In case you weren’t aware, here’s one of the many ways unregulated electronics bought online can be dangerous. A regulation Australian IEC cable must have 3x 0.75mm²+ double-insulated stranded copper conductors. This cable appears to meet that requirement at first glance — it’s marked that way on the outside, and cutting in, the PVC colours are wrong but otherwise appear okay.
But then, scrape some of the copper, and it suddenly turns silver. It’s CCA, or Copper-Clad Aluminium. A sneaky and cheap but worse conductor. The aluminium holds up much worse to corrosion and bending, and will crumble to powder inside the cables over time. Through this process it will increase its resistance, turning into a fire-starter. Very dangerous and invisible without destroying the cable to examine it. #safety #psa
@s0 After having one too many fires I've started opening all power supplies I get to check them before I plug them in, and toss all the cables in the bin.
Most power supplies also go in the bin - my favorite was one that had a bunch of wires inside cut on both the DC low voltage side and the mains side, dangling around with exposed copper. Shaking it would put mains voltage on the DC plug.
@ChlorideCull loving all the yikes stories here.
So many power supplies that have IEC connectors but just don't connect the Earth pin through to anything -- which is against regulations here and they cannot pass T&T. Had to toss one such supply at workplace#2 recently.