

Why every country has a different electrical plug - awesome graphic - suprgeek
http://gizmodo.com/5391271/giz-explains-why-every-country-has-a-different-fing-plug

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pmjordan
Actually, there are widely used standards even for mains power:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_connector>

C15/16 are widespread for grounded, C7/8 for non-grounded all over the world.
I even use C16 distributers with C15/16 extensions to the devices at home
(having moved repeatedly within Europe, this ended up being easier), but those
are comparatively rare.

The article actually lumps almost all of Europe into one, which is an
oversimplification. Leaving aside the Swiss and Italian systems, there are 2
at least types of grounded sockets in continental Europe, the Schuko and the
CEE 7/5 (fr be cz pl, sk). Both are round with round and symmetrically placed
neutral and live contacts, but the former has 2 springs at the side for
ground, whereas the latter has a male ground prong. Luckily the plugs can be
made to fit both (CEE 7/7), but that doesn't mean that all are. You may not
have to worry about borders while travelling in Europe, but you still have to
worry about plugs & sockets.

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vaksel
frankly this brings up a major point...why are so many products in life have
so many seemingly pointless variations?

I'll give you some examples.

1\. Power Adapters? Why do we need 50 different versions. Why can't every
electrical product have 1 type of power supply?

2\. Wheels - why do we need 20 different bolt patterns? Why can't every car
company just make 1 bolt pattern?

3\. USB cables, yes the USB that connects to your PC has the same end, but I'm
talking about the end that connects to your camera, printer, fax machine, why
can't they just have one type of connection?

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chrischen
Actually for number 3, assuming you're talking about the mini usb and the
square type USB, I'd say the miniusb is better for smaller gadgets. So it
wouldn't be ideal to put a regular USB size connector on all types of gadgets.

Ipod's dock connector is wide so it can physically stand the ipod, iphone, or
whatever up when plugged in. So the physical design of connectors often serve
purposes other than just to transmit data. And for this reason we'll probably
always have proprietary connectors.

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dlsspy
You didn't mention micro-usb. I have within one meter of me, devices that
require USB type A ("regular"), USB type B ("square"), mini USB, micro USB and
an iPhone.

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chrischen
Actually I meant micro when I said mini. I'm not even sure what miniusb is.

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pmjordan
Mini and Micro USB are similar but different:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Types-usb_new.svg>

I've got various Card readers, HDDs, Hubs, etc. that take Mini-USB B, but I've
never seen Mini-USB A or any of the micro ones in the wild. Apparently Micro
USB will be used for charging mobile phones henceforth.

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sp332
This statement kind of summarizes the problem: "Basically, the best way to
guess who's got which socket is to brush up on your WW1/WW2 history, and to
have a deep passion for postcolonial literature. No, really."

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stuartjmoore
Thankfully, USB is starting to solve this, esp since digital electronics don't
need the 120V that most analog elecs do.

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teamonkey
The shape of plug is nowhere near as bad as the 110-230v difference. You can
always use a $2 plug adapter but step-up/down converters are big and
relatively expensive.

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pbhjpbhj
And yet you get things like shavers that auto-sense the voltage and adapt
accordingly in tiny form factors.

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jlees
I recently bought a power adapter kit for my Mac's charger block, which works
as a transformer as well, and it's made my life much easier travelling in the
EU and US. (Except that I can't plug the block directly into the wall in some
cases due to size. D'oh.)

If more plug adapters supported interchangeable ends, life would definitely be
simpler. You can pick up kettle leads or figure-eight leads for $country quite
cheaply, I guess. The transformers are the biggest pain. But as the article
says - we're pretty much stuck with the system...

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cl3m
That not such a big problem. Just buy a good adapter like
[http://www.swisstravelproducts.com/index.php?site=productvie...](http://www.swisstravelproducts.com/index.php?site=productview&product_id=3)
and a multi-plug!

