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March 28, 2024, 03:13:18 PM

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Techmoan (the YouTube man)

Started by beanheadmcginty, May 22, 2020, 11:42:27 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Dewt

Sometimes. It's made easier by the fact that there's no friction between plug and socket, so you can just gently tug on the cable and the plug will limply fall out. It would probably be halfway there due to gravity anyway.

Dewt

I'm not gay but I think I could probably get married to Technology Connections and live a happy life.

buzby

Quote from: Dewt on July 13, 2020, 06:47:20 PM
Sometimes. It's made easier by the fact that there's no friction between plug and socket, so you can just gently tug on the cable and the plug will limply fall out. It would probably be halfway there due to gravity anyway.
No friction between the plug and socket would indicate a potentially poor, high-resistance connection. As the US's stupid 110V supply means you get higher currents at the socket than you would at 240V a poor connection increases the risk of overheating the socket and is a potential fire risk (not helped by the lack of a fuse in their plugs). BS1363 sockets keep a firm grip on the pins of the plug (enough to leave a mark in the brass pins, cutting through any oxidation or tarnish in the process) to increase the chances of getting a good, low-resistance connection.

Dewt

#63
I'm sure there's enough friction between the electrical contacts when everything is as it should be, but a two-prong US plug will often be found in a state where it's held in entirely by the electrical contact and makes no contact with the socket housing at all.

The prongs here are live:



This is a very common thing to see. I have to block off some sockets just in case cats are going to lick them or something

Just look at the expression on the upper socket

Retinend

Quote from: Dewt on July 13, 2020, 07:53:17 PM
I'm not gay but I think I could probably get married to Technology Connections and live a happy life.

I also really like him. He also had another channel I forget the name of.


Retinend

Just googled it - it's not the same guy. It was called "BEME News" and is well worth checkin' out.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: buzby on July 13, 2020, 10:06:42 PM
No friction between the plug and socket would indicate a potentially poor, high-resistance connection. As the US's stupid 110V supply means you get higher currents at the socket than you would at 240V a poor connection increases the risk of overheating the socket and is a potential fire risk (not helped by the lack of a fuse in their plugs). BS1363 sockets keep a firm grip on the pins of the plug (enough to leave a mark in the brass pins, cutting through any oxidation or tarnish in the process) to increase the chances of getting a good, low-resistance connection.

I plugged a fan heater into one of those poundland things that makes one plug into three and when I unplugged it, the prongs were hot. The grip was fine, having seen the rails in normal RS 4 way blocks that don't do this, I'm curious what materials they're using in them. Doesn't sound safe really although I admit a fan heater is pushing things a bit.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Dewt on July 14, 2020, 03:10:58 AM
I'm sure there's enough friction between the electrical contacts when everything is as it should be, but a two-prong US plug will often be found in a state where it's held in entirely by the electrical contact and makes no contact with the socket housing at all.

The prongs here are live:



This is a very common thing to see. I have to block off some sockets just in case cats are going to lick them or something

Just look at the expression on the upper socket

Having the earth pin on the bottom (yeah I know it's rarely used) seems daft with plugs that can fall out, quite easy to drop metal in from the top and short it.

MojoJojo

Quote from: buzby on July 13, 2020, 10:06:42 PM
No friction between the plug and socket would indicate a potentially poor, high-resistance connection. As the US's stupid 110V supply means you get higher currents at the socket than you would at 240V a poor connection increases the risk of overheating the socket and is a potential fire risk (not helped by the lack of a fuse in their plugs).

I suspect you know this, but the video with the comment about plug sockets having switches was actually about how in the US they do actually have 240V* - the supply to consumer unit is 1 neutral and 2 lives 180 degrees out of phase. It's just the standard plug sockets are 120V, and they have no standard plug sockets for their 240V appliances.

He makes a reasonable case that 120V is a bit safer and the thicker cabling is less of an issue in the resource rich US. And that lots of countries have weird thing about their electrical standards, like ring mains.

I liked that video a lot.

(*actually 220V or something around that in apartment blocks as it's derived from a 3 phase supply)

buzby

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on July 14, 2020, 12:31:40 PM
I plugged a fan heater into one of those poundland things that makes one plug into three and when I unplugged it, the prongs were hot. The grip was fine, having seen the rails in normal RS 4 way blocks that don't do this, I'm curious what materials they're using in them. Doesn't sound safe really although I admit a fan heater is pushing things a bit.
Fan hesters are known to burn out proper sockets if they contacts are not in good condition/high resistance. I would never use one plugged into an extension strip or lead, as they usally have 10A or 13A fuses, at which point adding anyting else on one of the other sockets is risking an overload. Per sonally I would never use a cheap extension strip as a lot of them these days use contacts made from copper or brass-plated steel, and wiring made from plated aluminium or steel, or with too few strands and oversize insulation to make it look like the real thing. Even if they are fused, there are fake fuses that can be found in cheap leads from China too.

John Ward, the south coast based electrican and Youtuber has some rather in depth teardowns and destructive tests (he's like Big Clive, but has a much more formal, dryer style). Here's the first part of a destructive test of a dangerous multiway adapter.

Quote from: MojoJojo on July 14, 2020, 01:05:23 PM
I suspect you know this, but the video with the comment about plug sockets having switches was actually about how in the US they do actually have 240V* - the supply to consumer unit is 1 neutral and 2 lives 180 degrees out of phase. It's just the standard plug sockets are 120V, and they have no standard plug sockets for their 240V appliances.

He makes a reasonable case that 120V is a bit safer and the thicker cabling is less of an issue in the resource rich US. And that lots of countries have weird thing about their electrical standards, like ring mains.
Yes, I know that the US use split phase to get 110V for their socket and lighitng radials and 220V for high-power devices like water heaters, ovens, washer dryers, air con etc. That to me is an admission of defeat - they obviously started at 110V due to good old Edison initially deciding on 110VDC, and moving to AC once it became apparent Tesla and Westinghouse's AC distribution system was much more efficiient (this was after years of Edison trying to discredit AC as dangerous, including the infamous electrocution of an elephant).

As devices that needed more current than was practical to provide cabling for at 110V became available, they then had to start supplying split phase into homes to get 220V at a more managable current. The split phase arrangement came about post-WWII as a cheap way of being able to lift the supply side to 220V to power these devices without having to rewire houses and replace or convert existing appliances to 220V (electricity had a much larger installed base in the US than in Europe, especially in cities)

The higher currents due to the lower voltage on their radial circuits do cause a lot more electrical-based house fires than in countries where 220-240V is the standard though (not helped in the US by lots of houses being made of wood). As well as their awful plug and socket system, they also have the terrible practice of using wire nuts/twist-ons to connect conductors together rather than using terminal blocks.

120VAC will kill you just as readily as 240VAC, it's just 240VAC will kill you faster. That's why I decided to stream onto digital electronics for my degree - 5VDC is a lot safer.

Sebastian Cobb

Another problem with us electric is older buildings can have knob and tube wiring in them, often with the insulation on states of decay to the point that you've practically got bare live wires running around your walls.

Blumf


buzby

Quote from: Blumf on July 14, 2020, 03:54:14 PM
EDIT: Even more ew!

Also shows those crappy wire nuts (the yellow things) twisting the wires together in the junction box in the centre too

Blumf

Yeah, thought you'd appreciate them. Didn't those connectors turn up in cars too?

Replies From View

Quote from: Dewt on July 13, 2020, 07:53:17 PM
I'm not gay but I think I could probably get married to Technology Connections and live a happy life.

This does actually make you 63% gay, so.

Sebastian Cobb

I like the idea of Dewt and TC living together, it'd be like Bert and Ernie but with oscilloscopes and shit.

Dewt

It probably wouldn't work, on reflection. He wouldn't be interested in watching Pages From Ceefax on a loop all day

Sebastian Cobb

Ben from Oddity Archive would though.


Dewt

Does he have a big doughy arse?

Dewt

Dear Cook'd and Bomb'd Forum,

I am sorry that in the thread about Techmoan I started talking about Technology Connnection's big arse. I have not even seen his arse and it is unfair to reduce him to a pair of buttocks. He is an intelligent man and should focus on that when I watch him instead of wondering about exactly how gay he is.

Sincerely,

Twed

Amen

Sebastian Cobb

Well the thing about the guy from Oddity Archive is that he guides his face behind a cardboard box with just his eyes poking over the top of it, and to be honest it's funnier to imagine he still does that in your Burt and Ernie nerd cohabitation so his arse doesn't come into it.

Dewt

It's a really funny thing but just about every online community I'm part of eventually generates fiction about me in a Bert/Ernie bed scenario.

Sebastian Cobb

Maybe stop telling everyone who you'd like to cohabit with then!

Dewt

I didn't say I wanted it to stop

boki

Quote from: Dewt on July 15, 2020, 09:23:14 PM
It probably wouldn't work, on reflection. He wouldn't be interested in watching Pages From Ceefax on a loop all day

Tough shit, we're doing it now.  This isn't about your needs.

Dewt

I guess I'm moving in with Technology Connections, but one of you is going to have to start fucking Techmoan's puppets.

Sebastian Cobb

Oh flippin 'eck, who's covered me minitel with jizz!?

Sebastian Cobb

I've just spotted some other electrical madness.
https://www.reddit.com/r/electricians/comments/htwo88/every_sign_has_a_story_behind_it_i_guessor_more/



It seems it's not entirely uncommon for people to use this wiring between a generator and a plug in the house during a power cut.

MojoJojo

That's been winding me up all day - I couldn't remember who I had seen doing a video that covers them.

It was big clive of course: https://youtu.be/babtv00R-Nc

(it's a breakdown of device that is supposed to do it properly).

A particularly charming feature of hooking the generator up like that is you can energise the possibly broken power lines to your house and give the repair engineer a shock.