OT: Power Supplies

[andrew at bishop.dropbear.id.au]

In response to a question from Brad Hards about IEC plugged power boards,
Jeremy wrote:

On Thu, 19 Sep 2002, Jeremy wrote:

> It doesn't really require major surgery.  Five minutes with a pair of clippers
> and  a screwdriver and you can mix'n'match any power connectors you want.  But
> of course, none of us would ever consider it, because it's illegial.

I have such a power board (I also have a UPS providing IEC plugs on the
back, and wanted to plug hub, modem, etc into it as well).  However,
acquiring it wasn't simple.

A look at all the local computer-type shops failed to find something
suitable, so I took a trip out to SI in Fyshwick.  They *used* to stock
such things, I was told, but carried them no longer, and in fact, the
salesman I was talking to had bought their last one about a week before.
However, said salesman was also a qualified electrician (or at least
claimed to be), and a nice guy to boot, so he sent me across the road to
jaycar to buy a standard 240V line socket (like you'd see on the end of
extension cords), sold me a $5 IEC-IEC power cable, and then swapped the
end of it for me for no extra charge.

I was pretty impressed with that service.  However, it was over a year ago
now.  So I guess this all just goes to say, "You will probably have
trouble buying such a beast pre-made, but for someone who knows what
they're doing, it's less than 5 minutes work to make one."


Had that trip to SI failed to net me the cable I was after, my next plan
was to take a standard powerboard and an IEC plug, wander into a local
small-electrical-appliance repair place, and ask the guy there if he'd be
willing to wire it up for $5.

Andrew