Mains lead with a passthrough fly lead
Mains lead with a passthrough fly lead
Author
Discussion

Newc

Original Poster:

2,197 posts

213 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
I remember in mediaeval times using a neat mains lead design and I'm trying to source one now, but don't know the technical term and can't find them.

Regular mains kettle lead, except that the plug was not a plug. It was the male end (so the kettle prongs) on one side, and another female end on the other side. I think they were originally designed for PC monitors, so you would have a regular lead plugged into the wall, which would plug into this cable at the back of the CPU, and the fly lead would plug into the monitor.


wall plug ----- adaptor - CPU
|_____ monitor


Anyone have any suggestions ? Thank you.

Slushbox

1,484 posts

136 months

pmanson

13,388 posts

284 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
This sort of thing?

https://www.google.com/search?q=male+to+male+kettl...

I think they were used on certain UPS devices

Rutter

2,087 posts

237 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
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Speedy11

530 posts

239 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
Do you mean an iec piggyback, like this?


Mr Pointy

13,430 posts

190 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all

Newc

Original Poster:

2,197 posts

213 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
Speedy11 said:
Do you mean an iec piggyback, like this?

Yes! This is exactly it. Thank you.

Stiggolas

364 posts

178 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
That piggy back lead scares the st out of me. There's a reason mains cables have a male and female end - so that when the cable is live, you can't contact any pins with fingers etc. The one Mr Pointy suggests is a far better solution, 1 IEC to 2 female ends...

tribbles

4,175 posts

253 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
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IEC piggyback should be okay if you have one male, and two female connectors (it's just a form of the Y with a very short lead on one end!). The other end isn't shown though, so it could be two male and one female, and that would be bad...

buggalugs

9,292 posts

268 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
I remember back in the day all PC's used to have a pass through for the monitor, not sure why that faded out cost maybe?

tribbles

4,175 posts

253 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
I always thought it was current usage - CRT monitors and PCs needed more and more power, which couldn't be sent over the single cable.

Also, componentisation meant that the monitor and PC weren't being supplied by the same manufacturer, so they couldn't guarantee it would work.

Some Guy

2,683 posts

122 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
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The piggy back leads are 2 females do you can daisy chain, or make T drops.

TheRainMaker

7,886 posts

273 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
Stiggolas said:
That piggy back lead scares the st out of me. There's a reason mains cables have a male and female end - so that when the cable is live, you can't contact any pins with fingers etc. The one Mr Pointy suggests is a far better solution, 1 IEC to 2 female ends...
I can’t believe that is legal, if you don’t have anything plugged in you basically have live pins on show.

Mr Pointy

13,430 posts

190 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
quotequote all
Speedy11 said:
Do you mean an iec piggyback, like this?

Can you post a link to where you got this picture from? I'd like to see what is on the end of the cable.

Speedy11

530 posts

239 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
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Mr Pointy said:
Can you post a link to where you got this picture from? I'd like to see what is on the end of the cable.
It was just a random picture from Google. But here is the site it was from. http://www.conntek.com/products.asp?id=411

The last time I saw one it was attached to a pair of PC speakers.

The problem I find with them is the extra weight and thus torque on the back of the psu can cause issues.


JimbobVFR

2,822 posts

175 months

Thursday 25th July 2019
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Stiggolas said:
That piggy back lead scares the st out of me. There's a reason mains cables have a male and female end - so that when the cable is live, you can't contact any pins with fingers etc. The one Mr Pointy suggests is a far better solution, 1 IEC to 2 female ends...
I don't think it works the way you think it does. The end you can see plugs into the PC the a standard power lead plugs into the other end of the double bit. The part you can't see is the supply to the monitor.

talksthetorque

10,821 posts

166 months

Thursday 25th July 2019
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There will be a "C13" on the end of the lead.

lyonspride

2,978 posts

186 months

Thursday 25th July 2019
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You have to be careful with wire gauge and current limitations with stuff like this, the standard IEC leads can be anything from 5A (0.75mm) to 13A (1.25mm) rated.
Then what happens is the lower rated lead blows the fuse, it gets replaced with a 13A fuse and then next time the f**king cable melts.

Some Guy

2,683 posts

122 months

Thursday 25th July 2019
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Some people are getting very worked up over nothing.




Some Guy

2,683 posts

122 months

Thursday 25th July 2019
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TheRainMaker said:
I can’t believe that is legal, if you don’t have anything plugged in you basically have live pins on show.
No you don't.