Male to male USB type-c cable, DuPont connector, widdowmaker cord (I don’t care that some fools think male to male extention cords are dangerous, it’s just a little electricity)
USB-A to USB-A cables are just one “I need to transfer data between two computers” and one tech illiterate away from blown PSUs.
Maybe if they are making their own. Such cords sold at retail will either have the power leads disconnected, or a chip like USB C uses to only connect power as negotiated between the devices.
https://designintools.intel.com/c01-intel-svt-dci-dbc2-3-a-to-a-debug-cable-1-meter.html
See, even Intel makes them so it must work (ignore the fact it is intended for debugging)
I can’t think of a not insane reason anyone would need one.
People want them around the holidays because they hang their lights in the wrong direction and end up with 2 female plugs where they needed one to be male… So the want the danger adapter because they are not wanting to take anything down
So someone wires up lights around a bush or tree and one side ending in a socket is powered correctly. But they fucked up and the line to connect to it is flipped; it isn’t a pronged plug but rather another socket.
So instead of rerunning that flipped line of lights, they go cut two extension cords to create The Naughty Plug and use it to run power from the powered socketed plug to the unpowered socketed plug, leaving an energized prong plug vibing somewhere at the end of the line ready to maim, murder, or incinerate someone.
You can run something like a house off a generator with one if the main breaker is off; in an emergency and the operation reasonably well planned out (don’t overload wall lines you plugged into, etc.) it might be a net benefit. On the reg is asking for death cause there’s safe ways to do it that sane people would plan for on the reg
That would surely only power a single circuit (due to isolation) and if you have to be selective, a critical circuit like your fridge isn’t really likely to have a wall port on the same circuit near where you’d happily have your fume emitting generator…
I’m no electrician but I’ve generally installed automatic transfer switches (ATS) for mine site server cabinets that then power UPS racks and the transfer switch automatically or manually can switch from mains to generator if mains power goes out (which at a mine is all the time). I feel like a similar and safe system must exist for homes. Or something no different to switching solar to grid and back.
But again, not an electrician.
In your typical household panel there is no isolation. If you’re lucky there’s a GFCI for the bathroom and kitchen.
Edit: not to imply GFCI provides isolation either
If you disconnect the mains then the power will be backfed through one of the circuit breakers and back out to others. If the breaker you plugged naughty plug into is off, it’s isolated. Otherwise, it’ll power whatever circuit breakers are on on the breaker panel.
If you don’t disconnect from the mains you’ll kill a person working to fix the electrical lines for your neighborhood.
Yes, safe and automatic things exist to switch automatically - or even hook up a generator in a pinch manually but safely (no naughty plug needed).
Defo don’t backfeed your abode unless you’re gonna die due to some major emergency!
At work, I have a freezer with a couple thousand dollars of product in it. If I lost power and only had male plugs to jerryrig the generator into the circuit, I would. BUT only after turning the mains off and padlocking the panel shut. I didn’t have to do that as I just wired the generator directly to the freezer after disconnecting it from the mains.
Technicaly it is connected through the breaker so you could only supply as much to the rest of the house as that breaker can pass. Not ideal or the proper way of doing it though. Also the reason to disconnect from the grid is that you could start feeding downed power lines, and if line workers go out to work on the lines they can be electrocuted. Also, theres no telling when power will return. There should be a separete input for the generator and a transfer switch to switch between the generator and grid.
Why do people want them so bad tho
If you have a cabin or an RV that’s wired for electricity, but you don’t have any power coming in on the mains, or you don’t have mains, you can backfeed the system by plugging your generator into one of the outlets.
The proper thing to do is to use a special outlet that’s made for a generator, and perhaps an isolator switch as well, but if you don’t have those then you might think to yourself, why don’t I just make a male to male plug? It definitely works, but it’s also dangerous if you or anyone unplugs it while the system is hot.
While true, the this time of the year part of the poster makes me think it’s for people putting up Christmas lights who ran the string backwards and don’t want to switch it around. This is also more dangerous because it ensures that a live male plug is lying around far from the suicide cable itself.
They want them because they’re being lazy/cheap. No, seriously. They’re called widowmaker cords for a reason, but inevitably some muppet with two plugs and some wire will come up with the brilliant idea that one of these will work for.
One really sneaky and dangerous place these get made are generator backfeed cheater cables for houses. You see them in RVs, Xmas lights etc too, but generator backfeeds are super dangerous because they’re also juggling two potential power sources. A backfeed is where a house/building is disconnected from the grid just by flipping off the main panel breaker, then it’s “backfed” by a generator going into another breaker in the panel. Usually, without any type of safety interlock to keep the mains voltage off when the generator is on, or vice versa.
Afaik, this is illegal per housing code almost everywhere that I’ve seen, but still every now and then some yahoo thinks “wait, if I make a two-ended cable and put a receptacle on the house, I can remove the generator easily without any of the expensive safety crap!” And then grabs a live male plug when they fuck up and didn’t shut off the generator or mains voltage…
In the US, do you have male sockets at all? We have those on caravans/RVs for shore power in Australia, so you can just plug a regular extension lead in.
If it’s my house I should have the right to be an idiot and burn it to the ground.
Honestly, I’ve passed the last 2 or 3 minutes trying to make some use form them up. I’ve come empty-handed.
They can technically be used to power your home from a generator… but please don’t
I’ve used them in a pinch to run a circuit on a generator, but it can be really dangerous in several ways.
You flip the breaker off and plug the generator into one of the outlets on the circuit using one of these and it’ll power the rest of the circuit.
But pretty often the generator will put out a lot more amps than the wire in the wall is designed for, and you’ve bypassed the breaker. If you hook up too many devices you can draw too much current for the wires and start a fire.
So this is the power of the gay agenda.
Laughs in XLR cables.
