• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

And here we thought that cube taps were bad practice...

That power strip is so large and has so many outlets, it doesn't matter how terrible a hand of garbage wall warts you were dealt, you could shoehorn them all in. And even if you had a mess of wall warts, the total power draw would max be like 5 amps.
Click to expand...

My mind reels at the number of cords one of these fully populated by wall warts would have...
 
"This power strip is FCC and RoHS certified"

Neither of which have the slightest bit to do with safety. Do they also have the "China Export" logo?

Chuck(G) said:
The big problem with many of the older heavier wall warts is that they'd fall out of a power strip mounted on the underside of a table or bench. I've used the short extension cords to bring the warts over the edge of the table and onto the top.
Click to expand...

The reason you don't see big transformer warts anymore is that copper costs too much compared to even a well-designed switching supply. They save even more on the trash you see in Big Clive videos.
 
i remember when i plugged my 110v beard trimmer into a uk outlet with a similar adapter. I thought the device was gonna explode it was running so fast... lesson learned
 
A lot of times there is a special outlet in the bathrooms in the UK that has a transformer in it for using 115V shavers. They usually have warning on them that say shaver only because the transformer is low wattage.

If I understand correctly there were a lot of restrictions against using 240V stuff in wet areas, so shavers and even a lot of construction/power tools were made to run at 115V.
 
Big difference between North America and the UK wrt 110V power tools. In the UK, the 110V secondary of a power tool transformer is grounded/earthed at the center tap, so it's really 55-0-55 with respect to ground. NA grounds the neutral side of the line at the distribution panel, so it's 120V-0.

Something to be aware of if you use a tool transformer to power a NA-origin piece of electronic gear.
I don't know what 100V Japanese practice is.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Well, to be fair, most things use a USB supply, so a simple large 5VDC supply to a lot of USB A receptacles could handle things with a single AC plug.
Click to expand...

I don't know where these "most things" are, but the equipment I deal with never uses USB anything, and always has a menagerie of voltages. 5, 7.5, 9, 12, 15, 18, 18.5, 19, 19.5, 20, 24, 48, 52. Same with barrel connector sizes being all over the map, which is a good thing if you don't want to accidentally 52v to your 12v device.

Chuck(G) said:
But I think we're past the day of 20VAC, 13.2VDC, reversed polarity, etc. wall warts. I haven't purchased anything in a long time that doesn't use a USB-socketed supply. Even my flashlight...
Click to expand...

Most definitely aren't.
 
I must be leading a charmed life. All of my 'warts currently in use are either 5V or 12V DC. I do confess to having a large box of warts accumulated over the years with voltages (both DC and AC) all over the place. But how many cellphones charge with something other than the USB 5V?
 
I think I still have a network hub somewhere around there that I threw away the 14VDC wall wart for and powered it from a Grid power supply brick. Heavy bugger, but it runs cool.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I must be leading a charmed life. All of my 'warts currently in use are either 5V or 12V DC. I do confess to having a large box of warts accumulated over the years with voltages (both DC and AC) all over the place. But how many cellphones charge with something other than the USB 5V?
Click to expand...

Uh, basically all of them since years ago when Lightning in 2012 and USB-C in 2014 became the norm.

Phones have long since switched to fast chargers, which can push up to 20 volts at 5 amps, depending on what the phone and the charger negotiate.

If phones and tablets had to use ancient 5v 1a charging, they would actively drain the battery faster than it could be charged if the device wasn't completely idle with everything closed.
 
Well, see--I'm not a cellphone person. Mostly my phone gets charged by a 5V solar panel. Shows how much I actually use the thing. You don't get much data with 2G service.
Heck, my email server runs off a 5V wall wart. Of course, it's headless, so no fancy GUI involved. I wonder what part of a typical cellphone's or even PC's power consumption is dedicated to making pretty pictures.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top