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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

#181

Post by npteljes »

palemoonale wrote: post #102

> At one point I wanted to see if I could create a sort of a DIY UPS for the water fountain. It would be quite bad if I was at work and a power outage results in cats not being able to drink water (they don’t really care for normal water bowls after getting the fountain) . So another self-made problem then.

No, the point is that the charger has a standard USB-A socket, but delivers nonstandard charge. This is potentially dangerous, as the function of the charger does not match the user expectation.

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

#182

Post by lucideer »

thriftwy wrote: post #97
lucideer wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mandatory certification (enforced by patents/other IP protections) > The hacker in me hates the idea If the hacker in you really hates this, then why insist on enforcing via means that restrict both vendor and user freedom (IP) instead of regulatory enforcement that exclusively targets vendors & leaves hackers free to hack?

Hackers want not just hack for themselves but share the product of their craft with other parties without going through fences.

Are you implying that regulation need put up more such fences than IP restrictions?

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

#183

Post by kristjansson »

akx wrote: post #77

Lidl does this too – the rotary tool Parkside PFBS 12 B3 comes with a charger that's obviously not USB-PD, but has an USB-C plug and it puts out a solid 13 volts at all times. (See https://www.kompernass.com/en/accessories/2316/charger-8 for an image.) I sent Lidl a courteous and long mail about this and they didn't really care other than "please open a service ticket with your local Lidl", which I didn't care to do…

So instead of a barrel plug, they ... made a barrel plug shaped like a USB-C connector?

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

#184

Post by rollcat »

neuronic wrote: post #148
shermantanktop wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn’t get mine to drink from it. They side-eyed it warily and avoided my attempts to entice them. Cats.

Bought my cat a nice and large bed which is more akin to a throne but anyway. He now happily sleeps directly next to it.

The level of interest a cat exhibits in a toy is inversely proportional to its price.

Unless it's something you bought for yourself rather than the cat, in which case the cat goes for the most expensive thing first.

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

#185

Post by terom »

HalcyonCowboy wrote: post #162
terom wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

It's not dangerous in practice. Reading through NEC in the US, there's plenty of leeway for mixing ampacity ratings on circuits, within certain limits. For example, it's fine to have 10x 15A duplex on a 20A circuit. It results in less wiring, and allows for logical grouping of circuits. Electrical code starts from the the most common causes of electrical failures, and tries to design down from there. The ampacity rat…

It is indeed very regional, e.g. the UK has its own thing going on with ring mains and fused plugs.

Over in my 230V corner of the EU, CEE 7/3 sockets are pretty much the only thing I'm aware of for new wiring, with the unearthed CEE 7/1 sockets still present in older installations. Both are rated for 16A, with either 10A/1.5mm² or 16A/2.5mm² branch circuits from the distribution board. It would be unheard of to wire those up with any higher ampacity at risk of overloading the sockets - although recent experience with e.g. EVs has shown that they're not actually suitable for sustained loads at 16A, given e.g. wear and tear on the sockets.

Unearthed appliances do commonly have CEE 7/16 plugs rated for 2.5A, particularly things like wall warts or USB chargers, which does fit into a CEE 7/3 socket.

I recall seeing CEE 7/16 (2.5A europlug) sockets, although those may have been imports from elsewhere in the EU. I suppose those would have the same issues if wired up to the same distribution circuits. But extension cables for those are rarer, the only ones I've ever seen are CEE 7/7 plug (16A) -> CEE 7/16 sockets (2.5A).

For residential/commercial loads over 16A / 3.2kW, it's all CEE / IEC 60309 connectors, and those are treated like distribution circuits with overload protection sized appropriately for the connectors/cables.

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

#186

Post by jorvi »

shermantanktop wrote: post #142
jorvi wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are much higher quality chargers (and cables) than Apple's. Anker is well known, and Baseus is getting there. They are especially nice because they make GaN chargers, putting a lot of power in a tiny package. It honestly kind of baffles me how crappy Apple's cables and chargers are when they simultaneously make one of the best USB-C to 3.5mm DACs on the market, and then sell it for $10 .

Anker has been surprisingly good. I worried they were a Chinese faux brand but everything I’ve gotten has been solid and well made.

The Chinese are definitely capable of producing great products, it's just that the quality control for that is only there for name- / high-end- / West-controlled brands.

I believe the Chinese government is keen to get rid of the crappy reputation Chinese products carry ("Chinesium"), but its gonna be a process.

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

#187

Post by berkes »

londons_explore wrote: post #78
rahimnathwani wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where in Asia? I lived in China from 2010 to 2019 and the only voltages I've seen on USB A ports is ~5V and ~4.2V. The latter on the charger for some rechargable bicycle lights.

Thailand

> Thailand

> USB-powered handwarmers

This combination is just weird. So weird, that the only place I can think this then applies, is... Thailand.

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

#188

Post by moffkalast »

npteljes wrote: post #176
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.…

Barrel plugs are not better technically, but it would be better to use them with random voltages because people don't assume that they conform to a standard. With barrel plugs, the customer expectation is that every device has its own charger, and that's that. With USB, the assumption is that they are all compatible.

With barrel plugs the likelyhood that one of your devices will have one that fits into another is basically zero too.

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

#189

Post by HalcyonCowboy »

unwind wrote: post #171
HalcyonCowboy wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not dangerous in practice. Reading through NEC in the US, there's plenty of leeway for mixing ampacity ratings on circuits, within certain limits. For example, it's fine to have 10x 15A duplex on a 20A circuit. It results in less wiring, and allows for logical grouping of circuits. Electrical code starts from the the most common causes of electrical failures, and tries to design down from there. The ampacity rat…

Is "ampacity" really a better word than "current"? And the unit symbol is just "A", like "30 A". I realize I'm nitty but this is a technical-minded forum after all.

Nah, it's fine to be nitty. If you glance at my comment again, you'll see my usage devolve from A to amp halfway through, my brain can't help but write what it sounds like to me.

Yes though, ampacity is the correct word (for my home country). "Current" is an instantaneous measurement of current flow. That they use the same unit is pretty convenient for planning circuits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampacity#:~:text=Ampacity%20is....

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

#190

Post by moffkalast »

walthamstow wrote: post #55
hddherman wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, author here, I've fixed that in the post now.

Great news! By the way, are you Finnish? I've never seen an 'O with tilde' character before.

A Møøse once bit my sister...
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