Polarised plugs
Submitted: Thursday, Jun 02, 2016 at 08:55
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Member - Rosco from way back
With the 2 pin polarised plugs (prongs in a T configuration), which is the positive? The ones I have use black for both wires which makes it a tad tricky. I would assume the top horizontal prong is +'ve but I'm not +'ve so thought I'd best ask.
Saving the multimeter till I need it.
Reply By: Member - ACD 1 - Thursday, Jun 02, 2016 at 09:19
Thursday, Jun 02, 2016 at 09:19
Hi rosco
Are you ready for some confusion...
Following taken from RPC Website - The Australian standard is that the horizontal pin is the positive terminal (and the vertical is negative). However, in Victoria the top of the T is taken to look like a minus
sign, and is therefore negative.
There has also been previous discussion on this site
which can be found here.
Cheers
Anthony
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Reply By: Member - Chooky and Wobble - Thursday, Jun 02, 2016 at 11:56
Thursday, Jun 02, 2016 at 11:56
If you are talking about the large round plugs and sockets the same size as our 240 plugs but with the pins in a T layout, I agree with others there is no standard for how they are wired. Best get the multimeter out.
My first contact with these plugs was around 1967 where they were used as plugs and sockets to power 2way radios mounted in cars. The radios were pre transistors and built like battleships.
The female sockets to go in the vehicles were mounted on a bakelite plate that had a fuse and terminals all pre wired. The fuse was connected to the vertical of the T by a copper strap. The unfused terminal was connected to the horizontal pin also by a copper strap. Hence we wired the positive to the vertical pin.
We were told it was that way as the horizontal was like the drawing symbol for chassis of the radio in the circuit diagram.
Just a bit of history. ??
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600846