Text 36438, 58 rader
Skriven 2016-09-08 10:31:15 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 36427 av Tim Richardson (5102.fidonet_fidonews)
Ärende: 230 Volt
================
Hello Tim,

On Wednesday September 07 2016 20:06, you wrote to me:

 TR> When I was in Germany you couldn't plug a radio into the wall you'd
 TR> brought from the States, it either wouldn't work or it'd burn out the
 TR> wiring.

Yes, of course.

 TR> And I don't think the Germans knew what a circiut break was! It didn't
 TR> blow a fuse...it just smoked and burnt up!

Circuit breakers weren't common inthe 60ties, but there certainly were fuses.
Standard fuse was (and still is) 16A. Though you might have found 10A fuses in
older installations. If the "frying current" was less than 16A (or 10A) the
fuse would not blow.

 TR> You had to buy the product there in-country or find an adapter that
 TR> did the voltage alteration. Which weren't cheap or easy to find. Guys
 TR> lost some pretty expensive electronics they'd brought with them and
 TR> nobody'd thought to tell them about needing an adapter to use it.

And they were not smart enough to figure it out for themselves. For starters
the plug does not fit. There is no way you can ram a Nema plug into a Schuko
socket. That should have been a clue shouldn't it?

If you are stupid enough to change the plug without knowing what you are doing,
you get what you deserve.

In the 60ties we had American Neighbours. The man worked on the nearby US Air
Force base at Soesterberg. He was stupid enough to bring a TV set from the US,
but smart enough to not just change the plug to hook it up... He got himself a
transformer. That TV needed more than just a transformer, it needed tweeking
because the line and frame frequencies were different as well, "Fortunately" it
was black and white. For colour the conversion would have been too much. When
they left I inherited the transformer and the TV.

 TR> Of course, that was back in the 1960's. Things may be different now.

The plugs still don't match and equipment designed for 120 Volts will still fry
when you just change the plug and hook it up to 230.

What has changed is that lots of "portable" equipment like chragers for laptops
and phones can handle 110-240 Volts 50 and 60 Hz without convertors.

Ironically that has created MORE room for error. Because NOW there are adapters
floating around that allow a Nema plug to be inserted in a Schuko socket. And
those adapters do not change the voltage (or the frequency). No probem for
thsoe modern phone chargers, but the less "poratble" stuff, like toasters and
radios, will still fry when hookedup to 230 Volts. Those not knowing what they
are doing still get what they deserve.


Cheers, Michiel

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