So if these are people wiring their Christmas lights wrong, assuming these are led lights, doesn’t this “solution” not work bc of the polarity anyway? Or is that only a DC thing with diodes? I only did okay in my physics electricity stuff lol
For simple stuff such as those lights, polarity is usually not a problem when using AC.
In case of AC (Alternating Current), instead of having a + and - pole, you have a Line and a Neutral terminal.
The Line terminal goes + … - … + … - … + … - with time and the Neutral stays at 0.
When connecting to LEDs and such, you have an AC to DC converter, which tends to be fine no matter which pin you put in which hole.
Ah, so that’s why it’s half power compared to DC, makes sense.
Kinda, it’s half the power because the power goes like the temporal average of the current squared, the current oscillates like sine or cosine, and the temporal average of a sine or cosine squared is 1/2.
Unless the AC is a square wave, in which case stuff becomes different.
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Not really.
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Where on earth would Mains be a square wave?
Low quality UPS Inverter
That’s not what Mains means.
As far as the appliance cares, it is the only input power it gets at that time.
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In household wiring polarity does matter, especially if you are assembling plugs. Only one of the three wires is carrying live current (hot), the other two are the neutral return path, and ground which is for safety. If you accidentally switch polarity, you can cross hot to neutral and cause a short circuit.
Switching the neutral and hot pins doesn’t matter except for appliances with exposed metal tied to the neutral pin, which is pretty much exclusive Edison screw lamps. This is why many plugs (especially those that immediately go to a rectifier) don’t bother with polarization.
Swtching hot and ground is a problem
My bad. I wasn’t clear enough.
I was talking about 2 pin plugs, as shown in the post and how it is usually for those cheap lighting thingies.
It would still work. But it is VERY dangerous. 1. The far end of the light string will now have exposed metal prongs that are energized at 120v, which can be fatal. 2. If the other end gets plugged into a socket, there is a 50% chance it will be a different circuit on a different phase, which can create a 240v direct short, across a wire that has no properly sized circuit breaker. 3. Using it to plug a generator into your house during a power outage can kill electrical workers trying to fix the outage if you fail to open your circuit breakers.
I knew that much, I was more interested in how diodes work on AC lol
In AC, diodes work half the time, every 1/60 second. The “good” LEDs will have circuitry to fully rectify the AC into DC, drop the voltage properly, and smooth the peaks and valleys, so they will be continuously lit. So the cheap LED Christmas lights might have a slight flicker, and the good ones are steady. (Or get fancy with chasing colors, etc.)
All of that happens inside each of the “bulb” enclosures, or sometimes in a box at one end, so it technically doesn’t matter which end they are getting electricity from, since the socket at the far end is still just connected in parallel to the plug at the near end. (Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to link them together.)
It’s just a really bad dangerous idea to reverse them.
Let me introduce you to the FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!
No, alternating current doesn’t have a polarity like DC does.
I worked at an electrical supply store foe a while. The amount of people trying to make these is really way too damn high. At least once a week.
On the one hand, there are legitimate uses for double ended male cords. On the other, absolutely none of those legit uses invovle christmas lights
Okay but can we agree very very few uses besides generator hookup
generator hookup shouldn’t be one of those, as shouldn’t proper generator transfer switches have plugs designed so you don’t need a suicide cable?
If I ever buy one of these, I’d only ever use it to encase in resin and put on a shelf as a comedic ornament.
I used it to connect a generator to the wall and give me some temporary power in my house when I was renovating. It’s only dangerous if you are stupid.
Not smart. You could kill yourself or some poor electrician working the problem outside your house somewhere.
The backup-generator seems to be the one semi-legit use-case that keeps coming up where few people have been able to present a significantly better alternative.
There’s literally an approved solution to the problem designed explicitly to solve the problem.
Install a transfer switch so you can disconnect utility power, switch to your generator and people can see the situation at the breaker.
If you don’t have one, you use something called an “extension cord” to run power to your important devices for the duration of the outage.
If you don’t know how to power a few appliances with a generator and some extension cords, you definitely shouldn’t be thinking you can use a dangerous cable that people who do know you should never use in the first place.The safe method for a generator is a transfer switch. With that cable you make your circuit breaker useless and could also send power back out to the street and harm someone working on the problem.
Just because you didn’t get hurt doesn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous.
There’s a reason the people who write the fire and electrical codes say that if you need to do something like that, you need to have a properly installed transfer switch.
I mean, driving a car is dangerous, everything has a risk inherent to it but you can minimise it by being prudent.
Yes, you minimize risk by being prudent and using reasonable and cost effective safety measures.
In a car, that’s things like seatbelts, airbags, and other safety features.
The equivalent for powering your house with a generator is the aforementioned transfer switch.
What you’re doing is saying that driving a car without seatbelts or airbags is perfectly safe, you just need to not get in an accident.
Stop powering your house with a generator plugged in via the dumbest possible cable and just install a fucking transfer switch. They’re not expensive and it keeps you from needlessly endangering people, or even just having a preposterously dangerous cord laying around.
You turn off the breaker. You plug your generator abomination into a receptacle. Your partner checks the panel – the breakers are off, it’s safe to work with the electrical! They kill themselves.
You could just not be a threat to yourself and people around you.
as someone who has strung a ton of lights the wrong way around on more than one occasion… I can understand the desire for some magic solution that doesnt require undoing and redoing your work…
but fuck, You don’t mess around with electricity.
People also make these stupid suicide cables to plug generators into houses during disasters, often backfeeding power into the lines that may be down and can cause serious injury to workers trying to restore power.
Yeah, there is a reason why proper installations require actual transfer switches or at least a manual interlock to prevent both feeds being connected at the same time. I’m also not sure what would happen if your generator was out of phase with the grid when it reenergised, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be good
If your generator was connected to mains when they came back on it would probably just kill your generator. It is the least robust device in the chain. The next step is blowing up the transformer on the pole which is a spectacular light show. It is also very expensive, and will piss off your entire neighborhood who were just about to get power back and now have to wait for the power company to fix the transformer you blew up by being a dumb ass. Finally it is possible that you would trip out the switch yard which is going to make even more people angry. The biggest risk is you putting power back on the lines that people are working on. That transformer on the pole works both directions. It drops the usual 13.8kV on your local power lines to the 240/120V in your house. It will also turn the 120/240 from your generator into 13.8 on the lines that are being worked on. 13.8 will kill you before you even know you touched it. That is why line workers go through multiple tests before they get near lines they are working on. They will notice there is power on lines that are supposed to be dead. They will find where that power is coming from. They will fine you lots of money. There may be criminal charges.
FYI, you can just turn off the main breaker of the residence to prevent backfeeding into the power lines.
If someone can’t make the own cord, what’s the chance they know how vital it is to flip the breaker?
… Except the breaker only interrupts the connection on the “hot” line…
You can, but if forgetting to flip a switch can result in death, then you need a stronger safety control
Someone incompetent enough to forget to shut off the main shouldn’t be operating a generator anyway.
Someone who’s not competent enough to install a proper transfer switch (or at least hire a professional to do it) shouldn’t be operating a generator.
That’s not the point. Normal, sensible people make mistakes because they are tired or stressed or got distracted or just plain unlucky, so things have to be designed so that people can make a mistake and it not instantly create a potentially lethal situation
I don’t think you completely understand what’s being discussed here.
… but you don’t really care for logic do ya?
Just use 2 paper clips and some duct tape, problem solved!
/But hardware stores don’t want to sell it tooooo youuu…/
/…tooo ya…/
I don’t really get it. Sure, the exposed prongs would be energized once you plugged one side in, but if you plugged the other side into a second outlet (assuming you didn’t cross live/neutral), nothing would happen. (those two outlets were likely tied together anyway)
Double live is very bad and the cord becomes a literal short. If you’re lucky a breaker will flip or fuse burn out. If you’re not so lucky you have a cable thats either going to start a fire burning its insulation off and melting itself, or potentially exploding depending on quality and type of cable.
The problem really is the super exposed hot prong you now have once you plug one end in
Well, maybe it’s because you may die if you accidentally touched touched the prongs? The purpose of female plugs is among other reasons to prevent accidentally touching them.
I guess the fact that it can kill you easily is not enough to call it a suicide cable lmao
Yeah, let’s call it a self defence cable instead. Like a corded taser.
In addition to the exposed prongs, it also means you are passing current into a circuit of unknown capacity without using a safety breaker. You may also be back feeding into your neighborhood power grid and can kill people in the street/other houses that were not expecting the lines to be energized.
You don’t work around dangerous things assuming you’ll never make a mistake, you work around dangerous things assuming you’ll never make three mistakes at the same time.
You are not immune to making one (or more) mistakes, no matter how careful you think you are.
Correction: you don’t work around dangerous things assuming you’ll make a mistake long
50-50 chance whether those two outlets are on the same phase or opposite faces; if it’s the latter, congrats, that’s a 240V short.
Besides, if there’s an outlet at the far end of your strong of lights, you don’t need this, you just plug it in there
Two things: 1: there’s a high chance you do cross live and neutral, or even live and live on different phases. 2: using it to plug in a generator to power your house can kill electrical workers who are trying to restore a power outage. (If you fail to open your circuit breaker.)
No problem.
I got these baddies
Memories. Me and my friends used to zap eachother with these before social media made everyone into cowards
I’m guessing your turn was last and that’s why you’re still here.
Nah but we did stop when we took out the neighbourhood’s power with our fooling. Just as well since I’ve since heard it’s quite dangerous
It didn’t take the internet for people to be fearful and cautious around high voltage…
All I got to zap was myself.
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Looks pretty weak sauce. I use jumper cables.
But you dont really care about voltage, do ya?
It goes like this, on the the 25th, a minor shock? No, a mortal shift…
The baffled men are meeting now their maker.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
cries in ground fault circuit interruptor
Oh I call the cables I use to wire up my controllers “suicide cords” because it’s just the hot, neutral, and ground hanging out one end, waiting to touch me…
You can also use them to test the voltage, similar to testing a 9v battery.
aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh lic-
