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My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

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Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#151

Post by tkems »

forward1 wrote: post #149

I recently replaced my 120V receptacles with USB ones. Super convenient and it's allowed me to get rid of the dozens of various transformer plugs around the home. https://store.leviton.com/collections/usb-outlets

While I think this is a great idea, I've seen these in public places and the USB-A sockets almost always get damaged. I'd be worried about having to replace a $40-50 receptacle every year or two if I happened to bump the cable and wanted to keep using the USB part. Still a good idea overall and I can see them being used in a few places around my home to save space.

Also, I'd love to see ones with 65w charging so I can charge my laptop and still have an outlet to use!

Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#152

Post by cesarb »

dylan604 wrote: post #135
cesarb wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How would a power dip damage an appliance? For AC motors, the lower voltage might mean they do not have enough power to turn, so all the power they consume becomes heat in the motor windings (and since they're not turning, there's less cooling). For electronic power supplies, they might either pull more current to maintain the same output (again leading to more heating), might output a lower voltage (and DC-DC conv…

* The only protection available as a consumer add-on. Sure, if the manufacturer wants to increase the cost on the BOM for their PSUs, they can use additional components to survive dips, but who does that on disposable electronic equipment? Hell, even "expensive" TVs don't. I quote expensive since you can now get 65" 4K TVs cheaper than a mobile phone, but that's a tangent. So if you are wanting to protect your electr…

I have a friend who did that; he put one of these relays on the apartment's power panel, so the whole apartment was protected against voltage dips or too short outages. It might not be a common consumer item, but it's a readily available device, AFAIK commonly used to protect industrial motors.

Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#153

Post by jayd16 »

denotational wrote: post #2

This is the sort of thing that almost (but not quite) pushes me to support mandatory certification (enforced by patents/other IP protections) for consumer devices that use a familiar connector like USB. Consumers shouldn’t need to worry about the specific output voltage; the presence of a USB-A connector should indicate that it abides by the specification. The hacker in me hates the idea of enforcing something like t…

Mandatory how? Won't they just ship an uncertified adapter anyway?

Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#154

Post by tkems »

hammock wrote: post #147

I thought he was going to say there was current in the water. I remember showering in Costa Rica at a “hotel” and the shower head was one of those that heats the water (with an electric heater) and it was shocking me the whole time I used it. Probably shouldn’t have used it Apparently those are common in central and South America.

I remember this video [1] from bigclive about it. I had no idea it was so common to have live wires in contact with water. At least they are grounded sometimes?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNjA0aee07k

Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#155

Post by Tyrannosaur »

terom wrote: post #143
stephen_g wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds incredibly error prone and actually quite dangerous! At least a lot of AC to DC converters are universal voltage and frequency, but not all appliances! In Australia we have only one voltage that will ever come out of a single phase socket, but the standards took the opposite approach with current ratings - the sockets are cleverly designed in terms of their current capacity so (assuming it’s been installe…

> But a 10 amp plug can still fit and sit snugly in a 15 or 20 amp socket, and a 15 amp can still fit into a 20 amp socket with no problems. It’s pretty clever. That sound dangerous. The larger fuse sized for the 20A socket will not protect the smaller conductors in the cable sized for the 10A plug, they can get overloaded. The three-phase / industrial CEE plugs and sockets used in the EU are sized for 16A/32A/63A/12…

That doesn't make sense though. The fuses aren't to protect the load; they are to protect the circuit. It's up to whatever device you are plugging in to not draw more current than it can handle.

If I have a 3 Watt doohickey, I don't go looking around to find a 0.025A socket, I plug it in to my 15A wall socket and everything works great.

Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#157

Post by ajb »

repiret wrote: post #140
ajb wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insurance won't cover if you knew there was a fault and didn't fix it!

Do you have a citation for that?

Sure. This is the relevant clause in my current home insurance policy:

"You must take steps to maintain the Home in a good state of repair and take all reasonable precautions to avoid loss, damage or injury and to safeguard all property insured from loss or damage."

These things are pretty standard - I would be very surprised if there isn't a similar clause in all of them.

Which implies that, if you fail to do so, they don't have to pay up.

The wording in your policy may be different. What are "reasonable steps" will depend on legal precedent. It may, for example, take into account that you're not an expert, and will probably include some reasonable time to get stuff fixed. But certainly it provides them the opportunity to deny a claim.

Obligatory disclaimer: I am not a lawyer or insurance expert, get your own advice if you need it.

Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#158

Post by Kon-Peki »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #124
pixl97 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that barrel plugs are any better... I wish I would have wrote the model down posterity, but at one point I worked a trading company and a number of the users had ISDN at home. There were two 'different' modems, and I say different because only the model number on them notified you of it. One had a plug that output DC power. One had a plug that output AC power. They were the same size wall wart. Same size barrel.…

Semi-related: My wife has the little Fallout 4 fridge they dropped a while back, not a proper fridge but one of those peltier plate ones that's only really good for like, soda and beer. She was quite upset when it died one day and I toss it on the bench, and stab the power socket with my alligator clips and give it 9 volts. Worked perfectly so it just needed a new power supply. A quick Amazon order, snip the wire off…

> Turns out, the original power supply had it's polarity reversed.

Doesn't that make it a heater, instead of doing nothing?

Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#159

Post by bdavbdav »

terom wrote: post #143
stephen_g wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds incredibly error prone and actually quite dangerous! At least a lot of AC to DC converters are universal voltage and frequency, but not all appliances! In Australia we have only one voltage that will ever come out of a single phase socket, but the standards took the opposite approach with current ratings - the sockets are cleverly designed in terms of their current capacity so (assuming it’s been installe…

> But a 10 amp plug can still fit and sit snugly in a 15 or 20 amp socket, and a 15 amp can still fit into a 20 amp socket with no problems. It’s pretty clever. That sound dangerous. The larger fuse sized for the 20A socket will not protect the smaller conductors in the cable sized for the 10A plug, they can get overloaded. The three-phase / industrial CEE plugs and sockets used in the EU are sized for 16A/32A/63A/12…

Each individual socket isn’t fused though. The entire circuit is. The fuse(breaker) is going to be significantly bigger than any of those amperages.

The breaker is there to protect the wiring in the building, nothing more. It’s spec’d to the gauge of the cable in the wall typically.

Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter

#160

Post by baq »

can16358p wrote: post #9
denotational wrote: post #2

This is the sort of thing that almost (but not quite) pushes me to support mandatory certification (enforced by patents/other IP protections) for consumer devices that use a familiar connector like USB. Consumers shouldn’t need to worry about the specific output voltage; the presence of a USB-A connector should indicate that it abides by the specification. The hacker in me hates the idea of enforcing something like t…

I think when it comes to safety restrictions should be there. The hacker in me hates it too but just imagine if a small portion of standard-looking outlets did not output 220V (or whatever standard you have) and say 330V. Many applicances would break, or perhaps even catch fire. If there were many different USB-A devices and people were used to checking the voltage output before plugging, that might not be needed, bu…

> The hacker in me hates it too but just imagine if a small portion of standard-looking outlets did not output 220V (or whatever standard you have) and say 330V.

Overvoltage is now routine in places where there's lots of PV installed in homes and not enough load nearby.

If you live in such a place, you have a deep appreciation of varistors and should have either good insurance or a little bit of soldering skills... preferably both.

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