I look at automatic transfer switches from Server Technology, Inc. and TrippLite and describe why you might want one.

I assemble a small 240V 30A distribution box for some future purposes.

I test out the USB ports on a couple of Addtam power strips, then for good measure I take them apart and lecture everyone about the importance of non-shite power strips. How fun?

The WAudio W-3900 Power Conditioner is a well-made PDU/power strip, with a couple of bucks worth of filtering components inside. If it were sold in the $50 price range, I’d definitely recommend it for its solid build quality, decent quality components, and retro looks. But at $180, the amount of power “conditioning” (it’s really just filtering certain frequencies of noise at low levels) doesn’t justify the price, IMHO.

To be fair, the product can be found on AliExpress for $137 at the time of this writing.

Though the marketing materials promise “the highest level of surge & spike protection”, in reality it is not what I would call a surge or spike protector. One weak PTC thermistor is presumably the entire justification for that line, and I’ve seen $15 power strips with more robust surge protection circuitry.

For posterity, here’s the Amazon listing as-is now, before they potentially correct it to be more realistic:

And as promised, here are some close-ups of the circuit board for those of you curious about seeing it in more detail or tracing it out:

The Problem

I purchased four TrippLite Isobar Ultra 4-Outlet Surge Protectors from eBay for about $50.

They were all well-used, but purported to function. Unfortunately, two of them did not. They wouldn’t conduct any power to the receptacles, and displayed a fault LED.

Hence the Video

Fortunately the problems were identical for both, and very easy to fix. There are a pair of very robust and heavy inductors on the PCB that routes power inside the Isobar. They’re not mechanically fastened to the board, except by two relatively small solder joints.

Either in their previous life of hard use or during shipping, they must have experienced some bashing around which caused inductors in both units to become un-moored.

A bit of solder patched them right up.

If you’re looking to repair any of these yourself, this very lengthy video shows you what’s inside and how I went about my repairs.

Board Photos

It was my intent in the video to trace out the circuitry, both on the main PCB and the LED board, but time got away from me. But as promised at the end of the video, here are some high-res stills:

(Click for max size.. but beware that the largest one is 8.6MB and may be slow to render on some mobile devices.)

This is the main PCB. Apologies if some of the components are obscured by wires.

I find it much easier to follow PCB traces when they’re in mirror-image so the through-holes line up with the components.

 

 

Oshkoshbegosh!? Another long ramble about power distribution thingies for the home and/or office?!

Well it’s true. Hopefully my next video will not be about this subject.

This compares the relatively-generically-branded Belkin Advanced Surge Protector (which actually bears the handy model number of BE112230-08, like it came out of some kind of dystopian nightmare) to the easily-spoken Furman SS-6B (which itself sounds shockingly dystopian anyway).

I was searching for an “affordable” power distribution unit for some video-related equipment in a rack. The Technical Pro PS9U looked very appealing with its multiple light-up switches on the front, because they made me all sentimental and wistful for the days of switched under-monitor PDUs.

It took a dark turn when I looked at the negative reviews on Amazon, wherein one person uploaded pictures of a melted-down unit. I still bought the PDU, not because I wanted to use it, but purely because I wanted to take it apart for YouTube.

And indeed the Amazon review turned out to be accurate. I would not feel comfortable using the Technical Pro PDU in my house. In my opinion as a random guy on the internet, it is a fire hazard, is poorly made, and shouldn’t even be on the market.

For my actual use, I also bought a Cyberpower CPS-1220RMS PDU. It’s a bit different than the Technical Pro in that it doesn’t have independently-switched outputs, offers surge protection, and is rated at 20A rather than 15A (though “rated” is a strong word in the case of the PS9U). That’s just on the surface, though. Inside, the Cyberpower shows every mark of quality and clearly supports its 20A rating.

In the video I open up the Cyberpower, just to show you what a quality PDU should look like. The comparison between the two products is day and night, even though I got the Cyberpower unit for a mere $15 more (on sale). It’s absolutely worth the higher price (even when not on sale).

The bottom line here is that when it comes to power distribution — be it rack-mounted or a typical power strip style — you should spend the extra money to get the higher-quality unit. Your fire insurance provider will thank you, as might your family (if it comes to that).