[Test-Equipment] old oval power cords

[Fred Olsen]

Gil, et al,

> gil smith wrote:
> I ran across a source for the old oval power cords used on early HP, Fluke...
> The Volex 17952 is listed as "North-American-Color-Coding."  There is an
> "international" version with hot and neutral swapped (Volex part 17280).
> Who in their right mind ever allowed two versions of a power cord to be
> standardized?

Uh, that would be "us", and "them".  Ever deal with any ISO standards or
some such, Gil?  The French always insist on everything being
'different' from anything ever used in the U.S.  And if they don't get
their way they hold their breath until they turn blue.  ;<))

Don't confuse the difference between "North American" (HI or live or
line = black, LO or neutral or groundED = white, earth or groundING =
green) and "IEC" (brown, blue, green/yellow) color coding with
polarity.  There also exist NoAm cords in BOTH polarities, the alternate
one having been used in some office machine applications.

Please do be careful of polarity on that style of cord set.  It's not
cool to have "line" floating around inside your gear because the switch
ended up on the wrong leg.  I always mark the line-side socket at the
female (equipment) end with a black marker.  That must of course be the
one connected to the plug blade which aims into the narrower slot of the
receptacle.  One ohmmeter check saves you and your gear from grief.

> Someone at HP told me that Volex sourced the original cords for them,

Almost.  Volex bought Belden's power cord division a few years ago, and
those numbers are indeed the old Belden numbers.  (So don't pitch your
old catalogs yet.)

Fred