

The Mu - Folding UK 3-pin → USB plug - moreati
https://www.themu.co.uk/

======
gouranga
To quote:

"Yes – the Mu® USB Adapter has been tested by recognised certification
organisations and has the full pre-requisite approvals for CE certification."

What approvals and organisations? Sounds like bullshit. That's the most
evasive paragraph ever in the history of time.

Proper UK mains plugs are incredibly over-engineered for a good reason.
Excellent mechanical stability, no arcing likely, touch-safety, earth pin,
built in fuse and TBH you could beat an elephant to death with one. Add to
that, the sockets don't like giving the plugs back which is a good thing!

That thing is flimsy, requires manual twiddling, has zero earth pin - it's
plastic (what is the USB port grounded to?), will break in two minutes flat
and fry someone.

I very much doubt it's been tested or approved or will be on the market for
more than a few weeks.

Also, a small added rant: I can see design awards galore splurged all over it.
The designers are positively orgasmic over the thing, yet us engineers are
crying. Take the hint.

~~~
mmcnickle
Class II (double insulated) appliances don't require an conducting earth pin.
It's only needed at all to open the shutters that cover the live/neutral holes
in the socket.

>>> That thing is flimsy, requires manual twiddling

Have you tried the product yet?

>>> I very much doubt it's been tested or approved

They've stated that it's been independently tested, which is sufficient for
self-certification for the CE mark. What makes you think they're lying?

>>> us engineers are crying

<strike>I doubt you are an electrical engineer.</strike> Edit: apologies.

~~~
gouranga
I've never worked with appliances so please excuse my ignorance on the
subject. I retract that part of the rant. You are correct and I've upvoted you
accordingly.

My comment regarding the flimsy nature of it will be proven. A rotating
mechanical joint which needs to be pulled HARD (UK plus need to be pulled very
hard) will fail rapidly and expose live wires. Not only that, the profile of
the unit is very narrow and a small knock on the side of the device will most
likely weaken the rotating joint resulting in complete failure.

With respect to the testing, similar devices have appeared in the past and
have not been approved. I don't have a reference at hand but there was one
around 2003 which was removed from the market rapidly after they lied over
testing.

I was an electronics engineer until 2002 (specialist VLSI/FPGA/Avionics
equipment).

~~~
cstross
I've got a Mu plug. I'm quite impressed by it; while it probably _is_ less
robust than a regular plug, my gut feeling is you'd have to hit it side-on
with a hammer to stand a chance of breaking it while it was in a socket. The
fold-out shield around the pins is reinforced and angled to deflect side-
impacts. A USB cable seated in it pulls out long before it can exert enough
leverage or force to pull the Mu's pins out of a socket. The rotating pin
arrangement feels solidly built.

While I think it's a bit gimmicky at this point (and: £25 for a USB
charger?!?) it's better designed than a lot of the crappy kit you see out
there, and shows promise for something better to come.

~~~
gouranga
Thanks for the objective review.

------
moreati
This is a 2009 concept, finally becoming a product
<http://www.reghardware.com/2009/06/24/folding_uk_plug/>

------
antihero
Output: DC 5V 1Amp

Isn't that going to mean that a lot of devices (iPad?) charge slow?

I mean, I think it's more expensive to get rated for higher amp-age but they
could have gone for 3 amps, right?

------
unwind
I couldn't find any information about whether or not this contains a fuse ...
Isn't that mandatory for UK plugs?

Seems quite "daring" to launch something like this for only the UK. Sure, it's
a big market, but I hope they're looking at modularizing the plug part
internally so they can instantiate the Mu for other markets, too.

~~~
weavejester
It seems rather unlikely they'd be selling this if they didn't comply with UK
regulations!

I'm also not sure why you think it's daring to launch a product for, in your
words, "a big market".

~~~
unwind
I just meant that while big, it's still more or less one country. But, as
other commenters have pointed out, the purpose of the product is to make the
clumsy UK plug more managable, so perhaps there is no market in other regions
for this product. :)

------
gioele
It is a (design-wise) shame that the UK plug design forces adapters to be so
big.

Europlug USB adapters are much more slicker [http://www.alibaba.com/product-
gs/339903558/_Euro_Plug_USB_T...](http://www.alibaba.com/product-
gs/339903558/_Euro_Plug_USB_Travel_Charger.html) .

~~~
beseku
I think that depends on the angle you approach the issue from. Having spent
the last three years in Japan after growing up in the UK, I find the general
lack of respect towards electricity as a deadly force that is encapsulated in
the flimsy plug design quite startling.

While the UK plug design is unwieldy in comparison, it also features a huge
number of cleverly designed elements intended to provide the utmost protection
to the everyday user.

Put another way, no. of shocks in Japan: 3 in 3 years. No. of shocks in the
UK: 0 in 27 years (16 of which were as a child).

~~~
lucian1900
Japan may be on the other side of the scale, I also find their plugs look
flimsy (as an European).

But the UK plug is just an artefact of the dangerous series circuits in many
houses built during copper shortages. Such circuits are dangerous anyway, the
remaining such houses should be fixed instead.

~~~
excuse-me
There's nothing about ring mains that makes them any more dangerous.

The UK pugs probably are needlessly safe - but so are aircraft and cars these
days. I can't see a big campaign to remove earth pins, shuttered sockets,
fuses and switches to increase the number of accidents getting much public
traction!

~~~
lucian1900
But one could see a campaign to have the same plugs as the rest of Europe,
perhaps.

They aren't any less safe (especially Schuko ones) to use. The problems are
inertia and national pride.

~~~
excuse-me
Indeed - the same problems have stalled our attempts to make the rest of
europe drive on the correct side of the road.

~~~
lucian1900
Exactly, because it's Europe (the majority) that has obviously made the wrong
choice on both matters :)

------
tomgallard
In the UK one of the first things most people with any sort of interest in DIY
or technology learn is how to 'wire a plug'.

Is this a UK specific thing, or is it common in other countries as well?

~~~
excuse-me
In the US it's almost impossible to get a re-wireable plug except for
industrial extension leads.

Most Americans have no idea which pin is 'live'

~~~
klodolph
There's no need for Americans to know which pin is live. (The correct answer
is "both", by the way.)

Americans who do DIY electronics / electrical systems all know that black is
hot and white is neutral, bare or green is ground. Plugs come with cables, so
there is no need to know which pin is which, and I'm not sure what the benefit
of rewiring a plug is except in the very rare case that the plug is damaged.

For the record, the bigger prong is neutral, which is exactly what you'd
expect.

~~~
excuse-me
True, and all new products in the UK have to have pre-wired sealed plugs now.
Although you can still buy replacements plugs - I don't know hoe much longer
for.

It's just part of the lost art of being able to fix things, now you throw away
the Walmart appliance rather than replace a plug. Soon you wont be able to fix
your car and will have to scrap it when the dealer decides that support has
expired.

------
raldi
For a smartphone product, their website is remarkably mobile-hostile. Can
anyone figure out a way to get their "click and drag" photo navigation to work
on an iPhone?

------
rlpb
I wonder if this device supports the USB charging port standard
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Power>). Are D- and D+
shorted? Their FAQ doesn't seem to say.

------
oliwarner
Regardless of the pros and cons with this and UK plugs in general, £25 for one
1A USB socket is £20 too much. And that's allowing £4 for the gimmick-factor.

It's not even _that_ much smaller than the newer micro-USB chargers that Nokia
and Samsung have.

------
tcox
I have one. I really like it. It works and feels reasonably sturdy. The only
thing I don't like is that the earth pin sticks out when the flaps are closed
:-(

------
casca
The only good thing about the UK plug is that it's possible to push a standard
2-pin EU plug into the socket.

~~~
archivator
I've had a plug disintegrate inside the socket. (the metal prongs somehow
detached from the plug). So, don't do this!

I'd argue that the _really_ good thing about the UK plug is 1) the switches in
the sockets and 2) that the devices are all well-grounded. The EU one is
usually just 2 contacts, with an optional 3rd one for ground. That's bad,
anyway I look at it.

~~~
mootothemax
_I'd argue that the really good thing about the UK plug is 1) the switches in
the sockets and 2) that the devices are all well-grounded_

There are quite a lot of safety features built in to UK plugs. Other ones I'm
aware of are the holes being shuttered until a plug is inserted, and the
internal design meaning that if you pull hard enough on the external wire,
pulling it out, the internal wires will disconnect in a safe order.

~~~
andyking
At an old workplace, we had a piece of equipment with a European plug that we
regularly had to shoehorn into a UK socket. It was a case of shoving a
screwdriver or a pencil into the earth hole on the socket to simulate that pin
being inserted and unlock the others, then fumble the EU plug into the live
and neutral holes. (All while the socket was powered down, of course.)

Not particularly safe, and the result of someone who found you could buy
equipment cheaper from Germany!

~~~
FreeFull
Why didn't you just buy a converter? One side is the UK plug, other side
allows you to plug in a variety of different plugs (including the continental
one) and they are very cheap.

