Cute Chinese-grade mains connection box (Patreon)

Published:

2023-01-09 05:31:20

Imported:

2023-02

Content

I love this little thing because it basically gives the middle finger to most electrical safety standards around the world.

It's a mains voltage connector designed for testing equipment. But with its non polarised plug, single pole switch and random live/neutral assignment to the low voltage speaker terminals, it isn't really safe. Especially for use in the vicinity of grounded surfaces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHiPgynfmFs

Files

So electro-cute (death on a stick)

One of the most pleasing things about China is their "relaxed" approach to electrical safety. That's summed up nicely in some of their electrical test equipment, like this adorable little connection box that has spring loaded speaker connectors for hooking up mains connections. This is made even better by the single pole switch with neon indicator, and a non polarised plug, meaning that even with the switch off one of the outputs may be live at 120-240V. It's worth mentioning that they also have a very slack approach to earth/ground connections as demonstrated regularly by the unconnected earth wires in their products. That means that there's a good chance that many Chinese factory workers are literally live at 220V or more regularly during the day without even realising it. Obviously I don't recommend buying one of these, other than as an exciting curiosity. They are widely available on AliExpress with descriptions involving words like LED lamp test connection box. They even do bench mounting strip versions with several speaker connectors for mass connection of electrical stuff. The lack of polarity and double pole switch means that if you stick a wire into one of the terminals that may or may not be live then the other unconnected wire may become live via the load before you've even connected it. A slightly more compliant version for naughty experimenters might be to use a proper double pole neon indicator switch in line with the (48V rated) speaker connector. I'm very tempted to make a 3D printed version just for the foolishness of it. The first UK compliant connection unit I showed is a Cliff Quicktest, which has a very long history in our electrical workshops. It's a lot more expensive, but is industrial-grade. If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. #ElectronicsCreators