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Comment by an_aparallel | Hacker News Reader

How do you give out a mains powered toaster with assembly instructions just like that?

My experience with diy electronics is that most kit designers are super wary of even giving instruction on mains anything...so as not to be held liable.

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The British used to sell appliances without the plug attached - it was just bare wires. Buying the plug separately and knowing how to attach it was just a basic skill you were expected to know.

Not sure what changed, as I understand it they don't really do that anymore.

I remember the mr bean skit where he buys a tv and jams the cord into the plug and somehow this works LOL.

I didn't realize they sold them that way intentionally!

It wasn't uncommon for people to just jam wires into the outlet in a pinch, to the extent that public service announcements warned against it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH0Kxjx0sEM

Britain had two common standards for electrical outlets (BS 1363 and the older BS 546) plus a few less-common proprietary types. BS 1363 became the preferred standard for new installations in 1947, but the other types remained fairly common for decades. Appliances were not required to be supplied with a fitted plug until 1994, by which time BS 1363 had become dominant (if not quite ubiquitous).

Thank you for this context. I couldn't guess why would anyone sell a device that's supposed to be plugged without a plug. But if there were different standards it makes some sense.

> The British used to sell appliances without the plug attached - it was just bare wires. Buying the plug separately and knowing how to attach it was just a basic skill you were expected to know.

I'm having flashbacks to moving back to the US from the UK-o-sphere, and re-splicing plugs for appliances that supported both voltages.

My understanding is that selling appliances without plugs was done to make work for the electronic shops. People attaching their own plugs would seem to defeat the purpose.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1994/1768/made mandates that appliances must be sold with the plug attached. Apparently moulded-on plugs aren't mandated, but seem to be the default now.

After going through all the appliances in my Grandad's house and re-wiring them to have the correct mains plug pinout I can understand the reason for that law!

It is actually quite difficult to wire up a UK mains plug really well!

Flashbacks to my ex's dad drilling the "missing" holes in his Ikea computer desk (pieces in the wrong place) makes me wonder if consumers are ready for DIY electronics. Love the concept and industrial look of it though.

Maybe a toaster made up of modular parts fitting together like Lego? They'd only fit one way so as to avoid assembly errors. Modular construction means that failing parts could be easily replaced.

That sounds like a really cool way to get both safety and maintainability!

You could make a USB toaster, it would just take a lot longer...

Nonsense. We just need...about 10-15 USB-C laptop charging blocks rated at 100W each. I'm sure can find a 1:10 USB charge splitter (heck, maybe we just need to get creative with a few 1:4s) on Temu.

What could possibly go wrong?

Brilliant comments like this make me miss Slashdot moderation. +5, Funny

For starters, that USB splitter would be single use, assuming it didn't melt before your toast was done.

Or, in the pre-USB-PD days, you do this[0]. Only 30 USB ports required. I swear I remember this being a toaster instead of a hot plate, but I guess you would need around 300 USB ports for a toaster.

[0] https://hackaday.com/2022/12/01/throwback-usb-hotplate-used-...

Just cook the toast from the flames of the battery.

With 240W power delivery now available, you'd just need 6 ports to get near max allowed power.

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