Switch PowerCon To IEC?

[cgimusic]

At my school we have a flight case with all our sound equipment in (and for some reason we still have a cassette player in there). Well last week we were talking about the connectors and cables we have. We don't really have spares for anything and lots of them are only held together with parcel tape. We currently use a PowerCon cable but their is already an IEC connector built in too. My question is : Should we get power rewired to the IEC connector (which we have plenty of cables for or just leave it with the PowerCon connectors.

I prefer the PowerCon's because they lock and I grabbed a connector off the internet for about £5. I was also going to say that I don't know much about the sound system at my school so can I just dismantle an old extension cord and connect it up to the PowerCon connector or will I need a different fuse? I know its probably simple but I am still really a noob.

And if you didn't notice from the £ I live in England and we have a ground on the plugs.

 

[wadeace]

let me get this straight. you have the rack, the rack is pre wired, there is a power distro device of some kind that connects all the equipment together which than connects to the wall, and that connection to the wall is a power con to a 1363 connector. if this is the case than, personally id say leave power the way it is. as long as everything is compartmented in the rack, and the rack doesn’t get butchered on a regular biases leave it. your money is better spent making upgrades. I wouldn’t be to worried about needing a lot of spare power cables, as long as you keep everything together, maybe only two or three at most.

 

[avkid]

Please don't, Powercon is a far better connector.

 

[TimmyP1955]

I love PowerCons. Locking. Robust. Reasonably compact. Accept large gauge cable. Inexpensive (compared to other industrial grade connectors, most of which - at least in the US, don't lock positively as does the PowerCon.)

AC Cables Page

TP Audio's Bar Distro

RackStuff

 

[derekleffew]

I agree that the PowerCon® is a good connector, with one caveat (from the Neutrik website):

Attention: The PowerCon® is a connector without breaking capacity, i.e. the PowerCon® should not be connected or disconnected under load or live!

 

[TimmyP1955]

In spite of that (actually before I knew it) I've done plenty of hot disconnects. No troubles.

 

[Chris15]

Powercon is rated to 16 amps.
"Standard" IEC 60320 C13 & C14 are rated to 10 amps...
The 15 or 16 (I can't remember off the top of my head) C19 IEC connectors are not compatible with the smaller stuff, so you still need a specific power lead for it...

The UK have fused power plugs as standard, correct? If using powercon and the appropriately sized cable, you can stick a 13A fuse in (it would be 16 if the plug was rated at more than 13) whereas for a normal IEC it really shoul have only a 10A fuse in it...

So keep the Powercon...