Fun with aliexpress PDU's LN cross over!

a month ago by jet to c/interesting

I bought a switched PDU from aliexpress, and i broke the rule of buying from ali... I tested it! The Live and Neutral wires on the PDU are crossed over.

I've attempted to return it, but aliexpress keeps denying me saying its a grounding problem with my test setup... hence why i stuck the fluke in directly for a direct illustration.

Creat 5 points a month ago

In large parts of the world (at least most of Europe) live and neutral aren't distinguished. There is no coding or assignment on the outlet. Maybe that's where their experience came from?

Functionally it should be irrelevant.

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jet 12 points a month ago

Sure, and if they used a type F plug on the device I'd agree with you, but they went with NEMA 5-15, which has polarity requirements.

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CameronDev 4 points a month ago

Cut the plug of and rewire it?

At least swaped LN in a rack is slightly less of a problem, unless you have a rack mounted toaster. The live and neutral are both safely terminated inside the PSU's, so you can't accidentally touch live.

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jet 7 points a month ago

Cut the plug of and rewire it?

Yeah, I can do that, but then what am I giving them any money for in the first place?

The live and neutral are both safely terminated inside the PSU’s, so you can’t accidentally touch live.

Depends also on how surge / overvoltage protections operate, they might throw open the neutral line and leave live connected to the device... so yes it would break a circuit, but it would leave the device hot.

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CameronDev 4 points a month ago

If all goes well, you should get a refund from Ali, and then you can rewire it anyway. Good luck

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jet 8 points a month ago

i'm on my third refund request! so far they have been quite negative, they are quite polarized on this current topic... but no point in being overly charged, I see the potential benefits here!

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CameronDev 3 points a month ago

Damn, thats weird. I've had very good luck getting refunds from aliexpress, usually its very easy.

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