Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald
Many USB powered external optical drives designed for netbooks and laptops come with a Y cable that plugs into two USB ports so they draw enough power to run the drive.
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Be careful using Y cables or multiple power connections on devices that were not designed for it. It is easy to burn things up (I have seen it done). The problem is that the devices are not designed to properly isolate one power supply from the other. If the ground (earth) leads are not properly isolated, then you get 'neutral fault' short-circuits that will burn up power supplies and the devices connected to them faster than you can say 'boo'.
Some of you who have played with building-to-building cat-5 network cables might have seen this phenomenon in a slightly different setting -- ground differentials. I have been thrown across a room by touching one end of a grounded cable that was plugged into a switch in another building. Not at all fun.
