.:madworm:.'s photos

This one was wired up correctly. Brown is the hot wire, blue is neutral. I didn't fake the image, I only increased the contrast around the letters. --- ALWAYS TURN OFF THE MAINS POWER IN THE BREAKER-PANEL BEFORE YOU STICK YOUR FINGERS IN. MAKE SURE IT STAYS OFF!

This one was NOT wired up correctly. Brown is the hot wire, blue is neutral. But what do we find? Brown --> N, Blue --> L Why is this bad? Screwing in a light bulb puts you in danger of getting a shock, as the hot wire is connected to the large metal part of the E27 of the light bulb first. Initially that part is partially exposed. Not good. I didn't fake the image, I only increased the contrast around the letters. --- ALWAYS TURN OFF THE MAINS POWER IN THE BREAKER-PANEL BEFORE YOU STICK YOUR FINGERS IN. MAKE SURE IT STAYS OFF!

Now which of these two contacts should be "hot" ? The one at the very back, right? --- ALWAYS TURN OFF THE MAINS POWER IN THE BREAKER-PANEL BEFORE YOU STICK YOUR FINGERS IN. MAKE SURE IT STAYS OFF!

Checking the wiring going into the lamp fixture. All OK up there. --- ALWAYS TURN OFF THE MAINS POWER IN THE BREAKER-PANEL BEFORE YOU STICK YOUR FINGERS IN. MAKE SURE IT STAYS OFF!

Looks good, but is it? --- ALWAYS TURN OFF THE MAINS POWER IN THE BREAKER-PANEL BEFORE YOU STICK YOUR FINGERS IN. MAKE SURE IT STAYS OFF!

Testing the power supply that came with my LED strip. Made with gnuplot.

Testing the power supply that came with my LED strip.

I've blown this fuse again. One reason might be that I use 160mA ones instead of 500mA. Why? I have one, but not the other.

I tried to twist the strands together. They immediately sprung back. They're very flexible, but too springy.

Hmmmm. Each wire has about 20 strands. Diameter 80µm. There's just NO WAY that adds up to 0.5mm². Depending on how I calculate the cross section (multiply strand cross section vs. measure wire diameter with air gaps), I end up with values between 0.005mm² and 0.15mm² - NOT ENOUGH.

...and much worse inside.

You need ad least 1.5mm² to handle 16A safely. 0.5mm² is simply not enough! But does the actually have 0.5mm² of copper inside? Let's check!

The plug itself might handle 16A, but not the cable that was attached to it.

A much better fit, less wiggle.

The power supply itself seems quite decent, but the cable / plug... not so.