Seen This?

[securespark]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18266022

 

[westie101]

In Gibraltar it is common to see UK and Euro sockets side by side, I've also seen UK and US side by side in Jamaica

 

[pjcomp]

One of my customers has a house rented out to Americans working over here. There are several American sockets, connected to transformers running 110V so they can plug in their home kitchen equipment.

PJ

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I was in a hotel in Dublin on Wednesday, and behind the desk was basically dado trunking, and in it were BS 1363 outlets and a US 3-pin.

I had no means of measuring the voltage at the US socket.

"It is extremely hard for world travellers visiting different countries to find suitable adapters allowing proper connection to locally provided socket-outlets."

Actually it's a POP if you are vaguely handy, don't mind a bit of DIY and don't mind carrying more weight than a typical adapter when you travel.

I have a 4-gang extension strip, and I've replaced the plug with an IEC 60320 C14.

I have a set of leads with country specific plugs on one end and a C13 on the other. Currently a BS 1363, a Schuko, a US NEMA 5-15, and somewhere I've got one of those bizarre Italian CEI 23-16/VII plugs with a little thumbwheel that adjusts the pin spacing.

Basically once you've got the socket strip + C14 done you can go anywhere in the world that has electronics because wherever you go you can buy or borrow a local plug to C13 cable.

 

[RF Lighting]

I've got a 4 gang with a schuko plug on it and one with an American plug. It's great. I had an American adaptor, the type you get at the airport and it kept falling out the socket if you had someting like a phone charger plugged in. The 4 gang idea is so simple, and BAS's mod is a gread idea.

 

[scousespark]

I was in a hotel in Dublin on Wednesday, and behind the desk was basically dado trunking, and in it were BS 1363 outlets and a US 3-pin.

I had no means of measuring the voltage at the US socket.

Why would you want to maeasure the voltage?

 

[RF Lighting]

To check there's a step down transformer in the circuit I'd imagine.

 

[scousespark]

I can see what he'd be checking, I just don't see why he'd want to.

 

[RF Lighting]

Just out of curiosity. I'd do the same

 

[bernardgreen]

If I had American equipment to plug in then I would measure it, I might even go as far as trying to see if it was 50 Hz or 60 Hz. The downside of being an inquisitive engineer....

I do recall a visitor from the US who had transformers for small things. Most were OK except his alarm clock ran slow.

 

[mattylad]

And er indoors will be saying "I can't take you anywhere!"

 

[Peet]

Just out of curiosity. I'd do the same

I'm the same. I never go away anywhere without a Fluke77 and a small lightweight tool kit. It's fixed loads of stuff over the years.

I've had a 4 way strip with an IEC on it for many a year but took it a bit further - On the equipment end I always made sure that portables would plug in to 12V. I bought a decent quality 12v 5A switchmode power supply with a universal 90-264V AC input. Then a cigarette lighter plug for the car. The result is being able to to plug virtually anything portable in and charge it, anywhere, including the car.
It needs a bit of updating now and maybe use a higher standard voltage than 12v to merge it with laptops.