Flat 13a plug

[johnjo]

Just received this link in an email, apologies if you've already seen it, it's a brilliant concept. It's one of those 'Wish I'd thought of it' ideas.

 

It's a 3mins long video, but stick with it, you'll be amazed, honest.

 

http://unclutterer.com/2009/11/11/brillian...pt-saves-space/

Edited December 9, 2009 by johnjo

[Chris J W]

Great little bit of engineering, that. Hopefully it'll finally see the light of day for portable equipment.

 

Interesting link, too, in the comments.

 

http://gizmodo.com/5391271/giz-explains-wh...nt-fing-plug%29

[Woollymishka]

Just received this link in an email, apologies if you've already seen it, it's a brilliant concept. It's one of those 'Wish I'd thought of it' ideas.

 

It's a 3mins long video, but stick with it, you'll be amazed, honest.

 

http://unclutterer.com/2009/11/11/brillian...pt-saves-space/

 

Absolutely amazing - I want one of those or should I say I want several of those! Thanks Johnjo!

[Big COL]

Who said you couldn't re-invent the wheel?

[bottle]

I have not watched all the video but what I did see was that the 'thin' plug needed to be placed in an adaptor, the size of an 'ordinary' plug.

 

So now you will need to carry the thin plug leads and the adaptor, the only advantage I can see is if all the equipment being carried about had these 'thin' plugs, then only one adaptor would required for up-to three items, so saving the space of two plug tops.

 

Perhaps we could have all walls sockets changed, so as to be able to accept the new plug, that would remove the necessity for the adaptor.

[ditchcrawler]

I have not watched all the video but what I did see was that the 'thin' plug needed to be placed in an adaptor, the size of an 'ordinary' plug.

 

So now you will need to carry the thin plug leads and the adaptor, the only advantage I can see is if all the equipment being carried about had these 'thin' plugs, then only one adaptor would required for up-to three items, so saving the space of two plug tops.

 

Perhaps we could have all walls sockets changed, so as to be able to accept the new plug, that would remove the necessity for the adaptor.

Watch again, It turns into a standard fitting 13A Plug. The adapter lets you put 3 folded plugs into one socket

[Chris J W]

The main advantage of the 'flat plug' is that it packs away flat, so you've not got the problem of prongs that stick up and get in the way.

[bottle]

Thank you for the correction, as I said did not watch it all, a bit low on megabytes this month and do not want to be charged the extra.

[Theo]

Who do we contact to say that we want some? We could push the manufacture by showing a market exists.

 

N

[WotEver]

The problem I see with this plug, and why it will probably never be manufactured, is that it I doubt that it would be certified to BS1363 and could therefore never be legally sold in the UK. There's no way that plug could possibly be rated at 13A, which is one of the requirements of BS1363.

 

It appears to take a standard BS1362 fuse which means that even if a manufacturer moulded it onto a lead and fitted a 2A fuse to it in the factory there would be nothing stopping an end user replacing that fuse with a 13A, creating a potentially lethal connector.

 

Tony

[twocvbloke]

Looks pretty clever, I think it's about time we had something like that cos the standard british plug is often ridiculed by foreigners for being so damned big and ugly, I mean, look at what the US have, those little things are rated up to 15 amps!!! AND they're unfused at the plug (they do have about 2 or 3 sockets per RCD/MCB, unlike our ring system, which to be honest is a bit archaic these days!!!), just makes me wonder why such an ugly standard hasn't gone away, BS546 was right on the mark with the 3 plug system, it was only twits with uncertified adaptors that spoiled it for us... :\

Edited December 10, 2009 by twocvbloke

[alan_fincher]

Clever though it is, don't a whole heap of the items they are talking about carrying around with you only come with a power supply as part of the plug ?

 

The clever gizmo that allows you to stack three folding plugs into one adaptor that then access a single 13 amp socket will only work for bits of kit that have a plug on the end of a bit of wire, before any "active" parts of the kit.

 

To change the whole picture, you would need things that don't currently come with any wire between plug and power supply to be completely redesigned by their manufacturers, so that they did.

 

I can't see it happening, somehow.

 

I'm also guessing the new type could only be manufactured as a moulded on fitting that came as part of something, or as part of a complete replacement lead ? Ii seems unlikely to be able to design one, with screwed terminals and cable clamps that you could fit to an existing appliance with a lead already hard wired into the back.

 

I agree though that it would be nigh on impossible to come up with a worse solution for 240 plugs and sockets than the British one - it's a terrible legacy to be stuck with!

[Chris J W]

Clever though it is, don't a whole heap of the items they are talking about carrying around with you only come with a power supply as part of the plug ?

 

But, again, the whole idea of this gizmo is that it folds flat. That's really the main function of it is that it stops those damn prongs getting in the way for packing for portable equipment.

 

If the 'folding' bit became a standard you'ld have PSU's that were designed round it.

 

 

Drifting OT ... what's actually wrong with the UK plug design? (Bar sticky up prongs)

Edited December 10, 2009 by Chris J W

[Nickhlx]

Actually I think that the UK 13A plug is a very good and solid design. Its not so small you can't grip it properly, the contacts/pins are large enough to take the full 13A current with minimal heating effect, and the fuse in the plug protects the cable as it's intended to ( assuming the right fuse is fitted).

 

If you want proof, look at the French plugs and ask why the French themselves are fed up with them and compliment the UK plugs. The French plugs feel very "cheap", some are difficult to impossible to wire up properly and neatly, and as for the wall sockets they should be banned immediately - absolute rubbish !

 

 

The UK electrical system I think is one of the best in the world. I do feel that we could do with a smaller rated plug though - anyone remember the 2A , 5A and 15A round pins series ? - I think the 2A are still available and were quite neat, and the 5A look beefier than the French 10A/16A offerings... but a 13A plug for a bedside light does seem to be a bit of an overkill. One suggestion I would offer is that the 13A plugs are sold without a fuse and a conscious decision is made in an attempt that the correct rated fuse for the job is installed - too many lamps have their plugs fitted with a 13A fuse and are only wired with 3A flex. That IS potentially dangerous...

 

Nick

Edited December 10, 2009 by Nickhlx

[MartinClark]

Actually I think that the UK 13A plug is a very good and solid design.

 

But it's a bugger to stand on when you're walking round the house in your socks or bare feet!

 

Not a lot of point in redesigning the plug - the next move is wireless electricity!

 

"Electronics such as phones and laptops may start shedding their power cords within a year.

 

That's the prediction of Eric Giler, CEO of WiTricity, a company that's able to power light bulbs using wireless electricity that travels several feet from a power socket.

 

WiTricity's version of wireless electricity -- which converts power into a magnetic field and sends it sailing through the air at a particular frequency -- still needs to be refined a bit, he said, but should be commercially available soon."

From:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/02/wireles...city/index.html

 

 

Also:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6129460.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer

Edited December 10, 2009 by MartinClark

[tom_c]

hi the 15a round pin plugs are still used in most theatres for lighting equipment even on newly built theatres like Curve in leicester. it was only quite recently that some of the old 5 amp stuff was thrown away, the only real problem with them is the lack of a fuse

[WotEver]

"... still needs to be refined a bit, he said, but should be commercially available soon."

Yeah.. he's been saying that for the last two and a half years...

 

 

 

hi the 15a round pin plugs are still used in most theatres for lighting equipment <snip> the only real problem with them is the lack of a fuse

The lack of a fuse is the exact reason why they are used on lighting grids.

[DHutch]

Yeah, its a good solid plug.

- Ive seen the folding idea before, and its not bad, although im not quite sure how the power gets from to rotating L and N to the wire in the handle as such.

 

hi the 15a round pin plugs are still used in most theatres for lighting equipment even on newly built theatres like Curve in leicester. it was only quite recently that some of the old 5 amp stuff was thrown away, the only real problem with them is the lack of a fuse

Yes, although a very large number of places have now switched to the 16amp ceeforms we all use for shorepower.

- Certainly within the event lighting business this had very much become the standard.

- Again, they have no fuse, which as said is just what you want for lighting, although having seen 125amp 3phase stepped down to 16amp single phase without the use of any breakers or breakout box you do have to wonder!

[WotEver]

im not quite sure how the power gets from to rotating L and N to the wire in the handle as such.

In the 3D model I believe it showed two slip rings for the L & N connections.

[alan_fincher]

Drifting OT ... what's actually wrong with the UK plug design? (Bar sticky up prongs)

The choice of rectangular shaped, rather than round conductors is its obvious failing.

 

It simply isn't possible to design a good socket with connectors that make anything like such good contact, or over anything like such a large area, as the old round pin designs which it replaced.

 

If you look in a typical 13A square pin outlet, the area of contact is quite small, and the mechanisms for keeping it gripped on the plug quite puny.

 

On old round pin designs most of the length of the plug fed into a tight gripping cylinder, (slightly springy, and slotted down one side to allow it to open slightly on insertion).

 

The old plugs actually came as 2amp, 5amp, 10 amp and 15amp configurations, and even the 10amp one could handle currents well in excess of what a "modern" 13amp square pin one can reliably do.

 

Obviously the change was made to remove any prospect of anyone trying to force the wrong plug type into the wrong socket between old and new systems, when ring mains started to be introduced for the first time, but electrically the new plug and socket is far inferior to what it replaced.

 

Obviously new ones are fine in the majority of applications, which are low current, but are then ridiculously large for the need. Pushed to drive powerful kettles and fan heaters, you can often feel the top of the plug getting hot due to poor contact in the socket, and in extreme cases the front of a socket will start to crack or melt if this is not addressed.

 

However, I think our ring main system, a really quite UK concept, is far superior otherwise to the unsophisticated systems used in the majority of the rest of the world. It does totally rely on fused plugs though, a concept that few other have, and why something so like the rest of the world was designed, (but poorly!) in the first place.

 

I was always surprised in my working days if I turned up in a country and found UK style outlets, not needing an adaptor. Singapore is the obvious case that I think I remember as being like this.

[Nickhlx]

One of the reasons the 13A plug tops get hot is because there is a fuse within, which by design has resistance and will drop volts / produce heat which is why they blow when too much is passing - so "warm" does not equal a fault.

 

Another is the "near point contact" connection that the socket transfers the power through to the plug pin - if both were perfectly machined at best it would only be a line contact, so there is heat produced at this location as well...

 

It is a GOOD feature for stage lighting to NOT have a fuse near the light when using round pin plugs, as to change a fuse up there would be far more inconvenient than down on the control box - there are all wired in a "star" configuration, so fusing at the source protects better the whole run.

 

Nick

[Chris J W]

The choice of rectangular shaped .. <snip>

 

Ta!

[twocvbloke]

There are many types of plug worldwide, yet the ugliest one of all is our 13amp, just look at this Danish one, it just looks so happy!!!

 

 

see more here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets

[colin stone]

I understand that there is an EU move to drop the UK square pin and use the continental style plug and sockets???

[bag 'o' bones]

Just received this link in an email, apologies if you've already seen it, it's a brilliant concept. It's one of those 'Wish I'd thought of it' ideas.

 

It's a 3mins long video, but stick with it, you'll be amazed, honest.

 

http://unclutterer.com/2009/11/11/brillian...pt-saves-space/

 

Its been around for a while.

 

I read about it in one of those invention type magazines.

 

The chap who designed it was a student who got a bit narked after stuffing his standard power adaptor alongside his new lappy causing the 3 pin plug to scratch the screen.

 

Certainly a good idea!