They can/could be - but the first few dozen that Mr Google showed me didn't appear to be either!
Kind Regards, John
PAT (testing)
- Thread starter danechip
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Kind Regards, John
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A Google search for "Plastic Computer Case" appears to get over 2 million hits
EMC regs are one of those things that large manufacturers are very careful about but home builders and small custom shops tend to ignore. In theory this could get those small custom builders in legal trouble but in practice it's very rare that any action is taken.
Ironically, the only prosecution I can remember relating to computers and EMC was of a small computer shop and assembler in Cowbridge, South Wales.
The old Acorn Risc PCs had a conductive coating on the inside of the plastic case, as I discovered fitting an x86 motherboard inside one and accidentally shorting everything out on the bottom of the case:
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Ah - Acorn. One of whose offspring is ARM Holdings (ARM originally stood for Acorn RISC Machine, although it doesn't now), whose chip designs are ubiquitous - 63 billion chips sold, the most widely used 32-bit microprocessor family in the world, present in 95% of smartphones etc.
In their own right they seemed to get painted into a corner. Acorn machines seemed to be the domain of the educational sector, with media prefering apple and everyone else IBM compatable
They just seemed too limited in scope with not much software available... word processor, dtp and image editor and a few special education bits and pieces I seem to remember
I'm of the generation where I remember them being pretty widespread in primary school, but IBM pcs were making fast in roads and by secondary school it was IBM clones all the way (running windows 95)
They just seemed too limited in scope with not much software available... word processor, dtp and image editor and a few special education bits and pieces I seem to remember
I'm of the generation where I remember them being pretty widespread in primary school, but IBM pcs were making fast in roads and by secondary school it was IBM clones all the way (running windows 95)
Yes - they couldn't get enough traction. Too late (far too late) for them came the fact that Windoze was ported to the ARM architecture, although I think that is now dead.
Back to the OP. I personally would fail a PC whose cover was off/loose in a normal environment (assuming no repairs had been agreed) due to the fact that I'd be wondering why it was off in the first place eg was someone non-competent fiddling or having a bad day and given it a kick?
If the PC was in an IT repair shop or lab/department then it'd probably pass if I knew the people were competent and it was under controlled conditions. It all comes down to engineering judgement at the time of the test.
If the PC was in an IT repair shop or lab/department then it'd probably pass if I knew the people were competent and it was under controlled conditions. It all comes down to engineering judgement at the time of the test.
Whilst I understand your reasoning, could one really fail an item on the basis of "what one was wondering"??
If it were just an ATX power supply, being used to power something other than a PC, without any additional enclosure/case, would you fail that?
Kind Regards, John
I too wonder that. I also wonder if PCs are actually portable appliances.
However...
What's the IP rating of a power supply?
Yes, I'm not totally sure about that, either.
I'm not sure. There are certainly plenty of holes in the casing which, in themselves would not satisfy IP4X, but I suspect that there might be further internal barriers which prevent access to anything LV through those holes. In any event, if one was working to BS7671 rules, how exactly would one decide which was the "horizontal top surface" of such a PSU (or, indeed, of anything 'portable') - and I'm sure that any of the surfaces would satisfy IP2X.
Kind Regards, John
Well - all you need is a power supply and a knitting needle to find out.
But on a wider note - should the scope of any inspection/testing regime be limited only to matters of operator safety, and not concern itself with issues of risks of damage to the equipment itself?
It's far from impossible that people could die if a system malfunctions because of damage sustained to a component.
I'll leave that to you!
I'm not sure that is workable - how far would you go? "People might die" as a result of functional malfunction of the equipment unrelated to any physical damage, and the owners of the equipment might have a duty of care which required them to have relevant functional testing undertaken. However, it would clearly be impractical for testing of that to be part of a PAT.
Kind Regards, John
I'm not the one who suspects that there might be further internal barriers which prevent access to anything LV through those holes. I suspect that there is a credible risk of serious injury to anybody who pokes things into those holes, which is why PSUs designed to be used outside of any other enclosure (e.g, bench supplies) tend not to have cases like ATX ones.
Indeed. But if they have such a duty of care then surely that extends to not exposing equipment to physical damage by allowing it to be operated without the appropriate cover(s).
OK - call it "In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment".
Maybe - IF the manufacturers of the PSUs say that they are not safe to use unless put into some additional enclosure.
If you wish, but even that would probably only be taken to relate to 'electrical safety'. Testing to ensure that (with relevant equipment) no-one was at risk of dying because of functional hardware, software or whatever faults or malfunctions would be a totally different, and much more complex, business.
Kind Regards, John
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