Curse of the safety police. The neon night light.

I had the same idea.

Frank

I just went and found my 'Police free' version. For some reason I didn't think it had two neons, but it does. It's also welded shut (no screws) so I'll not be performing a destructive teardown.

Mark Gray

I made a neon night light with a clear mains plug and two neons and two resistor and a 1 amp fuse.

Nuts 'n' Proud

A glass fuse can't break high current faults as an arc forms in the glass tube.

Big Clive

Is that really a sand filled fuse, or the normal empty Chinese ceramic tube with a nail inside it ?

The 'standard' two neon, two resistor types are still for sale on Amazon. Just look for Dencon Electrical 1600.

If the fuse were recessed into a fuse-sized hole in the pcb, the neons would be mostly above the fuse and the fuse terminals could be soldered directly to the pcb pads meaning you wouldn't need wire-ended fuses.. Can't believe the Chinese missed that one

Gordo

Could you fit a glass fuse in the socket so the light shines through it?

Mike Hanley

The other thing which might have helped would e to raise the neons off the PCB, so they can “see” over the fuse, and shine past it a bit. There’d still be a shadow, but it’d provide some additional light in other directions. (But possibly make manufacture a little bit more tricky.) Ewen

Ewen McNeill

I suspect they didn't because it would mean more retooling.

Chris Crowther

We didn't have night lights when I was a child. The electricity got turned off after 10.00PM so a night light would not have worked.

Jeremy Travis

The L & N markings on the PCB are the wrong way around.

MarcT

They could have just made the case slightly bigger to accommodate 2 more neons below the fuse to spread the light

The Tinkering Shed

It does seem a bit over the top given we still allow unfused neon indicators in socket outlets

Paul Ferguson

Could the fuse have been mounted vertically with a neon to either side?

Ruthsarian

Yes they are. They're used as indicators in millions of appliances.

Big Clive

To put things into perspective, a classic 20mm 1A glass fuse is rated to break a maximum fault current of just 35A safely. The equivalent silica filled ceramic 1A fuse is rated to break 1500A. A glass fuse will often continue to arc inside like a welder, and will often explode in fault conditions when used with 240V.

Big Clive

Now it shines light up, and not down on the floor where light is needed. It the bevels were trimmed would the board fit back in upside down? The 1 screw probably would have to discarded, and maybe the bosses trimmed as well.

Paul Malloy

In 2020 and we are still seeing neon nightlights. I made one using an Apple iPhone charger and a USB LED board. Dim it right down (a feature on the LED PCB) and leave it on forever and it uses next to no power at all.

evilution

3 screws to hold the cover on is overkill. 2 screws is sufficient.

Gadgetman

They could have used the smaller 20mm fuse as used in shaver adapters - available in 1 amp, 3 amp & 5 amp.

Gadgetman

I actually took an identical but faulty one of these apart the other week. Did think the fuse was a bit odd but paid it no further regard. The bigger problem is that after a few plug-unplug cycles, the PCB that the plug blades are riveted to bends. This causes one pin to receed inside the unit just enough to make intermittent contact with the socket. Thanks to the fact they just held it together with screws, was able to fix with simple application of some packing material (tested for conductivity first naturally) to the back of the board. Probably would have been concerned about it blocking the light if the fuse hadn't done that first ;)

Mike Price

Does it need to be a ceramic fuse? A clear glass fuse would let some of the light through. The neons aren’t very bright but I was also thinking maybe some sort of plastic light guides.

Lostngone

At the end of the day should the worst happen how do you defend yourself in court? I'm in the process of designing a Cat III product - suitable for use after the cutout. But a plugtop design is Cat II (some might disagree). Both transient voltages and prospective currents are lower, plus you're protected by at least 3 overcurrent devices, and you don't NEED to specify a 1" HRC fuse. My defence is to follow a well known standard and do what it says. Safety police? Whatever. Idiots do happen; and I want to be able to sleep at night.

Mike Page

That was unexpectedly interesting. Yes, one would be hard pressed to do as well or better under the circumstances

Michael Thompson

It makes me wonder why the USB chargers get away with a fusible resistor, but not a neon light.

Seán Byrne

If they ever raid me i am in for it big time. i have neons with 220k resistors in shed loads of stuff and led's galore. All done in the best possible taste ...,don't ya know! It is almost like disneyland here nowadays!! hahaha-

Mike Hughes

Wonder if there would be space for the fuse on the underside of the board? Use a double sided board, put the neons and resistors on the top side and the fuse on the bottom.

John Carr

I guess it must have been forced on them by the safety police, I suppose a 3A catastrophic failure current is better than the 30A of the ring main breaker. But I have never heard of one of them going on fire!

Dr Andy Hill

Neons are pretty stable on mains right?

Cerity