Category Archives: Safety

Crowdfunding – Some good, mostly dumb

Now I’ve got nothing against the general idea of crowdfunding.   I’ve backed a few things and I’ve got some cool stuff to show for it.   But you really need to pick through the stuff on sites like kickstarter very carefully.   Especially after the potato salad thing.

And when you manage to get past the huge number of ‘I need a better camera to take photos of x’ , ‘my camera got stolen/broken’, magic battery free bluetooth location tags,  yet another bloody USB battery pack from China or the plethora of USB cables that claim to charge faster you find gems like this:

LumiFlex Light Bulb Covers

Oh dear oh dear oh dear…    Firstly a quarter of a million bucks?   I think he needs to look elsewhere for his tooling!   Worst I’ve done is about 20k for a 4 action tool with a 5th manually removed block.    Secondly does he know that CFLs can really overheat?   It even states on the packaging that you can’t put them in enclosed light fittings!   Even LED bulbs have the same warning.

I had a CFL in an open lamp shade and it ended up like this:

P1040091

 

Full Article Here

 

If you put a silicone cover over it the poor thing is either going to die in a few months or catch fire.

He even puts one on an LED and covers the heatsink.   Dude, what do you think the funky fins are for?   Dead-bulb-tastic!

Get a frosted GLS shaped LED bulb.   They are getting cheaper and you won’t need to risk inducing self immolation of those nasty CFLs or early death of your costly LED.

Oh yeah, thirdly, Joseph Swan invented the light bulb 😉   Edison copied it.

 

 

Is saving a few quid worth this?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/27/usb_charger_is_prime_suspect_in_death_of_australian_woman/

I’ve often wondered about the safety of small mains to low voltage switch mode PSUs.  Just how much is between you and 240VAC?   You knew with a bulky transformer that there was actual air between you and the mains.   And what wasn’t air was earthed for extra safety!

This is not the first such safety issue by a long shot.   I saw an episode of Fake Britain on the beeb sometime last year where they showed an iPhone charger clone that blew clean off the wall smacking a girl in the head so hard it briefly knocked her out.   It also showed copy Dyson bladeless heaters made using non flame retardant plastic.   Not a good combo!

We live in a truly global marketplace and there is no way you could ever regulate every bit of electronics that people use.   And even CE gets it wrong sometimes, such as classing socket protectors as toys.

But when faced with £15 for a real apple charger or 99p for something that looks identical and most of the time does the same job…