181–190 of 203 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have an example you'd hold up as the ideal or best case outlet?
The UK plug design is generally regarded as the best of the standard ones https://www.fastcompany.com/3032807/why-england-has-the-best... From my experience with some amount of traveling, I would agree that its very nice to use in practice and definitely got a lot of things right.
It's fantastic for travel. It can charge my laptop (USB-C), Apple Watch + iPhone (USB-A) and power bank (USB-C) all at the same time. It also has a detachable AC cable so you can swap it before you leave instead of carrying an international plug adapter.
One of my minor goals for 2020 is to switch all the gear I carry around to being USB-C PD. I've been doing some research on the subject, so just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in (some of this stuff mentioned in other comments). There's a pretty good site, https://www.chargerlab.com/ (see also: https://twitter.com/chargerlab ) that's dedicated to reviewing charging peripherals. I started off the year with an Innergie 6…
Not seeing UL or CSA approval numbers on those. That's important for switching power supplies, especially small ones. A switching power supply is always a few milliseconds from being a short circuit across the input. And FETs fail in the ON state. That's why those things are inherently fire risks and need protection circuitry. Really tiny ones make it worse; if they fail, there's not much space to dissipate heat befo…
Consider that this article is from January 30, 2019. There have been a lot of improvements in this space in the past 11 months.
Not seeing UL or CSA approval numbers on those. That's important for switching power supplies, especially small ones. A switching power supply is always a few milliseconds from being a short circuit across the input. And FETs fail in the ON state. That's why those things are inherently fire risks and need protection circuitry. Really tiny ones make it worse; if they fail, there's not much space to dissipate heat befo…
Counterfeit UL tags are commonly used on counterfeit products.
When I got a new laptop this summer I researched what chargers were out there, as I was fed up with carrying the normal assortment of cables and chargers. I settled for another GaN charger - the Innergie Powergear 60c[0] which is a very decent size for 60w and not having a mains lead built into it (still very common on non-mac chargers) makes it a lot more compact. I travel a lot, often with more than one laptop, so…
But I'd want a long (10 feet) USB cable for those places where the outlet isn't near where I sit, and it doesn't look like that exists yet. All the ones I find on Amazon are 3A, and the MacBook Pro apparently needs 4.3A.
Anyone know of one?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Counterfeit UL tags are commonly used on counterfeit products.
Sure, having a UL tags doesn't guarantee that it has been UL certified, but missing one guarantee that it hasn't been UL certified.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never understood why that is important? Incorrectly wired outlets do occur even in the US, so it seems like it's safer to take that possibility into account and just design the whole system to allow them to be interchanged (e.g. make power switches open/close both lines)
> I've never understood why that is important? On appliances with a physical on-off switch, it's best to have the switch as close as possible to the cable, and on the 'hot' side. If there's a fault (wire touching the metal case) then the appliance is still safe with the switch 'off'. Nowadays, I think everything would have double-pole switches anyway.