Compact 4 way Mains Connector
In the late 1980s one of my friends had a 4 way mains connector about the size of an audio tape box.
It used some small sized plugs, I can't remember what the connections were like but they were about 2 cm square. My friend used it on his Commodore 64, TV 2 other devices in be bedroom. I can remember seeing this multi-way in the Argos catalogue around this time but in a few years they had vanished. I guess having a non-standard plug with probably no suitable adaptor to connect into a normal socket counted against it. Does anyone have any idea who made this, or has encountered something similar? |
Re: Compact 4 way Mains Connector
I had one that had 4 plugs with 3 round thin pins in line. The centre pin was earth and longer than the others.
I forget the current rating but it was probably around 6 amps, the connections to the sockets inside the box was a printed circuit I think. I dumped it when I found that for some obscure reason it introduced interference into any audio device plugged into it. |
Re: Compact 4 way Mains Connector
Not much to go on there. Was it a 2 pin connector?
Were the pins flat, to fit the rectangular sockets shown here? http://www.quadrevisie.eu/images/165.jpg |
Re: Compact 4 way Mains Connector
No, 3 round pins. It was a 4 way extension lead.
Graham. Are you referring to the 3 pin Bulgin mains socket in the picture? Ah, no, I see, flat pins as in American 2 pin mains sockets shown in the picture. |
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Thing was, you couldn't roll up to your local Supermarket and buy a four-way distribution bar, I don't think either of those concepts were well established in the mid '60s. |
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Hello. Was it like one of these currently behind my kitchen audio system.
See pics. David. |
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They come worse than the one in post #6.
4 sockets bunched together and the 13 amp pins molded into the other side so that it covers the 13a socket next to it. Not very useful. |
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But fine if used in a single socket.....
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How often do you see let alone get to use a single socket?
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As Rambo said, there wasn't all the modern "protection" household circuitry in place back then but I never heard of any death or injury except from people being unwise with ordinary 13amp sockets and adaptors. You couldn't plug your 3 Bar Electric Fire in from the lounge for example. These systems or just a terminal strip, were much more tidy but I didn't generally go there as it was more convenient to be able to plug "separates" into a standard plug board when experimenting. I'm not sure these gadgets were inherently more dangerous than anything else though, just not as adaptable in the end!
Dave W |
Re: Compact 4 way Mains Connector
Getting back to those 4-way socket blocks, I am pretty sure I had one (may still have it) that was a little larger and which took those plugs that have pins like the normal 'kettle lead' but without a shroud round them (so that the plug could be dangerously mis-mated with a normal IEC socket, earth into live, for example).
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I have an inherent distrust of PCBs with high current mains on them so it went in the bin. |
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:o |
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I use those 13A plugs you can fit four wires into quite a lot.
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Thanks for the feedback, I done some searching & found these were made by Micromark.
http://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/GB/MultiConnector.jpg Somehow I imagined them to be smaller than they actually are. The plugs look like Italian ones. |
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My house has three single sockets but I am allowed because the consumer unit is an old brown Bakelite one. By the cooker we have a triple socket to make up for those singles. |
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The "Masterplug" adaptors in various incarnations (initially with a short cable, later with a rigid plug to four sockets adaptor and later still back to having a cable) were sold by Argos (at least), and popular until the advent of moulded-on BS1363 plugs for things like hi-fi stacks and computer equipment.
My Dad made his own version with "LNE" connectors (the mains-rated version of XLR connectors) that may or may not have been ex-BBC. (LNE connectors are touch-proof either way around, and I believe suppliers were inconsistent with what they used for outlets and inlets ..... So much potential for hilarity .....) |
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I remember reading in a Cannon catalogue that their mains XLR connectors were designed in response to a request from the BBC.
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When I bought a similar plug & socket combination for extending a cable & made sure I got them the same way round. Specialist non-standard connections are worth a thread in themselves. |
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