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Actual electrical (ok, electronics) engineer here. Our team, including myself, has the capability to design stuff like the MacBook power supplies, though that's

Actual electrical (ok, electronics) engineer here. Our team, including myself, has the capability to design stuff like the MacBook power supplies, though that's not our strength and we'd not be the best choice to do it. But we can do it. >Chargers are grounded to neutral. JESUS FUCK NO NO NO NEVER NO DO NOT DO THIS EVER THIS IS LETHAL NO NO NO (stop emoji) (death emoji) (stop emoji) So you can kind of get away with this in the US, where electricians generally know how to wire outlets, and get neutral versus hot correct. But they sometimes screw up. And when they screw up, if you're dumb enough to "ground to neutral", you get 120 V AC to earth on your chassis. THIS IS JUST WAITING TO KILL SOMEONE. PEOPLE CAN AND WILL DIE IF YOU DO THIS. (Accordingly, it's not permitted, and if you take this bullshit to a NRTL, they had better fail your ass.) In Europe it's even worse: electricians don't bother to distinguish hot and neutral, to the point where they insist on fusing both lines of everything that gets fused. So in Europe this is a 50% chance of getting something lethal when it's plugged in. So, uh, in short: this had fucking well better not be what Apple did, and even if they tried it, NEVER DO IT YOURSELF because IT CAN AND WILL KILL. (More likely they're just using isolation and allowing build up of stray charge instead of dumping it to earth like usual, because they didn't bring in the earth conductor. Which is annoying but not going to get anyone hurt.)

aliswe 4y ago
question. if you feel that faint buzz on your chassis with a 3 pinned connector, does it mean that your ground isnt grounded?
- exmadscientist 4y ago
  I'd check into that, yeah. There's a possibility that it's just capacitively coupled, which is unlikely to be a problem. Also could be weird building wiring, which happens more often than you'd think. Or it could be weak insulation somewhere, though that's less likely. In any case I wouldn't be too worried. Maybe check it out with a few different receptacles and consider getting a receptacle tester if that turns up something interesting. I kind of hate Apple, but their chargers set the benchmark for the industry. I doubt they're your problem.
thebruce87m 4y ago
I’m not discounting what you are saying, but this has been the case for years. I’m not sure how long for but I’m betting I began to feel the buzz 8+ years ago on laptops. if people were going to die I think we would have seen this by now.
- exmadscientist 4y ago
  Agreed, which means the Reddit poster is thoroughly wrong. I'm mostly trying to discourage anyone who comes across this from trying to "ground" anything to neutral, because it's bad. Very, very bad. (And taking an opportunity to mock European electricians, who have done more damage than they know.)

aliswe 4y ago

question. if you feel that faint buzz on your chassis with a 3 pinned connector, does it mean that your ground isnt grounded?

exmadscientist 4y ago
I'd check into that, yeah. There's a possibility that it's just capacitively coupled, which is unlikely to be a problem. Also could be weird building wiring, which happens more often than you'd think. Or it could be weak insulation somewhere, though that's less likely. In any case I wouldn't be too worried. Maybe check it out with a few different receptacles and consider getting a receptacle tester if that turns up something interesting. I kind of hate Apple, but their chargers set the benchmark for the industry. I doubt they're your problem.

thebruce87m 4y ago

I’m not discounting what you are saying, but this has been the case for years. I’m not sure how long for but I’m betting I began to feel the buzz 8+ years ago on laptops. if people were going to die I think we would have seen this by now.

exmadscientist 4y ago
Agreed, which means the Reddit poster is thoroughly wrong. I'm mostly trying to discourage anyone who comes across this from trying to "ground" anything to neutral, because it's bad. Very, very bad. (And taking an opportunity to mock European electricians, who have done more damage than they know.)