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It's a huge lump, but it handles 240 v at 13 amp and does so without burning down houses or killing people who plug it in. I have no idea how many sockets are
by DanBC2 14y ago
It's a huge lump, but it handles 240 v at 13 amp and does so without burning down houses or killing people who plug it in.
I have no idea how many sockets are installed in UK houses and how many plugs are fitted to UK equipment but a new plug / socket design would have to be God-Tier to justify the cost of replacement.
Also, I've seen people wiring plugs and it's sometimes scary, so anything that avoids the need for many people to botch a new plug onto their equipment is a good thing. And I guess this is where most improvement has happened - plugs that can be built quickly, cheaply and safely in Chinese factories for use in UK. You can change the fuse, but the plug is molded and you can't take it apart.
- magic_haze 14y agoyou misunderstand my intent: I was merely interested in finding out if there were any new ideas in plug design than what was indicated in the wiki article. The IEC 60906-1 design linked by ricardobeat above, for example, can handle 250V at 16A and is way smaller and more compatible with other european standards. It was designed in the mid 80s, taking advantage of the new injection molding processes popularized in the late 70s. I was wondering if there were any other designs that took advantage of the newer technologies since: I seem to recall a concept plug designed by an art student that was on HN a few years back that folded up rather neatly: does anyone know what happened to that?
- DanBC2 14y agoOh! That was posted here very recently. It's going into production with a few small changes. (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4033328 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4033328)