New design of mains plug?

The earth pin on that plug is shrouded which is another no-no and instant giveaway of a non-conforming plug.

It’s because we tried to save copper after the war by using ring circuits for sockets. Other countries use radial circuits with the fuse in the consumer unit rather than the plug.

Bert

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Just look at every mains low voltage charger or power supply you have. I guarantee that most will be cheap Chinese junk. My Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Motorola and Tom Tom ones are. Throwing away all your dangerous ones for safety's sake is great, just make sure you have a box of matches handy, you'll need them.

Thanks for the explanation, Bert. I suspected that it might be something along those lines.

Dave

By the sound of the comments, a powder fire extinguisher would be preferable to a box of matches. Or are they so that you find your way in the dark to the fusebox?

Howard

Chaps seem determined to believe there's a Chinese organisation responsible for official 'China Export' or 'China Engineered' marks that are carefully designed to look like EU CE marks. Can anyone find this organisation? The EU couldn't.

Truth is fake CE marks are just fake CE marks. The initials don't stand for anything, they're an empty con. Fake plugs are sold marked 'BS1363'. No-one believes BS stands for 'Beijing Special', 'Best Stuff' or 'Bull S**t''. It's just a fake. Same problem with any other safety mark - they can all be copied by the ill-disposed.

Fraudster do what is needed to gain credibility. It is true the Chinese government don't care much about guys exporting junk, but - in the UK - it's the importer who is responsible for the validity of CE marks, not the manufacturer. Very few governments police the quality of exports, remember time-expired Baby Food sold in the third world, and clapped out racehorses in British Ready Meals.

Caveat Emptor!

Dave

I would have rephrase that question to why doesn't everyone else bring their electrical standards up to our UK level but I am biased of course.

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More to it than simply saving copper, though that's true. The system is electrically more flexible than spurs, and though not ideal for everything, it's generally a 'good thing', well thought out. One advantage is 13A at 230V is plenty powerful enough for most domestic purposes and nearly 6kW can be pulled from a double socket by two appliances; brilliant in kitchens and workshops. A disadvantage is the plugs are massively overrated for ordinary electronics and table lamps etc. The extension leads behind British home entertainment systems could be smaller and much neater, but who cares?

The system allows spurs as well: my cooker is 40A, and the electric shower 30A. Tese are hardwired for safety and there's a special low amp spur socket for electric razors.

Dave

If it's an SMPSU, which I'm sure it is, it should have side by side coils.

The key thing is how well the two sides are separated on the PCB.

Neil

People often forget that when they buy things of Bangood ewtc. THEY are personally the importer.

Unlikely to be an issue, unless their dodgy PSU burns the house down along with theneighbours...

Neil

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What makes you believe it is ‘switched mode’? Don’t be another fooled by the advertising wording. ‘Switched’ far more likely refers to the output switch on that pot. Nowhere have I seen that it is described as a switched mode item. Please enlighten me if I am not correct.

Quite right, too. Who really wants a 15A fuse, at the distribution panel, to protect a flimsy 3A lead from plug to equipment? I fit an appropriate fuse for the device being used. Most certainly not a 13A fuse for most things.

Question: Are all flexible leads rated at 15A in the rest of Europe? If so, that is a waste of copper!

One good reason for a fuse in the plug if selected properly, (1, 2, 3, 5 ,7, 10, or 13A), is the protection it can afford each individual item. A radial will have a fuse rating for the wiring, not the components connected. A radial in the UK will have a 16A circuit breaker at the consumer unit, not great protection for anything consuming less than 3KW. 

That particular power supply was not bought with the intention of leaving it unatended. I am one of those people who disconnect the power supply from pc's after shutting them down.

Edited By old mart on 30/03/2020 19:52:03

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With that power output and that size ... How could it not be

MichaelG.

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Here’s a Youtube video for you: **LINK**

https://youtu.be/Vl2de3Rsiw4

I’ve just checked one of my Swiss socket strips: it says that it is rated at 10A max.

I am not a designer of power supplies but have seen hundreds of different designs of SMPS in everything from phone chargers to large bench PSUs and dont recall seeing more than a couple withe primary and secondary windings on separate bobbins.

Some that 'bigclive.com' has investigated and dismantled have the primary and secondary windings on alternate layers so more or less interleaved. If manufactured properly the isolation between input and output will meet or exceed the regulations, problem may arise if some other protection fails (say it overheats and the thermal fuse fails shorted) the transformer insulation may break down and couple mains to the output.

There are others on here that have intimate knowledge of PSU design and would be able to explain better than I that the subject PSU of this thread is extremely likely to be a safety hazard.

Ian P

Without cutting the psu case in half, I couldn't say whether it is a switched mode type, although I did mention not getting a reading with my meter set at 20M, could that be a clue. I thought that 20 meg ohms resistance set on the meter would show something through the primary of a transformer.