Well, actually, you can’t buy this. But for [TVmiller’s] latest project he decided to have some fun with the video — so he made an infomercial for it.
Called the Prong Saver, the device clips onto any appliance’s electrical cord to help prevent you from accidentally pulling too hard and bending the electrical prongs. It’s basically a cord-tension alarm. The question is — can you hear it over the vacuum cleaner?
And just because he could, it’s solar powered. Because why the heck not? He built it using scraps he found around the workshop. That included a solar powered LED key chain, a small piezo speaker, an eyebolt and a compression spring. Anyway, check out the commercial after the break. It had us in stitches.
For some of [TVmiller’s] more impressive projects, you should really take a look at his grey-water recovery system, and our personal favorite — his any-way door project — a hinge-less door that swings open from either side.
Will it also prevent the 3rd (grounding) prong from being clipped off?
If it doesn’t prevent it from being clipped off, will it save it in a compartment for you?
That’s Prong Saver Plus which has a piezo speaker stand-by noise that runs until the compartment is full.
You’d be surprised how loud the buzzer is. I tested it with 2 vacuums and it was high pitched enough as compared to the lower octave of the cleaner that your ear catches it. Also you’ll notice modern cleaners are much quieter. The Hoover tested is a low rumble so the bzzzzzzz was annoying…er..loud. THANKS FOR THE “impressive” LOVE, HaD
do i get a volume discount ?
000 for 00 or if international ooooooo for just ooooo
I think he means speaker volume. B^)
lol, SOLAR powered because there is no power within reach…..oh wait….;-)
this seems like the ideal application for a Joule Thief.
oh wait, i got things mixed up there for a second.
i meant to ‘steal’ power from the cord as the parent suggested through EM coupling.
some copper wire and a few diodes might be enough ?
Just poke in some needle probes.
Why didn’t they just make the vacuum solar powered?!
Better idea, solar powered carpet that blows dirt away.
Wow, what shitty plugs you must have over there. Why not change to British Standard plugs? Accidentally stepping on those prongs has been known to break a whole leg. You couldn’t pull them off with pliers, seriously.
US plugs never cease to amaze me. They’re clearly the worst plug standard on the planet; brittle, quite dangerous, etc.–you could be using pretty much anything else and you’d be better off. I’m also completely puzzled about why the US, with their almost silly product safety laws, has plugs that do not prevent live contacts being touched when inserting or unplugging the plug. The mind boggles.
I’m just upset toilets still have splash back, I mean c’mon human race, we’ve been pooping for at least 50 years now, get your shit together! Ah, see what I did there?
>get your shit together!
“Get it all together, and put it in a backpack, all your shit, so it’s together. And if you gotta take it somewhere, take it somewhere. You know? Take it to the shit store and sell it. Or put it in a shit museum, I don’t care what you do, you just gotta get it together.”
>splash back
I know right? Well, it is leagues better then having to use a outhouse or asian squat toilet and having a horse fly try to ass-ault you in that quiet moment.
Meh. The US’s lower voltage makes it “safer”. And it’s surprisingly easy to just keep your fingers out of the socket when plugging stuff in. I lived 40 years in the states and never shocked myself due to the plug design. (Note: did not say never shocked myself due to carelessness or bad wiring practice.)
But I’ve vaporized / welded metal together with 230V. UK/EU needs their crazy safe plugs b/c of the crazy high voltage. US has special, safer plugs for our higher voltage applications too.
Nobody does plugs “right” though. The EU ones aren’t polarized, which is dumb as heck. The UK ones weigh like a kilo each and take up half of your wall space — overengineered to the point of inconvenience.
polarized AC ? please explain.
Where the building wiring system defines a “neutral” conductor that is close to earth potential, it is an advantage for appliance designers to preserve that distinction. For example, appliances may ensure single-pole switches interrupt the line side of the circuit, or ensure that screw-base lampholder shells are connected to the neutral side of the supply, minimizing the chance of contact with live parts. This requires a plug that can only be connected in one way to the socket, so that the energised and neutral conductors are not interchanged. In most designs, such “polarized” plugs cannot be mated with non-polarized sockets. Wiring systems where both circuit conductors have a significant potential with respect to earth do not benefit from polarized plugs.
Polarization is maintained by the shape, size, or position of plug pins and socket holes and socket recesses to ensure that a plug fits only one way into a socket. The single-pole switch of the appliance is then connected in series with the energized wire. For an appliance such as a toaster, wiring the exposed heating wires on the neutral side of the switch provides a small measure of extra protection against electrical shock. However, due to the uncertainty in practice of which conductor is the neutral, modern toasters sometimes use dual-pole switches which interrupt both conductors. Similarly, lamps with screw bases will connect the shell of the lamp socket to the neutral conductor.
The UK ones are about right for a 13A kettle, but overkill for phone chargers.
They have, code changed maybe 5-8 years ago, in my recent basement remodel I was forced to buy the new, very expensive, outlets that have built in protection that only allow contact to be made if the proper plug is plugged in and pushes in on the right and left side at the same time… Joy…
Type G to be honest are the adult lego foot traps. BUT some have integrate fuses which is pretty damn cool.
>pretty much anything else
Type C are kinda worse as most older wiring installations are round and designed for Type E and Type F sockets are round. Plus no grounding. Check out GFCI outlets it makes US plugs a lot better.
The US plug design is actually surprisingly rugged. Maybe there should be better protection from accidentally touching live line but I’ve yet to do so at the plug, and 120VAC is usually benign unless you’re dumb enough to lick your fingers first.
Britain may not have an empire any more but by jove we’ve got the best damn plugs in the world and no mistake.
I think Nigel Farage should drop all this nonsense about immigrants and concentrate on making those Brussels bureaucrats adopt the BS mains plug as the One True Plug. I’d vote for that in a referendum.
The modern DE/CZ one is smaller, but just as good (if not even better), nice beefy contacts and strong springs in the socket. Also, the socket has a protective ring around it, the brit plug has to use additional isolation on the prongs to prevent a short by foreign object. Is rated for 16A (over 3.5kW), can relatively safely carry even more.
There’s also a “safety version” available, where you can’t stick something in just one hole (think little kid with a nail, did exactly that when I was little), both must be pressed for the safety to let go.
They’re certainly the best mechanically – except perhaps three-prong EU ones – but they’re also the ones most likely to cripple you in a darkened bedroom.
Reminds me of a time I was trying to iron a shirt in an american hotel room and every time I tried to moved the iron over the material the shitty plug would just come out of the socket. Great example of the worst design ever.
good hack for that is spread the prongs apart enough that they don’t fit in the plug, then stick one side in and force the other in to generate some spring
Hey now, are you going to deprive little Johnny of a mild electric shock? I learned to respect the cord after sticking a fork into an outlet as a child. Hard lesson, well learned.
Next thing you know you’ll want us to go to twist lock.
Someone local tried to make a business out of a piece of plastic that you put the plug into to protect the prongs, as if people would buy those. I’m glad it didn’t get investor backing.
“Prongdoms” copy right that
Or you could move to a country that has sane standards for electric outlets and where the prongs don’t bend…
If only people were so free to move about the world.