Inspector Gizmo is absolutely correct in all he has said so far including the 10' rule. Not so sure about inspectors knowing the code that well but
point is to do a professional job and not worry about if or if not it's imspected.
It's somewhat unfortunate but common that people do things to get a show up and running safe and good practice or not the show must go on.
Did they give you back your plugs? Dependant upon the brand or skill
level of those that can install them, it might be easy and cheap enough just to re-install the old plugs if in good condition back on your cable. At that
point you would only be charged labor. This given it's not volcunized / injection molded plugs or old style CamLoc that most of the time while you can extract the pin, doing so unless just right will destroy the
plug or it's insert pin.
Many newer brands and of Cam type connectors out there, your electrical supply
house can also provide them and the adaptors should you find a tech person to come out and install them for you. Suicide
adaptor is a new one on me but I understand where the term might come from.
Advanced Devices/mancuro,
Leviton,
Hubbell, Pass & Seymore amongst many brands make this type of
plug and it's a universal fit between brands.
Theater supply, rental company, movie
house etc, most will probably have at least one person on staff that's trained in installing them. I just spent the last couple days making dozens of them for productions. Not my favorite cable to
build but easy enough once you start going. Your supplier can probably
send someone out to install them but it might be better to bring them in so as to save on on-site charges. Make sure you tell them what
gauge of
wire your
jumper is using because there is two sizes to the
plug in matching a variety of sizes of cable. #2-2/0 and 2/0-4/0.
It's not really that hard to install and dependant upon the brand, does not require too many other than standard tools. Might be able to get instruction on it. The torque wrench is probably the most expensive part. Some people don't use them, don't trust such people to work on your plugs. There is a very specific torque that must be applied on something that can carry up to 400A of
current. Most plugs no longer require the pin insertion press - though they can get stuck and using it makes life much easier. Main custom thing you would need is a set of male and female locking wrenches that cost about as much as a new
plug.
While having the cable fixed, have them make and sell you a set of "
tails". This would be a 10'
jumper with a bare end which could go into a set of lugs in a generator or
power distro, which than your
jumper cable would
plug into. Had this already been available, your
jumper will not have been cut.
Double female
neutral and grounds.... never seen that before. My guess would be that the theater is wired as per the reverse
neutral and
ground technique that prevents the wrong color of
conductor from plugging into the wrong
terminal, and the
dimmer pack is using the other standard of all the same sex.
Does it need to be changed? It would be nice to have a unified
system and at least than you would have a 50% chance of being right in using your gear with other people's. On the other
hand, done is good, just keep some MM adaptors around for which ever end of
neutral/
ground is incorrect. that's not a bad thing though due to torque issues it might be better to have them as a
cord mounted turn around than
barrel mounted one.
The extra length of the turn around when added to the weight and length of the
plug can damage the panel mounted
outlet at times. Instead a short say 18" male male
jumper would ensure the added length is not a problem. Not an idea used much but a good one.
