what is the name of this mains power connector and where to get one - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Tooms
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 18, 2013, 10:19:27 pm
content: Hi forumI got a new(old) power supply with this connector but i dont have a power cord for it.The unit is from UK and is 230v, So do you know what this connector is and where i can get a cable for it ?/Toomsthe ruler is in CM

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2013, 10:33:32 pm
content: If you can get the brand and model of power supply that might help us in the identification.Is that an output or input?

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2013, 10:34:46 pm
content: Do a google image search for "Caravan Mains" you get a lot of hits of a very similar looking plug.

author: Short Circuit
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2013, 10:57:28 pm
content: http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/bulgin-3-pin

author: Andy Watson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2013, 11:00:30 pm
content: Looks like the larger standard Bulgin 3-pole circular mains connector (I don't think they have a special name). I think it's rated at 5A. Bulgin also make (made) a similar low current version which might still be available - but only for low voltage applications. Many years ago somebody decided that the public were too stupid to be let loose with these connectors and mains voltages - so now they are effectively obsolete. Look on the older hi-fi and particularly guitar-amp web sites for possible sources of new-old-stock.Looks like they were rated at 5A.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2013, 04:44:46 am
content: In this case,I think it was a good call!These things were definitely not one of Bulgin's triumphs,especially the plugs,with their nasty screw on tops,no cable clamping,& general air of "at last it's 1922"!The top would come unscrewed at the slightest provocation,or if that didn't happen,was so brittle that it would shatter,exposingthe "biteys" to the unwary finger.Most of the ones I dealt with either were broken,or the power cable sheath had slipped back,leaving the inner conductors hangingout of the top.I doubt if you will find any "new old stock" ones around,as they would have all been sold to replace the tops which weren't sold separately.People probably have the "bottoms" hanging around in their junk boxes,minus the tops.My suggestion is to fit an IEC connector--OK,it will spoil the authenticity of your equipment,but it will be a hell of a lot safer!

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2013, 05:09:03 am
content: Quote from: Tooms on June 18, 2013, 10:19:27 pmThe UK mains in fact is 240 V, but most equipment should work OK on 230 V. At worst you will get a slightly lower power output or possibly a slightly lower output voltage on a power supply.

author: Tooms
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 19, 2013, 06:25:32 am
content: Thanks alot guys.Now i know that the connector is the Bulgin SA1862 and i can see that i can get them from Ebay.But if the connector is unsafe and easy to damage then i am thinking that it may be a better idea to just replace is a IEC or some thing like that, the psu is not that pretty so i am concern about the authenticity of the look of it... it is not a power design or what that nice ones are called.sorry, i will not post photos of this beast because i think i will do a fix up of it first but i can say it is both AC+DC and up to 36v and 30A, but i dont know if it is working yet.But thanks guys for the information/Tooms

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2013, 02:52:12 pm
content: Get a switched + fused IEC socket imho. Even though it has a fuse holder on the back use the one on the socket for the mains fuse and then use the other one for an internal fuse that is hard to get to or something.

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2013, 02:57:35 pm
content: Quote from: IanB on June 19, 2013, 05:09:03 amUK mains went from 240 to 230V a few years ago

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2013, 03:07:54 pm
content: Quote from: KJDS on June 19, 2013, 02:57:35 pmUntrue. The harmonized nominal supply voltage across Europe is 230 V, but individual countries may have specific variations within a tolerance band. In the UK the standard supply voltage is 240 V. Since most apparatus is designed to work with voltages from less than 220 V to more than 250 V harmony is assured.

author: richard.cs
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2013, 09:24:46 am
content: Quote from: IanB on June 19, 2013, 03:07:54 pmIt's even worse than that. You're right that there's been no actual change from 240V, and won't be, but in many areas the transformers are on the 250V taps anyway but stay under the 253V (230+10%) limit most of the time due to loading. They only get changed if there are persistant complaints of high voltage.In reality of course it all works well enough with voltages at the edge of tolerance and allows more power to be delivered on the same cables. As we move away from incandescent lighting it will matter less and less anyway.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2013, 10:03:58 pm
content: Quote from: richard.cs on June 20, 2013, 09:24:46 amIn order to maintain voltage at the far end of the run under load.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2013, 10:24:25 pm
content: Quote from: richard.cs on June 20, 2013, 09:24:46 amHmm. My electric kettle is marked as follows:240 V 3000 W230 V 2755 W220 V 2520 WIf I had a 250 V supply it would be:250 V 3255 WI could have a super-fast cuppa

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2013, 10:27:49 pm
content: I do remember receiving around 255V AC at my dad's place -- a small farm house with about three other customers.

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2013, 09:47:31 am
content: The "240" we get on our olive farm is more like 260+, we are literally down the road for one of the bigger substations in the region and along the road there are a large number of industrial facilities. A lot of caps pop on cheap chinese stuff.

author: richard.cs
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2013, 12:27:59 pm
content: Quote from: IanB on June 20, 2013, 10:24:25 pmYou could always buy a German 3.5 kW kettle. A 13A fuse should easily hold in for the time it takes to boil.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2013, 06:39:38 pm
content: Where I live the mains is consistently around 231-238V, I did live in the oldest electric suburb in South Africa, Lyttelton, nee Verwoerdburg, now Centurion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion,_Gauteng) which had 250V mains, which were consistently 250-260V. Made for great heating and cooking, but a real short lamp life, but very bright.Really helped in winter, especially as the accommodation I was staying in was not exactly impressive, having a few extra amenities like shower blocks 50m away, and a few missing things like half the roof and the odd window. The heater was run all the time there, as we were not paying for power.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2013, 02:13:19 am
content: For many years,Western Australia had 250V as the standard,with the rest of the country on 240V.All the Aussie made stuff had no dramas with the 4% difference--nor did most of the other equipment from around the world.Australian made "240V" light bulbs were not noticeably shorter lived.All was OK,until the "bean counters" discovered that it was much cheaper to import cruddy light bulbs which were all marked "240V".Theywerecheaper to buy,but had a very limited life,so special"260V" light bulbs were imported for WA,which sold at a premium price.----they lasted abitlonger.There was a orchestrated outcry for the supply voltage to be reduced to 240v,which was accomplished at great expense.(Of course,nobody thought of checking how long the imported bulbs lasted in the "240V' States)The "260V" bulbs were discontinued,& the lifetime of the "240V" bulbs did not significantly increase.We then got CFLs which last about half as long as the old Aussie light bulbs,but cost 5 times as much!

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2013, 03:16:17 am
content: A common "old wive's tale" I keep encountering is when light bulbs would seem to keep blowing more often than expected. It would lead to the comment, "it must be the dodgy wiring, there must be something wrong with the wiring". I have never convinced anyone that this is most unlikely to be the case. Unless, of course, you know different?  Bonus points if you get the pop culture reference there

author: notsob
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2013, 04:03:37 am
content: As far as I'm aware the "official" voltage in oz is now supposed to be 230V to bring it in line with europe, but none of the power generators seem to be moving this way - they're all still pushing out '240V' with it often measuring well above 245V in the 'burbs'

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2013, 04:39:18 pm
content: Isn't there negligible difference in light bulb lifespan based on voltage? I thought because of the PTC of the filament they'd use about the same amount of power anyway, and it was only the inrush from being turned on and off that would damage them?[derail thread]

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2013, 04:45:21 pm
content: Quote from: peter.mitchell on June 22, 2013, 04:39:18 pmOn the contrary, there is an exponentially severe relationship between incandescent lifetime and operating voltage. Small increases in voltage cause a dramatic reduction in bulb life. A typical bulb is balanced on a knife edge between giving sufficient light output and failing prematurely.You can sometimes see this by comparing projector bulbs with area lighting bulbs. The area lighting bulb may have an estimated lifetime of 2000 hours, whereas the projector bulb my be only 20 hours. The projector bulb is driven very hot to give an intense white light, the area lighting bulb is driven gently to give a soft, mellow light.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2013, 06:36:14 am
content: You used to be able to buy an inside frosted photoflood lamp for filming with a film camera, which was a standard 115V lamp run on 220V, giving about a 10x increase in power and a lifetime of around 5 hours, on 115V the same lamp was rated for 100W and had a life of 1000 hours. They ran at 6000k, just short of the melting point of tungsten. You often find indicators in old industrial equipment using a 28V lamp on 24V, so as to have a longer life, or a 36V lamp on 28V for the same reason. For every 10% decrease in voltage the life increases by a decade roughly, so running it 20% low gives a life of around 100 000 hours.

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2013, 06:55:04 am
content: actually, this brings me to something i saw the other day, [ur=http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm#anchor1234l]this

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2013, 09:26:48 am
content: I have about 40 or so carbon filament lamps dating from before 1939, they are very nice.http://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=301&pos=69&pid=9721

author: DRT
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2013, 09:44:54 am
content: Here's some 'live' mains voltage data (location Cambridge, UK). Even more off topic: There's clearly a daily cycle that follows the overall load, but I also often see large drops caused by local heavy loads (for example a neighbour's electric shower will drop the voltage by around 8V, indicating a source impedance of about 0.2 Ohm)

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2013, 09:48:54 am
content: The oldest working light bulb is in a fire station in Livermore USA. I notice that it runs as an orange glow rather than a bright light, which probably explains its long life.http://www.centennialbulb.org/

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2013, 11:28:06 am
content: Quote from: IanB on June 22, 2013, 04:45:21 pmOld style lamps were designed with considerably more leeway,so that a "240V" globe was OK to around 260V.My feeling is that the only difference between 220V & 240V "El Cheapo"mported lamps is the labelling.