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Bad install leads to electrified coax destroying TVAnyone catch this article on The Verge? » www.theverge.com/2016/5/ ··· illed-meBasically a Verge writer got CV installed at his house and he / the tech / an act of nature apparently managed to electrify his coax line, which led to not one, but two random acts of electrification. The first time was an HDMI cable destroying his TV and CV STB: he got a truck roll, CV came out and said it was fixed, and he got charged for it (lol). Now he destroyed a $2k demo unit TV via the coax cable. So how does one manage to fuck up this badly (either on the install side or the PR side)? Is this even an install problem? As an aside, I really hate CV's "spin the roulette wheel to see if you get charged for a truck roll." I mean, when you have a problem, it's not like you're not going to decline a truck roll, but if the tech is bad or isn't diagnosing an intermittent problem, you're getting hit with a charge. |
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 RickNY
Premium Member
join:2000-11-02
Farmingville, NY |
RickNY
Premium Member
2016-May-19 12:11 pm
I had this exact issue several years ago at a previous residence... The cause was a reversed hot-neutral in an outlet in the apartment. --
Suffolk County Weather: »www.indigopc.com |
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Interesting. But how does that explain how a coax cable copper core literally sizzles when it touches against something metal? There's a short video of that happening in the article. |
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 actor90Never a dull moment
Premium Member
join:2003-07-21
Jackson, NJ |
to hobbeslover
One of the commenters in the article pointed out there may be something in that building feeding back a lot of juice to the ground. They need to bring in electrician asap. |
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to hobbeslover
in his article he states he also had satellite technicians in the house. How does he know its not their house. Are they using the same coax? In my experience satellite video and cablevisions video shouldn't be sharing the same coax. causes all sorts of problems. |
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to actor90
said by actor90:One of the commenters in the article pointed out there may be something in that building feeding back a lot of juice to the ground. They need to bring in electrician asap.
Why do that when it's just easier to blame it all on the cable company? :P |
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 MuDvAyNe
Premium Member
join:2002-03-02
Brooklyn, NY |
to hobbeslover
Article is pure garbage. A staple in the line isn't going to cause an electrical issue. There is something wrong with the outlets or grounding to the home. He needs an electrician to fix the issue.
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Mets, Cowboys, Devils |
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 EliteDataEliteData
Premium Member
join:2003-07-06
Hampton Bays, NY
kudos:7 |
all of my electronics are isolated from all wires entering my home including the electric supply. --
»www.scpdny.com |
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 Tursiops_GTechnoid
MVM
join:2002-02-06
Norwalk, CT
kudos:2 |
Do you have your Entire home on an Isolation transformer?  |
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to hobbeslover
What's happening is the home is trying to use the cable line for a ground. |
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 ·Frontier Communi..
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·Charter
·AT&T U-Verse
4 edits |
to hobbeslover
Open or weak neutral will do this.
bad equipment with a "hot chassis" that will use the coax as ground.
Power outlet that is wired wrong that has the ground terminal HOT.
Hey lets play the jump to conclusions game. Since he says the SAME THING happens with the sat system which is most likely bonded at the power meter or ground rod outside. So I am thinking its something up with the ground on the outlet his stuff is plugged in to. He says its an old brick building. Prob ungrounded knob and tube wiring someone slapped a 3 prong duplex receptacle in to. The old wiring is touching the ungrounded metal box and now the ground prong is HOT.
Lets see him touch the TV and something like the radiator or water facet. When he gets wacked by that then he will most likely bitch all over TWITTER about the water company and his oil company.
The thing that really grinds my gears about this "journalist" is he uses the "ITS [CURRENT YEAR]" meme. |
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 chip89
Premium Member
join:2012-07-05
Independence, OH |
to hobbeslover
Had that happen to a Cable box and hdmi port once WOW came out and fixed it. |
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to hobbeslover
This guy is abusing his position to try and extort CV into buying him a new Tv. If he was a real journalist and not some hack blogger he would have interviewed an electrician but he didn't. Instead two arm chair electricians who are not experts on the subject gave their expert opinions.
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I do not, have not, and will not work for AT&T/Comcast/Verizon/Charter or similar sized company. My opinions are from the small ISP/CLEC point of view and NOT the large providers. |
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 PoloDude
VIP
join:2006-03-29
Northport, NY
kudos:3 |
Just tweeted hin ,pointing him here.
Just tweeted him ,pointing him here. |
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Parth
join:2010-08-16
Poughkeepsie, NY |
to hobbeslover
It's The Verge. That's all everyone needs to know. |
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 nunyaLXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:13
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to hobbeslover
Most likely the cable installer is a hapless victim. As mentioned in a post above, these symptoms are indicative of an open neutral on the electrical system. Most likely the responsibility of the HOMEOWNER or the power company. Dude needs to stop playing the blame game and call a licensed electrician before his house is a pile of ash.
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...or the sheriff will grab ya and the boys will bring you down. The next thing you know, boy - oh you're prison bound... |
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 Bink63Namedrop THIS
Premium Member
join:2002-10-06
Everywhere |
to hobbeslover
"Maybe, anyway. I'm not an electrician, to be very clear, so I can't pretend to know a lot about this kind of thing"
He's clearly not a Journalist either...
This thread's about to hit Social Media, HARD.
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Hopefully the Ministry Of Truth and Thought Police can sort this whole thing out.
Frank Shoemaker would call this noise
GO Cubs GO!!! |
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·Zen Internet
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to hobbeslover
The comments on that article are a bit of a disaster. They seem to be jumping on the "big bad cable company" angle even though, as everyone is saying, it's more likely to be an electrical fault (that is being made visible because the cable company did their job properly and has grounded their wiring?)
Maybe instead of moaning about Cablevision, they should be moaning at the landlord or building owner and demanding that they pay for a new TV and cable box? |
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Because it's much easier to shame the cable company in the court of public opinion. It's because of asshats like the person in the article that we can't have nice things. |
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to hobbeslover
Years ago I installed DirecTv systems.
One job I did the receiver was to be set on top of TV.
After all done they decided they didn't want receiver there.
I was clammy skinned from working in summer heat.
My forearms were resting on the receiver & the moment I disconnected the coax from the powered up receiver I got crap shocked out of me.
Seemed like slow motion where I realized I couldn't let go of the cable so maybe I should relax legs to fall back.
What really happened is I shot backwards & landed in the lap of my very surprised customer.
"What got into you?" she asked
I had grounded the coax and the receiver case was hot
When I pulled the coax off, my arms and fingers became the circuit.
I had no idea what the problem was and suggested they call support & I left... |
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 SmokChsrWho let the magic smoke out?
Premium Member
join:2006-03-17
Saint Augustine, FL |
to hobbeslover
The first question that needs to be answered is was the Cable line hot or the TV. Normally you're going to find it's the TV that had lost ground due to an open neutral or bad wiring. But there are some things that can happen to cause the cable to go hot. Until there is specific determination as to why there was ground potential difference, everything else is just pure speculation. |
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 sporkmedrop the crantini and move it, sister
MVM
join:2000-07-01
Morristown, NJ |
to hobbeslover
What kind of "tech writer" doesn't own a mutlimeter? |
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SmokChsrWho let the magic smoke out?
Premium Member
join:2006-03-17
Saint Augustine, FL |
SmokChsr
Premium Member
2016-May-21 11:00 pm
As a published tech writer myself from time to time, I must say an article without fact is well, not much more than a unsubstantiated rant. My Editors & Publishers won't allow me to do those, even if I wanted to. PS I've got 4 Multimeters, 1 service monitor, 1 spectrum analyzer, 2 network analyzers, digital scope, and a few other things to help |
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to hobbeslover
coax FED DC 5v 2amp, powered signal booster in demarc point, outside of house where no electrical servicing fed.
removal of the DC booster, leaving of the 5V DC signal booster cable in the demarc point, unmarked. and failure to remove the 5V DC 2amp wall wart from inside the customers home. from feeding the cable power.
then plugging that live (why it traveled up the 5V DC channels of the hdmi cable in the first place, took that path.
with all the other cables in a 4 way splitter. it likely will also damage neighboring customers services, as it takes out the community demarc point.
oh and if a triplex. this BOOSTER could be anywhere in the building, still making a wire live, THE COAXIAL WIRE, connceted to an ac to dc 5V wire wall wart. for what we all have seen, A CABLE BOOSTER. that was installed professionally instead of what we get from radioshack. |
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Tursiops_GTechnoid
MVM
join:2002-02-06
Norwalk, CT
kudos:2 |
That arc is the result of a Helluva lot MORE than a paltry 5 Volt DC Wall-Wart can cause...  |
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simple
Anon
2016-May-22 12:20 am
amp is 2 amps, amps make the arc, not the voltage being fed through it, once a short occurs.
have you ever seen a 3.7v dc lithium-ion cell get shorted?
also 120v fed through coax, would have caused a fire already. its not rated for 15 amps. |
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Tursiops_GTechnoid
MVM
join:2002-02-06
Norwalk, CT
kudos:2 ·Optimum Online
ARRIS TM1602
TP-Link TL-WDR4300
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OK, Let me make that a bit clearer for you... A Paltry 5VDC 2 AMP Wall-wart can't generate that kind of arc... A 3.7v Lithium battery can (possibly) generate a PEAK current in the 100s of Amps range in a dead short (depending on the size of the battery), but your typical AC Wall-wart, Not so much...  |
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simple
Anon
2016-May-22 12:40 am
so you're saying that arch was a 125v x 15 amp, on a 2 amp rated coaxial cable, 125v x 15 1875 watt heat output arch and did not fuse the connection and produce a fire.
had no blue flame, no green flame, no burning of the cable.
and you're assuming, without any understanding even in viewing household electrical mistakes.
that a dc 3.7v 1500mah lithium cell, which when shorted starts venting gases, has decreasing its peak output of 1.5 amp. is MORE capable then a 125v fed, 2amp DC 5volt, twice the heat output in short, arch. power supply, with capacitors feeding that coaxial cable. even through the short, not triggering a BREAK in connection. and continuing to feed it until the user in the video removes the short. ending his arch welding experiment.
you know there is portable arch welders too that use 12v from just lithium cells. seen yukon gold? |
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Tursiops_GTechnoid
MVM
join:2002-02-06
Norwalk, CT
kudos:2 |
No, I'm saying a *5 Volt, 2 AMP* Wall-Wart can *NOT* cause the intensity of arc shown in that video, PERIOD... Nothing More, Nothing Less. |
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Bink63Namedrop THIS
Premium Member
join:2002-10-06
Everywhere |
to simple
Welcome to The United States of America.
How about posting some relevant facts to the thread topic?
Here's the thing, there are more Cable Techs, Plant Engineers and Electrical Engineers here than you've ever known existed.
Put your landline wires in your mouth, call your landline number and then get back to us about volts, amps and the price of tea in Hamilton.
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Hopefully the Ministry Of Truth and Thought Police can sort this whole thing out.
Frank Shoemaker would call this noise
GO Cubs GO!!! |
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