Wall warts; was: hams on classiccmp

[Tony Duell]

> 
> 
> Basically, in the US the UL is the standard which one follows (CE if  
> you want to go elsewhere). Failing to meet the UL/CE standards  
> generally has force of law in the US due to the ever diligent lawyers.  

I feel these standard, or at least the 'CE mark' is part of the problem, 
and here's why....

It would apperar there are either loopholes in the standard, or plenty of 
cheap electrical devices (including wall-warts) that have invalid CE 
marks on them, in that I've seem enough devices that I don't consider 
safe. The problem is that if the wall-wart carries the CE mark, then as 
you said, the certification for the whole product becomes a lot easier, 
and if there are any problems later, a large part of the defence is 'But 
the wall wart met the appropriate CE standards'.

But when manufacturers were entirely responsible for what their devices 
did, they made darn sure they were safe. Said manufacturers did not want 
to end up paying out large amounts of damages. SO th products really 
_were_ safe.

I offer as an example the PSU brick for the Philips G7000 video game. 
It's a bit like awall-wart, except it has a mains input cable that you 
wire to a suitale plug. But inside that brick (which is nicely screwed 
together), there are no fewer than 3 protective devices. A mains-side 
fuse, a secondary fuse, and a thermal fuse (on the mains side). 

-tony