ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Standard SSA: 444: 1985

I've never heard of anything but round pin ungrounded plugs being used here. Sweden had a weird 127V DC plug that looked a bit like an ungrounded Brazil (?) plug. I'd really _love_ to know what style of plug was used with DC here in Austria, but I've never heard of one. The only thing I ever saw was a plug looking like a NEMA 220V plug, but I don't know whether it was from Austria. 127V Delta w/o neutral is still in use in some European countries, whereas 127 + 0V has been phased out long ago.
BTW it seems China still makes BS 1363 plugs without shielded pins, I just got four of them that are claimed to be new (an Ebay purchase, four plugs and a socket for 1 Euro).

I've seen a few very strange versions of BS1363-compatible plugs attached to appliences sold here, particularly from China and other far eastern manufacturers.

No sheaths on pins
No fuse!
Plug body far too narrow.

Also many of the BS1363 adaptors sold online are leathal and not at in complience with the specs.

Most of the manufacturers obviously have no idea why the fuse is actually required and seem to think it's just some strange quirky UK safety obcession and thus don't bother including one.

Many of these adaptors also have unsheathed pins.

As for the plug-in xformers..

Why don't they contain a BS1362 fuse? I've never yet seen one that does including from reputable manufacturers like nokia, ericsson, sony etc..

Why do practically all of these plugs seem to think that the configuration for a BS1363 socket is with the earth pin on the bottom? With the exception of some of the mobile phone manufacturers all of these plugs have their lables on upside down and the cable exsits from the top when inserted into a UK/Irish socket!

Even worse, we have a few sockets fitted tight under kitchen cabinates and it's impossible to plug some xformers into them as the bulky bit is higher than the socket itself.

I've regularly seen diagrams of UK sockets with the ground pin on the bottom too.
and having a plug sitting like that does actually eventually cause cable damage.. as quite a few mobile phone adaptors have shown me

Oh yes, and do you usually have to open the plug body (screw) to replace the fuse? I thought the fuse carrier is accessible without tools.

Ragnar said:


As far as I've ever seen, Brazil uses either European round-pin plugs or American parallel flat pin plugs for A/C.

Voltage is anywhere from 110 to 240 -- at 60 hertz, depending on what part of the country or what city you are in.

Don't go by the receptacle configuration.

From what I've read, the USA used standard two-pin plugs for low-voltage DC systems on farms as well as AC.

Ranger, do you have a picture by any chance of what you're talking about?

The molded plugs generally have the fuse in a carrier which you access from the pin-side of the plug, but on the standard rewireable types you have the remove the cover to get at it.

This is the plug I'm talking about. Maybe I mixed that up with Argentina or some other Latin-American country.



and the matching plug:

Ranger:

Yes. That looks more like an Australian/Argentinian plug at first glance.

Although the ones used for standard domestic AC 220 volts in Australia & Argentina have wider flat blades and are at a more pronounced angle -- picture bending the blades on an American plug...well I gues you've all seen those.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!
>HUGS< to all of you

"Why don't they contain a BS1362 fuse? I've never yet seen one that does including from reputable manufacturers like nokia, ericsson, sony etc.."

I think that the properly designed, (reputable) ones contain miniature non-replaceable overcurrent and thermal fuses, on the basis that if they fail they are just discarded. There would be no purpose served by providing an accessible fuse. I wouldn't dispute that there may be unsafe non-compliant ones around.

On the earlier topic of standards in Saudi, I can well believe that the prevailing system is that of the supplier nation.
I've never actually been there, but I was involved a few years ago in specifying a turn-key installation involving a building and lots of electronic gear.
We were permitted to supply all the specialised equipment at UK standards, and I was told that the building would have dual installations with UK supplies for "our" equipment, and some Saudi standard which I think was 127 volts 60Hz for domestic equipment. I recall that I couldn't understand the logic, (or economics) of having 50Hz and 60Hz supplies in the same place.

Anyway, It's now just four hours to 2004 here, so cheerio and a Happy new year to everyone.

You can still buy DC plugs in Sweden, although with a different design. These are intended soley for low voltage. Typical applications would be boats and campers.

Picture here

Actually, upon looking closer at the pictures of the plug & socket for DC that Ragnar posted, the pins seem a bit reminicent of Israeli plugs.

My friend from across the hall is an airline stewardess for an airline that regularly flies the New York to Tel Aviv route. She promised to bring me back a male plug (and possibly a female connector also).

The Israeli plug pins are more oblong -- picture round pins with the sides shaved straight. Three pins placed in a triangular formation with the angling of the straight sides of the L & N pins opposite to that of the Australian/Argentinian plugs.

See this:



and this:


Israeli sockets will accomodate Europlugs for Class-2 devices like TVs and house-hold fans for instance. But you can't jam a CEE-7/7 (Schuko) plug into them...