[LINK] Australian energy efficiency standards for personalcomputers and monitors

[grove at zeta.org.au]

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007, Tom Worthington wrote:

> At 03:47 PM 16/10/2007, Pilcher, Fred wrote:
>> ... one of the major power wasters is the plethora of transformers that I 
>> need
>> to keep plugged in. ...
>
>
>    Under the new standard, all mobile phones, regardless of the brand, will 
> be able to share one charger with a USB access, allowing users to charge 
> handsets through laptops.

This seems to be part of the global "RoHS" "Restriction of Hazardous 
Substances"  initiative.   I have about 30 wall warts and line lumps 
in my studio here, to drive various bits of electronic music gear.

Anyone who has a similar setup will know what an awful pain it is 
to keep track of them all, each with it's own unique polarity,
voltage and plug format, in fact it's a nightmare that sometimes 
means plugging a 12VAC plug into a 9VDC item, with associated 
problems, because they choose to use identically formed plug packs 
that have very little to tell them apart in a dark corner when you're
scrabbling around the back trying to plug something in.

I do not know why this wasn't resolved at least 25 years ago, when 
wall warts started to become pervasive.  It is only recently 
you have been able to buy off the shelf solutions that allow you 
to chain several devices off one power source and even then they 
have to be rated the same.

The problem with the wall wart situation now is that a lot of 
second rate gear is coming out of Shenzen, that is capable of driving 
a piece of gear, but for audio gear, the quality of the power supplies
has to be quite good, to stop unusual hums, squeals and audio artifacts
creeping into your recordings and it would seem that the new initiative
fails to take this into account, using switchable supplies that 
are "universal" in that you can plug them into any wall socket 
and get the right rated power anywhere in the world, but these new 
ones introduce all the noise because they are not shielded properly
and so on.

My point is that you are still going to have bazillions (a bushism) 
of wall warts out there, all with the same plug end but ostensibly 
rated differently and with varying degrees of quality and usefulness.

Also is the selection of a USB plug actually a good idea?   What if 
<insert clueless user> sticks one of these plugs into a USB port 
rather than a USB power port?

I believe it is time for the wall wart to go, but only after they come up 
with a much better standard and provide something useful that 
can drive hordes of them in a domestic or even audio situation....


rachel

-- 
Rachel Polanskis                 Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
grove at zeta.org.au                http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html
David Hicks, Nuclear Power, WorkChoices, Reconciliation, Tampa, Iraq, AWB,
Children Overboard, Global Warming.  "Who do you trust?" - John W Howard