What’s the legitimate use case for these and female-to-female cables?
A secret cord
Submitted 3 days ago by Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net to [deleted]
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/c5ba3e32-4481-4387-8c31-7a70090fcfe7.png
Comments
ImWaitingForRetcons@lemmy.world 3 days ago
wjrii@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Legitimate? Basically none. Illegitimate? First, lazily fixing a fuckup on putting up strings of Christmas lights where you can’t daisy chain them properly, with bonus points for the likeliehood of needing to break off the grounding pin. Second, injecting power from a generator into a single circuit of your house if the power is out.
In one sense, you could argue conductors are conductors and if you think through every eventuality you can mitigate risk, but on the other, if you find you’re in a situation where one of these seems useful, you are not the type of person thinks through every eventuality.
SaltyIceteaMaker@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
it can function as a temporary fix until you can do it properly. unfortunately temporary is often the most permanent solution.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
There is none. These are not made. They should not be made. We will not help you make these.
The reason power plugs/sockets are gendered the way they are is to prevent energized contacts from ever being exposed to touch. A cable that reverses the gender can and almost certainly will expose mains voltage to exposed contacts, which almost certainly will electrocute someone or cause a fire.
Bad stupid wrong reasons people come up with for wanting these:
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Attaching a generator to the circuits in a house. Plug one end into the generator’s outlet, plug the other into a wall socket, and now that circuit in your house, and possibly others, are energized. In addition to the cable being a death hazard if unplugged from the house end, I don’t know how circuit breakers behave when the source is on the load side, and if you don’t throw the main breaker you’re energizing the lines coming out of your house, meaning you’re putting power on the mains. You probably want to do this during a power failure, which means linemen might be working on the lines, they expect them to be cold, but because an idiot bought a generator and some parts from aisle 3 at Lowe’s, it isn’t. If you’re trying to run your generator while attached to the grid to try to reduce your power bill, you deserve the resulting fire. There is a correct way to do this; you can get plugs and sockets designed for this, you’ll often find camper trailers equipped with them, and you need an interlocked switch that prevents both the generator and the power grid from being attached simultaneously.
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You strung your Christmas lights backwards, and now the female end is closest to where you want to plug them in. Okay fine, I’ll just get a male-to-male cable and plug them in backwards, what can go wrong? The male plug at the end of your daisy chain dangling somewhere in a bush, under your eaves etc. in the winter weather getting rained or snowed on is what can go wrong. The correct solution is pay attention to what you’re doing, Clark Griswold.
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marcos@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Some people claim to use them to plug generators into their homes when the lights go out.
But your generator should plug into some place before the main panel, and it’s easy to put the right connector on that one place destined to it and where you shouldn’t plug anything else. So it’s people not prepared to use a generator, that want to use one anyway, and that have to be sure to disconnect it before the power comes back on or they will find the main use-case for the cable (AKA, the one on the meme).
SantasMagicalComfort@piefed.world 3 days ago
You should put a transfer switch in so you’re not back feeding power into the grid and shocking some poor guy who isn’t expecting it to be live.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Or they cheaped out because 500 for a Jenny is a lot for some people
CaptainBasculin@lemmy.bascul.in 3 days ago
Commiting suicide
HuntressHimbo@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
None for the male to male especially, because there is no way to involve it in a hot system that doesn’t involve having an exposed prong carrying the receptacles voltage. The female to female is still dangerous, but doesn’t inherently expose the circuit to whatever is in the environment.
random_character_a@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Not legimate, but solar panel tech has made a market for this nonsense.
Zikeji@programming.dev 3 days ago
I know if I were to setup the V2L feature on my car to power my home it would look like this (the manual way). But there would be a physical interlock that prevents mains power from being on while this is plugged in.
hOrni@lemmy.world 3 days ago
There was a cable like that in my high school physics classroom. It connected 2 sockets in the wall above the blackboard. I don’t know if it had a use, it might have been a joke but nobody ever thought to ask.
Grostleton@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
It was an infinite energy generator.
The physics classroom was, ironically, the most fitting place to install it.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 days ago
Chorus: electrified screams of pain
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
No, they sound like “Electrocution”
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
There is a bin at my work labeled Suicide Cables
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
It has a ground pin, it should be safe
markz@suppo.fi 2 days ago
Don’t know that all these people are on about. It’s clearly grounded!
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 2 days ago
every year I see warning sheets in hardware stores telling people not to make these.
Its easier to just take your goddamn lights down and flip them around so the plugs line up properly.
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
I don’t even care what’s wrong or right. I’m blinded by the flashing lights. A moth to flame I screamed electrocution. Electrocution. Electrocuuuuu-yuuuuuuuuuu-shun.
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Better than the original lyrics, change my mind.
Mr_Fish@lemmy.world 2 days ago
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
That’s imo, the best version.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It goes like this the bzzzt you learn
The minor smoke, the major burn
Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Helpaaaaaaaa