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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

#291

Post by AngryData »

moffkalast wrote: post #188
npteljes wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I mean they are multiple sizes but there are certainly standards. When they were more common I use to have boxes of them and could always find barrels to fit anything I needed and swap over the power supply to match whatever power I needed. Once in awhile you would get lucky and have both a matching plug and supply to match your need, like my electric piano uses my old Sega Genesis wall wart and plug because they matched voltage and barrel plug size and a cat chewed the original piano one and cause it to short and burn out.

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

#292

Post by AngryData »

toddmorey wrote: post #107

> The idea of a water fountain for cats may sound odd Cats instinctively love & trust moving water as stagnant water can accumulate bacteria & disease. So a cat fountain sounds like a gimmick or novelty but it’s a great idea.

Yeah I though ti was weird and was skeptical the first time I saw one. Ended up getting one later and the cats love it.

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

#293

Post by akx »

sod wrote: post #96
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…

> courteous and long How about urgent and short? e.g. One day a kid will charge their toy over night with your 13v usb-c charger and they'll burn their house down.

I didn't directly mention burning down the house, but I did say

"The takeaway of this is that given the plug looks exactly like a standard USB-C phone charger's plug, it's easy for a novice user (say, a child whose phone charger's wire has been bit through by the family dog) to attempt to charge a device not rated for 13 V using this charger, which is quite likely to damage the device."

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

#294

Post by currency »

teddyh wrote: post #286
currency wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's so interesting. I've just done a quick dive into my electronics. I have a Tonbux power strip where the C and E are definitely too close together. Edit:The website I linked is a Chinese manufacturer. If it was an urban legend, it seems to be being treated as fact in a way that matters now.

> I have a Tonbux power strip where the C and E are definitely too close together. As per Wikipedia, quoting the European Commission, people displaying the CE logo with incorrect dimensions exist. This does not prove the legend. > Edit:The website I linked is a Chinese manufacturer. If it was an urban legend, it seems to be being treated as fact in a way that matters now. Please stop spreading urban legends on the ba…

I'm not interested in arguing you out of your surety. I do want to note that I believe that when an urban legend is implemented in reality, it is no longer a legend. And you aren't going to argue me out of expressing my opinion.

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

#295

Post by ajb »

repiret wrote: post #281
ajb wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, th…

It seems plausible that not addressing the electrical anomaly described by nicolaslem could be called a failure to maintain the home under your policy. For completeness, the relevant section from my policy is "We will not pay for any loss to the property...as a result of...Neglect, meaning neglect of the insured to use all reasonable means to save and preserve the property at and after the time of a loss, or when pro…

I don't know if that exact case can be found, but it's a fairly obvious generalisation of the general principle. that if failure to repair in a timely way a fault or delapidation can result in reasonably forseeable further damage, insurers will be very reluctant to write policies cover the further damage; because it would result in moral hazard in the purchaser of insurance. So I would personally not like to rely on it being covered (apart from the obvious risk to the person of the house burning down).

That's not to say that the original electrical fault wouldn't be insured - that depends on other terms.

Your policy does seem to be more lenient than mine in that it allows "resulting loss from " ... "inadequacy or unsoundness in" ... "maintenance". I wonder what the scope of that is in reality.

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

#296

Post by extraduder_ire »

tivert wrote: post #200
rollcat wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Nintendo comes to mind; charging the Switch (the earlier models IIRC) with a third-party adapter was a lottery, and the losing prize was a fried console. They've been guilty of this practice for as long as they've been making electronics - I think it was the NES or the SNES that used a standard barrel jack and voltage, but reversed the polarity, with no circuit to protect the console. Also - using Ethernet port…

> They've been guilty of this practice for as long as they've been making electronics - I think it was the NES or the SNES that used a standard barrel jack and voltage, but reversed the polarity, with no circuit to protect the console. Is there actually a standard about that? IIRC, recently things have drifted towards "center positive" as customary , but most adapters and devices have the little diagram about how the…

I think everything I've seen that sony makes is centre negative. For their consoles, this only mattered for the psone and slim ps2.

Always seemed dumb to me, since you'd want the "ground" side to make contact first when inserting.

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

#297

Post by bArray »

KaiserPro wrote: post #42
lxgr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A diode doesn’t protect from over-voltage; that requires more complicated circuitry as far as I understand. And how would a loose cable cause a voltage spike?

perhaps a they meant a zener diode, which can be used to clamp a voltage? The downside being that it dissipates the excess energy across it's self. > how would a loose cable cause a voltage spike? From the top of my flu-y head, connecting and disconnecting an inductive load (like a motor) can cause spikes. However in USB land, that's pretty rare. dc-dc step up devices use an oscillator to charge and discharge an indu…

> perhaps a they meant a zener diode, which can be used to clamp a voltage? The downside being that it dissipates the excess energy across it's self.

Maybe in conjunction with a self-reset polyfuse - buys just enough time to trip the fuse.

> From the top of my flu-y head, connecting and disconnecting an inductive load (like a motor) can cause spikes. However in USB land, that's pretty rare.

Exactly - and it's not all that rare. A USB fan, a spinning disk drive, etc. In the right condition even a capacitor can be a problem (difficult to simulate, but it can become a short-term battery cell).

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

#298

Post by teddyh »

currency wrote: post #294
teddyh wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a Tonbux power strip where the C and E are definitely too close together. As per Wikipedia, quoting the European Commission, people displaying the CE logo with incorrect dimensions exist. This does not prove the legend. > Edit:The website I linked is a Chinese manufacturer. If it was an urban legend, it seems to be being treated as fact in a way that matters now. Please stop spreading urban legends on the ba…

I'm not interested in arguing you out of your surety. I do want to note that I believe that when an urban legend is implemented in reality, it is no longer a legend. And you aren't going to argue me out of expressing my opinion.

> when an urban legend is implemented in reality

But you have presented no proof of that. What has been shown so far is that:

• One Chinese web site presents the information as factual, i.e. a simple retelling of the legend.

• Equipment exists which have the wrong dimensions on the CE logo.

What you have not proven (and neither has anyone else) is that some manufacturer has actually used the faulty CE dimensions to try to claim that they weren’t trying to show a CE mark, but instead this mythical “China Export” mark. Note that for the legend to work, it has to be some sort of benefit for the manufacturer, namely that they must be able to get out of being accused of falsely displaying a CE mark by, when accused, instead claiming that the CE mark is not in fact a CE mark. But this must be claimed publically by the manufacturer. Surely someone should have some example of this happening by now?

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

#299

Post by exadeci »

berkes wrote: post #187
londons_explore wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thailand

> Thailand > USB-powered handwarmers This combination is just weird. So weird, that the only place I can think this then applies, is... Thailand.

Tourists only go to the beach areas, north has mountains and can be quite cold

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

#300

Post by berkes »

exadeci wrote: post #299
berkes wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Thailand > USB-powered handwarmers This combination is just weird. So weird, that the only place I can think this then applies, is... Thailand.

Tourists only go to the beach areas, north has mountains and can be quite cold

I know (I have family there, and near the beaches).

But "cold" is relative. I've had temps as low as 14℃ (57F) in Chiang Rai, Pai and near Udon Thani. And while that may be "freezing" to people used to tropical climates, that's shorts-and-terrace-outdoor-yay temps where I'm from (North Western Europe).

I found it alienating to see people with woolen hats, mittens, thick jackets and scarves in Thailand, when for me the temps were T-Shirt and shorts grade.

edit: Though, reversed, another alienating sight was a kiosk with Thai Takeaway on a parking lot in Åre ("north-Sweden, south-lapland) under 2m snow and ice with outside temps of -18℃.

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