Gigantic Electronics extension cable
“Safety First!”, you may think while watching the following video, but if the cheap (Chinese) polyethylene (?) extension cables just break too often due to rough handling and their low quality, chances are that someone will come up with an alternative. Like this young man in Kenya:
(no subtitles available on this one, sorry)
A young man from Kiandutu slums in Thika had always wanted to be an electrical engineer, but lack of fees denied him a chance to further his studies. And yet this has not dampen his resolve to put his mark on the world of electrical engineering.For starters, he has devised a way of making wooden extension cables, which as NTV’s Jane Ngoiri reports, is causing quite a stir in his neighbourhood. (src)
A max current set by the fuse and wooden frames that may easily burn or conduct electricity while wet probably aren’t the best conditions for this hardware hack, but hey: there’s obviously a demand for such an extension cable.
Tags: electricity, Jua Kali
24 January 2012 - 11:59 am - :
I was so intrigued by the idea of a a cable in wood from the email, that I had to see the whole post. I had visions of splitting bamboo and laying conductors in the lengths. Now I understand
This should be an example of what marketing is: he saw a need and gap in the market, and then came up with something that filled that gap.
I might have more than a few reservations about the hairdressing – “… heaters kwa hairdryers …”. It seems it would be a little too easy to go over 3kW, even if the cabling would stand that. Can somebody come up with a very cheap, simple way of limiting the current according to demand? I suspect many people have done that already. I’m not so worried by the wood. It withstands thermal deformation a lot better than the original plastics and emits fewer noxious vapours if things should go wrong.
The mobile application looks good. Next question is: who will invent a universal charger interface for mobile batteries?