Word of warning. Cigar plug removal.

[RayD]

Just thought I would bring this up as a reminder for people to take nothing for granted.  

Today I decided to replace a cigar lighter type plug with crimp lugs, and for no reason other than my careful nature I thought that I would remove the plug rather than cut the cable.  When I opened the plug I was really surprised to see the supplier had thrown cable colour identification convention to the wind and connected the blue conductor to the positive tip terminal, and brown to the negative plates.

Whilst this doesn't make any difference to the actual operation of the lead supplied, my thought was for people who would just chop the plug off and rightly assume the brown to be + 12V and the blue to be 0V and potentially cause damage to the connected equipment.

Not impressed at all and thought I would highlight this here.

 

 

[Knighty2112]

Well highlighted for people just in case. Well spotted!  

[RayD]

6 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Well highlighted for people just in case. Well spotted!  

Cheers Gus.  Thing is this isn't some cheap Chinese auction site job, it's a purpose made £45 lead from a very well known and reputable supplier  (not FLO).

[The Admiral]

Similarly, I bought an OEM 32v power supply intended for a range HP printers. I cut off the proprietary plug and replaced it with a 'barrel' plug, assuming the brown wire was positive. It wasn't! Fortunately, no damage was done. But the moral is always to check the polarity before connecting to something expensive.

Ian

[Paul M]

Just remember the cable colour convention:

Red to red, Black to black and Blue to pieces 

[RichM63]

Noting that you also have a connection to Southern Spain, in a house, the fluorescent green wire might be live, whilst the bilious pink wire could be return!

Updating farm house wiring is interesting in the least!!!!

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Not good. In actual fact I would think DC equipment should be Red for +ive and Black for -Ive, as really I associate Blue / brown for use with AC with Live and Neutral.

[Geoff Lister]

My father was red-green colour-blind. When we changed from round-pin to square-pin mains plugs he fitted the new plug, to our metal-bodied electric kettle, with the red and green wires swapped over. Fortunately, I had unplugged before I tried to find why the kettle was not heating up (no RCD devices in the old fuse boxes). He was ok when the brown, blue and green+yellow stripe wiring was introduced.

[RayD]

3 minutes ago, Geoff Lister said:

My father was red-green colour-blind. When we changed from round-pin to square-pin mains plugs he fitted the new plug, to our metal-bodied electric kettle, with the red and green wires swapped over. Fortunately, I had unplugged before I tried to find why the kettle was not heating up (no RCD devices in the old fuse boxes). He was ok when the brown, blue and green+yellow stripe wiring was introduced.

Crikey close call!

[The Admiral]

Some years ago a heating engineer was checking out a fault with our boiler, and checked whether the live and neutral had been swapped, as apparently that might have manifested itself as a fault. It was OK, but he related a tale that they had installed all the boilers on a new housing development, and it transpired that the live and neutral to the estate had been swapped! It might be apochryphal, but I like to think it is true.

Ian

[JOC]

I've found that its easier to buy a purpose made plug than chop one off and use it - they are so cheap that I think its easier to wire one from scratch than join cables.  Like the one in this link

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-Male-Cigarette-Cigar-Lighter-Power-Plug-Connector-5A-Fused-Car-Van-Vehicle/310520261368?hash=item484c732af8:g:JEsAAMXQfj9SND5C

[fozzybear]

I live in france with Tri-phase figure that one out? at first complicated but now like water of a ducks back. load balancing etc.. plus colour coding each phase! electricity can have a habit in biting where it hurts! as homer simpson says Duh.....