You keep using that relay. I do not think it does what you think it does.

Once upon a, I was an electrician on an aircraft carrier. Nowadays, I do in-house support for commercial food-processing machines.

Weirdly enough, Users are Users, no matter what the field.

***

I love users. Don't you love users? Users come up with the most bizarre stuff sometimes. I got this email a few days ago.

>User: We have machine ####. There is a plug-in for our machine that sends a signal every time the machine cycles. We use this to count how many products are being made. On Monday, it started sending two pulses down the line instead of one. This is messing up our counts. Please advise.

I look up the electrical drawings. Sure enough, there is a relay who's output is connected to a little 4-pin on the outside of the box, labeled 'For Customer Use'. Okay, cool. I go look at the programming.

I look harder at the programming. Programming is not my specialty, so I go ask the guy that programmed it if I'm seeing this correctly. He agrees. I squint some more. I sigh. I respond.

>Me: That relay is energized any time the machine is turned on, not when it cycles. It should not be pulsing during operation at any point. Please check the wiring in these areas to determine what relay you are actually hooked into.

Customers, man.

^(Such a signal is usually used by a customers conveyor or something like that, so that it goes when the machine is on.)