Has anyone ever seen a monstrosity like this??? I can't imagine what the contacts must be like.




found on ebay here


from the listing...

"Please note that this power bar doesnot come with electric wire, and does not convert the voltage; it only adapts the plug. If you want to convert the voltage from 110/120 to 220/240V or from 220/240V to 110/220V; you need to get a voltage converter or transformer. Please check my eBay Store for s full line of voltage converters and transformers."

Or how much they'd melt if you plugged in a cooker as suggested!

Also, it doesn't have a ground connection for the majority of european plugs. Our 3 square pins here in the UK would be ok, but the french have a ground pin sticking out of the outlet, and the schuko connector which is common across the rest of europe has two ground contacts on the sides of the plug

They look like they might be used to cope with the umpteen different standards used in India.

The 3 common BS546 plugs

The Europlug

BS1363

and NEMA



and schuko, without connecting the earth/ground!



And fingers, pens, bare wires.. etc

Here's the matching wall plate!



!?!?!

Talk about a universal hazard...

Ian A.

If those sockets accept NEMA 5-15 plugs as well, which it looks as though they might do, then there's another problem: Polarity.

With ground at the top, NEMA has the "hot" conductor at the lower left. For British BS1363/BS546 it is lower right.

That could be 'interesting' with a US appliance that doesn't like ambiguous polarity, such as a US Edison Screw light bulb holder.

I also wonder what the inside looks like. Most devices today come with switching power supplies that will take 90-240 VAC 50/60 HZ so that's whats it's primary purpose is (At least I would think it would be for)

I wouldn't use anything high power from it. From what I've seen of the insides of this kind of socket, the actual contact area from socket to plug is usually much less than when the proper socket is used. It has to be as it's a compromise. You see this multipurpose 3 pin socket on Chinese inverters sold on eBay. It allows them to sell one model for all the 220-240V areas of the world.
There is also a relatively common two pin adaptor in this part of the world that has a socket accepting U.S flat pin plugs, and European and British round pin plugs. Despite having only two pins, 3 pin round pin and U.S plugs will fit but with the earth pin floating in mid air for all to see. Inside, the contacts are sort of a V shaped angle arrangement which takes care of different pin diameters and spacing. Problem is, it's only the edges of the pins which are held. Just the weight of the attached cable is often enough to make the plug fall out, to say nothing of plugpack transformers. One of these adaptors I have is actually a U.S flat pin to European round pin, but with the flat pins twisted to fit the Australasian socket. It gets used with fluorescent lead light I bought cheap at the markets (obviously without local approval).

These strips and wallplates originate from China. I've seen the wallplates in Chinese hotels. Also saw one at Kuala Lumpur International airport, Malaysia. The 4 way strips are on sale everywhere in Macau, and they can be found in markets in Malaysia. I've even seen them in £1 shops in the UK.
They can't cope with BS546 15A plugs, but almost anything else will fit including Australian, Italian, and Swiss plugs. Although these is a hole for the earth on Italian and Swiss plugs these are no contacts behind the hole.

That's one thing I hate to see on these adapters. I've seen similar ones which will accept a BS1363 plug, but the earth hole is just that -- A hole with no contacts.

Welcome to forum, by the way!

Well they're complaint with no standards whatsoever, so it's unsurprising.

The only way that adaptors could be regulated is internationally e.g. the EU could regulate adaptors for use between CEE 7/7 (Schuko/French) and UK, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, Italy and Denmark's "weird" systems.

CENELEC could regulate in Europe or IEC internationally.

Not every universal pattern socket is sh** BUT most are.
Some better produt (italy/swiss earth hole is REAL) :
"Merlin Gerin" A505's sold ~Y20 in PRC. Link
Belkin's trailing socket

Merlin Gerin" A505

Belkin

The big worry with ALL of those is that they'll happily accept a CEE 7/7 or Schuko plug without completing the ground connection.

The only multi-standard sockets that I've seen that looked fairly safe and acceptable were CEE 7/7 and Italian combos.



That type of outlet accepts either :


Italian plug

or

It's found in Italy, but also in Croatia, Monenegro and possibly other parts of Former Yugoslavia which seems to have a heavy Italian influence these days.

I actually quite like the Italian plug, it's very neat and does not have the grounding problems that Schuko / CEE 7/7 presents i.e. you can't mate a grounded italian plug with an ungrounded socket outlet without taking a hacksaw to the ground pin!

The IEC proposal for a world-wide 230V 50Hz outlet is very similar to the existing Swiss outlet (the IEC is HQ'd in Switzerland...)
Only difference being a slightly modified pin layout and rated for 16amps and always recessed.

IEC 60906-1

I think any country with multiple old standards should re-standardise to this. It should be an IEC requirement. It would clean up the mess in India for example quite nicely.



So far, only Brazil has officially adopted the standard.

Do you remember the new configuration which was proposed in the 1970s as a replacement for all the existing European connectors?

It consisted of two rectangular sockets mounted vertically within the space of a current single-gang plate, with three flat pins, the central earth being offset a little. The sockets were recessed back from the face, similar to the Swiss type. Plug cords exited either straight or right-angled downward. As near as I can remember from the prototype photos, it was something like this (although the earth pin may have been offset to the right instead of the left):

They look almost like the now obsolete Spanish system, with a blade earth pin rather than a round one.



I assume the logic behind the IEC 60906-1 proposal is that it allows the very common Europlug to be retained. Yet, because it's a recessed socket it's impossible to plug any other type of plug into the socket outlet which completely eliminates the risk of older Schuko plugs being connected without the earth.

The CEE standards were the only steps made towards a harmonised European plug and socket system and for the most part, other than in a small minority of countries i.e the UK, Republic of Ireland, Malta and Cyprus they're either fully compliant with CEE 7/7, or at the very least able to use CEE 7/16 the non-grounded Europlug.

Also, with Denmark looking like it's changing to the French version of CEE 7/7 and Italy phasing in a safe and effective dual standard outlet and CEE 7/7 plugs it's really fast becoming a non-issue other than in the UK and Ireland.

Also, I've heard that Malta and Cyprus are phasing out BS1363 in favour of CEE 7/7 as they're having all sorts of chaos importing items with moulded plugs already fitted. It's an EU legal requirement that an appropriate plug be fitted to any appliance sold hence in Ireland and the UK it's legally required that anything sold has a BS1363 plug. But, if you're a tiny country in the mediterranean sorrounded by schuko!

The transposition of the "plug must be fitted" rule into U.K. legislation allows for the use of one of those adapters which screw over a Europlug to convert to BS1363: