Red Sea Mall death-dapter teardown
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มิ.ย. 2024
- On his travels around the world, Vince the crew chief kindly bought me a suitably shady looking death-daptor to examine. The first and strangest fail was the wrongly colour coded pins.
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/ bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Hi Clive! I am a viewer from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This pile of crap came from Danube Super Market inside the Red Sea mall. I know this because Danube is the only one sells this damn thing
I worked in Jeddah about 30 years ago. Not sure about Red Sea Mall but visited Jamjoom quite a lot. Is it still there?
The brown and blue covers are a great explanation for the rule: either make it symmetrical/interchangable or make them different enough to be completely incompatible
Thanks, Vince The Crew-Chief!
Cheers
It's going to be awfully hard to beat that death-dapter from years ago with the spring-loaded live electrocution prongs.
What video was that from u rember the doll with flames from her anus
hmm, yeah, i got one from a cheapo shop a few years back for my collection 😁
Link for those curious: th-cam.com/video/hvOTiQKkQMo/w-d-xo.html
Ah yes, the death-dapter with integrated "lamp tester".
I've just watched it ! HOLY KRAP ! the *"DEATH PLUG !"*
Worked in Jeddah for about 3 months about 30 years ago. Weird electrics, there were no standards for plugs and sockets. They had both 110 & 220V. I remember being in one place with a row of European style schuko sockets on the wall, some were 110V and some 220V, the only thing differentiating them was 110 or 220 written on them in pencil. Go to a different building and there would be completely different sockets, US, NZ, you name it, they’d be there somewhere. I occasionally found uk 13A ones, but they tended to be 110V! Would be a great place to start up a transformer rewinding business 😅
I think you were there at the start of the transformation from 110 to 220 or maybe a bit before that, I am from Yemen but I've heard that it is now all 220 in Saudi
@@bassam_salim quite likely. When I was there, it was mainly 220V for appliances and 110V for lighting, but that did bring about the situation where you have a 110V socket for a table lamp which is exactly the same as the 220V sockets in the rest of the room, which are in turn completely different from those in the next building you go in. I was working on communication equipment in a workshop, hardly anything there even had a plug at all. I think the reasoning was that if it had a plug, it would be the wrong type. We just used to poke the wires in the socket and hope for the best!
Maybe 6 or more years ago they made the change to keep the european style plugs as standard building outlets. But the old apartment I live in the eastern side, all has US 110v outlets, except for the major appliances thats 220v
In the US the standard system is 240v for large appliances etc, neutral for 120 obtained from the center tap of the transformer. I myself have several foreign outlets installed over my workbench, hooked to 240. Schuko, Australia, British, plus a 50 amp 120/240 twist lock. All fed off of din rail breakers in a metal enclosure also above the workbench, along with my relays, control circuits, the 120 RCBO protected outlet circuit, and the two RCBO 240 compressor circuits. As long as an appliance or tool can tolerate 60hz and doesn't have the neutral bonded to the cabinet, it works well. Din rail RCBOs work fine on US 240 circuits as well, as long as they are 2 pole. 120 RCBOs for Din rail are available as well (1P+N style).
Shenanigans ensue when a screw gets loose on the power pins.
its bad enough when screws get loose in a plug with a high current device! always seems to be the neutral 😁
@@andygozzo72 Thinking about that, it could have something to with the live screw being thermally isolated from the pin by the fuse.
Clive: our circuits pack quiet a punch...
Germany(16A/230V and no fused plugs): we got you
UK is weird though, our hangover from the post-war copper shortage making ring circuits a thing. Double outlets rated for 16A but nothing to stop you plugging in two 13A products, or if something is unfused then good luck with the breaker rated at 32A.
Still, 16A/230V is less than the UK's 32A/230V on the UK ring main (truly a mind bending way to connect things, but it DID save copper in post-war UK which was the note. This 32A (or 30A) ring fuse is also why all UK plugs has to be fused, without that they're decidedely spicy.
Note: UK is technically NOT 240V since decades, as part of the "European Harmonization" that happened decades ago they switched their official definition to be based on 230V though the over/under percentages means the voltage range IS higher BUT overlapping.
If you don't believe me, argue with the UK goverments official pages, these specifically states that the UK mains voltage is 230V +10/-6% (IE 216.2-253V at the delivery point), the rest of Europe is 230 +6%/-10% (IE 207-243.8V at delivery point) to accomodate both the old 230V and the old 220V countries... I'd provide references but TH-cam would just eat the comment, they're not hard to find via Google.
And before anyone offers proof based on "but he measured 240-245V at the outlet", see the UK voltage range ("230V" means up to 253V).
Does a ring still save copper?
Right there with you - AU 220-260v with 20A/Bedroom circuit, 32A@for Living/Dining/Kitchen circuits, and a 20-32A for the shed/garage... To service appliances that are limited to 10A draw without special plugs, and are individually fused/breakered at the manufacturer's discretion.
@@MrAlex3461 - oh, please don’t start the argument over ring circuits vs radial circuits again….
Two convenient features of ring circuits:
One MCB for a virtually unlimited number of sockets on a circuit for a typical house. For an equivalent using radials, you would need two circuits meaning two MCBs.
Two, adding an extra socket between two existing sockets on a ring is just as easy, if not more so than trying to route an extra cable from a socket on a radial circuit.
Three, yes, a ring may save copper, but the amount is not really significant. It very much depends on the requirements of where the sockets are wanted and the layout of the building.
I bought one of those similar travel adapters from Singapore. I thought it looked fairly reasonable quality, it even had the shutters. Then I realised that the shutters only unlock from the earth pin, and none of the appliances I needed to plug in had an earth pin...
It wasn't such a great safety feature in the end because I had to jam a broken popsicle stick in the earth connector in order to defeat the shutter.
The fuse window is the thing to look for. If you can't change the fuse, it hasn't got one.
"I have no need for this adapter."
Two weeks later:
"Where's that bloody adapter?!'
You mentioning the half-in-half-free-floating issue reminds me of a power strip I need to replace. It allows exactly this, quite terrifying to plug anything in in the dark. US electrical gagetry is terrible.
The screws for the L&N pins seem a major weakness both strength wise but also those screws are dubious resistance wise. Fine if you're not using anything high wattage for long periods though which is the likely use case for travel adapters. Personally I used to travel to gigs with a standard fused multiway UK block and either fit a local plug before I left (if I had one) or just buy one locally on arrival. A lot of people in the industry (including me) also have a socket block with a 16A Ceeform and then 16-13 or 16 to powercon etc. adapters.
Agree with you about the screws - never rely on plastic of any type for the integrity of a connection.
Somewhere I've still got the Schuko to UK 4-way strip I made up in '82 for an exhibition in Essen.
I'm also worried about them backing out over time and potentially leaving the prong behind in an outlet. Best part is, you couldn't use any threadlocker, because that would increase the resistance!
Don't know uk stuff, but using a screw as the conductor just gives me the hibbie geebies.
Hate to do this to you...
heebie jeebies
As death-dapters go I'd be happier with this than some I've had in the past. At least the connections are fairly chunky and not super thin and barely tin foil.
Not a bad construction for a death-dapter. I have definitely seen a lot worse in the wild.
Definitely. The US has its share of older non-polarized adapters.
I shiver when I run across the universal-universal adapters with plug blades that rotate to accommodate China-Aus-US receptacles.
150K as a dropper for an NE-2 lamp isn't horrible--and it will probably fail by going open, if the neon doesn't give up the ghost beforehand.
A neon lamp generally has an operating (post-ignition) voltage of about 65V.
So, on a 230V circuit, the resistor drops 165 volts. 165²/150000 = 0.1815W. Not wonderful, but not terrible either.
Clive, I've Been Bing watching your content. While at the same time wondering why you haven't crossed the 1 million subs yet... You deserve it!
I don't push for subscriptions because I'd rather people chose to subscribe of their own free will.
Soon Obi Wan, soon.
@@bigclivedotcom Thats respectable. It's one of the many reasons I became a subscriber myself. You are a great person Clive. Thank you for all the great content you bring! 👍
@@bigclivedotcom Agree. I am annoyed at the subscriber-begging at the end of some uploaders' videos. Demeaning it is, in my opinion.
@@bigclivedotcom free will? Is that a thing? 😁
Would be cool if you showed the dangers of these falsely rated devices (13A when really can only handle 3A)
I will try to avoid that adapter no matter fused or not😰
The temporary crew housing facility probably wouldn't appreciate him liberating the magic smoke into the premises. Maybe when he gets home...
Who says it's falsely rated? Justice can be hard in SA whenever MBS feels like it.
Yup, some of them, can handle only 20% of the current than the actual and then, the adapter has been fried entirely.
All it needs is to add a fuse in the ground pin.
Hmm, being able to tap them is an unexpected advantage of those chonky UK power prongs. A similar device with US plus has the prongs just thermoset in the plastic housing.
They weren't thermoset in the older ceramic models. Most genuine UK plugs has the rectangular brass pin extend all the way through the plastic sleeve, just like the similar round pins on 2.5A Europlugs.
We have the angry looking plugs over here in aus
I dunno, the contacts look robust enough to handle 13A. To my mind it is one of the best adapters reviewed here. Lack of a fuse is probably the only criticism.
A shutter? Luxury! Here in India no one is scared of a measly 230V. If you're clumsy and touch an exposed wire somewhere, that's on you. I know people who remove the annoying shutters from sockets prior to DIY installing. Normal shutter-less deathdapters are considered perfectly safe and are found everywhere.
The shutters are meant to stop children not thorough enough to defeat them. Before shutters, parents would purchase plastic plugs for all their unused sockets.
@@johndododoe1411 some parents still do even though theyre no longer required and actually help defeat the safety system!
Yes we often forget that other countries use the British plug but have different laws and attitudes to electrical safety. And probably don’t have ring circuits with 32A breakers.
@@johndododoe1411 British outlets have had shutters since day one (1947?) the plastic socket protectors were never needed and some argue they are less safe than the built-in shutters.
@@connerlabs We use three different sizes (!) of round pinned plugs and not the (newer?) square monstrosities of the UK.
AFAIK we don't use ring circuits, just a tree topology. The breakers are commonly in the 6-16A range unless something calls for more.
But a 6A circuit is just as deadly as a 32A circuit as long as they are both 230V.
Vince The Crew Chief is back! Yay! Too bad he couldn't do any off-screen shenanigans like he's done in previous Tattoo wrap videos.
So the only really bad thing about this is the 1/8W resistor for the neon lamp. Boggles the mind how they could get so much kinda-sorta right, then fall down on something as simple as this. A 1/2W resistor could easily have been fit in the void in the middle of the adapter.
I lived and worked in a place called Taif, just three hours from Jeddah. In the Villa's the fuse cupboard was, well lets say had more in common with a Rabbit snare. Yes the power circuits were somewhat iffy to say the least....
I just want to know how many amps those tiny prong screws are rated for. I was surprised to see the prongs come apart into separate components.
Given the cross section of 20A mains cabling here, they look to have ample area to survive the 13A the adapter claims to be rated for.
13 amps. It was labelled.
I love the shutter for main voltage on the font when the top connection have nothing…
Could be a lot worse 🤣 My Dad back in the day, when we went on our hols, used to carry an adaptor that plugged into a standard bayonet cap lightbulb socket for his lecky shaver. He lived to be 81, and wasn't ever electrocuted.
My Dad had one of those too, I remember a long flex hanging from a lamp shade at some point back when I was a nipper.
I also remember it had a socket you could plug the lamp into as well
@@offdagrid877 Ah yes, they were common back in the day. I remember when I was about 4 or 5 (in 1944/5) and afraid of the dark so my Dad rigged up a switch that plugged into the ceiling light and hung the switch on the bed headboard. Being a curious boy I unscrewed it one night and was treated to a short course in 240V electroshock therapy! Luckily my reactions were quick and I let go rather smartly, wondered what the heck had happened, screwed it all back together and went to sleep.
I can remember my parents having having those adapters. It meant you could do the ironing in the middle of the room, but in the dark.
@@twotone3070 On the continent most of those had a male ES27 thread, two round-pin sockets and a female ES27 socket so you had light while ironing. Besides, many lights of that era had multiple bulbs, so removing one only made the room slightly gloomier. Of course having a light bulb in there meant the mains lead could touch the hot bulb, which isn't ideal either. I was quite shocked to see Home Depot sold these new in the US as late as the early 2000s, haven't checked recently!
They could have fitted a non blow-able fuse for non compliancy.
Sure but there is a HOWEVER it wasn't made for the UK market even though it has a UK style plug. Many of these kinds of things brought from overseas will be compliant with the country they are sold and or made in. In my travels I've seen a lot of electrical and electronic junk sold in the shops in other countries. That you would just shake your head in disbelief.
@@misamsung6191 - mostly consisting of Chineseum crap 😠, are there more incidents of electrocution - deaths and fires in those countries?
@@misamsung6191 I think it's over 70 countries that also use the UK plug. But without being UK compliant. It was weird travelling in the Middle East and eastern Africa and not needing an adapter. Seeing this, luckily mine had the fuses in.
@@georgeprout42 I always carry an adaptor even today when I travel. It is one of those things that I always carried for business back when I was travelling for business.
@@samuelfellows6923 Seems you failed to grasp that much of the modern electronics is made in the PRC. If not complete units then sub-assemblies. Of my 4 HP laptops only one is made in the USA and it is the oldest one just collecting dust in the cupboard. My Apple iPhone is made in the PRC. If I want something poorly made and not worth the price I look for the Made in USA sticker.
You should send this to John Ward for a melt test!
Not sure why they'd colour the pins (even if right!). It's not as though you ever need to know which is which. Perhaps it's for when you're using the adapter to trap the wires for a plugless cable into the socket, as you would .... (!)
i've had duraplugs with colour coded sleeves...
@@andygozzo72 I find it extremely practical to look at labeled plugs to remember which pin is supposed to be live as I try to polarize 2-pring devices in a setup.
I love how the safety feature of having half plastic live and neutral pins also "just happens" to save manufacturing costs as plastic is much cheaper than brass.
I had missed that when I watched it the first time. A little bit dodgy, but it may not be cheaper as it means they had to have different molds made up.... I guess it could be safer than a sleeve as the sleeve could "wear" and the plastic would last for ages. Not sure what the thinking is on this one
@@EsotericArctos In China, toolmaking is cheap as chips (which is why the world has it done there). Copper and brass are as expensive AF right now, that's why. And also Chinese love to cut corners like that because the sweatshop boss makes more profits
The shaver thing is even worse. A lot of those shavers were 110 volt even in the UK and were to be used in a special bathroom socket with an internal step down transformer built in. Putting 240 v in didn't actually made the shaver explode but it would get hot very quickly and was more than a little 'lively' in power.
Ah the bathroom isolation transformer. Allegedly american bathrooms needed to have these as well in, I forget when it was but it was the 60s or 70s. (they'd just put out the same 120v as normal, but the current was limited. They'd tend to get destroyed by people who would plug high-current devices into them - which I guess having a different voltage/plug would prevent.)
At some point they stopped doing that and went back to putting regular sockets in bathrooms, and then 10 years after that started putting GFIs in.
Ah the bathroom isolation transformer. Allegedly american bathrooms needed to have these as well in, I forget when it was but it was the 60s or 70s. (they'd just put out the same 120v as normal, but the current was limited. They'd tend to get destroyed by people who would plug high-current devices into them - which I guess having a different voltage/plug would prevent.)
At some point they stopped doing that and went back to putting regular sockets in bathrooms, and then 10 years after that started putting GFIs in.
Thanks Vince!
"The value of the resistor is brown green yellow, 150k ..." You, sir, are a genuine old-timer as evidence by how you could rapidly interpret the old resistor color code! I doubt that today's crowd can do it without doing an interwebs search. I learned the code when I was in high school, memorizing a 10-word jumble of words that cannot be repeated in polite company.
Good old Violet. What a gal.
@@johnopalko5223 But I learned my color code from a 50s-era Navy veteran. His "color code meme" was worse than anything Violet ever heard.
@@demef758 Dang! Now I'm curious! I didn't think there could be one that was even worse.
Lots of us still have it momorised. And if I wasn't so badly colourblind, it would be much more useful to me...
@@johnopalko5223 I did not know Violet, but I knew her mother....
My 2 thoughts : firstly the hidden surprise with these devices is the use of thermoplastic that softens with heat to give a runaway failure. Secondly, why would you buy an UK adaptor abroad?
Saudi uses these sockets, and there are a lot of devices around with eu/us plugs.
A lot of former british territories still use british plugs & sockets (whether 13A BS1363 or the 5A or 15A BS546 round-pin types), so require the use of adaptors when europlugs, Aussie/Kiwi or US/china plugs are on whatever devices people take with them...
I was thinking that initially, then reasoned that a traveller passing through the Middle East en-route to UK would want one. I didn't know Saudi uses them.
Thanks 😊 Vince the Crew Chief for the interesting 🧐 DeathDapter!!! ☠️ 🔌
Possibly usable for abstracting electricity from Walsall sockets if you spin the pins?
The deah-dapter I took with me to Europe a couple years ago was pretty nice. It had various pins that slid out for different country's main outlets. The only thing I didn't like is the ground pin on the UK plug was plastic like a lot of the cheap crappy ones which I wasn't a fan of but overall it worked great in the UK, France and Portugal. The two 12W USB ports on it were quite handy too.
I wonder if that's like the one I tested that allowed you to slide out live pins.
The UK plugs are problematic with adapters as they are all the same. Typically the adapters that do not provide ground do not accept grounded plugs but with the UK plugs there is no way to do that so the user needs to be careful.
@@bigclivedotcom I actually went and looked after rewatching the video you referred to and no thankfully it's not like that. It has an interlocking mechanism that only allows one set of prongs to extend at a time and if you try to extend more than one they'll only extend maybe 2mm. However it looked like it may have a slight flaw under specific circumstances when using the US plug. If you plug it into a power strip or certain types of extension cords the mainland European prongs were exposed and even when locked in place if you pushed on the slider they would extend maybe 4-5mm. Not willing to leave well enough alone I grabbed my meter and checked for continuity between the US and EU prongs and there wasn't any even when I pushed the EU plug out as far as it would go! When retracted they're disconnected from the connections to the universal outlet on the front. Being totally shocked at this discovery I plugged it into a cord that left the EU prongs visible and tested it for voltage and there was none. Did I mention it has shutters and a real 6.3A ceramic fuse too? The only rel flaw it has is like pretty much any compact style adapter you could plug in a Euro style plug with one pin hanging out but since this one has the plug on the front you'd have to be a special kind of muppet to get zapped and well if you do that's just another way to chlorinate the gene pool.
@@LtKernelPanic sounds like an actual good one. Where did you get it? Maybe we could get one to Clive.
I recently got my own set of deathdapters...a more american variety though. I got 2 of em, one goes from a NEMA 6-50P to a NEMA 5-15R and the other goes from a NEMA 14-50P(the 2 live lines, not the neutral) to a NEMA 5-15R...have to be very careful with what you plug into those sockets lol.
Must remember that for the next IET consultation... current carrying capacity of M4(?) machine screws 😁
M3 at most.
Plus, what's the conductivity of chinesium anyway?
Awesome Video big clive
I grew up using these and I loved getting shocks from them when I was 6
@@Kevin-mp5of when you're that young you have to source materials from wherever you can
Given what I've seen used in South America, that's better than no bad.
But I live in 'Merica where we have no such safety devices on outlets. I learned that lesson at 4 or 5 years old and so far haven't made that mistake again :)
There do exist NEMA 5-15R safety receptacles in the US with shuttered pins called TRRs (tamper resistant receptacles), but they're usually installed as a childproofing measure and otherwise not commonly found. Some can even be found on GFCI (RSD) outlets. Obviously, the cost more than the non-safety variety. The other approach to childproofing is to insert dummy plastic plugs into receptacles, which is hardly a viable solution, as they are easy to pry out and very often lost.
Compared to the thick connectors in England, it is made of quite thin metal.
Cheers to you. ..
Good morning, I have a question about a previous project you tackled, it was opening a Ryobi battery pack. The screw driver you used was not the same as the one my battery pack uses, my problem is I thought I had every screwdriver head known to man, but nothing I have seems to fit, it gets worse because they are so deep inside the battery case I cant even get one out to try and identify it, do you have any idea what it might be.
Best wishes for your channel
David
It may be a security torx. You can get sets of security bits online. (They have a central pin/hole to block ordinary drivers.)
@@bigclivedotcom Great, That sound like it.
David
These things are everywhere! I bought a "100 watt" travel adaptor from Amazon. I smoked it using a 75 watt load. How curious! The transformer inside couldn't have passed more than 20 watts based on the core size, never mind the wire. >_
Well, if it was rated for 100 watts at 230 volts and you were putting a 75 watt load on it using 110 volts then you were passing nearly 1.6 times the amps it was designed for.
@@joshuaewalker Hi, not quite sure how this comment relates to this device. It's a travel adapter to accept supply connection of different configurations that is pin sizes/shapes etc. Where does the transformer come into it ?????🤔
@@brucepickess8097
If the adapter is exclusively meant to be used on higher European voltages then its 100W rating means it's only designed to handle less than half an amp. If the OP was playing around with the adapter on typical U.S. voltages then a mere 60W incandescent lightbulb would have exceeded the amperage and either blown a fuse or a resistor or melted some other metal connection.
I've seen similar designs. I don't like the fact that you can plug in a 120v 15a north American cord into a 240 volt uk circuit, although,I suppose a switch mode power supply would not notice the difference
That's correct, most devices state 110 to 240 volts. It's the same device sold in all countries, just the plug is different. You DO have to be careful about things that have been made for specific voltages however - usually things like hair dryers and toasters that do not have a switch mode power supply.
The thing that makes them "deathdapters" is the mostly shonky construction and the wide open holes that are designed to have almost anything poked into them.
The whole point of adapters is to allow use in different countries. The user is responsible in checking that the voltage is correct.
@@okaro6595 Coz users are always well educated in how electrickery works. Obviously.
My GF can wire a mains plug (and does a good job) without understanding jack sh*t about what she actually did. It took a whole side of A4 to explain why my (UK) amp blew up when her lad flipped the input transformer to the US setting in the UK.
TBF the switch was recessed and in bright red. But a US design, so it wasn't obvious what voltage resulted when you flipped it.
Caution: When using this adapter, make sure that your device is "110V/220V" rated or some explosions may happen.
The second most dangerous thing to come from Jeddah then. 🏎
Question: how would you make a Japan-UK plug adaptor (not voltage) compliant? By design, wouldn’t all of those qualify as “deathdaptors”?
If used in Japan it would have to comply with Japanese standards so the lack of an earth connection probably wouldn't matter.
I do wonder about the insulation resistance of the main body plastic moulding.
Doubt it complies with any regulations!
Hit it with a Megger and find out! Bonus if it smells like burnt toast when the insulation fails.
yes...or flamability testing lol... 13A on those screws holding the (fake) Brass connectors to the (Fake) Brass pins will prop overheat and melt that palstic, looks like ABS at best...hmmm. Junk!!!
insulation resistance will be ok,
The blue plastic looks like some kind of acrylic, which might be susceptible to cracking and leaving live connections accessible. Overall, maybe a little bit more dodgy than I like. My preference is to buy a real plug for the country I will be travelling to, and install it on a fused and surge protected power board with four switched outlets. Can also have a fused 5V USB outlet for charging cameras etc. It's worth the cost to protect yourself and your devices.
My brother had a camera that was rendered inoperable in Vietnam. Apparently they (hotel staff) watched when they left the room, and turned the power off to the room to save power. When it was turned back on again it took out his camera and some other devices.
How common is it to have a fused outlet? Are they just used on spur connections or sometimes on ring circuits? If your ring breaker is 30/32A do people replace fuses with non-spec fuses to do naughty things Photonicinduction style?
A single double-socket spur can be unfused for some bizarre reason but any more than that and you must fuse it. There are single/dual to multiple adapters (some really dodgy quality) so you can convert a single socket into four (I'm talking permanent in/on wall outlets here) but those also must include a fuse like a plug-in power strip also does.
Fused outlet, as in permanently fitted to the building? Err, not particularly common… Mainly because they don’t make fused sockets in single (one way) or double (two way) socket outlets. The triple (3) and quad (4) type do have a fuse.
However, if you have a ring circuit, it is permissible to use a fused connection unit to supply as many socket outlets as you like on its own spur/radial circuit. But this is not a very common configuration.
An increasingly common arrangement in a kitchen (or utility room) is to have a switched fused connection unit at an easy accessible position (say above the unit top) which feeds a socket in a cupboard or below the unit top for an appliance such as a built-in fridge, dishwasher, washing machine etc…
The curved back looks like it would allow small fingers to get to the live pin before it pulls out.
There is a minimum distance under the standard between the Pin and outside edge of the casing
Vince, nice work. 😄👍
I've got 2 non functional WiFi smart power mo itoring plugs to send u. One has had magic smoke emanating while the other chatters rather badly. Where should I send them?
K-Mart, target, Jaycar, and all sorts of other companies in Australia sell unfused adapters to plug into UK sockets so that Australian plugs can be connected. There are approved by SAA Approvals, on the basis that Standards Australia says that they only have to have the correct pin shape, or some similar stupidity, Fuses are optional. Clearly, neither of these organisations has bothered to read ‘BS 8546: 2016 - Travel adaptors compatible with UK plug and socket system’. Plug a travel hairdryer left on 120 volts into 240 volts and enough current to overheat the cable and plug. And a solid shout will black-out a good part of the B&B.
legitimately asking, is everyone rotating their plugs when inserting in and out of wall outlets? how much axial load are you all applying to get those screws to loosen up!?!?
i've found many electrical devices with the polarity 'reversed', somehow, such as laptop chargers with internal fuse in neutral line, pc psus with passthrough power reversing it, etc. maybe makers get confused as american 3 pin outlets have live on left pin, unlike ours on the right.???
Didn't find the dmm & giant pink calculator in the bucket ? :D
I would just nip the led and dropper, it makes absolutely no sense anyways.. (imho)
the brass (?) construction is quite nice I think.. looks pretty rigid and low resistance..
Why deathdapter ?
New bench? The lighting is nice and uniform too. I wonder if that plastic would withstand a full 13A current for long.
Temporary travel bench.
3:52 i think i've heard "earth" in the US just as often as "ground" or "common". it could be a trade thing though where engineers use more international terms and trade people use more regional ones. nothing will compare to when i learned on the job what Rankine was. i had to learn what Rankine was because an interface used it for temperature... i'm still dumbfounded by that lol. i expected to see altitude in cubits next
I would not like the use of the word "common" to refer to earth/safety ground.. it would imply that it carries current normally, which a safety ground does not
2:30 "Ride a ..."
These instructional videos are great!
I love how the UK and Germany actually does enforce safety standards and regulations but go to any other country in the EU (needles to say outside the EU will be even worse) and you will get plenty of hazardous adapters and usb chargers. I've opened one charger recently, it was brand new and had AC prongs completely corroded inside :O
Travel adaptors seem to be completely unregulated no matter where you go and even reputable stores sell the strangest stuff. I built all my own travel adaptors that should be able to take the full current rating of the local socket. Local plug - piece of flex - Schuko trailing socket. I've plugged hairdryers into adaptors and don't want to repeat the experience I had in the US where I had to carefully wiggle the cheap adaptor to get power to the hairdryer.
just what we all need another deathdapter seems strange to me that value of resistor of all the neons I have took apart its always been a 100K which was the first value I learnt when learning the resistor colour code
I've seen a design that used a 2k7 resistor for a neon supplied by 110-120 V AC (Dual record player strobe light, for some reason the strobe was connected to the 110 V winding of the multi-voltage mains transformer).
Wondering how a fuse could be retrofitted somehow reminded me of the early UK 13 amp round plugs where the positive pin was the fuse. To change the fuse, you unscrewed the pin and replaced it with a new one. Seen any of these recently?
I've never seen one of those.
Those were Dorman and Smith plugs with the screw in fuses, not BS1363.
Are the prongs like that so they can be rotated for some countries?
There's only one polarity standard for the UK plug.
Very tiny resistor! I think you need to remove the shutter and send it bac to Vince in an even worce condition than he bought it. 🤣🤣 nice video 2x👍
@@sometimesleela5947 yup, well almost, neon will drop 50 to 100v, but still... that looks like a 1/8 (0.125) watt resistor, as was said in carry on screaming 'frying tonight' 😁
@@andygozzo72 DoYou Mind If I Smoke? I was trying to give it up🤣🤣👍
Hm, at least this one has an actual ground connection. Most of them seem to have either a plastic ground pin, or don't carry the ground connection over to the socket.
Death Daptor sounds like a Jurassic Park fusion ngl
I'm wondering what the current carrying capacity of those screws is, and how good the continuity is across their connection with the brass inserts.
Screws used to be a perfectly acceptable replacement for the old style fuses. Generally when one could not find a nail...
@@nickryan3417 Oooh, get you with your fancy screws and nails.
Tin foil.
@@pd4165 Hey, I didn't claim that they were *new* screws or nails! Honestly, the stalkers one attracts these days are not like the old days... 😁
Ooh neon! Yessss!
A very cautious death-potato
I've been to Egypt quite a few times. Lovely place but the wiring is scary, even in the poshest of hotels.
I wonder how this compares to France (largely my experience has been with rural France)
Stayed in a hotel in Tunisia for work once. Lights in the room literally went half brightness when I turned on the 1KW electric heater. I don’t know what got warmer, the room or the wiring!
We don't get these fun adapters here in the states 😢
In Britain you have fixed positions for L and N in the plugs ?
Yes. There's a fuse on the live inside the plug.
You don't have to travel to obscure destinations to buy a deathdapter. For example, Element14 sell an adapter from Australian plug to UK plug that quite unnecessarily, and dangerously, is not earthed. (Model number 1518B WHT).
I'm looking forward to the day you get a high amperage transformer to test these devices at and beyond the rated amperage....
(preferably in a ceramic crucible)
It's a fire hazard that needs to go in the bin.
Do USB chargers in the UK have a removable fuse in the power supply?
These devices are shaped like a plug and are plugged into the socket.
In Germany sockets are 16 Amp fuseed. (The same circuit breakers as in the UK.)
The small plugs may be loaded with less than 2.5 amps. The full size plugs are intended for up to 10 amps. There is no additional fuse.
No, USB adaptors and other chargers or low voltage power supplies that plug in directly do not (usually, if ever) have a removable fuse. I'd hope internally they have a fuse, or fusible resistor - but given the range of quality out there, that is a bit of a gamble! It is a good point though, as has been said already in the UK our 13A outlets are typically (not always) protected by a 32A breaker (or 30A fuse) - hence why our 13A plugs have internal fuses. The regulations only require 3A or 13A in the plug, although 5A is very common (1A, 2A, 7A and 10A are available). The fuse in the plug incidentally is chosen to protect the flex (cord) and not the appliance - that should have its own safety measures, which is probably why we get away without removable fuses in chargers etc.
They don't. That's why I often recommend plugging them into a short
fused extension.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't blue and brown 2 legs of 120v making 240v? It shouldn't matter which is on which side then.
Not in the UK. It's 240V on the live and near 0V on the neutral.
You say the construction isn't terrible, but does it look like the screw itself is the conductor between the prong and the internals?
Does Jedda have the UK’s outlets?
Many, many, countries run UK style plugs/sockets. Which is nice and chunky and has the potential to be pretty damn safe.....if they follow code.
Dont all UK electric shavers charge via a two pin plug? Or is mine just old?
I'm not sure about modern shavers.
@@bigclivedotcom I had a quick look on Amazon, some do, some look like they don't and I found one that charges off USB!
Red Sea Mall? I'm picturing it, early morning all the shoppers are waiting outside, then Moses appears and with a sweeping gesture, all the doors open.
If I wanted to send you a deathdaptor to examine and tear down, where might I send it? I bought one from Amazon a few years ago and never trusted it
Content-free comment to drive engagement numbers for my favorite channels
It looks like a concerned transformer or that thing from tron lol
Somewhere in Shenzhen a Chinamen crew rejoices! "He said our product 'Isn't that bad!'"
I always get the advert for Maoam on your channel. They must think people that watch your channel are children (in the mind). People that take apart things, I can't argue with that. It's what we all did
We all like candy here.
Someone else has commented as well, but the screws as the conductors seem like a bad idea to me. Would have been interesting if you measured their resistance. If stainless then even worse as their conductivity would be a few hundred times the copper / brass equivalent. Maybe dissipate a few watts between them.. If loose then even worse.
This entire thing is a fuse ( for 32 Amps ? )
well honestly I think a simple HRC fuse in ANY cord/flex is a good idea and should be MANDATED
mainly that every device that connects to a normal AC circuit has a fuse for the rated power of the device
inside the device when hardwired
inside the removable flex either via an inline holder or in the plug for removable plugs (Like an IEC c13 cord used for most PC supplies)
the fuse should ALWAYS be user replaceable and should be rated for the highest power of the device/flex and be capable of breaking the power of the maximum of it's rated voltage circuit(30-50a peak 120v in the usa ~60a 240v in other countries)
I am actually quite angry at the lack of ANY fused plug replacements in USA electrical connectors as we have so many obvious fires caused by overloaded cords especially with old-fashioned tungsten "holiday lights"
the data is wishy-washy over exactly how many instances that is but if we cared at all to fix the issue the number can easily drop to nearly 0 (yes stupid people will bypass blown fuses but at that point it is no longer a flaw in the system but stupidity in people)
so this comment is a "shame on you" to the NEC who stubbornly try to make people not fall into the flaws of our electrical system rather than just fixing the flaws
NEC just mandate all new cordsets have a user replaceable fuse rated for the power of the cordset or device
sure we will still have some devices that will cause fires but over time we will slowly lose all those devices as normal wear and tear will have older cordsets be damaged to the point new ends need to be added or damaged sections of wires removed and then they can only buy fused ends so then those old cords will become safe compared to the previous versions
you can even allow use of "micro breakers" for cordsets as long as they are rated properly
just stop ignoring the only real practical solution because it will take a few generations to be fully implemented as even a partial implementation is better than nothing
I was always amazed by the lack of fusing anywhere on any plug in the USA, back in the 1960's mom always used a "15 amp" rated extension cord on the iron that was like lamp cord and got quite warm when used. They are a little better now. But I gave up worrying about those things when I realized that consumers in USA absolutely cannot be bothered with fuses. Actually most Christmas lights nowadays are fused in the plug but only on the light loop, the pass through isn't fused so I suppose you can still set the tree on fire. Maybe the cords are tested at a dead short at 20 amps and actually *can* trip the building breaker without causing a fire?
@@davidg4288 nope they still are a significant source of electrical fires (I shorted 1m(3ft) of 24awg wire and melted the insulation clean off at only 20vdc
there is no way to safely prevent fires without using super thick wires capable of taking the full current without hitting the melting point of the insulation or blowing a current limiting device like a fuse or breaker
in the usa there just appears to be no organization that understands that fuses/breakers are cheaper than a house fire and the only viable solution to overloaded wires
we just need to fully replace the NEC with something that isn't stupid
they actually thought the issues with extensions could be fixed by codifying outlet spacing into new buildings to make extensions pointless
yet they neglect older buildings that have yet to burn down and forget that extensions are more often used for non-wall placed devices like laptops and other portable devices as a secondary outlet that is nearby to the center of large rooms is always more useful than stretching a charger to the nearest wall plug
let alone that ALL desktop an TV setups have more than 2 devices that need a few watts of power and don't pass through the outlet for another device while the only option is the duplex plugs that are installed and a power strip
luckily Technology connections did a great video explaining this issue and how a tri-plug cord tends to never be used as an "extension" but rather as a "splitter" and he is right I use a tri-plug 2 pin(un grounded) cordset as a convenient place to connect the 10-60w hot glue gun, a lamp, and my backup 12v 5a psu for my ts100 all in one convenient workspace
so the real issue is not actually distance in most cases but rather the number of plugs or the fact that wall outlets are often behind large objects already
so those tri-plug cords could easily add a fuse spot and the only reason they don't is due to lack of regulation forcing it
and as for normal grounded cords there is a common little led/neon inside plugs yet a tiny fuse can't fit? bullshit
just skip the LED gimmick and add a fuse spot for a super cheap 13a or even 20 hrc fuse
yes the common value in uk systems is 13a which is oddly the max a 16awg can take(so just add a fuse holder) and then we will have the only greater fuse type in the usa be likely 20a as if a cord can take more than 13a you likely will be pushing the circuit breaker to the limits anyway so a warm wire is a small price to pay if you need more than the continuous duty 1500w in code for a nema 5-15r cordset
honestly 13a HRC fuses have been made uber cheap by the common usage in UK plugs so the only reason to avoid it is stupid american stubbornness thinking "we can't be wrong or silly we are americans" but public opinion should NEVER be more important than basic safety
plus we need to stop encouraging the "never plug many things into one thing" idea that has people cringing over an led-lit shelf array with 20-30 power supplies being plugged into 1 outlet that only uses a couple hundred watts peak, well below breaker and wire overload
my parents freaked in the early days of having a desktop PC thinking a full power strip was a fire hazard but then I calmly explained "I did the math this plug isn't even carrying more than 5a and the limit for these wires is over double that before risk of fire" they knew I was right about the actual thing that mattered being maximum current and these days they understand little 12v 1a dc supplies effectively count as nothing and have 12(yes 12) things plugged in behind the living room tv and understand that spot isn't even reaching 500w as every device besides the tv/dvd+vhs/subwoofer are all devices that take less than 12w each and 12*10 is 120w and the tv maybe hits 100w and same with the two peices of the old surround sound system at volumes they don't scream "turn it down" over
so the cringe of having many things plugged in is outdated as these days we have hundreds of devices that almost don't count when calculating circuit capacity
the real issue is extensions with the once yearly holiday lights that use incandescent bulbs as it never mattered enough to replace a working set
each holiday light set has 1.5-2.5v incandescent bulbs that need at least 250ma to start glowing and can reach 500ma
and as each set can have 2 strings in parallel you can quickly hit the 3a that those light sets are capable of carrying and yet then that is often only 3-6 sets and some people get crazy having dozens of sets
a single holiday setup could actually reach enough that a 15a breaker will trip if they were all on one plug
and with the stupid american idea of "don't replace it till it is so broken you can't repair it then buy the cheapest and often wasteful replacement" gets them back to tungsten bulbs as if they didn't have a chance at nearly just as cheap LED sets that would save them even more in the long run
yeah I am gonna be adding fuses in any electrical doodad I build that is made for more than a couple watts especially my future 30a generator breakout array
it will have a localized 20a micro breaker at each outlet block and pass through the super thick 30 feed to protect the devices and internal jumper wires from the 8awg lines that can't fit into nema outlets to the 14awg lines that can fufill the needs of just about any 15a device
will be using heatshrink and clamp connectors to bond those wire types (maybe pull off a couple of the strands depending on the use-case to get the ideal current breakout
Hey! Missing those sausage electrocutions! ;)
so over here the neutral is opposite you guys. Is that why they got blue and brown backwards?
Awesome video, as usual kind sir!!
Big Clive helped improve my marriage.. Can I get a Hell Yeah!?
Yeah, the wifey was getting on me about getting some stuff around the house fixed, some of which I wasn't as sharp on as I needed to be.
I thought to my self, "oh wait, what would Big Clive do?" I got myself a nice back rub that night. Thanks Big C!!
WWBCD?? Bahahaha!🤣🤣
What difference does it make having the colors wrong? If both are live.
Given the lack of a fuse it probably doesn't matter. With polarised plugs the live should be switched.
@@bigclivedotcom
Thanks Clive
As safe as houses that, if they were asbestos-filled pre-fabs built by halfwits that forgot to tie everything together... :P
Sometimes you need that little bit of extra oomph when shaving.
It's worth noting that our American plugs have live and neutral reversed compared to UK plugs. That doesn't explain why your colors were reversed because it has L and N properly marked, but it does mean one thing: with any deathdapter, one of the plug types will always be reverse polarity.
In the US live is the right smaller slot, neutral is the left larger slot. Same in the uk but the holes are the same size.
@@mernokallat645 Looking into a receptacle here in the US live is on the right and neutral is on the left if the ground pin is down. In the UK's sockets the left and right are the same but the ground pin is up. If you orient both plugs so the ground faces the same way then their polarity will be opposite each other.
Edited to clarify these orientations are looking into the outlet, not looking at the plug.
@@eDoc2020 I heard that some people like to install outlets with the ground prong up claiming that its safer if something falls behind the plug. But makes no sense if a 2 prong appliance is plugged in.
"Not great, not terrible."