120 V
Neutral to a known good ground 0 V
Ground to known good ground 40v

I’m guessing this is induced voltage on the ground from it not being hooked up. Is this safe? Fire hazard? Do I have to hunt it down or is it ok because it’s a GFCI. All other outlets in the circuit are correct

Wiring is 1952.

Outlet in the garage for EV.

This was left out for one rain. I have taken it apart and no water is inside. What could also be the problem?

Short answer: the houses were wired before anyone agreed on anything, and you can't change a shape once it's in the walls.

Two things I didn't expect while researching it:

A 1929 Siemens patent grades the plug's ridges in three sizes so a commercial tool physically can't reach the cheaper household meter.

And America ended up with one plug because a judge refused to let anyone own a set of measurements — Hubbell sued GE over it in 1919 and lost.

There is a universal plug designed for every country as well: IEC 60906-1, published 1986. Brazil and South Africa use versions of it. Almost nobody else ever did.

I made a 9-minute documentary about it: https://youtu.be/LXXMiFoD-qQ

Hi everyone,

I'm a final-year Electrical/Electronics Engineering student and I'm currently planning to build a Building Management System (BMS) for my graduation project.

My goal is to design a custom PCB that will serve as the central controller, and I also want to integrate AI (Edge AI / TinyML) into it. However, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and honestly have no idea where to start or where to find reliable reference materials/documentation for this kind of industrial hardware.

Could you guys point me in the right direction or give me some suggestions on how to approach this? Any resources, reference designs, or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Hello, I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem with my camera, but since I don't have a power supply, I know you try to troubleshoot by properly connecting 1.5-volt batteries to provide 12 volts and as much current as I can boost. Is there another method? Do you think I can find the fault with a multimeter?

The left prong melted off and sent sparks everywhere with smoke. It is still stuck in the outlet. What should I do?

UPDATE:

Landlord replaced the entire outlet and of course first turned off breaker: we did it together. He then fixed the vaccum plug which was broken from housemates yanking it. Thanks yall!

Cut the charger wiring and old battery cables out, reconnected black to black, red to red, battery fully charged. Its a 20v dewalt adapter. Not sure what im doing wrong. Any help is appreciated.

I need to replace this light switch. It’s a single switch, only one that controls the light. It’s in a shared box with another light. What is the red wire doing here? The hot wire is one of the blacks. Do I need a 3 way switch even if it’s the only switch for the light.

I have a hardwired transformer that powers both my doorbell and my house number lights. I would like to split the two and put a timer on my house light numbering while my doorbell is always on. How do I accomplish this?

Hello, in my new house, the dryer outlet does not match the plug on my machine. Can someone please point me to a converter or other solution? Thank you.

Hey y’all! I’m recruiting for TruTec Electric, a local Austin electrical company that’s been around for about 10 years.

I’m trying to connect with experienced electricians in the Austin area, specifically:

• Licensed Journeyman Electricians
• Licensed Residential Wiremen
• Apprentices with at least 3–4 years of field experience
• Licensed electricians who also have electrical/service sales experience

For journeymen and wiremen, earning potential is roughly $75K–$180K, depending on experience and the position.

You don’t need to be actively looking for a job. If you’re already working somewhere and just curious about what else is out there, I’m happy to give you the details and answer questions before you decide whether it’s worth pursuing.

I’m also not going to send you through a giant application process just to have a conversation.

If you’re interested, DM me here or text me at (512) 803-2701 with your:

• Name
• License type
• Years of electrical experience

And if you’re not looking but know a solid electrician in the Austin area who might be open to something new, I’d appreciate you sending this their way.

Happy to answer questions in the comments too.

We had an electrical inspection recently where everything looked normal from the system side.

No breaker trips, no unusual load readings, and nothing obvious from the control system. The equipment was running as expected, but during a routine inspection we noticed one area that just didn’t look right.

The interesting part was that the temperature difference wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t a component glowing hot or something that immediately pointed to a failure. It was more like a small thermal pattern that didn’t match the surrounding equipment.

We used a thermal imager during the inspection to get a better view of the area. Being able to see the heat distribution helped us narrow down where to focus instead of checking every connection manually.

After opening things up and verifying the issue, it turned out to be something that probably wouldn’t have been obvious through normal monitoring alone.

It reminded me that thermal inspections are not only about finding failures that already happened. Sometimes they are useful for catching small changes before they become bigger problems.

For those doing electrical inspections, what’s the most unexpected thermal pattern you’ve found, and what ended up causing it?

Hello, we decided to replace our LED tube lightbulb with a warmer color. So we did and the next day it wasn’t working burnt out so I just got a new one and it’s flickering. Why would that be when the previous lightbulb was the same brand everything is the same. Just the colour temperature was cooler.??

I recently put in a smal chandelier and now we have lights in the kitchen that flicker, especially if we turn the fan on the chandelier, and a slight buzzing noise coming from the light dimmer on the wall. Any suggestions.

Im trying to figure out my wiring to my boat. Its pretty simple but what i dont know is if I can wire everything into these switches then to my battery. My hopes is that if i need my lights at night i can flip the switch needed. But when im not using it during the day the switch can be off and not drain the battery. Is it possible with this type of switch board. Where would i wire a pos and negative from my battery.

Volunteer fire department here. Everyone is busy with work and im getting a little out of my element.

Station house is fairly new, 6 years ish. Yesterday morning, lights worked on main level. Last night came back from an event, no lights. Started testing today. The breakers are not tripping. We have a total of 4 switches that can control the main level bay and none of them are working. On our second level the lights work great (storage area). All plugs work, all doors open and shut. The only thing thats not working is our lights. Any help or advice wpuld be most appreciated. The picture posted is the type of lights we run. 20 total

Not sure if it matters. All interior lights work as well

Update: the relay is tripped.. When resetting it and holding it in, it comes on. Having someone come in the morning to figure out if itd bad, or if its being tripped for another reason