On Sun, 3 Feb 2019 08:50:02 -0000, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Yes indeed. The only failure mode, assuming no lightning strikes or similar.
I have encountered is going open circuit due to the wire becoming internally
detached. Far more common are failure of the filters that often are used as
well. In these the capacitors go leaky and heat up making usually magic very
smelly smoke before the fuse pops.
A very dangerous device from many years ago, though I never realised it
till it failed was the pifco rechargeable torch. It had a two pin plug on
one end withed a cover and inside a 'lossless' dropper in the form of a
capacitor

There was a Thorn mains portable TV that used this principle.
Brilliant when it worked, it dropped the Volts nicely and enabled the
TV to fit into a very small cabinet that was fairly portable.
When the cap shorted, the valves and no doubt CRT heaters would
compete with the Xmas tree for a "short" while :-)

Nearly everything I buy from Ebay has a CE mark. I do get the
impression that these are just stamped on as part of the manufacturing
process.

At least they seem to have seen the limit with my recently purchased
dimmer. No tools needed for disassembly, a circuit bare of any frills
like suppression, in fact it could be a direct copy from a textbook.

At least LW wireless is out of fashion now, it would play havoc with
the shipping forecast.

The CE mark has become a "CCCe" mark.

"Chinese Copied Ce" perhaps ?


AB