maybe lightning cables arent such a good design after all?

[dennis]

While the article says apple isn't too blame you have to wonder how a dangerous voltage got onto the connector when its so exposed.

[Brian Gaff]

Do we believe this? Brian

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , dennis@home.? escribió:

It's bullshit. Lightning cables don't put voltage on any pins until autonegotiation with the connected device is successful. I rather doubt metal dog tags have a lightning chip in them.

What has really happened is that he's used a knock-off charger with inadequate isolation between primary and secondary, so he's had mains voltage on (probably) the metal shell of the lightning connector.

e.g.

But that wouldn't make for yet another sensational "killer phone" news report, would it.

[Huge]

How does *that* work, then? Telepathy?

:o)

(Only yanking your chain, I know what you meant!)

[Tim Watts]

You didn't get this problem when everything had a nice solid transformer in it...

Yes, of course it's Apple's fault if the PSU is so cruddy that mains got onto the ELV side.

[Tim Watts]

Or (having thought some more) the fault of whoever made that PSU, if it's not a genuine Apple one.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Tim Watts escribió:

Wouldn't have made any difference in this case. Here's what really happened:

a Darwin award candidate by the looks of it.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Mike Tomlinson escribió:

The comments are a laugh. "Chargy McPhonetard", indeed.

[GB]

I'm still not sure I understand what happened, though. Someone, please explain.

His dog tag makes contact with one of the mains pins, and nothing happens as he's sitting in a nice insulating bed.

Or his tag chain makes contact with both pins, and the metal chain makes a good conductive path between them, and the mains fuse blows.

Or, he has replaced the fuse with a nail, and the chain melts between the two pins, so then the conductive path is through the chain round his neck. And that part of the chain gets red hot, but even so he's only got to pull away from the plug socket for it all to stop.

Maybe the real lesson to be learnt is only to wear really chunky bling that will melt the nail you replaced the fuse with?

[Graham.]

That's much more likely to be the case than the link OP posted, which exonerated Apple, without attempting to say why.

Just one thing though, do the Yanks have a different definition of electrocution than we do? Here, by definition, electrocution is always fatal.

[GB]

The OED says: "The injury or killing of someone by electric shock."

You ought to be right, based on etymology, but the language changes, and the OED reflects current (geddit?) usage.

This article goes into it in shocking (geddit?) detail:

[Robin]

FSVO "definition". It can also mean "death or injury" - hence the examples in the OED - which ain't generally fond of tautologies - of "death by electrocution" and "death from electrocution".

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Graham. escribió:

The comments in the Register article link I gave cover this. Amusingly so. Oxford (British) and Merriam-Webster (American) definitions are explored.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Robin escribió:

"Electrocution" is a contraction of "electrical execution". Hence it means death by electricity, not injury.

I'll go warm up the popcorn.

[NY]

It sounds as if there wasn't a direct path between the pins via the disc of the dog tag, as this wouldn't have given him a shock. So that leaves options

1 and 3: contact with one pin and earth or else contact with both pins but via the chain round his neck. And for him to have got a shock, it suggests 1 - current to earth via his bed etc. If the two ends of the chain had been connected to live and neutral, I'd expect the chain to get very hot and burn him, but I wouldn't expect much current to earth causing a shock.

I suppose even if the fuse blew, that would take time and in the meantime a sizeable current would flow, allowing the chain to get hot.

Are American plugs fused, as our 3-pin plugs are, maybe with fuse of around

13 A, or is the only fuse the one for the whole spur/ring-main circuit? If the plug wasn't fused then a higher current could flow - at a guess the "fuse box" fuse might be around 30 A, as for the UK. I realise that since US voltage as half UK voltages, the fuses may be higher to allow a similar power to be drawn.

It doesn't say much for the construction of US plugs and sockets that the pins withdrew so easily and that a chain could fall between plug and extension socket and touch metal of the pins: with UK plugs, the pins would probably lose contact with the socket before sufficient of the pin was withdrawn to allow contact with metal rather than the plastic shield on the upper part of the pin.

I bet US standards are lower because if the perceived lower danger from a lower voltage.

[Tim Streater]

No.

US plugs and sockets are flimsy in the extreme and a plug could probably come out of a socket if you kicked it. Even if it didn't come out completely, it would come out enough to expose live pins. The plug pins have no insulated part and the sockets have no shutters.

[Robin]

That's an amusing, awful, and artificial[1] reading of the word. As GB indicated, the etymology is a combination of electro and execution. But the meaning has evolved to encompass injury.

[1] in the sense famously (if apocryphally) used to describe St Paul's Cathedral: see eg

Freshly made DIY popcorn starts off warm :)

[James Wilkinson Sword]

On Tue, 04 Apr 2017 14:02:35 +0100, GB wrote:=

Maybe the chain wasn't metal all the way round, and he was so unlucky th= at he got one pin either side of the plastic clip, causing the chain to = heat up and burn his neck. Are we sure it was an electric shock and not= a burn he got?

Or even worse, two plastic clips either side of the chain? So he got 11=

0 volts straight through his neck.

-- =

Little Sally came home from school with a smile on her face, and told he= r mother, "Frankie Brown showed me his penis today at the playground!" B= efore the mother could raise a concern, "Sally went on to say, "It remin= ded me of a peanut." Relaxing with a hidden smile, Sally's mum asked, "R= eally small, was it?" Sally replied, "No, salty." Mum fainted.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

s

Just very unlucky. I doubt you could do that if you tried. Probably a =

1 in a million chance of things falling into exactly the right place.

-- =

Friends are like condoms: They protect you when things get hard.

[harry]

US electrical standard ar on a par with central Africa.