Power points on piers

[Spookyer]

Hi there, I have round steel piers going into the obs. I want to run the power (240v and 12v) under the floor then come up through the floor up the outside of the pier. Given the pier is cylindrical and won't offer a flat surfase and has no access to it internally is there any tips on mounting power points point on the side of it? I will be getting a sparky to do it but just wondered if there is any advice or ideas I should give him as to the best way to go about it.

thanks
Brett

[speach]

Easy make a box with a flat surface and a curved open bottom to the radius of your pier, and mount the socket on the flat surface.

[rally]

Clipsal make a flush mount single round Extension Socket Outlet and a they have a sqaure one too
There is no switch, just a socket - you might have it switched over on the wall of your obs for example.
If you flatten off just a tiny amount of the pier with an angle grinder it will sit dead flat since the diameter of the whole thing is fractionally more than a regular 240v plug.

There are also a variety of marine 240v fittings as well that might suit your purpose as well as using an IEC outlet - like the back of a PC has

You could also just have a cable with a socket

Or better yet simply get rid of 240VAC altogether and all the plug packs, multway adapters and power cords and just have the DC power that you need - which can usually be just 12v with good planning.
Or you can get small DC/DC converters that can provide whatever else you need even including complex outputs like the ST series SBIG cameras need (2 voltages, 5v and 12v but also needs independent plus and minus 12v supply lines)

240vAC is noisy and can add in noise to your signal lines especially high speed USB camera data - so the less 240v cabling and power adapters you have around your astro gear the better.

[glend]

Spot weld vertically a couple of pieces of steel angle to the cylinder, you can mount a power board to that. Make sure you earth the pier if it is not already done,