When I touch a sharp bit of unpainted metal (edge of a nut) on my mount with the back of my finger I can feel a tingle from electrical leakage. This happens with the mount switched on or off as long as power is plugged in.
Is this just the result of using the mount body for earth or whaT?
I've felt this too
I can only think of it as related to their filtering circuitry
If the power adaptor is a regulated one with a filtered output, it shouldn't happen
I've been meaning to check the waveform with an oscilloscope
Had the same problem myself. I don't know about your system, but in my case it's due to the switchmode power supply I use. These have high spec capacitors that connect the floating output back to the mains in order to short out EMI/RFI. Designers of such power supplies strike a balance between interference supression and mains leakage and if they try to reduce the EMI too much you can feel the slight mains leakage current. Mine was really quite annoying when I put my eye against the polar scope, so I drove a metal stake into the earth and connected that to the mount when using it on my jarrah pier (a metal pier would fix the problem). I guess it would be possible to use a temporary earth stake with the tripod as well, but haven't tried it.
Make sure that your mains supply is properly wired and has an RCD - and maybe consider using a battery pack, which gets round the problem entirely and would be an ideal solution if you are concerned.
Maybe there is an electrical engineer on the forum who could give further advice?
Uh thanks guys. Aside from the cryptics I understood about 14% of the technical stuff. I do use house power with a earth return breaker so am not feeling threatened. Just worried it might be something affecting the performance of the mount.
Thanks again
Peter
Hi Pete,
How old is the mount? Can't say I've felt leakage on mine which so far has been on the mains, but have just got a battery to avoid the long extension cord.
Matt
If you don't run around with the mount - earth it. Connect a thick wire to a long (20cm+) metal rod (very large nail is perfect) and clamp it with a hose clamp to the mounts leg. Then push the nail into the ground. Done!
