• Replacement Pi power supplies

    From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to All on Fri Feb 4 02:40:30 2022
    One by one, the power supplies for my Rpi2 and Rpi3 computers
    are failing. They came with CanaKit and Vilros kits and are
    now pushing four years old.

    I'd prefer to buy from Amazon, since it's worked well in the
    past, but the number of choices is bewildering and few look
    particulary well-matched to the Pi's needs, most being chargers
    and just slightly below the Pi's current requirements.

    Separate supplies (avoiding common points of failure) seem
    desirable and I'm not reluctant to pull out a soldering iron
    to adapt a Pi power cable to a generic wallwart.

    If somebody knows of a good solution please post.

    Thanks for reading,

    bob prohaska

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From David Taylor@3:770/3 to bob prohaska on Fri Feb 4 05:53:00 2022
    On 04/02/2022 02:40, bob prohaska wrote:
    One by one, the power supplies for my Rpi2 and Rpi3 computers
    are failing. They came with CanaKit and Vilros kits and are
    now pushing four years old.

    I'd prefer to buy from Amazon, since it's worked well in the
    past, but the number of choices is bewildering and few look
    particulary well-matched to the Pi's needs, most being chargers
    and just slightly below the Pi's current requirements.

    Separate supplies (avoiding common points of failure) seem
    desirable and I'm not reluctant to pull out a soldering iron
    to adapt a Pi power cable to a generic wallwart.

    If somebody knows of a good solution please post.

    Thanks for reading,

    bob prohaska


    I would be inclined to get the Official one:

    https://thepihut.com/products/official-raspberry-pi-universal-power-supply

    I've also had issues recently, one peculiar on causing the Ethernet to be intermittent. Changing the PSU seems to have fixed that!

    --
    Cheers,
    David
    Web: http://www.satsignal.eu
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Deloptes@3:770/3 to bob prohaska on Fri Feb 4 08:28:39 2022
    bob prohaska wrote:

    If somebody knows of a good solution please post.

    https://www.amazon.de/Voltcraft-QCP-3000-USB-LADEGER%C3%84T/dp/B06WVGZT8L

    doesn't matter where you buy, buy high quality products - usually but not necessarily they are a bit more expensive and usually Amazon is full of
    cheap Chinese crap. Meanwhile even cheaper is coming from elsewhere
    (Vietnam) so soon the bad stuff from China will be qualified as high
    quality - it is a parody!
    I also stopped buying German goods if they are not entirely manufactured in Germany or USA goods that are not entirely manufactured in USA, cause all
    of them do this in China.
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Jan Panteltje@3:770/3 to bp@www.zefox.net on Fri Feb 4 07:34:22 2022
    On a sunny day (Fri, 4 Feb 2022 02:40:30 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote in <sti3mt$1cj$1@dont-email.me>:

    One by one, the power supplies for my Rpi2 and Rpi3 computers
    are failing. They came with CanaKit and Vilros kits and are
    now pushing four years old.

    I'd prefer to buy from Amazon, since it's worked well in the
    past, but the number of choices is bewildering and few look
    particulary well-matched to the Pi's needs, most being chargers
    and just slightly below the Pi's current requirements.

    I have repaired many of similar power suplies (Wallwarts) by replacing the ectrolytic capacitors,
    You can often spot the bad ones as those usually start to swell up a bit:
    PCB
    _______|
    |_______| good
    |

    _______|
    (_______| bad
    |
    /\

    If you have an oscilloscope check the ripple voltage, beware of the mains though.



    Separate supplies (avoiding common points of failure) seem
    desirable and I'm not reluctant to pull out a soldering iron
    to adapt a Pi power cable to a generic wallwart.

    I bought new electrolytic caps and a couple of these a few weeks back:
    https://www.reichelt.nl/index.html?ACTION=446&LA=0&nbc=1&q=mw
    comes with adaptors for everything, beware: check polarity as + and - can be reversed,
    you may need a multimeter,
    It has a switch to select the output voltage

    All that said, none of my raspi supplies have failed so far, most are on 24/7 or 12/7.
    Some are now powered via USB hubs and their supply however.
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Theo@3:770/3 to bob prohaska on Fri Feb 4 16:25:21 2022
    bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
    One by one, the power supplies for my Rpi2 and Rpi3 computers
    are failing. They came with CanaKit and Vilros kits and are
    now pushing four years old.

    I'd prefer to buy from Amazon, since it's worked well in the
    past, but the number of choices is bewildering and few look
    particulary well-matched to the Pi's needs, most being chargers
    and just slightly below the Pi's current requirements.

    Separate supplies (avoiding common points of failure) seem
    desirable and I'm not reluctant to pull out a soldering iron
    to adapt a Pi power cable to a generic wallwart.

    These days I'm generally using multi-port power bricks, rather than
    wall-warts. You don't pay a lot more and you get tens of watts, often using USB-PD or some other quick charge protocol. They have a removable power
    cord which makes them more convenient to have on a desk than a wallwart near the floor. Multi ports makes it easy to power all your USB widgets from one wall socket.

    Random example (no experience with this brand): https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Nekteck-Desktop-Charging-Station/dp/B0712252ZQ/

    This guy is Danish, so not always relevant to US suppliers, but does a good
    job of reviewing them - I especially like the 'death' score for how
    dangerously the device is constructed. https://lygte-info.dk/info/ChargerIndex%20UK.html
    If you read through those you can probably get a feel for which brands are
    good and which are lethal.

    Theo
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Jan Panteltje@3:770/3 to theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk on Fri Feb 4 18:48:15 2022
    On a sunny day (04 Feb 2022 16:25:21 +0000 (GMT)) it happened Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in <H7i*Ct1Fy@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>:

    bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
    One by one, the power supplies for my Rpi2 and Rpi3 computers
    are failing. They came with CanaKit and Vilros kits and are
    now pushing four years old.

    I'd prefer to buy from Amazon, since it's worked well in the
    past, but the number of choices is bewildering and few look
    particulary well-matched to the Pi's needs, most being chargers
    and just slightly below the Pi's current requirements.

    Separate supplies (avoiding common points of failure) seem
    desirable and I'm not reluctant to pull out a soldering iron
    to adapt a Pi power cable to a generic wallwart.

    These days I'm generally using multi-port power bricks, rather than >wall-warts. You don't pay a lot more and you get tens of watts, often using >USB-PD or some other quick charge protocol. They have a removable power
    cord which makes them more convenient to have on a desk than a wallwart near >the floor. Multi ports makes it easy to power all your USB widgets from one >wall socket.

    Random example (no experience with this brand): >https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Nekteck-Desktop-Charging-Station/dp/B0712252ZQ/

    This guy is Danish, so not always relevant to US suppliers, but does a good >job of reviewing them - I especially like the 'death' score for how >dangerously the device is constructed. >https://lygte-info.dk/info/ChargerIndex%20UK.html
    If you read through those you can probably get a feel for which brands are >good and which are lethal.

    A common charger likely connects all USB to the same ground (of the charger) This _may_ cause problems if sending for example audio or video from one raspi to the other.
    as the power / USB cables drop signifcant voltage.
    I have had hum and noise problems in audio.
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to Jan Panteltje on Fri Feb 4 22:29:55 2022
    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    A common charger likely connects all USB to the same ground (of the charger) This _may_ cause problems if sending for example audio or video from one raspi to the other.
    as the power / USB cables drop signifcant voltage.
    I have had hum and noise problems in audio.

    That's a good point I didn't think about. There don't seem to be any
    noise problems now and avoiding shared grounds is probably a good idea.
    The wallwarts are all transformer isolated, best to keep it that way.

    One issue for me is the plug orientation. When the prongs are in-line
    with the body of the wart they fit nicely on my outlet strip. Seems that
    most of the highter-output warts have transverse prongs, so the warts
    collide with each other along the outlet strip.

    For the moment I might try re-flowing the solder joints I can get at
    on the failed unit in hopes a little more life can be wrung out of it.
    The caps look good and nothing is obviously cooked.

    Thanks for reading,

    bob prohaska

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Jan Panteltje@3:770/3 to bp@www.zefox.net on Sat Feb 5 08:44:39 2022
    On a sunny day (Fri, 4 Feb 2022 22:29:55 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote in <stk9d3$ijg$1@dont-email.me>:

    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    A common charger likely connects all USB to the same ground (of the charger) >> This _may_ cause problems if sending for example audio or video from one raspi to the other.
    as the power / USB cables drop signifcant voltage.
    I have had hum and noise problems in audio.

    That's a good point I didn't think about. There don't seem to be any
    noise problems now and avoiding shared grounds is probably a good idea.
    The wallwarts are all transformer isolated, best to keep it that way.

    One issue for me is the plug orientation. When the prongs are in-line
    with the body of the wart they fit nicely on my outlet strip. Seems that
    most of the highter-output warts have transverse prongs, so the warts
    collide with each other along the outlet strip.

    Yes, a common problem:
    http://panteltje.com/pub/floor_warts_IXIMG_0790.JPG
    and that is just my 'programming table'.


    For the moment I might try re-flowing the solder joints I can get at
    on the failed unit in hopes a little more life can be wrung out of it.
    The caps look good and nothing is obviously cooked.

    I did a 'bad hack' once with my Kodak picture display,
    just cut the wire open from the wall-wart to the display
    and added a 1000 uF elecrolytic capacitor in parallel :-)
    No need to open the thing, was not easy anyways.
    Just looked, yes its still in there (taped closed) :-)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From RJH@3:770/3 to All on Sat Feb 5 10:32:59 2022
    On 5 Feb 2022 at 08:44:39 GMT, "Jan Panteltje" <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    On a sunny day (Fri, 4 Feb 2022 22:29:55 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska
    <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote in <stk9d3$ijg$1@dont-email.me>:

    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    A common charger likely connects all USB to the same ground (of the charger)
    This _may_ cause problems if sending for example audio or video from one >>> raspi to the other.
    as the power / USB cables drop signifcant voltage.
    I have had hum and noise problems in audio.

    That's a good point I didn't think about. There don't seem to be any
    noise problems now and avoiding shared grounds is probably a good idea.
    The wallwarts are all transformer isolated, best to keep it that way.

    One issue for me is the plug orientation. When the prongs are in-line
    with the body of the wart they fit nicely on my outlet strip. Seems that
    most of the highter-output warts have transverse prongs, so the warts
    collide with each other along the outlet strip.

    Yes, a common problem:
    http://panteltje.com/pub/floor_warts_IXIMG_0790.JPG
    and that is just my 'programming table'.


    Fairly disgusted at that at first sight. Then counted up my own - 16 :-)

    --
    Cheers, Rob
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Ahem A Rivet's Shot@3:770/3 to Jan Panteltje on Sat Feb 5 11:53:27 2022
    On Sat, 05 Feb 2022 08:44:39 GMT
    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    Yes, a common problem:
    http://panteltje.com/pub/floor_warts_IXIMG_0790.JPG
    and that is just my 'programming table'.

    That would be a very bad place for a dog to run through.

    --
    Steve O'Hara-Smith
    Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Vincent Coen@2:250/1 to Ahem A Rivet's Shot on Sat Feb 5 15:30:05 2022
    Hello Ahem!

    Saturday February 05 2022 11:53, you wrote to Jan Panteltje:

    On Sat, 05 Feb 2022 08:44:39 GMT
    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    Yes, a common problem:
    http://panteltje.com/pub/floor_warts_IXIMG_0790.JPG
    and that is just my 'programming table'.

    That would be a very bad place for a dog to run through.

    Wow, that has some resemblence of my lounge when we downsized to our new
    house where the room (and many others only have one power outlet).
    I put up with it for 1 - 2 years where I had two multi connectors that hold 6 7 sockets before asking a electrician to put in a stack more (4 doubles with two having USB outlets) plus many others around the house as some only had a single outlet.

    At the same time as the flooring was up on the first floor got him to wire in Cat 6 Network cables between my study and my wife's one as well as the lounge but I had to redo it as despite me telling him NOT to run the wire close to power cable he did, so I re did it all properly so now have 1Gb - 10Gb transfer
    speeds around the house although only 210Gb cable service as the price really jumps up in costs as you increase speed but there again you cannot easily make use of the faster speeds as most uploaders are running closer to 20Mb.

    The electrician looked at the cable inside one of the sockets and the other end
    and saw that the wiring was using nickel from the 60's (as against modern copper).
    Now before we purchased the property I used a socket tester on All sockets around the house and looked at the distribution panel (having opened it) and it
    had modern wiring i.e., using colour coded cable from the last set of standards
    that was only a couple of years earlier. However it turned out the people selling had replaced the cable in it up to a foot or two up into the trunking taping old and new wiring, to hide it no doubt.

    7,500 pounds later the house had a total rewire plus the cost of redecorations which was a similar amount but now I have all the various electronics connected
    up around the TV, media computer etc but instead of using the power adaptors that power a USB cable I just plug the cable in to the USB socket on the power outlets. The two studies we use have also had a major increase in power sockets and almost at the same time replace all the lighting bulbs for Leds hopefully saving power bills for the future.

    Needless to say the wiring is a lot neater other than the cables connected that
    are some time a bit longer, dangling on the floor but hidden behind the TV cabinet / cupboard.

    Yes I must admit I would have liked to have taken legal action against the seller but they did not lie on the request for information about the house - as
    they specified they did not know about electrics so could blame their late father.

    Teaches you to double check on a possible new house by getting a electrician it
    to do a solid check as against my quicky.

    Good that's off my chest, sorry for the long winded post :)

    Vincent

    --- Mageia Linux v8 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.24/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)
  • From Jan Panteltje@3:770/3 to Vincent Coen on Sat Feb 5 20:16:15 2022
    On a sunny day (Sat, 05 Feb 2022 15:30:05 +1200) it happened nospam.Vincent.Coen@f1.n250.z2.fidonet.org (Vincent Coen) wrote in <1644076558@f1.n250.z2.fidonet.org>:

    Hello Ahem!

    Saturday February 05 2022 11:53, you wrote to Jan Panteltje:

    On Sat, 05 Feb 2022 08:44:39 GMT
    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    Yes, a common problem:
    http://panteltje.com/pub/floor_warts_IXIMG_0790.JPG
    and that is just my 'programming table'.

    That would be a very bad place for a dog to run through.

    Wow, that has some resemblence of my lounge when we downsized to our new >house where the room (and many others only have one power outlet).
    I put up with it for 1 - 2 years where I had two multi connectors that hold 6 >7 sockets before asking a electrician to put in a stack more (4 doubles with >two having USB outlets) plus many others around the house as some only had a >single outlet.

    At the same time as the flooring was up on the first floor got him to wire in >Cat 6 Network cables between my study and my wife's one as well as the lounge >but I had to redo it as despite me telling him NOT to run the wire close to >power cable he did, so I re did it all properly so now have 1Gb - 10Gb >transfer
    speeds around the house although only 210Gb cable service as the price really >jumps up in costs as you increase speed but there again you cannot easily make >use of the faster speeds as most uploaders are running closer to 20Mb.

    The electrician looked at the cable inside one of the sockets and the other >end
    and saw that the wiring was using nickel from the 60's (as against modern >copper).
    Now before we purchased the property I used a socket tester on All sockets >around the house and looked at the distribution panel (having opened it) and >it
    had modern wiring i.e., using colour coded cable from the last set of >standards
    that was only a couple of years earlier. However it turned out the people >selling had replaced the cable in it up to a foot or two up into the trunking >taping old and new wiring, to hide it no doubt.

    7,500 pounds later the house had a total rewire plus the cost of redecorations >which was a similar amount but now I have all the various electronics >connected
    up around the TV, media computer etc but instead of using the power adaptors >that power a USB cable I just plug the cable in to the USB socket on the power >outlets. The two studies we use have also had a major increase in power >sockets and almost at the same time replace all the lighting bulbs for Leds >hopefully saving power bills for the future.

    Needless to say the wiring is a lot neater other than the cables connected >that
    are some time a bit longer, dangling on the floor but hidden behind the TV >cabinet / cupboard.

    Yes I must admit I would have liked to have taken legal action against the >seller but they did not lie on the request for information about the house - >as
    they specified they did not know about electrics so could blame their late >father.

    Teaches you to double check on a possible new house by getting a electrician >it
    to do a solid check as against my quicky.

    Good that's off my chest, sorry for the long winded post :)

    Vincent

    Yes, now all those floor warts here go to one outlet of my UPS....
    Not drectly to the mains, powers everything for some minutes if mains fails. When main interruptions get longer than a few minutes I plug the UPS into this:
    http://panteltje.com/pub/250_Ah_12V_to_230V_sinewave_IXXIMG_0796.JPG
    that is a 250 Ah lifepo4 battery pack with on top of it a 2000 W 12V to 230V pure sinewave converter.
    Will allow me to watch TV etc for the whole night, lights, other electronics and even can power the gas central heating if must be.
    Bought the thing for a boat actually, to have some power.
    Your power tools, drill, sander, paint stripper, washing machine, cooking plate and microwave all run happely on it :-)

    I have some solar panel somewhere to charge it back up, will take some time...

    Still looking for a cheap RTG.
    ;-)
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to Jan Panteltje on Sun Feb 6 00:17:10 2022
    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:
    Yes, a common problem:
    http://panteltje.com/pub/floor_warts_IXIMG_0790.JPG
    and that is just my 'programming table'.

    That's rather impressive 8-) At least the 45 degree inclined
    receptacles give some chance of orienting the wallwarts so they
    don't _have_ to interfere. Here is the USA that's an unusual
    option.

    One option we do have is "long arm" cube taps that turn one outlet
    into three. The long arm versions provide a bit of extra space
    between the receptacles to fit bulky wallwarts depending on shape.


    For the moment I might try re-flowing the solder joints I can get at

    My attempt at reflowing the solder joints had no effect 8-(

    I did a 'bad hack' once with my Kodak picture display,
    just cut the wire open from the wall-wart to the display
    and added a 1000 uF elecrolytic capacitor in parallel :-)
    No need to open the thing, was not easy anyways.
    Just looked, yes its still in there (taped closed) :-)

    I'm headed in sort of the same direction. It turns out
    Amazon is selling "official" Raspberry Pi 4 wallwarts
    for about $8 each with USB C connectors. I can splice in
    the old micro-USB cables, leaving the USB C connectors
    available if/when I upgrade the Pi2s. A flying splice is
    not a big deal at five volts, if not very pretty. Of the
    first six power supplies purchased half are now dead.

    Thanks for reading,

    bob prohaska
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Robert Riches@3:770/3 to Jan Panteltje on Sun Feb 6 04:58:26 2022
    On 2022-02-05, Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:
    On a sunny day (Fri, 4 Feb 2022 22:29:55 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska
    <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote in <stk9d3$ijg$1@dont-email.me>:

    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    A common charger likely connects all USB to the same ground (of the charger)
    This _may_ cause problems if sending for example audio or video from one raspi to the other.
    as the power / USB cables drop signifcant voltage.
    I have had hum and noise problems in audio.

    That's a good point I didn't think about. There don't seem to be any
    noise problems now and avoiding shared grounds is probably a good idea.
    The wallwarts are all transformer isolated, best to keep it that way.

    One issue for me is the plug orientation. When the prongs are in-line
    with the body of the wart they fit nicely on my outlet strip. Seems that >>most of the highter-output warts have transverse prongs, so the warts >>collide with each other along the outlet strip.

    Yes, a common problem:
    http://panteltje.com/pub/floor_warts_IXIMG_0790.JPG
    and that is just my 'programming table'.

    That's an impressive collection of power strips. After my own
    power strip collection had grown too large, I upgraded. I'd love
    to post a photo if it were practical to take one of it, but under
    the computer side of my rather large corner desk are three
    4-foot-long power strips, each with 16 outlets. One strip is fed
    from the wall outlet, and each of the other two is fed from one
    UPS (long story for the two UPSes). The two UPSes are fed from
    the first strip. About half of the spots on the three strips are
    used.

    Just to placate the safety folks concerned I might be overloading
    the house branch circuit, a Kill-a-Watt device monitors the load,
    which is rarely over 300W unless the laser printer is running.

    --
    Robert Riches
    spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
    (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Folderol@3:770/3 to All on Sun Feb 6 09:06:31 2022
    Yes, messing with electricity is bad, but gas is worse, and that's what I had to contend with :(
    Called the gas people immediately and shut off the supply - fortunately it was late summer.
    They came along, fitted a new meter, and left only the small kitchen boiler connected.

    --
    Basic
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Jan Panteltje@3:770/3 to general@musically.me.uk on Sun Feb 6 12:08:08 2022
    On a sunny day (Sun, 6 Feb 2022 09:06:31 +0000) it happened Folderol <general@musically.me.uk> wrote in <20220206090631.7bde5f6d@devuan>:

    Yes, messing with electricity is bad, but gas is worse, and that's what I had >to contend with :(
    Called the gas people immediately and shut off the supply - fortunately it was >late summer.
    They came along, fitted a new meter, and left only the small kitchen boiler >connected.

    Yes same here, guy fitted a 'smart' gas meter, thing made banging noises. called the emergeny gas phone line,
    other guy came and replaced the gas meter,
    he said "You won't believe what I have seen".

    I have a gas detector in the house now.
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Ahem A Rivet's Shot@3:770/3 to Jan Panteltje on Sun Feb 6 13:02:23 2022
    On Sun, 06 Feb 2022 12:08:08 GMT
    Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

    On a sunny day (Sun, 6 Feb 2022 09:06:31 +0000) it happened Folderol <general@musically.me.uk> wrote in <20220206090631.7bde5f6d@devuan>:

    Yes, messing with electricity is bad, but gas is worse, and that's what
    I had to contend with :(
    Called the gas people immediately and shut off the supply - fortunately
    it was late summer.
    They came along, fitted a new meter, and left only the small kitchen
    boiler connected.

    Yes same here, guy fitted a 'smart' gas meter, thing made banging noises. called the emergeny gas phone line,
    other guy came and replaced the gas meter,
    he said "You won't believe what I have seen".

    I have a gas detector in the house now.

    ... and people wonder why I don't want gas anywhere near my house.

    --
    Steve O'Hara-Smith
    Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to Robert Riches on Sun Feb 6 23:38:29 2022
    Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> wrote:

    Just to placate the safety folks concerned I might be overloading
    the house branch circuit, a Kill-a-Watt device monitors the load,
    which is rarely over 300W unless the laser printer is running.


    If the devices being powered use capacitor inputs there's a good
    chance the peak current is greater than the figure reported by the
    kill-a-watt. A touch test will likely reveal any gross anomalies.
    Unless connectors are heating up it's unlikely to be a problem, with
    only 300 watts average you've got quite a bit of headroom.

    My $.02,

    bob prohaska
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to bob prohaska on Thu Feb 10 01:49:42 2022
    bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
    Amazon is selling "official" Raspberry Pi 4 wallwarts
    for about $8 each with USB C connectors. I can splice in
    the old micro-USB cables, leaving the USB C connectors
    available if/when I upgrade the Pi2s. A flying splice is
    not a big deal at five volts, if not very pretty. Of the
    first six power supplies purchased half are now dead.

    Well, while I wasn't looking Amazon dissapeared the $8
    "official" pi4 supplies. No hint they were low on stock
    or a closeout, but gone they seem to be.

    Instead I've ordered two "Argon 40" Pi4 power supplies
    at $12.50 each. It's a lot more money, I hope the units
    are at least decent. The images suggest they might fit
    my power-strip-and-cube-tap distribution arrangement.
    All the other choices clearly won't fit.

    Given that a couple of the reviews report DOA, is there
    an easy way to check the supply voltage without plugging
    into a Pi4 (the 8 GB versions are unobtainium ATM)? Is
    it physically possible to probe the USB C connector pins?

    Thanks for reading,

    bob prohaska
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Ahem A Rivet's Shot@3:770/3 to bob prohaska on Thu Feb 10 06:57:16 2022
    On Thu, 10 Feb 2022 01:49:42 -0000 (UTC)
    bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

    Given that a couple of the reviews report DOA, is there
    an easy way to check the supply voltage without plugging
    into a Pi4 (the 8 GB versions are unobtainium ATM)? Is
    it physically possible to probe the USB C connector pins?

    Testers exist with USB C connectors and OLED displays, also cross shaped ones with both USB-A and USB-C connectors - I've not tried them.

    --
    Steve O'Hara-Smith
    Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)