🚀 go-pugleaf

> The connector is female, meant to go into a receptacle with recessed male
> pins in it.  The overall shape of the recess would be rectangular, about
> 1x2cm by 1cm deep, with pins like this:
> 
> 	---------------
> 	|    O   O    |
> 	| O         O |
> 	---------------
> 

I had once thought it would be nice to have a connector like this in some
size for the AC end of powered devices where the power cord goes in.  The
device would use a split double primary, with primary A wired to pins 1 and
3 and primary B wired to pins 2 and 4.  Pins 1 and 2 would have the same
polarity to them.

The cords would then determine the voltage, either 120 VAC or 240 VAC by
the way they are internally wired.  For 120 VAC, pins 1 and 2 would connect
to one side, and pins 3 and 4 would connected to the other side of the
incoming AC power.  For 240 VAC pins 2 and 3 would connect to each other
and nothing else.  Pin 1 and pin 4 woild separately be fed power.

Thus you would have no need to a 120/240 changeover switch, and the power
cords would have the appropriate plug on the other side for the appropriate
voltages.  It would not be necessary to polarize like above, but there
could be a case for it to make sure that the HOT side went into the
appropriate connectors, so my vision of it always was polarized as the
illustration shows.  You could add a grounding pin lower center.

Want to use 240 VAC?  Just get the proper cord with the proper plug
on the end, and plug it in.  Make sure the transformer and power supply
handle 50 and 60 Hz, and you have single inventory international
marketability without the hazards of a voltage switch or the cost of
a complex voltage sensor.  You only need to stock the variety of power
cords which you would anyway for all the power receptacle standards.

--Phil Howard, KA9WGN-- | Individual CHOICE is fundamental to a free society
<phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> | no matter what the particular issue is all about.