You know, it seems like all the pansies in here who go into cardiac arrest when they lick a 9 volt battery are all also quoting British regs. How did your island go from running the world to needing a 40 hour class and 9000 pages of code on how to open a juice box?

@ too many to list, esp. Electrical engineers!
April fools, but that’s been said.
Instead of maligning them about being out of sync, and the inherent dangers of this, how about directing on appropriate methods to sync signal. Why aren’t there more homebrew green power systems on here? We are hackers, we don’t want to spend $3k on a good invertor to connect our homemade solar and wind generators (geothermal, hydro, nuclear, waste oil, methane, trash burning…) I’d already have at least two systems in place if I could find how to tie it in without blowing up, burning out, burning up, or making my clocks run fast.
If you have the know how, SHARE IT, or don’t come here. Your knowledge could save a life.

For april fools this year I gave pocket knives to some kids at the middle school across the street, it was hilarious! This one kid cut his teacher’s face up so bad, hahaha!

Wait, now pocket knifes are too dangerous to give to middle schoolers? When do they get a folding knife now? When they are juniors in college (if they have declared knifery as a major?)

I got a swiss army knife when I was six. Never carved anyone up with it. Heaven forbid we give a tool to a child. They might make something.

Wow. I know it’s an April Fool’s joke and all, but this is absurdly dangerous. It’d be funny if the instructions were to tie all three pins to ground, but this writeup’s a tad too serious.

If your generator gets wired into the mains by accident, and you’re (un)lucky enough that your generator is running at a full 180 degree phase shift from the main, you’ve just made your mains TWICE as deadly.

Oh, and yes I am an EE, so don’t say that all EE’s are against this.

@Torque, it’s really, really hard to synch properly. If you’re generating DC and want to use solid state conversion, you need some heavy duty semiconductors, which will set you back thousands. A three-phase generator needs synch electronics, a mechanical governor, and hardest of all, a balanced load on each phase.

It’s a good idea, it’s just harder than your average hack. And since you’re talking wall juice, it’s also got to be safer. Fail safe and fail soft systems are also a lot harder to make.

Hi All,

I agree that putting together a step-by-step howto, lowers the bar to include ppl that won’t think about/understand the consequences of actually doing this and so is inherently a ‘bad idea’.

_But_ I have personally used this kind of cable to backfeed a rack from a different circuit, when the local circuit developed a fault in our data center. I plugged the disboards male connector into a free slot on the same disboard to make the flying male connector safe (& also isolating the rack), and used a male-to-male cable to power the rack from a circuit in a different room (could have been a gen!). This avoided an 18-hour outage on the services running on this rack.

One last point, that I haven’t seen mentioned, is that using a male-2-male cable is ‘very’ dangerous as we are all conditioned to think that the pins on a male plug are safe – muscle memory is a powerful thing to overcome, and raaching out and grabbing a male plug is the most natural thing in the world!

Preaching to the choir, but knowledge is power, with power comes risk!

Just be careful out there you crazy kids :oP

This.

What is this?

This is madness. Are you trying to hurt someone?

Wow, This stired up a shitstorm,

We used something like this a whiel back, we had a bunch of servers on a powerstrip that was on an outlet that needed to be replaced, so we checked another outlet to see if it was on the same phaze, plugged a widomaker cord like this into the powerstrip and the new outlet, (keeping all the equipment powered while we move its main plug over.

No zaps no zarks, no death. the whole thing was treated with respect, Don’t do it if you don’t know how to be safe.

years ago there were some punks squatting in an old house nearby, they used this technique to power the kitchen circuit every night when the nextdoor gas-station was closed, allowed them to keep foodl cold in the fridge and run some lights and a boombox.

This isn’t madness. THIS. IS. SPARTA!

Anyone that thinks this isn’t illegal, I’m talking to you @Phelps, think again, as people have already expressed you won’t just kill yourself screwing this up you could kill the electrical companies repair man that’s fixing problems outside, this is illegal in not just all states but MOST COUTNRIES, it is a double ended male cable…. illegal. Don’t try it, don’t think about trying it, don’t spread this stupidity by telling others what a great idea it is. DO NOT DO THIS ANYWHERE ESPECIALLY AT HOME!!!!!!!!!

Nonya: Actually, the on-board breaker would trip.

Preston, try to follow me here.

Killing people is illegal.

Having a particular piece of electrical wire is not.

Are you going to get it UL listed? Nope. Does that make it illegal? Nope.

Being free means having the right do stupid things.

This hack has saved me thousands of dollars! I ran one of these over to my neighbor’s house!
Now I leave my electric furnace turned up to 85 degrees – even on the coldest winter days!

Oh yeah, irresponsible. While we are at it, let’s ban paper clips! And let’s ban breadboard jumpers, those will fit into an outlet and burn someone almost immediately! Let’s weld all the microwaves shut, seal all the electronics, put a sign in/out sheet beside all the outlets, and put Depends on all the crybabies here who poop themselves at the idea of anyone doing anything that could possibly in any way go not absolutely right.

It’s the same, just give it yellow stripe up the back and put a frilly pink bow on it.

FUCK YOU PERRY VALE.

… now how to work an arduino in to this cord….

These aren’t just useful for hooking up a generator.

My garage doesn’t have power run to it. Running a power line there permanently isn’t really an option. So I just wired the garage with lights and outlets and use this cord(commonly called a widow maker) to provide power to the garage when I need it.

Yes, these cords can be dangerous. So can 90% of the other tools we use however.

This is just bad. Not even funny for April 1st. If you even accidentally forget to flip off your main breaker and run this you can kill someone. That 13.2KV or 4800V to 240V step down transformer in your neighborhood all the sudden becomes a 120V to 4800V or 13.2KV step up transformer. Whoever is working on the lines outside (either in your neighborhood, or several miles away if you live in a rural area) can get killed.

They don’t call this a suicide plug for no reason.

Clearly this is a joke.

A) there is no arduino
and
B) there is no instructable.

These are two key elements of a successful project.

It’s one of those things, pretzels won’t kill you ’til it kills you, but when it does, you don’t get a warning and you don’t get a second chance.

Ban pretzels.

I’ve had to use this exact thing a few times before. When I kicked out a renter who hadn’t paid the bills in a while, I had to get the lights on so we could clean up the disaster left behind. Defiantly not recommended, but in a bind, this will make your life a lot easier, provided you live of course. ;)

1. TURN OFF YOUR MAIN BREAKER. If you don’t you’re a fool.
2. Leave a note on your breaker panel, indicating that you have the house on generator power, and not to flip the main. Any utility worker would much rather see a note that you’ve done this, rather than find out later the had way.
3. Turn off all non-essential breakers. Heat/AC, pool, whatever.
4. Male to male connect the generator to the highest amp socket you can find. Use a surge protector if you can. And fire it up.

If you need the other phase working in the house, get another male to male cable and link a working socket to a non-working socket.

I’d advise unplugging anything electronic, computers and whatnot. This setup isn’t extremely safe, but if you need light, and you can’t have your food go bad in an emergency, this might be your only good option. Be safe.

When we used these in college we called them ‘suicide cords’. Dangerous but if careful, not fatal. Just don’t turn the mains back on until you unplug the genset.

Stop whining and have a sense of humor.

this is a april fools joke right?

cause’ if its not, this is some sick, twisted shit.

even in the Federation we don’t crossover plasma conduits while the warp core is still on!

wow … this is the first time i have posted a comment after reading for so many years…. its funny how some fucking morons can not read tags :P

Now if you were really smart, buy two extension cords and a 240v plug for the generator. Wire it so the two cords are on opposite phases of the 240v plug. Plug the cords into two circuits on opposite phases of your house. Crack open a beer and enjoy sitting in your nice warm hot tub while the neighbors freeze in the ice storm.

This ISN’T a joke, regardless of what their intentions might have been in posting it. It ISN’T funny. I know that some hacks are dangerous, and while I don’t have much problem with that, THIS IS DIFFERENT. This is a hack that, specifically, doesn’t put the hacker in the primary danger, it puts an unknowing electrical lineman in danger. Saying “HA HA, it’s April Fools. Everyone should know that it’s a joke and not take it seriously.” is reckless to the level of idiocy. There is a good chance that SOMEONE will try doing this because they saw the article and that someone will be killed or seriously injured as a direct result of this article.

Oh, and yes, there is a good chance that if someone finds you feeding power back into the system from your generator (and, especially, if someone is injured because of it) you could be charged with something like reckless endangerment depending on what jurisdiction you live in.

Please people, if you’re stupid enough to use this the wrong way (without switching off the mains or pulling fuses) then go right ahead, the frying of your moronic body will be entertainment for the masses.

I think everyone is missing a great pun here:
The results of this product could be… shocking!

@lowlysoundtech: You are far less likely to electrocute yourself by doing this than you are to cause the death of the electric company repair man working down the street to fix your power.

@Sir Blotto of the Bawx:
“To make a cross-over cable, the ‘neutral’ and ‘hot’ should be swapped, while the ‘ground’ stays where it is.”

Piffle and Balderdash! I say go one better and rotate each conductor one position counter-clockwise.

And soak the cable in gasoline first. Everyone knows a wet cable conducts electricity better.

While the voltage might be 110V at your cable, by the time it gets upconverted by the pole transformer the voltage will be much higher, easily enough to kill a linesman.

Stupid post – delete it.

I just filed this one away in my brain for the end of the world/apocalypse.

So when the grid goes down for good and can power my shit.

Wow! 166 comments and counting.
The majority of which seem to be idiots thinking this is serious!
Or otherwise they know its an april fools joke and are still serious about how its irresponsible to april fools people with mains voltage articles, clearly not realising you’d need to be a person whos looked after 24/7/365 by social workers to even think this was a serious article!
Epic jesting HaD, well done! Well done too for not putting any subtle jokey stuffs in there, it confuses them ever more poignantly!

After reading this website for a number of years this is the first time I have felt the need to leave a reply to a post.

I’m fully aware that this is an April Fools prank but as a professional engineer I would hate to think of this guide falling into the hands of someone who does not fully understand what they are doing.

It is extremely naive, if not reckless for hackaday.com to think that all readers will comprehend what they are doing and carry it out in a safe manner. Please remove this post before someone gets hurt!

Everyone saying it is dangerous and stuff, wont anyone think of the lawyers?

ffs, at least put a warning in the post that *if* you are using it to supply mains-level current to a circuit without mains voltage (i.e. in the case of power loss) that you //remove your circuit (your house) from mains// so that you don’t kill a line worker servicing the lines.

not disputing the usefulness of this post, but *some* semblance of responsibility would be nice. dumbasses frying themselves is natural selection in action. dumbasses frying some guy getting called out to work late on some downed lines is irresponsible.

lost a lot of respect for you guys with this one.

Trying to run your house during a power outage is like this is just begging for it to burn down.

The wires around your house are like branches of trees. They start out thick and end up narrow at the sockets. When you feed it power the wrong way, the thinner cable inside your wall heats up and can melt its insulation, leading to a short circuit and a fire inside the walls.

That’s why “patch cables” like this are illegal in many countries where the officals have any sense.

@NewGuy
Yes A diode might rectify the problem. :)

We used one of these growing up to power an RV when it was “docked” with the house.

Also, be careful using something like this as each circuit in your circuit breaker is probably only 20 amps or less (that’s standard rating).

my thoughts on this:

This Works in a pinch with all the provisos.

Cry babies need a change.

April fools is the fact that they made the step by step, not that they made the hack. ‘Cause it is a Hack, a dangerous-if-incorrectly-used hack (the best kind).

And the fact that this generated 100+ posts of OMFG Danjar! makes this Less april fools, and more face palm..

Hackaday carebears are the worst thing.
“Don’t mess with mains power! You’ll die!”
“You might kill a linesman!”
“Wear a helmet! I don’t care if you’re only going 15mph!”
“Where are your safety goggles?! You’ll go blind forever if you take them off!”
“Don’t play in the road, you’ll get run over!”
“Don’t go outside, there are pedophiles!”
“Why aren’t you in your sterile bubble-suit?!”
“Fun is evil! You have to dilute it with copious amounts of safety!”

Awful people. An internet that tries to censor “unsafe” or “irresponsible” websites is not one I’d like to use. Get hired as a nanny if you need to vent, but don’t put that shit here; nobody’s going to take this article down just because you’re butthurt.

This is coming from a electrical power engineer:

You would be exceeding the current carrying capabilities of the cable and the wall socket to feed the house. Let alone backfeeding into the breaker box therefore defeating the circuit breakers. Subsequently if the main breaker wasn’t turned off, the power would backfeed to the outside transformer on the pole (acting as a step up transformer), thus inducing deadly line voltages. This is extremely dangerous to line workers while performing repairs (many have died from backfeeding generators). When I worked on the storm restoration crew, we always looked and listened for running generators. You never know when some idiot is doing exactly this!

Yeah I know, “April Fools”, but honestly this shows you exactly how to KILL yourself or someone ELSE. Come on.

If Tesla were raised in the world of today, he would have accomplished nothing.

While this is slightly dangerous, I have to say it’s kind of tame compared to power line hacks of the 1980′s. Heck, I remember reading a 2600 article back-in-the-day about hooking up a generator to the primary phone hub for a specific area code, causing murder and mayhem for all lines in that area. No offense to the reader base, but creating a CNC milling machine out of junk parts and adapting video games to your treadmill isn’t what hacking used to be, that’s what engineering used to be. Hacking used to be dangerous.

Dumbest most dangerous post on the planet. If you forget to flip your main breaker and backfeed into the grid you can kill linemen miles away. Do yourself a favor and go hack a fisher-price walkie talkie or something.

@operat0r:
Either your dad doesn’t know what he’s doing, or you misquoted him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector#NEMA_L6
An L6-30P is a twistlock 240 volt 30 amp plug. It does not have a neutral, only two hots and ground. You would not be able to run 120 volt devices. On top of that, twistlock outlets are rarely ever found in a house.
A standard dryer plug is a 14-30P. Two hots, one neutral, and ground.
Using #4 wire would not allow you to supply your entire house, as a (normal) dryer circuit is only rated for 30 amps, and is wired with #10 wire.

@hawkeye:
I may be inexperienced, but (so far) I’ve never seen a portable generator without 15 or 20 amp breakers for the Edisons, so I don’t see how you could seriously overload a typical circuit…

If anyone actually attempts this, I’d recommend you don’t just disconnect your main breaker, but the breaker of the circuit you’re powering too. Depending on the impedance/resistance of your 240 volt appliances, you could actually end up with a bit of power on the other hot wire, which in turn may find its way back to neutral through 120 volt appliances on the (supposedly) unpowered hot wire. This could potentially damage your appliances, so isolate the circuit you’re powering from them by flipping that breaker.

On top of that, what about the neutral-ground bond in the main panel? Assuming the generator has a neutral-ground bond as well, you would end up with half the neutral current flowing through the ground conductor (not exactly safe). Or even better, what if Mr. Smartypants decides to be “safe” and drive a ground rod for his generator, and then connect it to his house with this cable? Can you say ground currents?

The metal connector housing is clearly an april fools joke. At the moment you try to pull this connector that probably overheated… (Btw. you should use wire end ferrules or solder with lace wire in this kind of clamp.)

Come on… this kind of application almost demands an accident to happen.

Anyway… you should know what you are doing.