Re: sorta OT power question for you world travelers

On 03/25/2010 04:38 PM, clare@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:36:55 -0700 (PDT), "hr(bob) hofmann@xxxxxxx"
<hrhofmann@xxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mar 24, 6:02 pm, Nate Nagel<njna...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My Dell laptop power supply says that it will work on 100-240V, 50 or 60
Hz. Wikipedia sez

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets

that Japanese receptacles, despite having 100V, 50Hz power are
essentially identical to a NEMA 1-15. However, both "bricks" that I have
use a 3-wire cord instead of a 2-wire like every other laptop I've
had/used, and it's not clear to me if a grounding type Japanese JIS C
8303 recep is the same as a NEMA 5-15 or just "similar," or even if they
are particularly common.

Do I need to pack some kind of adapter plug thing? Or should I just get
a cheater plug and carry that?

Obviously, I have never been to Japan before...

thanks

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.http://members.cox.net/njnagel

By cheater plug I assume you mean a 3-wire to 2-wire adapter. As
everyone else has indicated, you should be fine. I have the same
arrangement for my HP computer and I have been to Japan several times
and always had a great time.
In many cases you can just get the 2 wire cord to fit your power
supply.Canon printer cords are 2 wire and fit my laptop power supply
that has a 3 wire plug on a no-polarized 2 wire cord.

mine is speshul...

similar to this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-Auto-Air-W5420-AC-Adapter-HP-AF065B83-PA-12-PA12_W0QQitemZ150425033637QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLaptop_Adapters_Chargers?hash=item230607dba5

but I had a cheater plug in my junk box all the same, so it's all good. It says it's only rated for 65W but it seems to be powering my Precision M90 just fine, even though the stock brick is 130W.

Side note: the reason that I had it was because I used to occasionally have to do program uploads to equipment through a laptop's com port, this must have been 6-7 years ago, whatever laptops the techs were using back then also had 3 wire power cords (possibly they were Dells as well? but my current D6xx at work has a 2-wire cord) and it was found that if they did an upload while the laptop was plugged in and the panel to which they were uploading had a ground fault on it, it would destroy the com port on the laptop. Not being an actual field tech but an applications engineer who got his hands dirty in a pinch, I was always using an old previous-gen laptop that had already lived out its full estimated lifespan with a field tech, and was only kept around for emergencies when no tech was available and someone who could pinch hit needed to go fix an emergency problem, so the batteries were always marginal (and you do NOT want to have your laptop crap out in the middle of an upload.) Hence, cheater plug. I guess that proves that at least *some* laptops actually did utilize the ground connection, although I'll be damned if I could tell you what model or even what brand they were.

Somewhere around here I have a USB to serial adapter but I don't know that I've ever even needed to try it or even still have anything that would connect to it. Also got a couple docking stations that I picked up off fleaBay for cheap for work and home (using Dell D-series both places, and they're old enough that companies that actually buy docking stations for their employees are going to the E-series) with both serial and parallel ports, should I need to use them - I do have an old Alps printer that is apparently still desirable for some tasks, although I haven't dusted it off in years.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel
.

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