[krldot]

oWarchild no idea where you are from but dont forget that you have to buy US->your country adapter ( $1-3 ) for power
Also dont forget that in the US they dont have ground pin on the adapter so you need to probably buy a power fork with good protection

[noggin]

Also dont forget that in the US they dont have ground pin on the adapter so you need to probably buy a power fork with good protection

Surely the PSU will be a double insulated wall wart style one - so just as safe as a UK model with a plastic earth pin or a European one with a two-pin Europlug? Or anything with a figure of 8 cable ? Or am I missing your point?

[Tinwarble]

If you live outside the US: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic...r-adapter/

[krldot]

Also dont forget that in the US they dont have ground pin on the adapter so you need to probably buy a power fork with good protection

Surely the PSU will be a double insulated wall wart style one - so just as safe as a UK model with a plastic earth pin or a European one with a two-pin Europlug? Or anything with a figure of 8 cable ? Or am I missing your point?

The psu is 110/220 , however its US , 2 pin , no ground/earth pin.
If there is a power surge/short circuit on the power grid before you - your shield is dead because there is nothing to absorb it.
The psu comes with a replacable head with 2 us pins. It can be replaced with one with ground/earth europlug or UK , but for now there arent any available
So whatever you buy US->UK , US->Euro , US->Whatever just get a power fork with embeded protection just in case to protect your shield from dying

[oWarchild]

Thanks! I'm in Portugal, Euro plug, and usually low power devices adapters such as Mac laptops' (for example) don't use the ground pin. Lots of power sockets outside kitchens don't even have ground pins, we trust the room's circuit breaker to cut the power in case of a surge.

[noggin]

Also dont forget that in the US they dont have ground pin on the adapter so you need to probably buy a power fork with good protection

Surely the PSU will be a double insulated wall wart style one - so just as safe as a UK model with a plastic earth pin or a European one with a two-pin Europlug? Or anything with a figure of 8 cable ? Or am I missing your point?

The psu is 110/220 , however its US , 2 pin , no ground/earth pin.
If there is a power surge/short circuit on the power grid before you - your shield is dead because there is nothing to absorb it.
The psu comes with a replacable head with 2 us pins. It can be replaced with one with ground/earth europlug or UK , but for now there arent any available
So whatever you buy US->UK , US->Euro , US->Whatever just get a power fork with embeded protection just in case to protect your shield from dying

That's not the purpose of an earth pin though is it? I live in the UK where all mains plugs have to have three pins to enable the shutters on wall sockets to open, and to ensure live/neutral are connected properly. We also have fuses in every mains plug (usually replaceable in flying leads, but not in wall warts) to provide over-current protection as our ring mains can deliver high levels of current. We don't have two pin plugs (apart from shaver sockets in bathrooms). However a large majority of my wall mounted power supplies, and lots of my in-line power supplies either have a plastic earth pin or an unearthed figure-of-8 cable.

The earth pin is there for electrical safety - it is there to protect against insulation failure. Non-earthed devices have double insulation, to provide additional safety protection, meaning two insulation failures are required to pose an insulation-failure injury.

What purpose would a power 'fork' (what is that?) with an earth pin serve when the earth pin is not connected to anything in the 'fork?'

To protect against power surges you need something with a 'surge protector' in it. This is different to an earth pin not connected to anything.

[krldot]

Thanks! I'm in Portugal, Euro plug, and usually low power devices adapters such as Mac laptops' (for example) don't use the ground pin. Lots of power sockets outside kitchens don't even have ground pins, we trust the room's circuit breaker to cut the power in case of a surge.

Thats where you are wrong. Because that room's breaker is probably 20A - way above your shield's frying Amps

[krldot]

Surely the PSU will be a double insulated wall wart style one - so just as safe as a UK model with a plastic earth pin or a European one with a two-pin Europlug? Or anything with a figure of 8 cable ? Or am I missing your point?

The psu is 110/220 , however its US , 2 pin , no ground/earth pin.
If there is a power surge/short circuit on the power grid before you - your shield is dead because there is nothing to absorb it.
The psu comes with a replacable head with 2 us pins. It can be replaced with one with ground/earth europlug or UK , but for now there arent any available
So whatever you buy US->UK , US->Euro , US->Whatever just get a power fork with embeded protection just in case to protect your shield from dying

That's not the purpose of an earth pin though is it? I live in the UK where all mains plugs have to have three pins to enable the shutters on wall sockets to open, and to ensure live/neutral are connected properly. We also have fuses in every mains plug (usually replaceable in flying leads, but not in wall warts) to provide over-current protection as our ring mains can deliver high levels of current. We don't have two pin plugs (apart from shaver sockets in bathrooms). However a large majority of my wall mounted power supplies, and lots of my in-line power supplies either have a plastic earth pin or an unearthed figure-of-8 cable.

The earth pin is there for electrical safety - it is there to protect against insulation failure. Non-earthed devices have double insulation, to provide additional safety protection, meaning two insulation failures are required to pose an insulation-failure injury.

What purpose would a power 'fork' (what is that?) with an earth pin serve when the earth pin is not connected to anything in the 'fork?'

To protect against power surges you need something with a 'surge protector' in it. This is different to an earth pin not connected to anything.

If your earth pin is not grounded and you get a short circuit anywhere or a power surge your nvidia shield tv will die. Simple as it is
Power fork = power strip = power extension ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_strip )
By "just get a power fork with embeded protection" i mean exactly surge protected power fork ( power strip , call it however you like ) exactly because your ground/earth pin on the psu of the shield wont be connected to the ground/earth if you are using 2 pin US -> 2/3 pin EUR/UK / whatever.

[noggin]

Thanks! I'm in Portugal, Euro plug, and usually low power devices adapters such as Mac laptops' (for example) don't use the ground pin. Lots of power sockets outside kitchens don't even have ground pins, we trust the room's circuit breaker to cut the power in case of a surge.

Thats where you are wrong. Because that room's breaker is probably 20A - way above your shield's frying Amps

Yep - and in the UK it's even higher, as our ring mains (which our mains outlets are connected to) are rated at 30-32A usually. (The UK runs on ring mains as a post-WWII copper saving measure) This is why individual mains plugs on UK devices have built in 3A, 5A, 10A or 13A cartridge fuses, so each appliance is individually fused, and thus individually protected from over-current situations.

[noggin]

The psu is 110/220 , however its US , 2 pin , no ground/earth pin.
If there is a power surge/short circuit on the power grid before you - your shield is dead because there is nothing to absorb it.
The psu comes with a replacable head with 2 us pins. It can be replaced with one with ground/earth europlug or UK , but for now there arent any available
So whatever you buy US->UK , US->Euro , US->Whatever just get a power fork with embeded protection just in case to protect your shield from dying

That's not the purpose of an earth pin though is it? I live in the UK where all mains plugs have to have three pins to enable the shutters on wall sockets to open, and to ensure live/neutral are connected properly. We also have fuses in every mains plug (usually replaceable in flying leads, but not in wall warts) to provide over-current protection as our ring mains can deliver high levels of current. We don't have two pin plugs (apart from shaver sockets in bathrooms). However a large majority of my wall mounted power supplies, and lots of my in-line power supplies either have a plastic earth pin or an unearthed figure-of-8 cable.

The earth pin is there for electrical safety - it is there to protect against insulation failure. Non-earthed devices have double insulation, to provide additional safety protection, meaning two insulation failures are required to pose an insulation-failure injury.

What purpose would a power 'fork' (what is that?) with an earth pin serve when the earth pin is not connected to anything in the 'fork?'

To protect against power surges you need something with a 'surge protector' in it. This is different to an earth pin not connected to anything.

If your earth pin is not grounded and you get a short circuit anywhere or a power surge your nvidia shield tv will die. Simple as it is
Power fork = power strip = power extension ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_strip )
By "just get a power fork with embeded protection" i mean exactly surge protected power fork ( power strip , call it however you like ) exactly because your ground/earth pin on the psu of the shield wont be connected to the ground/earth if you are using 2 pin US -> 2/3 pin EUR/UK / whatever.

I think we are talking at crossed purposes. Obviously if your PSU or adaptor has an earth pin it should be connected to earth. Anyone who bypasses the earth on a device is a fool (though this is quite easy with some combinations of European outlets and plugs)

My point is that most low-current devices - like USB hard drives, low power Anrdroid boxes etc., PSUs for Raspberry Pis etc. don't have earth connected to them as they are double insulated. Certainly in the UK the earth pin is for electrical safety, to avoid electrocution if the insulation in a device fails and thus an exposed metal bit is connected to live current. Double insulation mitigates this and so double insulated devices don't require an earth pin to be connected. In Europe this is where the 2-pin Europlug is used, but in the UK all devices have to have three pins to fit into a shuttered standard socket (the earth pin opens the Live and Neutral shutters), so double insulated devices have a plastic earth pin instead these days.

Surge protection is a different matter. That's to protect from incoming surges on the mains supply (quite rare in the UK other than during thunder storms or if work on the supply goes wrong) - and isn't really related to the presence or absence of an earth pin on a device.

Never heard the term 'fork' used for a multi-way socket extension, x-way socket, distribution strip, dis-board etc. - and I'm a native English speaker who used to be an engineer...

If this is the Shield PSU : http://shield.nvidia.com/store/shield-ac-adapter then (like the Chromebox US PSUs) it appears to be a double-insulated non-earthed device. As such a two-pin US to UK or US to EU adaptor would be OK - though if you live in an area with poor quality power (or high electrical storm activity and poorly surge protected power supplies) then feeding the 2pin adaptor via a surge protected source would be sensible.

However plugging it into a three pin US to UK/EU adaptor won't give you any surge protection as the earth connection won't be used and is redundant, offering no surge protection at all.

[krldot]

Sorry about the fork But im not a native english speaker
Thats not the Adapter of the shield and its not class 2 or above so its not double insulated from what i know.
Also its not a low powered android box because it can reach ~25W at 110v

[oWarchild]

The Macbook pro has a 60W power adapter, only has 2 pins and in Portugal people connect them directly to the power socket (crazy people, I know ). Unless I'm missing something (it's possible) I think it will be perfectly safe to connect a SHIELD adapter with a normal US->EU pin adapter to a Portuguese power socket. Or did I miss something?

In Portugal surge protectors are not common, so I guess if a surge did happen most people would fry their electronic devices? Something I never heard of...

BTW, I've lived in the UK and in the US and most of the electronic devices that had AC-DC adapters 110/220V only differed in their tip where in the UK the tip included a low current fuse which was not present in the US/EU tips.

PS: By "room's circuit breaker" I meant residual-current circuit breaker (not sure if it was clear before as I'm also not a native English speaker).

[noggin]

Sorry about the fork But im not a native english speaker
Thats not the Adapter of the shield and its not class 2 or above so its not double insulated from what i know.
Also its not a low powered android box because it can reach ~25W at 110v

I think the PSU I linked to is for the Shield tablet not the console.

However I just found this : https://youtu.be/HPJzkdNkxvk?t=257 which shows the unboxing of a Shield Console. The time code I've linked to (4'17" in) shows a close up of the PSU. (It's 19V at 2.1A)

It clearly has the double insulated logo (two squares inside each other - http://www.double-insulated.com ) on the right hand side above the crossed-out waste bin and next to the little house logo. It has, like many adaptors of this kind these days, a slide in country-specific plug adaptor, which would allow a UK, EU, Aus etc. replacement plug-in adaptor to be used instead. It also clearly has only two metal contacts. There isn't an unconnected earth contact. A UK slide-in adaptor used to replace the US one would have a plastic earth pin. An EU adaptor would probably just be a Europlug 2-pin style one.

[noggin]

PS: By "room's circuit breaker" I meant residual-current circuit breaker (not sure if it was clear before as I'm also not a native English speaker).

Yep - the point made was valid. A 20A circuit breaker won't protect you from everything. In particular if you plug in something with a low-current mains cord that is only rated for say 3 or 5A and have an electrical fault causing more than 3A or 5A to be drawn through that cord you could be at risk of fire, but your breaker won't trip because still less than 20A is being drawn.

In the UK we have 30A ring mains (higher current still than 20A) but each device is individually fused to avoid excessive current being drawn that would otherwise potentially be a fire risk? In the UK a 30A current draw is obviously even more serious than a 20A one? But the highest rating any single plug-connected device can draw (at least using a conventional UK plug) is 13A as that is the maximum fuse that we can use in a single plug.

[oWarchild]

However I just found this : https://youtu.be/HPJzkdNkxvk?t=257 which shows the unboxing of a Shield Console. The time code I've linked to (4'17" in) shows a close up of the PSU. (It's 19V at 2.1A)

It clearly has the double insulated logo (two squares inside each other - http://www.double-insulated.com ) on the right hand side above the crossed-out waste bin and next to the little house logo.

Thanks @noggin! Today I've learned something and now I'm more confident about the adapter converter. Wikipedia also has a nice explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appliance_...s#Class_II.


EDIT: regarding

Yep - the point made was valid. A 20A circuit breaker won't protect you from everything. In particular if you plug in something with a low-current mains cord that is only rated for say 3 or 5A and have an electrical fault causing more than 3A or 5A to be drawn through that cord you could be at risk of fire, but your breaker won't trip because still less than 20A is being drawn.

In the UK we have 30A ring mains (higher current still than 20A) but each device is individually fused to avoid excessive current being drawn that would otherwise potentially be a fire risk? In the UK a 30A current draw is obviously even more serious than a 20A one? But the highest rating any single plug-connected device can draw (at least using a conventional UK plug) is 13A as that is the maximum fuse that we can use in a single plug.

I see, BTW, my room's circuit breakers are 15A, so not very far from the UK's 13A per plug. But indeed each appliance doesn't have its own fuse so there may be a fire risk indeed.