Shocking training session - literally!

ariege_cyclist
ariege_cyclist Posts: 98
edited March 2011 in Training, fitness and health
Ok, it's not yet April 1st so you can take this seriously.
A week or so back I was doing a nice 2x20 session on the rollers, with the earphones in and the laptop on for some music.
Once I'd warmed up and started to sweat a bit I started to get small electric shocks in my ears!! If I put a hand out to touch a sold surface it all stopped but if I was only touching the bike the shcoks resumed. I guess I was generating a lot of static on the rollers and this was finding its way to earth via the earphones. But it's a bit odd as the laptop isn't earthed.
Any other explanations, or recommendations for earphones that are maybe a bit better insulated than my bog standard ones that came with an old MP3 player?
By the way, I managed to get one ear shock-free by moving the earphone about a bit, but continued to get shocks in the left ear and went on to complete the session, the pain from the shocks didn't seem too bad after 20minutes at close to FTP.... :lol:

Comments

  • Thick Tester
    Thick Tester Posts: 380
    Just wire yourself into the national grid and be done with it.
  • owenlars
    owenlars Posts: 719
    Thick Tester wrote:
    Just wire yourself into the national grid and be done with it.

    No point they have just cut the feed in tariff to something miserly :evil:
  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 16,532
    it might be static...

    in which case you can solve this by attaching an earth wire to the bike - presumably it's metal framed - just drape the wire on an unpainted part and it should solve the problem

    it might be the laptop...

    you mention the laptop isn't earthed, if it was plugged into the charger then due to leakage and capacitive coupling all the electronics and attached metal bits will have quite a high voltage on them - with no earth they are often 'floating' at mains voltage

    the current is very low so there's no danger, you will not normally be aware of this as most laptops have plastic cases, so you never make contact with a 'live' part

    it's a common effect with electronic equipment powered by small switchmode power supplies, most have no earth, so you get the leakage

    your earphones will be at the same voltage, so as you get hot there might be enough moisture to make a circuit and charge you to the same voltage, then you get a very small shock as it discharges

    you can solve this by attaching an earth wire to any exposed metal parts of the laptop, if there's a video port then poke a wire in one of the threaded points either side, or simply wrap a fine wire around the outer conductor of your earphone plug before plugging it in to the laptop
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • ariege_cyclist
    ariege_cyclist Posts: 98
    Thanks sungod, I'll try the wire from the video port threaded connector next time I'm on the rollers. With this weather and the clocks about to go forward I'm hoping that wont be for a while :)

    I'll have to look in to capacitive coupling (I'm more of a mechanical engineer) as I hadn't realised a laptop could get high(ish) voltages, maybe I'd be better off digging out the MP3 player, but then I wouldn't have spotify to choose from...
  • 3leggeddog
    3leggeddog Posts: 150
    It could be down to your clothing, lycra shorts? build up loads of charge.
  • ozzzyosborn206
    ozzzyosborn206 Posts: 1,340
    any reason you can't just play music through some speakers or through the laptop? must be a bit annoying having headphones in while on the rollers anyway.....
  • ozzzyosborn206
    ozzzyosborn206 Posts: 1,340
    any reason you can't just play music through some speakers or through the laptop? must be a bit annoying having headphones in while on the rollers anyway.....
  • ariege_cyclist
    ariege_cyclist Posts: 98
    Well my laptop has rubbish speakers and I don't have any others in the room where the rollers are.
    No problems with earphones on the rollers, as long as the wire is long enough and looped out of my way, plus I can have it as loud as I want without disturbing anyone.
    My old laptop never had this problem, but I can't say if it's the laptop or the earphones as they are both new.
    Maybe I'm just going so fast I create massive amounts of static :wink:
    Plus the rollers are plastic which might not be helping.

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