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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

#241

Post by dsmmcken »

alexpotato wrote: post #139
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…

> pushes me to support mandatory certification It wasn't mandatory but this is one of the main reasons Underwriter's Laboratory was started. The market needed a certification to say "yes, this things does what it's says it does and in a safe manner". My dad owned a retail store in the 1970s and he distinctly remember being told "Lots of retailers won't carry a brand/item unless it has the 'UL' sticker on it." https:/…

You can find many fake "UL certified" products on Amazon, with a counterfeit UL logo and all. I think the problem is companies like Amazon not being held liable for what they sell.

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

#242

Post by KolenCh »

coverclock wrote: post #239

I too have tried to use a USB power bank as a kind of DIY UPS to power a Raspberry Pi SBC. What I learned - which may be unrelated to your experience - is that all of the several power banks I tried can be either charging, or powering a device, but not both at the same time. So my Raspberry Pi would run until the power bank got low, then the power bank would cut power to the Pi and charge itself, then power the Raspb…

Which one did you get? I got a Zendure specifically for this purpose, but I find it the hard way that when it switch between battery power to wall power, it will momentarily lose power for a sec, resulting in a reboot

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

#243

Post by geocrasher »

I just bought a cheap oscilloscope (Hanmatek DOS1102) and it has the opposite oddity. It comes with a standard 5v USB adapter, but the cable going to scope is a USB A on one end and on the other... 2.5mm X 2.1mm barrel! Why they did not use a standard USB Micro or Mini (or C) connector on the scope, I'll never know.

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

#244

Post by denotational »

maxerickson wrote: post #132
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…

USB does control use of their marks, it would probably be new law to prevent use of the physical arrangement.

> new law to prevent use of the physical arrangement

Even if the connector itself were patented?

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

#245

Post by denotational »

jayd16 wrote: post #153
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?

Patent the connector and enforce it aggressively.

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

#246

Post by denotational »

lucideer wrote: post #84
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 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?

What would the regulatory enforcement look like?

If I develop a new connector, how do I get the regulator to start enforcing that everyone who uses it is following my standard?

What happens when I find a way to extend the specification in a safe, backwards compatible manner, but this conflicts with the standard as enforced by the regulator?

I’m not saying that these are insurmountable problems, but I feel like the regulator should focus on issues such as safety, and interoperability should be enforced by the company/consortium that develops the standard in the first place.

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

#247

Post by sleepybrett »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #228
sleepybrett wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every turkey frier I've ever seen is a propane burner and a well sized pot to put on top of it. 0 electronics unless they have a thermostat type feature (which I've never seen).

I’m pretty sure UL applies their testing to anything with safety ramifications.

Gotcha, I thought it was just an electrical certification. However if they won't certify a propane burner and a pot just because it's labeled 'turkey frier'... i'm not sure how they can certify any gas grill, gas range or propane burner of any kind.

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

#248

Post by _a_a_a_ »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #196
mint2 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a little too short, add: “and this email notification demonstrates you are aware of the hazard which will be relevant in lawsuits.”

and they will respond with "We sincerely thank you for your concern. We have a 6 month email retention policy in place to address your issue"

If you can't add anything useful, stay out.

Although I wonder if it was your house to burn down whether you might feel a little differently about doing the right thing.

The answer is, you CC trading standards(Or your country's equivalent) as well.

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

#249

Post by unwind »

jcrawfordor wrote: post #173
unwind wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"ampacity" means "capacity in amperes" or more literally "ampere capacity." You could say current capacity too but it takes longer. Ampacity is the language used in the electrical code. "amp" also seems to be more common to write than "A" for electricians. Remember that the SI standardization of unit abbreviations is actually a pretty modern thing, so lots of fields existed before unit abbreviations were standardized…

Ah I did not get that meaning, then obviously it's a perfectly cromulent word. Thanks and TIL.

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

#250

Post by JCharante »

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.

Vietnamese uses the O with tilde charcater Õ, it's fairly common.

The first word I can think of is ngõ

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ng%C3%B5_h%E1%BA%BBm

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