Wall warts seem to be taking over the world...

They are the ideal way to start a fire. Especially the way some people use them. Some are outright dangerous. All sorts of fakes out there too.

I saw one with a "skeletal" 13a plug with no fuse.

In message , at 21:06:24 on Tue, 1 Oct 2013, alan remarked:

The cords can also clash, because about half come out of the top and half out of the bottom.

I think some stand alone charges supply more current than the PC would, so you might find a powered hub meant things took longer to charge. (Depending on the device this may be a good or bad thing)

That is a good idea. I will check the power requirements of the various items. I have a feeling that the majority are probably 12v and from memory USB power is restricted to 5v - but there will hopefully be a couple of things that could utilise USB.

ice wrote: >> Longer can be a problem, quite a few have the outlet wire com ing from >> the end adjacent to the earth pin not from the L & N pin end li ke a >> normal flex. > >I'm sure BS1363 requires the flex to exit on the op posite side >to the earth pin. Bang goes your house insurance. > >JGH I don 't think they come under the remit of BS1363, for one thing, where's the fu se? You hope the thing has appropriate protection but how can you tell what 's inside a sealed one without an x-ray machine? -- Graham. %Profound_obser vation%

Angle grinder?

I can never work out which of the buggers is supposed to power what. I want ed to power up an old ADSL modem/router and I've got a boxful of adapters a nd I don't know which one is for the router.

You could always try labelling them. That's what I do.

On Wednesday 02 October 2013 08:39 Andrew May wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Usually they are not charged all in one place - not in my house anyway.

I did think that USB plates in the wall might be an idea - but will USB be around as long as 13A sockets?

The only thing for certain is 5V DC is quite ubiquitous - but of the USB designers had forseen the rise of USB-as-power, perhaps they would have chosen 12V?

Modem/routers are unusual in that they normally have an AC out WW.

In message , at 11:06:52 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013, Tim Watts remarked:

Change them back to 13A sockets if they become redundant.

But what is likely to replace it? If anything it's getting more common, with rechargeable boosters, car-lighter adapters and even wall-warts, all having USB output sockets.

(But my brand new cheapo solar panel mobile-booster has a proprietary co-ax output; go figure).

In stand alone use, on a socket fitted on the wall close to the floor and not in a multiblock then bringing the very small diameter cable out the earth pin end makes a lot of sense to me. Less wire, a more direct route to the appliance and no sharp bend on exit from the plug.

I have two 10 x multiways on my UPS, leaves plenty of room to plug in dozen wallwarts as well as all the important loads.

They are not a problem if you know what you are doing though.

Colin Bignell

Other than the charges supplied with devices (e.g. iPad charger), I have two sources that supply 2A + 1A USB output. One is a simple USB charger with two USB sockets - one will provide 2A. The other a portable LiIon battery pack - again 2A + 1A. (My car USB charger only has 1A + 1A.)

There are some quite fancy USB chargers around now, for example:

So no need for slow charging. In fact a powered hub such as above could provide more power than a typical PC USB outlet.

What will replace it... something faster, more powerful, cheaper and with no unplug-without-unmount issues.

NT

Hopefully the kit has some marking either on the label or moulded into the case next to the power socket giving the voltage, current, polarity and AC/DC. You just need to look for a wart that matches. Voltage, polarity, AC/DC need to match, current just needs to be the same or higher on the wart.

Yes, labeling is agood idea but when you have a nice new toy to play with you don't want to faff about labeling the wart... B-)

Just buy a 2 A USB Charger and plug it in. Most stuff these days comes with a USB charging lead just swap about as required. What happened to that agreed "standard" that all mobile phones etc would have the same small USB socket...

What I hope will replace it is a "charge pad", just put your item on the pad and it gets charged via some induction method. Ideally said pad could charge as many things as will sit on it simultaneously, the devices will have to handle how much charge they take.

Something that is intended to plug into a BS1363 socket has to comply to BS1363.

JGH

God, I'd hate to use a plug like that, I need the cable to be flush with the wall, dammit. As soon as any furniture goes anywhere near that (and its US/etc similar cousins) it'll be snapped off, or the cable trodden on and snapped.

JGH