Black_Paladin said:
I actually knew someone would say exactly what you said. I'm assuming that the reason only 3 people replied to this thread is because nobody bothered to respond seeing that I don't know anything about electrical wiring.
I have no idea why there weren't more responses to your thread. As far as I know, it was because no one else who looked at it knew the answer.
I know that what I said in my last post was harsh, but when I said, "What I think you need to do, is find someone who knows something about electrical wiring, show him this thread, and have him do it for you, or at least demonstrate the general ideas to you.", I meant it sincerely. It would take someone who knew how to do this stuff about 10 seconds to show you what it would take me an hour to try to explain in the forum.
And I'm serious about this being dangerous. Working with line voltage can kill you. It's a lot less dangerous if you know what you are doing. I do know what I'm doing, and I've been in the situation of being electrocuted so badly that I was unable to control any of my actions and the only reason I am alive is because I was standing up, and fell away from the equipment shocking me. I've got scars on both hands to show for it. That was 480V and not 120V, but the potential for such a situation is still there. Take my word for it, it's not much fun standing there realizing that you are likely to die soon, and not even be able to scream.
Well, an idiot I might be BUT I am willing to learn if people are willing to explain. Everything you told me has been very helpful and I appreciate you posting but you saying that I shouldn't have even gotten into this thing just makes me sad.
I don't think you are an idiot. You clearly have better writing skills than 90% of the people posting in these forums. That said, everyone has different talents.
I have very strong talents in some areas relevant to engineering. In a very meaningful sense, I
was born an engineer. I've never had to do anything to develop these talents. I just grew up having them. I also have very significant cognitive weaknesses. 93% of the population is better at doing some things than I am. How do I know this? Because I had myself tested for learning disabilities, and I tested positive.
So am I an idiot? In some ways, yes. Am I a genius? In some ways, yes. Believe me, I don't consider anyone to be a total idiot based on the amount of talent they show in one particular area.
You say that you are willing to learn. That's great, but willingness to learn can't necessarily replace having the knack for something. I don't mean to be discouraging. I just know from my own personal experience, that life's a lot easier when I recognize where I have talent, and where I have a serious lack of talent. It doesn't mean that I don't do things that I lack talent for, it just means that I accept that I'm not likely to do as well as most people. If someone says, "You really suck at that.", I just say, "You're right, I do really suck at that." I'm okay with being really lousy at some things, because I know that's just how I'm wired.
When it comes to dangerous situations though, it's a different story. I touch electrical circuits in devices with 600 VAC connected to them on a regular basis. It doesn't bother me to do this at all, because I can
see where the danger is. I don't get the impression that you can
see the danger though. Maybe it's only lack of knowledge, and not lack of talent, but regardless, I can't in good conscience advise you to do this on your own. I'd rather hear that you are sad, than dead.
To borrow a line from Clint Eastwood, "A man's got to know his limitations."
I know you are trying to help but when you tell me something like: "Ok, take 1 six inch wire. Cut the wire in half. You will have two three inch wires", then I am thinking if I should just cut the wires coming from my pump into 2. If I do, then I end up with 2 seperate pieces of wire that are not connected to each other in any way and that gets me confused.
Now I understand that you meant to say that I should just remove the insulation on the wires to be able to connect them to more than one place and not actually cut them in half, shortening them. That was the impression I got when you kept telling me to cut the wires. To me, when you say, cut a wire, that means this:
Whereas now, I see that you meant to say this:
No. When I said, "cut the wire", I meant, "cut the wire", cut it clean through, so that it is two completely seperate pieces of wire.
Again, lack of either knowledge or talent (quite possibly on both our parts) is making it extremely difficult for me to communicate about this stuff with you. I don't feel at all comfortable recommending that you do this on your own.
I don't want you to feel bad, but I seriously believe that you should find someone to help you out with this in person. It's just too hard to do via an internet forum.
