Re: 110V equpipment with IEC sockets - How to protect ag ainst UK 240V mains

["Tim Hawes" <timsyahoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Having fried a few PC power supplies that way I simply resorted to
lots of masking tape and "VOLTS!!!" written in large red letters
over
the 3 corners where the socket was. Not ideal, but...

A more drastic alternative might be to put a couple of drops of
superglue on each side of the IEC lead so that it's not _easy_ to pull
out, but you can still take it out if you need to. If the other end is
a US plug then you can tell from the lead what volts it needs. Again,
not ideal though...

Colour coding? Make the 240V cables all black (strictly it's blue for
240V IIRC), and get some lurid yellow cables for 110V? Yellow dabs of
paint by/on the IEC socket on the equipment?


HTH,

Tim.

On 3/16/06, White, Peter <peter.white@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> My last office had a 'twisted pin' circuit to show which sockets were
UPS
> protected; basically one of the pins, probably the neutral, was turned
> through 90 degrees.  However, there must be another name for them, as
Google
> turns up nothing for 'twisted pin'.
>
> Not much help, I know.  Alternatively, CPC do US sockets that fit a
normal
> UK back box, search on PL01823.
>
> Pete
>
>   _____
>
> From: Kevin Hawkins
>
> I have a few pieces of kit that work on US 110V - that I have sourced
> via eBay.  I have a 110V supply here and all works fine. However the
> sockets on the back of the equipment are standard IEC (kettle lead)
> style and I just know at some stage I will plug a 240V lead into one
of
> them by mistake.  Has anyone any ideas how to protect against this ? 
I
> was hoping I might be able to source some mechanically different
sockets
> that I could swap with the equipment mounted ones that might prevent
me
> plugging a 240V lead in. (Perhaps by having rotated  pins through 90
> degrees or a centre peg and matching leads or something similar .... 
)
> . Hopefully they might panel mount the same.
>
> I suppose I could attach fixed leads with US style plugs as a last
> resort or something ...
>
> Kevin