I wonder how well the moving contacts to bring the power from the live and neutral to the power cable will survive, though - they may become worn and intermittent with time.
Do we really need the fold-out wings? Could we not just rotate the live and neutral pins into place, then plug it in? Or do the standards require a certain outline to keep fingers from the plugging-in bits?
The UK is notorious for their safety precautions. Not only do all plugs have a fuse in them, but wall outlets are usually behind a local fuse even before a home's circuit breaker.
The fold out wings provide a great way to minimize the possibility of contact with the live contact.
Indeed. The biggest problem is going to be rotary connection for the live and neutral contacts, but the actual housing would be quite solid I'd imagine. Thermoplastic at those dimensions can be extremely durable.
>wall outlets are usually behind a local fuse even before a home's circuit breaker
I live in the UK and I don't know anyone with fuses in the actual outlet. We normally have a circuit breaker and fuse in the plug. For things like my PC, I also use 4-way extension cords which have an additional fuse and surge protector.
This was posted on Reddit about a year ago (Or more?). IMHO it would be far too flimsy to be safe/usable, and wouldn't pass safety regulations.
Something inbetween US and UK plugs would be nice. UK is rock solid, can't bend pins, has no chance of sparks, will never fall out of the socket, has fuse + other safety features (Covered pins), socket only opens Live+Neutral once earth is inserted etc, but is a bit clunky.
OTOH, US plugs spark, get bent pins, fall out of the wall, don't require an earth+fuse, are pretty dangerous IMHO, but on the plus side they're pretty flat :/
I love seeing the sequence from design -> prototype.
I agree with some of the other posters though, any time you have a lot of current going through a connection that rotates / moves, you have the potential of reliability problems.
However, I don't think those are insurmountable problems, and good engineering could make this a reality.
One advantage is, if I recall correctly, UK is 220V as opposed to US 110V, so less current will be flowing through those contacts.
A bit off-topic, but does anybody know how that site is displaying its video? I don't have flash or moonlight installed, so it was a bit of a shock to hear my computer actually playing a video feed. I browsed their HTML source, but I didn't see any object tags, video tags, nor anything else that would obviously play video.
I love this. Having used UK plugs for most of my life I know how cumbersome they can be.
My only concern is that many devices which change voltages such as computer power supplies often have some hefty capacitors in them. Even with the regular plugs I've occasionally got shocked (enough to hurt my fingers) by touching both pins while the device is plugged in.
If people have to rotate the pins in order to use the plug it's possible some devices with capacitors would be less safe to use as there is a risk that the capacitors would empty whenever you tried to rotate the pins.
I find that I can get by with a Euro plug pretty much anywhere except the USA. Southeast Asia, Oz, and other places that standardize on US (or AUS) plugs often also accept the round-pinned EU plug.
Here in the UK, I just keep a teaspoon in my laptop bag for cramming into the ground slot. Thus, opening the other two holes wide enough to jam the EU plug in.
AC adapters on laptops already know how to handle any voltage/frequency combo in the world. It's just a matter of of physically cramming the metal bits into the socket.
33 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 81.7 ms ] threadI wonder how well the moving contacts to bring the power from the live and neutral to the power cable will survive, though - they may become worn and intermittent with time.
Do we really need the fold-out wings? Could we not just rotate the live and neutral pins into place, then plug it in? Or do the standards require a certain outline to keep fingers from the plugging-in bits?
The fold out wings provide a great way to minimize the possibility of contact with the live contact.
And it's just so pretty!
I live in the UK and I don't know anyone with fuses in the actual outlet. We normally have a circuit breaker and fuse in the plug. For things like my PC, I also use 4-way extension cords which have an additional fuse and surge protector.
Touching a 110 volt terminal: painful but probably not serious. Touching a 230 volt terminal: very painful and quite possibly very serious.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fused_deposition_modeling more specifically)
World needs better designed power plugs
Something inbetween US and UK plugs would be nice. UK is rock solid, can't bend pins, has no chance of sparks, will never fall out of the socket, has fuse + other safety features (Covered pins), socket only opens Live+Neutral once earth is inserted etc, but is a bit clunky.
OTOH, US plugs spark, get bent pins, fall out of the wall, don't require an earth+fuse, are pretty dangerous IMHO, but on the plus side they're pretty flat :/
See the two pictures in this (quickly googled) discussion, for a clear illustration - http://forum.expatica.com/print.html&client=printer&...
The site dates it as 20 April 2009.
I agree with some of the other posters though, any time you have a lot of current going through a connection that rotates / moves, you have the potential of reliability problems.
However, I don't think those are insurmountable problems, and good engineering could make this a reality.
One advantage is, if I recall correctly, UK is 220V as opposed to US 110V, so less current will be flowing through those contacts.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=670856
If you're interested in this, you might like to read the discussion there as well. Many points are being re-made.
My only concern is that many devices which change voltages such as computer power supplies often have some hefty capacitors in them. Even with the regular plugs I've occasionally got shocked (enough to hurt my fingers) by touching both pins while the device is plugged in.
If people have to rotate the pins in order to use the plug it's possible some devices with capacitors would be less safe to use as there is a risk that the capacitors would empty whenever you tried to rotate the pins.
I find that I can get by with a Euro plug pretty much anywhere except the USA. Southeast Asia, Oz, and other places that standardize on US (or AUS) plugs often also accept the round-pinned EU plug.
Here in the UK, I just keep a teaspoon in my laptop bag for cramming into the ground slot. Thus, opening the other two holes wide enough to jam the EU plug in.
AC adapters on laptops already know how to handle any voltage/frequency combo in the world. It's just a matter of of physically cramming the metal bits into the socket.