Warning about buying from ebay/car-bootie

keitha1200 · 10 July 2012, 21:25

Bought this power supply as a replacement, the guy promised me it worked fine

Anyhow tonight i decided to test it (bought it ages ago) anyhow, the cable tie bit was loose on the plug (two wee screws were loose), thought to myself 'I'll quickly' tighten them up and check the fuse' (as their there for a reason)

Here's what I discovered:

Needless to say i haven't bothered trying it!!!

s2325 · 10 July 2012, 22:02

Could you upload somewhere else? Maybe http://imgur.com/

keitha1200 · 10 July 2012, 22:14

[edit]

10 July 2012, 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by keitha1200

Bought this power supply as a replacement, the guy promised me it worked fine

Anyhow tonight i decided to test it (bought it ages ago) anyhow, the cable tie bit was loose on the plug (two wee screws were loose), thought to myself 'I'll quickly' tighten them up and check the fuse' (as their there for a reason)

Here's what I discovered:

Needless to say i haven't bothered trying it!!!

what is wrong with this power supply ?

john1979 · 10 July 2012, 22:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by petshopfanboy

what is wrong with this power supply ?

Predseda · 10 July 2012, 23:25

I also dont understand. We have different connectors here in central Europe.

roy bates · 10 July 2012, 23:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Predseda

I also dont understand. We have different connectors here in central Europe.

here in the uk the brown is live and the blue is neutral.(the oppisite to whats in the pictures)

the brown goes to the fuse.

jimbob · 10 July 2012, 23:59

I'm attempting to repair my workmates ~2007 imac with blown PSU at the moment. It has live and neutral reversed at an internal connector between the AC inlet and the PSU board. No way to discover the fault without a serious dismantling. Like you say

!

So if the PSU board fuse blows, (which it has), much of the PSU and who knows what else in a faulty condition remains live. Great bit of QC there!

roy bates · 11 July 2012, 00:19

to be perfectly honest ive seen loads of plugs wired like this over the years,some of them where wired by my wife and my family lol.

actaully its best to check everything over before you plug it in anyway,no matter where or who you got it from.

i had a power supply supply that was smashed from the inside the pcb was smashed in half!(yes thats right!) with no visible cracks or scratches on the outside of the case luckily i heard the inards rattling about before i plugged it in.

Zetr0 · 11 July 2012, 01:30

Well thats an interesting way of wiring up a plug in the UK.

for most applications this is epically wrong, the Live (brown) and Neutral (Blue) are wired incorrectly - However in the case of this particular plug-pack (the Amiga Power Supply) it wont matter as its expecting AC voltage.

keitha1200 · 11 July 2012, 07:07

Pretty unbelievable how silly people can be (mixing up the live and the neutral), its a little like not being able to tell the difference between your 'left and' your 'right'

but more dangerous

Timely reminded about buying second-hand electrical gear

Methanoid · 11 July 2012, 08:56

Makes me think I oughta check some of the PSUs I have obtained. One I junked as dead. One makes a nice fizzing sound (switched that off quick and won't use) but the others are good.

Of course the fizzer could have similar problems but I wonder what else might cause a fizz/shorting sound? Any ideas from the gurus?

Jope · 11 July 2012, 09:08

Swapping live and neutral will not cause your PSU to fizz.. Most likely a component or solder joint has failed.

I've repaired a few noisy Amiga power bricks by just reflowing all the joints.

Predseda · 11 July 2012, 09:14

Much easier here as these cords in central Europe have no fuse inside and thus they are mostly not dissasemblable.

Methanoid · 11 July 2012, 09:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jope

Swapping live and neutral will not cause your PSU to fizz.. Most likely a component or solder joint has failed.

I've repaired a few noisy Amiga power bricks by just reflowing all the joints.

I think time to ask my son to have a play.... His tally so far is one dead Xbox1 ("Sure Dad, I can solder, let me fit that mod chip")

jimbob · 11 July 2012, 10:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jope

Over here we have symmetrical plugs, you can plug it in either way, switching live and neutral and nothing bad happens.

This is not as dangerous as you make it seem, but I guess since yours is keyed, it is good practice to wire it correctly.. :-)

I think the whole system must be designed a bit differently if you can swap live and neutral safely. In the UK all the appliance fuses and mains circuit breakers are, (supposed to be), on the live conductor.

The danger if live and neutral are switched is that everything will probably appear to be fine but you are one fault closer to a deadly situation. A neutral to earth fault in some appliance with an earthed chassis for example is now a live to earth fault and is unfused. Very dangerous.

diablothe2nd · 11 July 2012, 11:45

I spotted that error right away! I also cringed at the amount of bare wire showing from each pin. I always try to wire mine with no stray or bare wires visible.

Surely though as AC flows both ways, back and forth (50 times a second in the UK) it wouldn't matter which way you wire it? dont AC to DC converters use the four diodes in a square shape to direct the current to a single direction? if i remember my school electronics lessons correctly the "diode diamond" as we called it, didn't care which way we fed the AC.

Jope · 11 July 2012, 16:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimbob

I think the whole system must be designed a bit differently if you can swap live and neutral safely. In the UK all the appliance fuses and mains circuit breakers are, (supposed to be), on the live conductor.

The danger if live and neutral are switched is that everything will probably appear to be fine but you are one fault closer to a deadly situation. A neutral to earth fault in some appliance with an earthed chassis for example is now a live to earth fault and is unfused. Very dangerous.

Ah yes, I forgot all about that main loop style wall power wiring you had there. Now it makes more sense.. I'll delete my misinformation post, I don't want to encourage people to disregard that.

FOL · 11 July 2012, 23:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by petshopfanboy

what is wrong with this power supply ?

LMFAO, trust me I have seen worse, try the earth in neutral position.

Reversing the live and neutral will work in most cases aslong as the device can take the negative going wave first.

orange · 12 July 2012, 13:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimbob

I think the whole system must be designed a bit differently if you can swap live and neutral safely. In the UK all the appliance fuses and mains circuit breakers are, (supposed to be), on the live conductor.

The danger if live and neutral are switched is that everything will probably appear to be fine but you are one fault closer to a deadly situation. A neutral to earth fault in some appliance with an earthed chassis for example is now a live to earth fault and is unfused. Very dangerous.

but, its not unfused according to photo.

10 July 2012, 21:25	#1
keitha1200 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Tayside Posts: 181	Warning about buying from ebay/car-bootie Bought this power supply as a replacement, the guy promised me it worked fine Anyhow tonight i decided to test it (bought it ages ago) anyhow, the cable tie bit was loose on the plug (two wee screws were loose), thought to myself 'I'll quickly' tighten them up and check the fuse' (as their there for a reason) Here's what I discovered: Needless to say i haven't bothered trying it!!!

10 July 2012, 22:14	#3
keitha1200 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Tayside Posts: 181	[edit] Last edited by keitha1200; 11 July 2012 at 07:00.

11 July 2012, 00:19	#9
roy bates Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: birmingham Age: 55 Posts: 2,827	to be perfectly honest ive seen loads of plugs wired like this over the years,some of them where wired by my wife and my family lol. actaully its best to check everything over before you plug it in anyway,no matter where or who you got it from. i had a power supply supply that was smashed from the inside the pcb was smashed in half!(yes thats right!) with no visible cracks or scratches on the outside of the case luckily i heard the inards rattling about before i plugged it in. Last edited by roy bates; 11 July 2012 at 00:28.

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10 July 2012, 22:02	#2
s2325 Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Gargore Age: 43 Posts: 17,789	Could you upload somewhere else? Maybe http://imgur.com/

10 July 2012, 23:25	#6
Predseda Puttymoon inhabitant Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Tromaville Age: 46 Posts: 7,545	I also dont understand. We have different connectors here in central Europe.

10 July 2012, 23:59	#8
jimbob Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Location: Kilmacolm Age: 46 Posts: 632	I'm attempting to repair my workmates ~2007 imac with blown PSU at the moment. It has live and neutral reversed at an internal connector between the AC inlet and the PSU board. No way to discover the fault without a serious dismantling. Like you say ! So if the PSU board fuse blows, (which it has), much of the PSU and who knows what else in a faulty condition remains live. Great bit of QC there!

11 July 2012, 01:30	#10
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	Well thats an interesting way of wiring up a plug in the UK. for most applications this is epically wrong, the Live (brown) and Neutral (Blue) are wired incorrectly - However in the case of this particular plug-pack (the Amiga Power Supply) it wont matter as its expecting AC voltage.

11 July 2012, 07:07	#11
keitha1200 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Tayside Posts: 181	Pretty unbelievable how silly people can be (mixing up the live and the neutral), its a little like not being able to tell the difference between your 'left and' your 'right' but more dangerous Timely reminded about buying second-hand electrical gear

11 July 2012, 08:56	#12
Methanoid Retired Quartex Sysop Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Roman Verulamium Age: 58 Posts: 1,873	Makes me think I oughta check some of the PSUs I have obtained. One I junked as dead. One makes a nice fizzing sound (switched that off quick and won't use) but the others are good. Of course the fizzer could have similar problems but I wonder what else might cause a fizz/shorting sound? Any ideas from the gurus?

11 July 2012, 09:08	#13
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,863	Swapping live and neutral will not cause your PSU to fizz.. Most likely a component or solder joint has failed. I've repaired a few noisy Amiga power bricks by just reflowing all the joints.

11 July 2012, 09:14	#14
Predseda Puttymoon inhabitant Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Tromaville Age: 46 Posts: 7,545	Much easier here as these cords in central Europe have no fuse inside and thus they are mostly not dissasemblable.

11 July 2012, 11:45	#17
diablothe2nd Registered User Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Northamptonshire, UK Age: 41 Posts: 1,236	I spotted that error right away! I also cringed at the amount of bare wire showing from each pin. I always try to wire mine with no stray or bare wires visible. Surely though as AC flows both ways, back and forth (50 times a second in the UK) it wouldn't matter which way you wire it? dont AC to DC converters use the four diodes in a square shape to direct the current to a single direction? if i remember my school electronics lessons correctly the "diode diamond" as we called it, didn't care which way we fed the AC.

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