ColdWater@lemmy.ca
I’ve seen a lot worse working safely.
A couple of concerns however.
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Those Chinese universal sockets work, but are quite dangerous. They lack a lot of the safety features of sockets like the BS1363 (UK type G socket). They also can fail in nasty ways, due to wear and tear. Loose contact being the nastiest.
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Those wires also look a bit thin. If the plug is properly fused on the other end, it should be fine. They don’t look rated for sustained large loads however. Even if they are fine initially, any damage e.g. a bit of furniture pinching them, could push them over the edge. A hotspot can easily become a melty cable, which is a fire risk.
*Internally, it looks safe, but not amazing. Solder joints aren’t the best option, but they aren’t subject to motion either, so should hold up fine. There’s a bit of a lack of isolation, but again, it’s fine so long as it’s not damaged internally.
In conclusion, I have a hard veto No on the Chinese universal sockets. Other than that it looks acceptable for light loads. So long as it’s not treated like it will withstand anything and keep working safely.
For reference, I’m UK based. Our plugs are some of the safest in the world, at the cost of being big and bulky.
Nomad@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
The power bars with that little insulation assumes the bars will never move and neither wont the cables and neither will there be more humidity than normal and never more power (watts) than normal etc. Looks like you wouldn’t want to look at that thing wrong.
Not an electrician per se, but an electrical engineer of sorts. ;)
Dezorian@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Why is soldering on high voltage a big no no? Almost any machine on high (230v) has a PCB with high voltage soldered parts. Whats your reasoning?
MartianSands@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Soldering wires, specifically. Wires are flexible, and solder joints are not. If the joint tries to flex anyway, it can crack. If it cracks then it no longer conducts so well, and instead generates heat. That’s both wasteful, and a fire hazard.
When attaching wires to things which needs to be robust and reliable, you generally see crimp connections of one kind or another, which are much less susceptible to damage because of wiggling around.
On a PCB is another matter, because the board is already rigid and unbending so using a rigid joint is fine
Nomad@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Its not my reasoning, its the VDE’s which makes the rules for most of the EU standards. The risk does not come from the high voltage but how much current/power is flowing through there. Cables with too much power for the cable square will heat up the cable and the solder will melt. Especially in home installation scenarios this is a problem AFAIK.
orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Heat.