Amiga PSU

[Buleste]

@ Harrison. You're showing your age. And mine. Nowadays as plugs have to be formed plastic (Due to EU regulations)so basic Electrics such as changing a plug are no longer taught in schools so the latest generation of kids may be able to hack into the MOD or NHS they can no longer change a fuse or attatch a plug they just buy a new appliance or call out a sparky.

[AlexJ]

@ Harrison. You're showing your age. And mine. Nowadays as plugs have to be formed plastic (Due to EU regulations)so basic Electrics such as changing a plug are no longer taught in schools so the latest generation of kids may be able to hack into the MOD or NHS they can no longer change a fuse or attatch a plug they just buy a new appliance or call out a sparky.

Really? When I was in school about 5 years or so ago, it was still taught then as part of the 4th form physics. Mind you that course has been changed completely a few years back. Everything relates to the environment now.

Going off-topic for a minute, I was shown an answer that a pupil had given to a question on global warming (one of the few 'free-form' questions nowadays where you can write a few paragraphs rather than one word answers). It seemed to answer the question pretty well, and backed up his thinking with sound scientific reasons, so I said that it was an 'A' or 'B' grade answer. When I was shown the marks though, he got a mark for quality of written communications (the grammar quality) and nothing else, because he'd written from the viewpoint that global warming was not caused by man (but still had answered the question quite legitimately in my opinion). According to the mark scheme there is no room for debate or alternative viewpoints anymore, the kids just get brainwashed into believing what the government wants them to. No wonder people are complaining the kids of today are thick, when anyone showing enough intelligence to come up with and backup a viewpoint that's a little bit different is shot down.

Don't think for yourselves, we're going to tell you what to believe.

[Harrison]

It is definitely becoming like that. Look at the discussion Steve started the other day about the ICT tests and the link he gave to the PC Pro article about it. Some of those questions were marked based on the inclusion of specific key words. So the kids are not even allowed to describe something using their own words either.

[Stephen Coates]

Harrison, you are correct about ring circuits. Not many places use them.

It is quite a good idea, because normally a ring circuit will need a 30 or 32amp fuse or MCB in the consumer unit, and can therefore have a load of 30amps, however the standard cable which is used for ring circuits is 1.5mm squared which can only carry 15amps, however because you have two wires from the consumer unit, these add together, meaning both at the same time can carry 30 amps.

Radial circuits which are used in most countries don't have the extra cable and can therefore usually only take 20amps and need 3mm squared cable.

I found that quite interesting when I first found that out, as I never quite understood the point of both ends being connected to the consumer unit.

Harrison: As far as I'm aware, the sockets in a standard radial circuit are not wired in series. They just lack the extra cable going from the end socket back to the consumer unit. Not sure about other countries though.

We were told how to wire a plug in physics in year 10 (this was in about 2006) and we also did about RCDs and fuses and stuff.

As far as I'm aware, our electrical system is the safest in the world, with plugs which must have an earth pin, and must be fused, sockets with switches etc.

English plugs are easy to wire up, but I don't know about european ones. I have a black A1200 PSU with a european plug but it is molded. I will have to see if I can obtain one and see how it is wired up.

Ok, that doesn't sound too bad. Thanks for the info. I don't know if the Norwegian cables are similar though, but I can always chop off another cable to check this.

The norwegian cable will certainly have a live, neutral and probably an earth, but I don't know what colours they will be. Here, live was red and neutral was black, but we had to harmonise out colours with the european union, meaning that live is now brown and neutral is now blue.

As norway is not in the EU, I wouldn't know whether they did this as well. I am pretty sure that there are some countries in the world that still use the red/black as standard and some countries that don't have colours at all.

Apparently, they were thinking of harmonising our plugs with european ones, but decided not to. It wouldn't surprise me if they want to eventually. Although I think it would be better if the EU harmonised with us. This would cerntainly have been good with wire colours and fire extinguishers. I'm guessing most of you will have seen the new fire extinguishers, where they all have to be red, with a coloured label on? So you can quite easily mistake a powder one for a water one because they are both mostly red.

[Harrison]

That definitely was stupid regarding fire extinguishers. What was wrong with each type being a different colour? Much easier to quickly grab the right one.

Harrison: As far as I'm aware, the sockets in a standard radial circuit are not wired in series. They just lack the extra cable going from the end socket back to the consumer unit. Not sure about other countries though.

Isn't that therefore in series? As you would in effect end up with: >--[]--[]--[]--[]--[]--[]

[Stephen Coates]

I don't think so.

Have a look at this diagram which I made which explains how it all works, and that should explain why it is parrallel. I drew it using the old colours (red=live, black=neutral) as I find that a bit clearer.

http://emaculation.com/steve/sockets.png