Power strip/distribution board wierdness

[David.WE.Roberts]

Symptoms - battery on my Logitech rechargeable mouse went dead.

So - checked pins on charging stand and no apparent voltage.

Pulled out end of power lead and checked pins (well, inside/outside of barrel) and no apparent voltage.

Traced wire back to wall wart - it was in the last socket on the strip, next to the neon (which, although this didn't register at the time, wasn't on).

Pulled wall wart out and the neon came on. What?

Plugged it into the other strip, and tested - reverse process from that described above but ended with power to the charging pins.

So the last 13 amp socket in the strip seems to be non functional when this wall wart is plugged in and this turns off the neon.

Rest of the 4 socket strip is fine and running the PC and monitor.

I assume some kind of internal dodgy connection but this is all a bit weird.

Known problem, or possible one off?

Cheers

Dave R

[John Williamson]

If you've seen how they're made, it's hardly a surprise. It is rare, though.

I take it you get the same result whatever you plug in to the socket?

Just for information, strip the strip down and check the welds around the area. Then throw it away....

[The Natural Philosopher]

I've had strips which on taking apart had frankly dangerously badly made connections inside.

Last one blew the RCD, which is why I took it apart..earth wire simply NOT CONNECTED AT ALL and waving in the air..

It had shorted to live when wifey kicked it.

[Graham.]

I have seen that effect many times and on different makes of power strip. What you will probably find is the wires of the neon are just dropped in and trapped between the brass "busbars" and the plastic moulding

[David.WE.Roberts]

No further testing so far - depends if I can be arsed.

It was working for a long time as the mouse was charging.

It may even work again with something plugged back in.

However general feedback is that this sort of thing is to be expected.

So thanks, folks :-)

Cheers

Dave R

[newshound]

ISTR that sometimes the "busbar" connections are not even welded, just crimped. Agree with John!

[Graham.]

Better yet

The connections are bootlace ferruled and welded to the strips, all tickety boo.

Unfortunately the full load current has to go through a couple of blobs of best lead free solder en route!

WTF wasn't the surge PCB connected directly to the busbars?

[Graham.]

Sorry that link was wrong, here is the correct one

[meow2222]

Slight movement of the busbars would fracture the solder

NT

[Brian Gaff]

Very well known by me. I assume this is the type that is made out of that shiney plastic with the neon in the bottom corner? The busbars inside seem to have only the pressure of the plastic bottom moulding to hold them against the springy bits of the socket, so when you plug a plug in, if its every so slightly not straight the connections get intermittent or don't work. The neon is also on push in connections so flexing can affect this also. If you take it apart and work out how it is supposed to work you can usually bend and clean things so it works, but for how long. We had one feeding a computer that kept crashing and yet it never crashed in the first socket.

They are I suspect built to a very low price!

Brian

[meow2222]

Well, retailed at £1 they must sell for a few 10s of pence in China

NT