My sister called earlier to complain about her kids. She's trying to pack for a winer vacation abroad and they want to take half a suitcase of electronics! Not just the items but the adapters and cords too, so it all adds up to a fair weight. I'd rather leave computers and phones at home when I take a trip, but maybe it's a generational thing?
Wayne Parham Messages: 18782 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Don't forget that overseas power is run at a different voltage level. She'll probably need converters, and some stuff doesn't run on converters. Barrier strips with protection will blow, because of the spikes generated by them. So I'm not sure taking the electronics is a good idea.
I agree with Wayne, being a world traveler, different countries have different voltages. Usually 220V in Europe, Africa, Asia etc. 100v in Japan but it's the frequency you have to watch out for. Your electronics may be able to handle 120/220v but it must also be able to handle a 50hz line frequency. This is what usually fries most electronics.
Wayne Parham Messages: 18782 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
What I've had the most trouble with is the output of the power converter, itself. Most of the little jobs use a switching supply that makes a nasty signal with a lot of HF spikes. It's pretty much square waves into a transformer. So the edge spikes kill the electronics. As I said, you can't even use a barrier strip on the output of one of these things if it has MOVs inside because the spikes will kill the MOVs. They try to clamp the spikes and die in the process.
The power converters don't make enough power to warrant using a barrier strip, really, but sometimes it's convenient to have just as a distribution panel. Might have the phone charger, the camera charger and a couple other doo-dads on the line, only really using light current from the supply. So it's convenient to have a barrier strip rather than to have to plug and unplug every time you want to change devices. But again, make sure the barrier strip doesn't have surge-protection built-in, 'cause it will smoke the MOVs - which fail shorted - taking out your power converter in the process.
I had to learn the hard way when we went to visit some family in the UK about the different plugs, we were not savvy travelers either. It took us two full days before we found a store that carried what we needed.
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