[Tfug] Opine: Bricks, warts or...?

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

--- On Sat, 8/2/08, Jim Secan <jim at nwra.com> wrote:
> Well, first off you appear to be laboring under the faulty
> assumption that
> the manufacturers give a flying fig WHAT their customers
> might want. 

No, all I said was the use of a wall wart (or other prepackaged
power module) offloads some of the regulatory requirements
from the manufacturer.  IMO, in most cases, this is *not*
in the customer's interest (except to the extent that it may
lower their liability exposure or *possibly* let them get
to market a tiny bit quicker -- since the wall wart is tested
separately from the rest of the device... presumably before
the device is even built!)

> Avoiding litigation is paramount.  That said, I prefer the
> bricks as long
> as there is enough cord on both sides of the beast that I
> can locate it
> where I need and not be limited by an 8" cord on one
> end.  Warts make
> using power strips and the like more difficult, even when
> the strips are designed with extra space.

Yes, hence *my* reason for complaining...

> What would be useful is a universal power supply, wherein
> you could buy
> one that could serve the needs of multiple devices.  Kinda
> like a
> standard, but standards are Communistic so I don't see
> the manufacturers going that route.

Such a device would probably be more expensive than it would
merit.  Outputs would have to be isolated since wall wart
outputs are isolated -- as a result, you lose a lot of the
economies you hoped to gain with a "shared supply".

And, you'd have to make sure each output was somewhat
independant of the others -- current limited like a USB
hub so one bad device can't take down the whole supply, etc.

And, I'm not sure it would reduce the clutter -- just shift
it to a different place.

But, I assume we agree that wall warts and their ilk
suck (to varying degrees)?