Don't Use This Electric Socket!
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- This episode is sponsored by PCBWay www.pcbway.com
Universal sockets can be dangerous! Let's learn why exactly and how we can replace it.
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Technology Connections about the US plug system • Holey Plugs, Batman! B...
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:22 Partial insertion
02:41 Earth connection
06:29 Disassembly
09:07 Modification
12:02 Testing
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The main hazard with UK plugs is not an electrical one - if you drop one on the bedroom floor, it is guaranteed to land with the pins facing upwards. If you then step on it on your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it really, really hurts.
It so does. I mean, it really hurts. More than lego and more than getting 555 chip stuck in your heal when you trod on it. It is a pain like no other. You're better off being electrocuted.
What’s why appliances and their plugs are kept by the walls not in the middle of it!
It hertz?
@@lezlienewlands1337 it hertz so much i aged 50 years
we just keep it plug in and turn off the socket if not using
There's a reason Big Clive calls adapters with those kind of sockets "death-dapters".
He calls them death-dapters because you can plug in one pin and leave the others floating and because you can plug the earth pin in the line socket.
You can't do that with this socket.
They also have large holes and no shutters so they are dangerous to kids.
No earth connections in our sockets in my country. We die like real men
The idiotic muffin-size plugs the British use would be an absolute nuisance if you had many things to plug in. That may be the idea. I do like Big Clive though.
You can get 3-gang bricks...they're chonky boys and best avoided (would make a good weapon if you hurled them at someone though).
Mostly we use multi-gang extension strip, if we need more sockets.
One of the big "unseen" problems with those "universal" sockets is that the contact pressure of the contacts can be much lower than in the conventional sockets, which can mean arcing or heating when the contacts get older, because the contact pressure is part of the "self cleaning" part of the contact design. I suppose in this application this is less of an issue because of the low maximum current, but it still might cause problems in future with poor contacts and it definitely cause problems with the plugs not being secure when plugged in.
Yep, i have a Pyle brand PDU that used these sockets (well the ones seen above the ones he replaced) and all the 120v plugs sat loose, Eventually replaced it with a more higher quality one.
Depending on the plug they can also only contact the corners or narrow edges of the pins. Australian plug pins are at ~45 degrees so have particularly poor contact.
I have one of these (cheap) 1KVA step up/down transformer and weakest link on these are the two universal receptacles used on the product. The stamped metal pieces used within the receptacles are like 0.5mm thick and do not have any retention on the mating pins and can easily develop hot spots. Replace with better quality ones before use ! I have a couple of samples coming from Wonpro for testing.
It would be interesting to use an infrared camera to check one of those sockets for a hot spot. I wonder if those things are compliant with US NEC?
Thats actually the biggest problem in thailand
The UK plug also is designed that if the cable is yanked out of the plug housing itself, the live will be the first wire to disconnect. You can see that when you showed the fuse, brown is live and is the shortest wire in there.
In the EU or the cee Plugs the PE IS the Last one to fail
well ,thats whats 'supposed' to happen, but if someone fits wires with live as long as the others, which i've seen, and admittedly i've done for quickness.........
We _need_ fused plugs in the UK because to save copper thanks to the war, we built our mains wiring in houses as a series of loops. These loop will carry much more current than the plugs are rated for because they power every outlet in that loop, so the circuit breaker for them is higher than the rated current of the plug. We have this additional fuse on the plug therefore to protect the wiring between the outlet and the appliance, although I like the idea of keeping them if we ever phased out rings completely.
As someone said, eath wire should be same gauge as main leads. I would check it (maybe it's just less of insulation, but that is also bad from mechanical standpoint).
Also, dremel tip - if you can avoid standing in blade plane, avoid it. When your blade is horizontal, you cannot avoid it, unless it's over your head, which would be uncomfortable. Tipping transformer on the side would allow you to dremel top part without being on blade plane.
I once had broken blade on dremel, that shit flys high speed, left ident on wooden closet doors, about 1*1,5 cm, 1 mm deep. It went almost parallel to doors, it would probably penetrate deeper if it was at 90°.
Yes it does, mine broke my glasses and I dread to think what might have happened.
I'll third that point. Yesterday a colleague at work mentioned he got nervous about how I was using a cut off wheel that he has had them shatter at fly at him. I have too, always wear safety glasses when working with them. When those wheels break they fly out at high speed mostly in the line out from where they were spinning. If you are looking strait on at the edge of the wheel it will fly strait at your eyes..
Yeah, I use a nibbler tool for sheetmetal work, rather than a Dremel. It’s not necessarily quicker, but it’s more controllable and safer.
"In 1984 BS1363 was amended with a requirement that the line and neutral pins should have an insulation sleeve."
Aha! That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for digging that out.
@@NoelsRetroLab The plugs on the Beeb are pretty nasty too.... feel free to chop it off and fit a Schuko plug :)
@jaycee1980 in the house I grew up in none of the sockets had switches, and none of the plugs had poncy sleeves. I'm sure kids were being electrocuted left right and centre but some of us made it. I still unplug my beeb without switching off at the socket... what a rebel.
@@dr_jaymz So did I.. unsleeved pins were common when I was a kid in the 80s... but well - I know how to wire a plug and have done since I was 7. Unlike most people today.
The insulation on the pins was brought about because people used to stick their fingers around and underneath the plug, inadvertently touching the pins a getting an electric shock. If I'm correct, the amendment was finally pushed through because an MP's wife stupidly did this and got a very nasty surprise.
Actually if you look at your "European" plugs ground, it also has a hole in it. On some sockets (I think at least in Denmark, but not in Norway where I'm from) the wall socket actually has a grounded "peg" sticking out, matching that hole.
BTW: If you had rotated your inset 90degrees the angled plug would go in both ways, and cable management would get a nicer look and feel :)
Actually Danish sockets don't have an earth prong, but Danish plugs have one. That's called a type K plug. The European plug is called type F. The additional hole in the plug makes it compatible with the Belgian/French type E system. That's the one with an earth prong in the socket.
@@KolliRail I thought there was two different plug types in Denmark, both the K-type and the E-type (with the prong in the scoket)... oh well maybe the E-type is not that common in Denmark after all...
No, those are used in France, Belgium, Poland, Czechia and Slovakia. Denmark has ground as a prong in the plug. That has the problem that Danish routinely use Schuko plugs but they do not ground.
@@okaro6595 You are both correct. The French style Type E socket was allowed in the Danish regulations a few (10? maybe?) years ago. And then some years later the Type F/Schuko socket was allowed to be installed too. So you can change everything with Schuko in Denmark legally now if you want to.
Hi Noel. The earth wire should be at least as thick as the phase wires. Assuming it is not an isolated transformer.
Agree. The Earth connection needs to be able to sink the current capability of the main supply connections. You don’t want the Earth connection blowing open circuit like a fuse, before the main supply protection kicks in.
You'll lose your mind at British fixed installation cabling where the CPC is usually 0.67x the CSA of the line/neutral conductors then :D
@@intercity125 Yeah because conductors are usually grossly overspecified + MCBs usually pop fast enough, and anything even vaguely modern your RCB will trip very quickly. Unless you have a string of other faults you don't need to really fully sink the total capability of a circuit anyway, and if you have a string of other faults you have bigger problems. Some countries (and some UK installations frankly depending on age) I'm not so sure I'd be as confident.
Not only then.....
@@intercity125 yep, the earth wire in our 'electric cabinet' seems tiny to me compared to the main 'tails' ...😲
You’ll also notice that the top prong on the British plug is slightly longer. The two live holes won’t open until the top pin has triggered a release. Also why you can put a euro plug straight into a British socket with the help of a matchstick (probably not advisable though).
You can, but you will damage the socket doing so... the socket is not made to mate with round pins
You can open the shutters by partially putting a plug in upside-down. But you still can't lick the live terminal I tried.
@@dr_jaymz 😂
@@dr_jaymz If it is a wall socket, that shouldn’t be possible. You can do it with extension leads though.
some UK sockets some years back, MK brand didnt use the earth pin to release the shutters but had them arranged so would only open, by twisting around a bit, when both shorter pins were inserted at the same time, they wouldnt release if you tried to poke just one, such as with a screwdriver, even poking both didnt usually work due to the shape of the shutter plate covering the holes, it needed the correct pin shape to do it
Northern Europe actually has 2 different socket designs that are partly compatible. One with 3 prongs and the one you have which is a german standard called schuko. Schuko has the recessed plugs and the small taps at the sides making it impossible to plug in non schuko plugs that are fully round. Look at extention cords at ikea sweden for examples.
Noel I am worried the EARTH wires are very thin inside that transformer case. Please consider upgrading them. In France the Earth pin sticks out of the recessed socket and there is a hole in the plug not at the edges. Best wishes.
The CEE 7/7 plug is designed to be compatible with both the German Schuko outlet, and the French outlet you describe. Actually a very good design of plug, though it does mean you have to have a deep wallbox for the socket
+1 to the thin wires concern. Also a check to confirm the earth pins are actually earthed with low resistance after the modification is highly recommended.
That seemed like a very competent repair/upgrade. Well done.
Interesting video. Two comments though. 1. Grinding and metal shards around electrical stuff, iffy (should vacuum very very well when done.) 2. UK plug has another safety feature, and that is the ground has to be plugged in for the Live / Negative trapdoors to open so those pins can be inserted.
Yes and they melt into plastic and go rusty, also damage glass like car windows, and heat damage the paint next to the cut, so it can rust back from the cut.
Schuko sockets usually come with a shutter mechanism these days. You have to simultaneously push in the prongs for the shutter to move aside. You can't easily shove just one object in only one of the holes. This helps a lot with the kids sticking in a nail scenario.
@@wombatillo They're available on US sockets now too. Mandatory for new work in some locations. Still not quite as good as the UK ones though.
Nice informative video as always. The British plug is a chunky boy but also the best designed of all I've seen.
I'd probably have used a "nibbling tool" to increase the size of those socket holes, but whatever works is good.
The one thing I don't like about the new sockets is that ability to insert the plug either way around. This means that the "live" could be on either wire, which is only safe if the appliance has double-pole switching.
Australian plugs and sockets are polarised and although there were "double adapters" which switched the live and neutral wires on one side, this was made illegal some time ago due to the safety issue. Australian plugs and sockets are not recessed, but the convention of adding insulation to the first half of the current-carrying prongs is becoming more popular.
An Earth wire is mandatory unless the appliance can claim to be "double insulated" which means that there are at least two distinctive layers of insulation between the power wiring and any exposed metal. (Some appliances have no exposed metal and so can be unearthed)
Nibblers are unfortunately pretty rare. I've seen them in person at maybe two stores (suffice to say, I went back and bought one). Dremels and similar are much easier to find, so sadly will usually be the "better" option.
@@absalomdraconis I've reached the point where, if I can't find something locally... eBay.
Great video! I love using my dremel on metal and the sparks make a great visual on camera!
Well fancy seeing you here
Hey, Noel! I discovered your channel recently and I've been binging the hell out of it. Your content is top tier! I was waiting for a new video and here we are. ✌🏼😅
Most new construction in North America now requires tamper-resistant outlets, and I have seen some devices with a bit of insulation on the prongs. Meanwhile, your sockets do not appear to be polarized, so devices don’t have a consistent neutral. You really have to be careful with that in North America since older 2-prong devices could energize the casing if you somehow defeated the polarization and reversed the polarity. One example is the antique “Radiant” toaster Technology Connections fixed.
Yep, true. However, the electrical safety bodies writing standards for EU plugs have considered this. Relying on whoever wired the outlet to always get the polarity right is an extremely poor safety measure and only requires a single human error to cause shock hazards. So instead requiring appliances with a metal chassis to be grounded and requiring two-pole breakers makes this a pretty much non-issue. For application where you want to preserve the polarity there are the CEE 17 plugs which can be used instead.
The radio I listen to at work is like that. It's perfectly safe as you can't touch the chassis with it plugged in, but the line cord on it is not polarized and can be connected either way around. One wire goes to the vacuum tubes(yeah it's an oldie from 1957 even has Civil Defense markings on the dial!) while the other just hooks right to chassis. Fun fact it also uses the line cord for FM antenna purposes and sometimes if it's getting fussy about reception I can help clean its ears out by unplugging, swapping pins, plugging it back in.
It's not as if most of europe (well apart from those crazy people, but you always have those) uses a 100 year old (well 98 years actually) design that literately translates as "safety contact". And as an electrician, I shudder at the comment about having a consistant neutral connected to the casing? Neutral should never be connected to the case in the first place, that's whats earth is for.
If no earth is present, a device should be what we call double isolated. A construction that absolutely prevents the user to be shocked. So in essence it boils down to plastic cases. Steel case? Earth! No exception there. Devices with non-earthed plugs and steel cases do exist (as single isolated), however those device are really really old and basically have no use in any regular setting and as far as I'm concerned should be banned.
Yes I know neutral and earth is connected at the breakerbox in the US (we use a TN system here, each living unit has their own earthrod and not connected to neutral) Anyway in all systems you can never reliably trust the neutral being earth going forward. In theory yes, in practice there is the polarity issue. Better to prevent shock by using proper designed devices in the first place. Any additional layer of protection is a positive thing.
@@patrickd9551 I can still see your ghosted comment through my notifications.
“Neutral should never be connected to the case in the first place, that's whats earth is for.”
There was no earth connection on the old 2-prong outlets… still common in Japan.
“If no earth is present, a device should be what we call double isolated… it boils down to plastic cases.”
Yep. Meanwhile, these antiques were metal, wood, and Bakelite. Even the electrical insulation was some kind of fabric. Almost no plastic back then.
“Steel case? Earth! No exception there.
Devices with non-earthed plugs and steel cases do exist (as single isolated), however those device are really really old”
These antiques are precisely what I’m talking about. That’s why Technology Connections had to “fix” his Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster. If polarity were reversed you could get electrocuted by touching the heating element even when off. Meanwhile, mine is decades newer and doesn’t have this issue.
@@emmettturner9452 lol i can see your ghosted comment about my ghosted comment. UA-cam filters strikte again. Probably the c word. Lol.
Anyway, we agree. But my main point was that any device thats not safe like that should be thrown out for use in daily life.
Museum? Sure. But especially here with 230v thats just begging for death
A point which seems to be missed or misunderstood by many, is about the fact that UK plugs contain a fuse.
Generally speaking, in the uk, when the gauge of wiring goes from one size to a thinner size, the fuse needs to be changed accordingly. For example, 5 square mm of copper can comfortably carry 32 amps at 240v, so sockets in the uk are often fused or more recently protected by a 32A MCB.
BUT, when you plug in an appliance, say a table lamp, which might have say, a 0.5mm flexible cable, that cable Will melt, explode or cause a fire long before 32 amps of current flows along it, so when stepping from the heavier cable feeding the sockets, to the unknown cable connected to a plug, we have a lower value fuse, not least because the cable to the appliance is very very unlikely to be able to carry 32 amps.
Unfortunately, selecting a suitable fuse value seems to be beyond many manufacturers these days, so I think that the only *common* fuse values now are 3 amps and 13 amps, but that's better than no fuse. Fortunately for me, I still have a small stock of 1A, 2A, 3A, 5A 10A and 13A fuses. 😀
Well done! It's not just the fun aspects of retro everyone here likes: Safety First. I"m so glad you caught this and corrected it.
Small correction: Short-to-earth situations are handled by a GFCI or RCD, which is a device that immediately breaks the circuit when it detects a difference between the outgoing and return current.
Overcurrent protection alone isn't enough to prevent electrocution, as even a few tenths of an amp can be deadly at mains voltage.
That's true, circuit breaker protects electrical installation and RCD protects life.
But, also, if earthing was up to standard, it should be able to sink 16 A without having more than 50 V voltage drop. Of course, depending on it isn't wise because earthing could be up to standard at the time of inspection, few decades later, soil could be dryer...
Earthing is a fairly in depth thing. In the USA, Australia, NZ and other countries that implement some form of TNCS supply the earth wire in the outlet is tied to the supply neutral so current will flow along that path and, neutral faults aside, guarantee the over current protection will trip rapidly. In many parts of Europe a TT system is used instead where there is no low impedance link between neutral and earth so a 'hot' to chassis style fault may not cause enough current to flow to trip the protection and can leave the earth system pulled up to quite dangerous voltages. This is why the only safe TT installation is one that has RCDs on each circuit. There's plenty of other earthing arrangements out there so it pays to properly understand what is implemented in one's own location.
Depends on the earth resistance. If the earth resistance is very low (for example in a TN system, where the earth is connected to the neutral at the main distribution panel, as it's the case in the US) an earth fault is basically a short to neutral and will trip a normal breaker. So you don't need an RCD for indirect contact protection.
In a TT system, where neutral and earth are not connected and the earth is provided trough an electrode the resistance to earth may be a couple of ohms, not sufficient to trip let's say a 16A breaker, at least not in a short period of time. In this situation you need the RCD (coordinated with the earth resistance) otherwise an earth fault will not be interrupted.
This for indirect contact, for direct contact (i.e. you directly touch a live part) a 30mA RCD doesn't protect you 100% but it surely helps.
Not all installations have GFCIs. The earthing is for safety and the breaker plays parts on it. The breaker alone does not provide safety if you touch a live wire but the breaker an earthing do cut power if the live wire touches the case.
@@okaro6595 with adequate earthing, voltage drop is low enough to protect you until current hits breaking limit. But, earthing fault it's that common (soil changes, corrosion) and if happens, can be undetected for long time.
I'd be more inclined to install IEC C13 outlets in the transformer and then replace the native plugs on various power boards/bars/strips with C14 plugs.
...or just hook up a power strip of the correct type on your bench.
7:29 That transformer looks like an autotransformer, as there is only one neutral wire. So that means the transformer has no isolation from the line input voltage. It is definitely appropriate here for the safety earth connections to go back to the line input connection.
edit: The safety ground wiring is MASSIVELY under rated. It should definitely be the same thickness as the live conductors are. Also it doesn't look as if the metal chassis is grounded either. Typical corner cutting in Chinese made stuff.
Get a " nibbler " to make holes in sheet metal much safer.
I was in Thailand a few years ago, the hotel I stayed at had those death-dapters for *every wall socket*, it was certainly a thing. I mean it was convenient that I could just plug in my US plug switching power adapters into those 240V sockets but damn haha
That is probably all Asian hotels.
Also not mentioned - if you plug a NEMA 5-15 connector into the BS 1363 "universal" socket, the polarity is reverse. look @5:39 and you'll see L is on the left. In the upside down BS 1363 "universal" socket, that means L is on the left pin of a NEMA 5-15 plug - which is backwards. NEMA 5-15 plugs have L on the right and N on the left. I discovered this when doing safety checks on one of those 110v/230v step up/step down transformers exactly the same as in this video.
The dremel brings back memories. 2 years ago I built my computer. I wanted dual 360 mm radiators. But only 1 fit. It was VERY close. So I cut a hole to make it fit (which would be covered by the outer cover anyway). I used 3 dremel bits. And yes there were sparks.
There are nibbling tools which are often used by case modders exactly to avoid those sparks just for future reference. Though you still have to get the hole started somehow.
@@chaos.corner well... It worked. Took 3 bits in the Dremel. Lol
@@awilliams1701 Don't get me wrong. I've broken many cutting disks in the Dremel myself.
12:18 if you had inserted the sockets with 5.5mm holes on top of each other, a 90 degree plug would fit easier. (Here in EU it is not at all uncommon to see Shuko sockets inserted in 45 degree angle, to ease the plethora of plug shapes including so called wall warts/ Rat tail power supplies.)
If I remember correctly, the genius of the UK plugs don't end there. Unless I'm mistaken, the hot, neutral and ground wire are, when correctly installed, supposed to disconnect from the plug in that order in case the cable gets tugged, stepped on or yanked on to the point where it comes out of the plug. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
This is correct for re-wireable plugs at least, and is visible at 5:58. So is the screwed-down cord grip (the black part) which works well if installed correctly - the differing lengths is for safety if all else fails.
PE connectors actually weren't added to Schuko, they were there from the beginning. It actually pre-dates our current electrical system, back then they (meaning individual cities) tended to use a centre-tap with 220V between the phases and 110V phase to PE, standardisation to uniform 220V (and phasing out of 110V at least lights) came only after WWII.
The socket design is mostly like it is because of manufacturing concerns back in the 1920s.
Your points about the universal power connector are quite good. Yes, it is not safe as you demonstrated. But I would like to point out something you missed as to how electrical safety ground systems work - at least in North America. The ground wire or terminal is not simply connected to the Earth with a ground rod. It is also bonded to the neutral wire in the electrical system, universally at the building service entrance. This is what provides the shock or electrocution protection. Should the hot side of the line or mains touch the appliance metal case or chassis, that will be a short circuit to the neutral by virtue of the neutral to ground connection at the service panel and blow the fuse or trip the circuit breaker. Should the neutral wire of the mains or line touch the the case or chassis, no harm as it is at or a few safe volts above ground by virtue of the ground/neutral bond. This even works in the American split phase 120/240 residential system. The utility transformer split secondary is of such low impedance that either side of the split phase to ground will provide plenty of fault current to open a breaker or fuse*. Earth as a ground is only relevant in two cases, lightning and protection from it, and low frequency radio communication, AM, SW, and associated frequency bands. Other than that, the Earth ground is not required for any man-made electrical system to work. Think about it. Your cell phone has a lot of complex analog and digital electronics systems. Where is the Earth ground? A plane, car, space craft or probe? Where is the Earth ground? Earth ground in our electrical systems is for lightning protection and some forms of radio communication only. It serves no other purpose for safety. Grounding an electrical system without the neutral wire bond is in fact a safety and shock hazard. The American NEC recently (2008 IIRC), made a distinction between bonding and grounding as the two terms were being previously dangerously mis-applied. GFCI or the European equivalent RCID(?) provided added protection where a ground fault may not produce enough current flow or not quickly enough to trip a breaker or blow a fuse. That's another complex discussion as to how they work.
* Note that in the USA we do have a problem with occasional open feeder neutral faults on split phase systems, so no, it's not perfect either.
Good work! 🎄
Believe it not, prior to the current design, the UK used 3-pin plugs with round pins. These were available in 2 plug sizes. Small for things like lamps and radios that drew less than 5 amps and large for items up to 10 amps. Neither had a built-in fuse unlike the current design.
Also, the UK plug has a longer earth pin so that it makes a connection before the live or neutral pins.
the polish version of the eu socket has a third prong. But on the outlet and it goes into the standart hole on the eu plug in the middle.
Really nice work.
Hello Noel, you might want to add a nibbler to your toolbox...no sparks especially for sheetmetal enclosures.
Yeah! My nibbling tool isn’t something I use often, but it’s a huge help when it’s needed!
The Uk plug has a fuse because it was designed for a ring final circuit which is connected to a huge fuse in the consumer unit so its absolutely necessary to have a fuse for each appliance. For a star final circuit the in plug fuse is less crucial since the fuse for the whole circuit is usually much smaller.
the wires in the wall in the uk system couldn't handle the max amps the fuse to the circuit would let pass due to the cost cutting reason for it in the first place
But it will still be 16a or whatever and not suited to the appliance.
@@lasskinn474 Exactly. Which is why you have a still wildly over rated fuse for each appliance. Less than what is in a star circuit but still high considering a light today may be in the 10's of miliamps for example.
@@josephchamness9915 The fuse is there to prevent the cord catching fire in the case of a short-circuit and not to protect the appliance, and the fuses are available in different ratings to match different gauges of cord, such as 3A, 5A and 13A (the maximum).
@@Zeem4 You can get down to at least 1A I always heard that you go by the wattage of the item when closing a plug fuse?
Interesting! I've always wondered about those.
My 520STFM originally shipped with EU plugs. I kept the original since 1989 in a protective bag and used the UK replacement ones since.
Hola paisano Noel, acabo de descubrir tu canal y me encanta. No se si conoces el enchufe francés, es como el europeo pero la conexión a tierra la hace con un pibote/barra que sale del mismo enchufe/socket de la pared. De hecho verás que en la clavija hay un hueco donde ese pibote entraría. Lo que me gusta de ese enchufe es que al no ser reversible el neutro y la fase llegarán siempre al aparato tal y como éste fue diseñado, teniendo siempre el fusible en la fase.
In english: Another interesting plug is the french one, the earth connection is don with a third pin and is not reversible, so the fuse will always be in the phase line
Hola! Sí, lo conocía. Estaba generalizando un poco al decir enchufe "europeo" 😃 A mí lo de ser reversible me gusta (como el USB-C) pero es verdad que requiere un poco más de preparación en los circuitos.
were did you get a UK plug with no shielding on the pins Plus all uk three pin plugs are fused
The danger of north American plugs is overstated, in not entirely theoretical. I haven't heard of anyone being shocked when plugging something in unless something was in disrepair. Furthermore, tamper resistant sockets (required by code) have reduced the amount of exposed prong when energized to a 1/4" or less. Far too small for a finger.
If that still makes you nervous because you like to drop uninsulated wires down the wall when you plug in your devices, you can rotate your outlets 90 degress so the neutral blade is on top.
US outlets are not square so unless you're doing new work, rotation would not be trivial.
I've sometimes touched the metal when plugging and unplugging but have never been shocked yet so the problem may be overstated. On the other hand, my fingers are not small.
@@chaos.corner The UK is not in North America.
@@drooplug Sorry, I meant US outlets (some UK outhlets *are* square). I'll edit it. Thanks.
And If needed, you Can always use one of Those travel adapters, to convert directly from European to uk standard socket. With Ground and everything
Great idea , better than a dermal is a nipper . Would you be able to rotate the sockets 90* as not to block the sockets above ?
3:40 "earth" leads are slightly more complicated. At least in the USA, "earth" is connected to a ground rod, but ALSO connected to neutral at the fuse panel. If the hot line shorts to the frame, the current will be carried by the "earth" wire from the appliance back to the fuse panel, but will continue along the neutral line. The actual "earth" connection to the grounding rod cannot carry very much current. Instead, it is there so there is no potential difference between neutral and the physical ground.
For your toaster, a toaster with the frame connected to neutral would be just as safe from an internal short circuit.
However, if you were barefoot (or otherwise had a good connection to the ground), and touched the frame, you would get a shock from whatever the potential difference is between the ground and the neutral. This is even if the appliance is functioning properly.
That's why bonding ground and neutral are so important. It's also why you have to be very careful about connecting generators and inverters to fuse panels. If you don't know what you're doing, you could have a floating ground with a fair bit of potential difference from the actual ground.
With UK plugs it's also important to use the correct fuse value. A 13A fuse for a BBC Micro would be far to high. Probably 5A would be the best value to use 😉
Even 1A would be about 250w. 5 is way overkill
The fuse is there to protect the flex, not the device. Standard UK plug fuses are thus widely available in 3A, 5A and 13A values.
You could make up a short lead with UK socket and EU plug btw the longer Earth pin on the later UK plugs also unlocks the safety shutter covering the neutral and live to open allowing the plug to befully inserted. Its a safety feature to prevent young children inserting things and getting an electric shock(BS 1363).
The safety shutter lock is probably available for most plugs with a distinct ground- I know I've seen some US sockets with it.
As that BBS Micro is old enough to come from an era where devices were sold without a plug, exchanging that user-installed UK-plug for a CEE 7/4, 7/6 or 7/7 (that's Schuko, French, and the combo-plug shown in the video) would be perfectly fine.
Schuko sockets usually come with a shutter mechanism these days. You have to simultaneously push in the prongs for the shutter to move aside. You can't easily shove just one object in only one of the holes. This helps a lot with the kids sticking in a nail scenario.
@@absalomdraconis The US ones aren't operated by the earth pin but do require both pins to operate. Many US devices still only have the two pins.
If the transformer inside really provides galvanic isolation, i.e. two separate coils, then you would have to touch both wires to get a shock. However, if it is a autotransformer with only one coil, there is no galvanic isolation and protective earth becomes a valuable asset again.
At 7:30 you can See that the one of the live wires IS directly connected to the Output.
@@tobiashegemann1811 True, but since the designer did not care to use the usual colors for L, N and PE, it's not immediately obvious, what goes where... 🤔
Really good job.
Since I've done the same thing many times with a Dremel to mod different hardware, I'd recommend if it's only 2-3mm you're enlarging the hole, go with a grinding tip instead of a cutting wheel, and you'll come out with a much smoother edge on a single cut. Larger distances I still use the wheel first, but if it's under 3mm I'm grinding. You can get away with a pretty rough grain one, too, on steel cases like that or PC cases. Just a suggestion to make it come out nicely/easier next time! (It's also way easier to make tiny additions where the wheel would take too much off.)
Edit: Granted, in this case it was a non-exposed cut edge, but if it is something people could ever touch, that saves a couple steps and time.
FYI a hand "nibbler" is a much quicker and cleaner way to make minor cuts on sheet metal like these.
Earth is also needed for over voltage protection to function properly. Many modern power supplies have varistors connected to ground, and ground is connected to metal body. So if there is no earth connection, potential of the chassis is somewhere between live and neutral. Being a varistor, current is low enough not to kill you, but high enough to fry electronics if your device is connected to grounded one. I learnt it hard way, when I had my PC connected to ungrounded plug, over HDMI to TV. When I connected cable TV to cable service, it got ground over cable, so my TV and GPU were dead.
Mains lines soldered and not crimped or screwed to outlets. This should be fun to watch in the future.
They're wrapped around the terminals and then soldered in place. Not as nice as a screw, but it should be fine I think.
@@NoelsRetroLab Technically soldering is often not preferred for mains connections because the solder might melt when it heats up. Practically it's fine as long as you have solid connections.
@@NoelsRetroLab Yeah ok. I love all your videos so selfishly wouldn’t want you out of action permanently. Thank you Noel.
On the Europlug notice the metal sheet with a hole in it on one side.
This is because the plug design in places like the Czech Republic there is an earth pin sticking out of the recessed plug socket rather than metal pins on the side.
Look up type E plugs for an example.
It is beyond my comprehension why on Earth this unit didn't come with sockets EXACTLY as you modified them, or one UK one on one side and the continental one on the other side. You are right about the US plugs being terrible. I don't know why in the US/CAN we haven't at least gone to a recessed one. Not using the Metric System also drives me crazy. All the Best! 73 DE W8LV BILL
Probably so you can plug in two things
Metal nippers, Noel! Though your dremel-freehand is certainly passable. 😀
I have been using an UPS/inverter with this universal socket for years. The other day I made a heavy duty extension cord with 10 AWG wire and a GFCI outlet. I plugged it in and the GFCI tripped. I plugged in my little 3 light tester and that inverter universal socket has the hot /neutral reversed. WOW. I assumed that outlet was in parallel with it's hard wire connections. I had used the hard wire it into the camper's breaker box. The camper is old and only 120 volt. So if the camper is not plugged in, the UPS Inverter switches to the battery bank. I had wanted to run some stuff in my house with battery backup, so I had just plugged into the universal plug on the inverter instead of into the old wiring of the camper which I knew had tested correct when wired the hard wire terminals are correct but that universal socket is reversed.
Take a look at sheet metal nibblers. They are perfect for what you used the dremel for.
5:21 Typed a comment mentioning the lack of sleeving on the pins, but you covered that. That will teach me to pause and comment straight away!
6:05 Also notice the live wire is the shortest wire on the most direct path? That's not an accident, it's so if the cable is ripped from the plug (say somebody tripping over it), the live wire would be disconnected first.
The UK plug really is an incredible piece of design with so many carefully though out safety features. Sleeved pins to prevent contact, the earth pin being longest so it connects first / disconnects last, the safety shutters, individual fuses etc. Any attempt to make a list always results in forgetting something! And yet people criticise them for being bulky or other nonsense.
Edit: And as if I could predict the future I've indeed found a comment here about the plugs being bulky. Idiots.
Back in the Day the BBC micro was originally sold, most computers the ZX spectrum included did NOT include a plug. The home user would need to fit these (epic fail). It is commonplace to have a molded plug (something like the one on the BBC , but with the sleeves). another major issue was the lack of sockets people had in rooms in the 70's/80's. it was also common to see just 1 socket in the average bedroom, this would lead to all kinds of things like two cables wired into 1 plug or those 'rubik's cube' adaptors.
In re UK plugs and sleeved pins, it was added in the 1984 revision of the standard, the early BBC micros predate that.
Plug and Pray! .. especially when you try to use a CEE-7 (Europlug) with the 4.0mm prongs after you've inserted a Schuko-type (4.8mm). Proper European sockets are designed to handle this. Those death-daptor things (& the ones you show) are particularly useless with Australian plugs.
We used death-daptors on our production lines with the same sort of hole & contact arrangement, since we made stuff for various international markets. Well, the other testers did, but I insisted on getting the proper sockets for each plug type for my test bay. It probably saved my life on a couple of occasions. Putting your hands in to attach probes right next to poorly-shielded mains connections ...
Adapters which convert EU sockets to UK ones are very tidy because the earth pin on the UK plug connects directly to the EU earth.
We in the US are only now starting to adopt shuttered outlets. However what we really need is sleeved pins. Otherwise I think our plug system is OK it's not as nice as the UK but it's also not as big. Although we do have a ton of different sockets for different applications which is a bit annoying.
shuttered outlets aren't really needed if your prongs are thin like in Australia. I had to do a demonstration where I would put a knife or screwdriver in an Australian socket (not connected to power) so it was hard to find one that would actually fit for the demo!
@@thewhitefalcon8539 Never underestimate the ingenuity of children.
There is a variation of the 'schuko' socket with a prong sticking out. You might have noticed that the earth connection bracing in the plug has a hole in it. But I have only seen it on pictures a few times and while I'm working with electronics for 25 years and had a apprenticeship in the field.
French Type E sockets have the pin sticking out. I live in France. You can't put a French Type E plug in his Type F socket as there are two ridges on the side of the socket.
@@nutsnproud6932 So glad I wrote the comment.
If you're in the US is there a reason why you're not getting 240v from the panel. If you put in the double pole breakers those give you 240 out. 240 volt US plugs are shaped differently so you can't plug in the wrong appliance. So you could just get proper US 240 volt to whatever plug standard you want.
Was thinking the same thing. He already has 240V available in his house. Just needs to get a circuit set up with a Nema 6-20 outlet. And then maybe use a European power strip and change the plug to a 6-20.
I use one for my laser cutter. I bought the wrong power supply when I built the laser. It was easier to use the transformer rather than wiring another 240v circuit to the machine.... I literally replaced the socket two days ago because the plug was so loose.
i have a 'reversible' 240v to 120/120 to 240 'converter' that has one of those, ,and had only a 2 core input cable so although had an earth socket, no earth from the mains, i since 'improved' it fitting a IEC chassis input plug so standard IEC cable can be used, and as i will be the only one using it , and almost always in its 240 to 120 mode, its reasonably ok, for, the earth on european plugs problem i have a euro into UK adapter to go with it ... another issue with it and quite a few other 240 to 120 'converters' i came across is the common connection, which should be neutral was actually connected to the live, so the 120v out was one pole live to earth at 120v one 240v, the voltage between poles was the correct 120v but that 240v live pole could be a danger in some equipment, it may have parts only rated for 120v to earth inside... it was fairly easy to alter, BUT the live pin on USA 3 pin plugs and the one on UK plugs is opposite! its currently wire to be correct for UK plugs, as i thought best to be right for the high voltage output, although very unlikely i'd use it in 120 to 240 mode, you never know.... ..no easy way to make it correct for both.,
There is a cheap hand tool called a nibbler for cutting sheet metal square holes on sheet metal
Yes! I had one before and I forgot about that. I have ordered a new one since I made the video. That would have been much easier (but without pretty sparks 😃).
3:45 Electricity will go go to the ground, instead the ground wire is connected to the neutral wire and the electricity goes to the transformer which trips the breaker. The ground connection alone would not cause it. In some European countries the ground is not connected to the neutral and they require additional protection to make it safe.
The European socket is cleverly designed. When something is counter-intuitive there likely is a good reason. The idea was to allow grounded plugs be used in living rooms where no ground potential was nearby so grounding was not needed. On the other hand if prevented use of ungrounded plugs in kitchens etc. where ground was near and ungrounded devices were possible. Adapters that try to cheat this are banned. Not that they were not used in the 1970s when there still were old type ungrounded devices. Europeans view the grounding on room basis whereas Americans view it on equipment basis.
The US plugs do not provide that. You can put a hot chassis radio next to a grounded computer and create a death trap where pulling a knob on the radio when your leg touches the computer can kill you. In Europe either the computer is ungrounded or the plug of the radio does not fit.
The fuse is because the breaker is 30 A on ring circuits. In the US or Europe one cannot put normal sockets on 30 A circuits.
Have you seen the Brazilian wall plug standard? What you think about it?
Denmark went the "make the earthed plug incompatible" route, and what we ended up with was people sawing off the ground pin, which means that now the ground isn't even connected when the socket supports it. So honestly I prefer the Schuko solution.
Not that it really matters for me, the ground prong isn't connected in my apartment 🙃
...and also made an outlet that fits all kinds of grounded plugs (including Schuko) without connecting the ground...
Thanks for the video.
When you put the plug into the new socket upside down, does that change live and neutral?
Does the machine change from 60hz to 50hz ?
Just asking because I have never had to use a UK or Euro socket in Canada.
Yes, it would swap live and neutral.
A straight transformer can't change frequency so you're going to get 230V @ 60Hz out, not an issue for most things (in fact a lot of stuff that's built with transformer-based supplies will actually run slightly cooler at 60Hz than 50Hz) but you run into trouble with stuff that's supposed to be "synchronous" or otherwise dependent on the frequency of the incoming mains.
@@SomeMorganSomewhere Thanks for the info.
I thought as much, but did not know for sure.
Will the 60hz cause any problems ?
@@ehiebert1297 no issue for anything that doesn't rely on the line frequency being a particular value (clocks for example frequently use the mains for a reference timesource)
I would have changed out the all red wires with the proper colors, like white for neutral, black for hot and green for ground...otherwise... great job.
That would have been a good idea. Unfortunately I didn't have any wire of the proper gauge on hand and I definitely didn't want to use thinner one. Next time I need to get in there for any reason I'll probably do that.
@@NoelsRetroLab Source for that kind of wire is any old IEC cable you have, strip off the outer sheath, and you get all 2 colours. If you have a EU spec cable you also just need to keep the EU plug plus 30cm of cable, and get a UK style metal clad socket, and a 20mm cable gland, and use the cable to make the adaptor. Just have to remember that now the UK plug no longer is meeting the correct spec, as the EU socket is not polarised, unless you have used the French version with the earth pin, which does force polarity on the connections.
"proper colours"... you mean US colours... in the EU, the "proper colours" would be brown for live/phase, blue for neutral and green/yellow for earth
@@NoelsRetroLab while you’re doing that mod, please ensure you increase the gauge of those earth wires. Being as thin as they are at the moment means there’s a non-zero chance that under a fault, they would melt or have high enough resistance to fail to Earth the device adequately.
Actually some ground plugs in Denmark had the third ground leg, but otherwise it is standard european plug. Also it looks like a smiley face, since the ground leg is like a half circle
The Danish plug has one major flaw: The line and neutral is located in the exact same position as with the French and German plug. Add to that most modern appliances comes with the European plug. So when you buy a Class I appliances, like refrigerator or dish washer, it comes with a plug that will connect the Line and Neutral but not the Protective Earth (ground/CPC or whatever it's called now a days).
But on the bright side: RCDs are mandatory in Denmark.
I
Not an electrician but have some idea on how electricity works. I would recommend checking the transformer for galvanic isolation, possibly by doing a continuity test between the terminals of neutral input and neutral output. If it is isolated then the earth terminal serves no purpose as no current will be flowing during a failure.
I've got a surge protector in my house in Abidjan that has one of those horrible sockets. The safest way to use it is to plug a UK->SCHUKO converter into it, that makes the earth work.
There are available EU panel sockets with smaller cutout - only 40mm by 40mm. Pins are oriented diagonally, not straight.. 😉
F-3000P transformer is autotransformer: Input neutral is directly connected to output neutral. Replace it with isolation transformer which hasn't high voltage referenced to earth at all. No high voltage risk - no "universal socket grounding" problem :)
The sockets, you built in, were German sockets. The German plug have (sometimes), as shown here, a hole in the connection between the earth connectors. This is, so it can pushed in a french socket as well. Italian and Swiss sockets are also different from the german socket. You should search after the different types of European sockets. There are a few...
Modern Australian power plugs are the same as the UK ones in relation to the insulation on the active and neutral pins. It’s a very effective safety measure and I’m amazed the US hasn’t done it as well.
The pins are already pretty flimsy. The choices would to to wrap them and make them not fit most sockets or make the metal thinner and even flimsier.
Though the UK plug on my mother's iron actually had spring-loaded pin sheathes. That might work but would significantly increase the cost of the plug (probably why the UK ended up with the current design over that).
short to earths would actually most likely trip a normal breaker on a grounded device in north america because we bond neutral to groud at the panel so it ends up looping back to the neutral at some point event if it shorted to ground. One of the only good things about how we do stuff lol
When you placed the power plug into the socket upside down. Does it matter that the Active and neutral are now reversed. Would that cause a issue with the internal fuses or not.
It's AC, there's no inherent difference between the 2 wires. The only difference is which one is connected to ground at the substation (which, BTW, for regular 240V in the US is: neither).
Would be pretty easy to put a schuko on the end of the cable for the bbc micro.
That is freaking nuts dood.
I haven't watched the previous video yet but at least for the Amstrad it don't seem to hard to provide the needed power from a PSU.
While I agree 100% on that its a good thing to change the sockets to proper earthed sockets wouldn't it still not be better to make or find a replacement PSU given that PSUs that old would be fairly likely to fail and possible destroying the whole computer if it fail?
PSUs from that age were also typically not switched and were comparatively inefficient. Also, any capacitors are likely getting old. So there's more than one reason to upgrade.
They didn't have too many screws for this design - those screws are holding the entire weight of the transformer. A better design would have the handle directly connected to the heavy part with the cover not being structural - or maybe some tabs to hold weight. But right now those screws are structural.
One of the advantages of the old (pre-1984) style UK plugs is using them to quickly test appliances that don't have a plug fitted, by pushing the bare ends of the wires into a socket then forcing the plug over the top of them. This trick doesn't work very well with the newer ones.
Ouch. Get a proper tester designed for wires. They are cheap and much safer.
@@mbak7801 I learned the technique off my then-girlfriend's dad - I was 14 or 15 years old, it was the early 90s, and I was spending the money I'd earned delivering free newspapers (£3 for 90 minutes work) on buying old computers and TVs from car boot sales and a local junk auction. I'd have liked one of those things you push the wires into then close the lid on, but I couldn't justify the expense. Different times.
Sleeved pins didnt become mandatory on UK plugs till 1984, though they where common place before that date. It is the only update in the design of the plug that has been needed since it was introduced in 1947. Note the size of the plug makes it next to impossible to touch the pins of a partiality insert plug with your fingers even without sleeving. The sleeving is to protect against metals objects falling behing a partiality inserted plug, which is spectacular when it happens.
Personally in your situation I would have just cut the UK plug on the BBC off (its not sleeved so needs to go anyway) and fitted a Schuko plug. Way less hassle than adapting to 120V IMHO.
A lot of our sockets here are like that. Also, mount your EU sockets at an angle instead of plugging upside down.
European plug does have a third prong... See that hole between the prongs? It's a receptacle. That thing actually can connect to the prong in the outlet, which locks the orientation of the live and neutral prongs, but for some reason that outlet design is so rare that many don't even know it exists.
That is the French Type E plug and socket. Not the German Type F "Schuko". Type E is used in Belgium, France, Poland and Czechia I believe.
4:27 We also added the third thingy but on the socket instead of the plug
I was expecting this to be an isolation transformer, where the ground conductor doesn't really matter since you can touch the live wire without getting a shock unless you're also touching the neutral output of the transformer at the same time. However, seems it is not an isolation transformer and definitely needs the ground connection.
As others are saying, the ground wire looks really thin. For example, according to IEC 60364-5-54 the ground wire should be at least as thick as the live wire for live wires up to 16 mm².
I couldn't figure out from the manufactures horrible wiring job if the transformers secondary is actually referenced to ground.
If not, that completely defeats the protective earth, since it is galvanically disconnect from the mains power. Meaning that if there is a short to ground it will not complete the circuit and trip the breaker. In order to get that feature, one of the transformers secondary leads needs to be connected to ground.
The reason why this is also important especially when using vintage hardware in combo with devices that use switching power supplies (i.e. laptop chargers, PC PSU) is that you usually don't want a floating reference connected device with a mains referenced device. (learned that the hard way when i was a boy and used an Y-antenna cable with the terrestrial and its amplifier along with my C-64. RAM released the magic smoke)
This is however not an endorsement for rewiring the inside of that transformer, unless you are a qualified technician.
The Australian plugs have the same security feature as the UK plugs with the insulation on the active and neutral pins. It’s a great and simple safety feature. I’m amazed the US hasn’t implemented it as well.
probably due to the lower voltage of 'standard' wall sockets than europe and other 240ish areas
@@andygozzo72 no. The power is the same. We have double the voltage but half the amperage compared to US 110V plugs, so the effective power is identical.
@@wizdude its the voltage that can cause the danger, higher voltage, higher shock risk , so 110v countries less danger from shocks than 240v ish ones
and as for current or power UK plugs are 13amp , standard USA 110v ones 15 to 20 amps depending on type, so not 'double', they do have higher power sockets with dual phase across phase 240v ac supply for hîgh power items such as tumble driers, i didnt know this until recently, theres a video about it on youtube
@@andygozzo72 Australian power plugs are 10 amp.
The hot glue is Silastic and it's there to reduce the chance of vibrational screw movement and protect against the ingress of water.
Here in Japan it's even WORSE than in America because we use the American plug, but you'll usually NOT see the third, chunky pin. At most, some appliances that rely on earth have a CABLE, yes, one that you SCREW into a special screw found only in certain wall sockets designed for such appliances. It's absolutely dismal. Also, zero way of knowing if you're connecting the plug the wrong unless you have a way to measure noise.
For the average joe, it doesn't matter, but ask people doing music production and they'll bore you tto hell and back here with how they had to spend HUGE amounts of money to install closed, specific isolated power cabling in their studios.
This is horrible in that if you have two devices next to each other and in one you forget to screw the cable you have created very dangerous situation where grounded and ungrounded devices are nearby. Touch both when the case of the ungroudned has been energized and it is bad news. Of course the voltage in Japan is rather low.
I think I would’ve given it a raised footso that you could orient the plug either way. :) Just a block of wood underneath the front or something.
pasa de 120 v a 220 v , supongo que sera por estar en USA ? supongo , no afecta que sea 60 hz ?