On Wed, 14 Feb 2018 20:50:45 +0000, Tim Watts wrote:

On 14/02/18 17:54, Johnny B Good wrote:
Who is going to want to do that, to save £6, when they started with
the premise of "Sockets with integrated USB"?

Well, if you're prepared as a DIYer, to spend that much on a plug-in
'socket converter', you might as well buy a dual gang mains socket
faceplate with built-in USB ports[1] in Home Bargains for your £9.99
spend.


I noticed them just yesterday and they appeared to be rather better
made
than the typical examples reviewed by Big Clive. I was rather impressed
by the fact that there were no exposed USB circuit boards or wiring
which could be damaged by careless handling during installation into a
back-box.

One can only assume that, if such care and attention to these basic
safety measures has been applied to the socket, the same level of
quality control will have been applied to the smpsu circuitry that's
been rendered inaccessible to all bar the most kack handed of DIY
enthusiast.


That's all very nice - but I stand by my thinking. It's the same
thinking that means I try to fit LED lamps to some sort of standard
socketed luminere and to avoid sealed units in all but the most trivial
cases.

Yep! You and me both. :-)

I was just pointing out the flaw in offering a plug-in USB charger that
doesn't block use of the socket to a DIYer who has his/her heart set on a
wall socket with built in USB charging ports when they can buy a high
quality dual gang socket with USB charging ports built in from their
nearest Home Bargains store for exactly the same money.

I take the same point of view that mains sockets should remain the one
everlasting standard for electrical power delivery which shouldn't be
cluttered up with built in USB charging ports. Far better in my view to
simply use cheap disposable wall-warts using, if need be, a short 3 or 4
way mains extension lead to avoid needlessly blocking up two or more
sockets when you've concentrated your wall-wart collection into one
convenient location to charge your collection of USB chargeable devices.

I think the apparent convenience of USB charging sockets will prove to
be mostly illusory and not quite so neat an idea as the manufacturers
would have you believe. I suspect most of these charging ports will land
up being filled in with a matching colour of epoxy resin in four or five
years time when they fail and go completely (and safely) dead.

--
Johnny B Good