Mains sockets with USB charger

[Brianc]

That's the one, Trev.

[boater sam]

Thiought  about one of these. The standby consumption should be almost nil, less than a bell transformer?
Think I will wait a bit, I am not sure about the isolation. Plugging USB into a mains socket seems a bit final if it goes wrong.
Is it fused in any meaningful way? At least a computer charger is fused in the plug and as it comes with the computer, if it goes short to mains the guarantee should cover it.
Remember the hoverboard fiasco?

[ppppenguin]

When I get mine I'll measure the standby consumption on the bench. Even a sensitive power meter will struggle to measure the odd watt when it's in circuit. Which reminds me I really ought to buy a plug-in power meter.

One would hope that the USB section will be protected by some kind of device. Whether it be a fuse, PTC, fusible resistor etc. Many plug-in "wall wart" phone chargers etc don't have a fuse, certainly not one that's accessible to the user. The important point is that if it fails, it fails safe. Not with smoke and flame. That's a matter of good design and proper approval. There are a lot of poor quality chargers around which don't meet the required standards. They usually carry the CE mark, meaning "China Electric"

[boater sam]

I thought CE was China Export.

Despite the rubbish wall warts, I have never had one fail destructively, perhaps these USBs will be the exception.

[Nick]

CE marking is approval for use in the EU (actually the EEA), either manufactured in the EU or externally for use in the EU - it stands for "Conformité Européenne".

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking and http://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/ce-marking/

Its nothing to do with China, though in the past when I've had hardware made in China I've been asked which markings, e.g. CE or UL etc., I'd like applied - completely illegal, of course...

[boater sam]

Yes, known.
I was being facetious !

[Nick]

You missed out the smiley face

I'm slightly leary of the USB-charging fad - for exactly that reason, its a fad, albeit one that'll still be around for a few years.

Bit like wired internet - it has its place, but is being steady replaced by contactless/inductive/RF technology in many application areas... 

Holes in devices, and contact systems, e.g. headphone or USB sockets, are all either points or enablers of failure; they are vulnerable to water, dust, foreign objects, damage etc. and are expensive to manufacture, in summary, holes are bad news.

[Terry]

Try this!
http://cpc.farnell.com/bg-electrical/822...=pl1503307&selectedCategoryId=

Now try this!

http://cpc.farnell.com/bg-electrical/822...dp/PL15033

It's the same one - only the price is different between the two entries!

Which begs the question of how you - and Brian - found it, as your entry is missing from the results of any search I've tried!

[Brianc]

It could be that they've increased the price - it does happen, you know . The web pages look exactly the same.
I've just checked again and both pages have the same number of stock so they are referring to the same item!

[Nick]

Try this!
http://cpc.farnell.com/bg-electrical/822...=pl1503307&selectedCategoryId=

Now try this!

http://cpc.farnell.com/bg-electrical/822...dp/PL15033

It's the same one - only the price is different between the two entries!

Which begs the question of how you - and Brian - found it, as your entry is missing from the results of any search I've tried!

Its to do with CPC's special offers - they add a 2-digit code to the end of the standard part number to get the special offer price. So, in this case, the standard part number is PL15033, and the "07" is the particular special offer indicator.

At the moment, "69" is the "Bargain Corner" code and "58" is the "This week's deals" code...

HTH