Electric shock proof convertor: Innovation by Kshetrimayum Nicolson

When a person accidentally touches naked wires, faulty electrical appliances and switches, one gets electric shock. So far there is no any electrical gadget alert about an electric shock. 33 years old Kshetrimayum Nicholson developed an electrical gadget Electric shock proof convertor .it alerts whenever there is any possibility of electric shock as it converts all normal electrical currents to shock-free power lines.

For this outstanding innovative pursuits on electrical shock proof convertor, Ksh. Nicolson hailing from Wangkhei Koijam Leikai was awarded the Grassroots Innovator Award in 2009 by the National Innovative Foundation, New Delhi.

An enthusiastic innovator, Nickolson has some other innovations to his credit like the reuse of fused tube lights, longer lasting modified tube light choke, and movable solar energy panel. Recognising his talent, he was invited to participate in the Third Inventors of India workshop at IIM, Ahmedabad in October 2006 where he described his innovations to other invited innovators of the country. The University of Chicago and the Massachussets Instituteof Technology’s Centre also invited himfor Bits and Atoms Fourth International Fab Lab Forum and Symposium on Digital Fabrication Conference.

Nickolson son of Ksh. Indrajit was brought up with a humble family background. Nicolson who could not continue his studies after Class X due to health problems has an unquenchable desire to bring out many more ground breaking innovations in life.  His domain of creativity and imagination is limitless. Since his early childhood days, he had always been a difficult child with very inquisitive mind wanting to do new things on his own ways. Such level headedness often landed him in troubles on many occasions, and got severe rebukes from his father time and again.

At present, under the financial support of National Innovative Fund, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure Finance Commission Division, Nicolson has opened up an electronics centre at Wangkhei called International Grassroot Innovator Network Innovation to Entrepreneur which deals with Electronics (in short,  IGNITE, Electrical and Mechanical and Radio active element substance). He is providing trainings to many youth of the state on electrical and electronics under his guide. The shock free convertor device developed by him has been a good choice for many costumers with heavy demands in the market.

“Apart from innovating electric shock proof convertor, I am thinking of developing a new electrical gadget which can reduce consumption of electric energy. Such device will be useful for consumers under pre-paid meter system as it would save money with minimizing consumption”, Nicolson revealed his future plan.

Nickolson’s father, a retired electrician of RIMS was his mentor who taught him  all the basics of electrical components, and more importantly the precautions one needs to take to avoid any possible electrical shock while dealing with repairing works. His father also bought many electronic books to read so that Nickolson could also learn theoretical part of it. To upgrade his skill level, he was sent to a private electronic center for four months. After acquiring his basic skills, he again branched out to learn power transmission system. Young Nicolson  keenly observed the activities of his father who used to repair all kinds of electrical appliances.  Following the footsteps of his father, he learned the basics of electrical machineries from his father from a very young age and started helping his father in repairing electrical appliances.

After retirement of his father, both the father and son opened an electrical repairing store in Uripok, Imphal. In one of those repairing sessions, Nicolson once got a serious electric shock. From then onwards he started thinking about electronic equipments, without the danger of having electric shocks. He first consulted his father about availability of such devices, but got no definitive answer. He was told that he had not come across any such device that protects from electric shock. That was the trigger for Nickolson to come up with a device that would solve problems of all electrical devices users and provide answers to his unresolved questions.

 Both father and son had discussions on this issue on many occasions and concluded the only possible way to prevent electric shock was to prevent the output phase electron flow or earthing energy passing through to any living body. 

Nickolson then started experimenting on his new concept for years and finally he came up with the first device in 2003. Though he had used the device in his workshop he was afraid to do a thorough test or tell others about the machine.  And in fact it was his father who found out the device first. One day his father came to the store for some repairing works; he kept the switches on and started working. Accidentally he touched on of the live wires but felt no electric shock. Till then he didn’t know that his son had developed the device and the line he was working on was the output line of the device.

Then he called Nickolson and informed him about his experience. Nickolson also repeated the same process and realized that the live wires didn’t have any shock. Both father and son were very excited having achieved their long cherished dreams and the first prototype of electric shock proof device was born.        

Electric shock proof is an electronic device  attached to the main electricity board of the house, which converts all electrical lines to shock free power lines. NIF facilitated the testing of his device at IIT Guwahati, which evaluated it and has explained it as below.  

At the input stage a Multiphase change over through Automatic switch is built in. This comprises 3 relays and 3 transformers. Purpose of this mechanism is to automatically provide single phase output from 3 phase input when any phase fails or all the phases are active but we need only single phase output as is the case with most of the domestic appliances. Significance of this phase is that input voltage has been reduced to low output voltage so that it will not cause electric shock.

Output from stage 1 i.e. Multiphase change over through Automatic switch is fed to second stage called as Double phase/High Voltage vs. Normal Voltage device. In this device 1 relay and 2 transformers are used. Here in case of high voltage due to mixing of 2 or more phases of input supply is taken care of. Also if there is any touch by human being at the final output stages on the live wire, its relay immediately switch the phase to no current stage and prevent electric shock.

Output stage uses a specially fabricated transformer with winding for both primary and secondary coils. This transformer steps up the voltage to usable voltage of 220 volts.

So when there is a contact of human being at the output stage even with the live wire, due to the relay in the second stage, electricity circuit becomes open through the relay. Hence there is no electric shock. If a man touches both the wires in the output stage, he gets shock. This aspect is found advantageous for domestic purpose for shockproof working of appliances without any loss of current and also applicable for electric heaters etc. drawing high current compared to electric lights etc.

The device can be constructed rugged enough to withstand poor current characteristics that can facilitate its use in conjunction with captive electric generator source too without manual change over and in rural areas where current quality is poor with low voltage, higher fluctuation. This is a very useful device for every household/commercial establishment with electrical installation.