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American plug
liam.mccaffrey - 27/3/09 at 12:11 PM

I m putting a UK 3 pin plug on a piece of electrical equipment from the US. How do the black and white wires in the US plug correspond to the live and neutral of the UK plug??


Many thanks

Liam Mc


smart51 - 27/3/09 at 12:14 PM

One of the wires in the American plug goes to 110 V AC. There is no equivalent on a UK plug.

edit: even if the plug is for a universal supply, are you sure the cable is up to UK voltages?

[Edited on 27-3-2009 by smart51]


liam.mccaffrey - 27/3/09 at 12:16 PM

it must have its a dual voltage dual frequency piece of equipment and work with a simple pass through adapter


Staple balls - 27/3/09 at 12:17 PM

IIRC, black is live.

But obviously, they use 110v, where we use 230-ish.

Blue smoke is fairly likely unless it has a switched mode PSU that can handle the different voltages


Humbug - 27/3/09 at 12:17 PM

From a quick glance at this it seems that neutral is/contains white

btw, be careful with the voltage unless the item is multi-voltage (110V vs 220V)


smart51 - 27/3/09 at 12:19 PM

Wikipedia says black is live and white is neutral


RK - 27/3/09 at 12:55 PM

Can't you just buy an adaptor?


Madinventions - 27/3/09 at 12:55 PM

Black = Live, White = Neutral, Green = Earth.

Best check the 110V/230V compatibility though... I'd be suprised if an American company thought about making their stuff dual voltage. In my experience their idea of 'global' is if it includes Canada.

Just my personal experience. Got an email from a guy in the states some time ago saying "Can you tell me which state 'UK' is short for? I don't recognise it."
Sigh.


RK - 27/3/09 at 01:19 PM

It is a state, just not in the way he thought it was. The world revolves around whatever country people call home. Not many people in Europe know anything about my country, and I don't think many Canadians could identify Luxembourg on a map. Americans are too easy a target because they say what they think. No fun really.


Guinness - 27/3/09 at 01:36 PM

quote:
Originally posted by RK
Not many people in Europe know anything about my country


Rubbish We watch Ice Road Truckers!

Mike


cd.thomson - 27/3/09 at 01:44 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
quote:
Originally posted by RK
Not many people in Europe know anything about my country


Rubbish We watch Ice Road Truckers!

Mike


He might not know what that is, as I'm pretty sure it only got shown on Canadian TV this month!

If theres one thing I've learnt from IRT its that wherever you go in Canada there are constant, loud ominous cracking/crunching noises

[Edited on 27/3/09 by cd.thomson]


idl1975 - 27/3/09 at 02:05 PM

The cracking noise is the Quebecois trying to physically pry the soil of Quebec loose and drift it out into the Atlantic.

quote:
Originally posted by cd.thomson
quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
quote:
Originally posted by RK
Not many people in Europe know anything about my country


Rubbish We watch Ice Road Truckers!

Mike


He might not know what that is, as I'm pretty sure it only got shown on Canadian TV this month!

If theres one thing I've learnt from IRT its that wherever you go in Canada there are constant, loud ominous cracking/crunching noises

[Edited on 27/3/09 by cd.thomson]


Canada EH! - 27/3/09 at 02:05 PM

You don't need an ice road, they are still running snowmobiles across the ice here (pretty silly), that cracking and crunching in the dead of winter means the ice is growing, or has broken up and grinding against the shore. By the way I know were Luxember is I just don't know how to spell it.


mangogrooveworkshop - 27/3/09 at 02:44 PM

I work with a nutty Canadian... do you want him back........


mangogrooveworkshop - 27/3/09 at 02:46 PM

Oh yes Liam
Black is the live in Americano land.......smoke pipes not wires when the smoke leaks out it stops working


liam.mccaffrey - 27/3/09 at 04:02 PM

In defence of the americans nearly all the stuff I bought out there was duel voltage duel freq.

@RK I could have bought yet another adapter but I wanted a permanent solution

Camera all charged up now thanks chaps


James - 27/3/09 at 05:09 PM

quote:
Originally posted by idl1975
The cracking noise is the Quebecois trying to physically pry the soil of Quebec loose and drift it out into the Atlantic.



lol!