Electrical re-wiring question: European plugs --> UK 3 pin?

Off-topic
1

Excuse the silly question. I’m a bit behind on my DIY.

How do I rewire a 2 pin (round) European plug to a 3 pin UK plug?

There are only two plugs, and I have an adapter, but it fits loose and the electrical contact keeps breaking. It’s for my CD player which I got in Europe (2 pin dual voltage).

Can I just cut off the plug, and strip back the wires, and then connect one wire to the live and the other to the earth?

Does the direction or wire matter, or since it’s a complete circuit, it doesn’t matter?

Any problems with this? Will I lose out double insulation/electric shock protection if I modify the plugs, or is this okay to do?

Thanks for any help.

2

I would, but thats me:D

3

Errr…you would?

Have you?

If you have, and you’re still here, then it must be ok to do then? :slight_smile:

4

I think one to live & the other to neutral would be more likely to work, if there’s only two wires there is no earth.

Wouldn’t matter which way round as it’s connected to AC.

5

…

6

as ffc says one goes to live and one neutral … unless the wiring is colour coded then the polarity is non essential as face it a two pin plug can be pluggedinto an adapter anyway round …

Do not connect to earth at any cost…

and yes its possible as long as the device is suitable for the 230v system

7

It’s the same voltage all across Europe now so just wire brown to live and blue to neutral. Job done.:smiley:

8

you could just get a new wire for the cd player , they usually fit universally anyway from most dvd players to most cd players

9

Like ** puppy ** said. Except there can be a bit of colour choice.

Red or brown = live = right hand pin (the one that goes to the fuse.)

Black or blue = neutral = left hand pin.

The above is when you have the back off the UK plug and are looking at the insides.

10

You dont need to worry about the earth terminal. You can either just use other UK plug to open up the socket holes and just put the european plug in. Thats what all of us europeans do when we come to the country. :smiley:

or if you want to change the socket, again you dont need to worry about the earth(the lonely single terminal) and just connect the top two terminals.

11

My brain is full after being jet-lagged for the past 2 days. I.e. the jets lagged…so I had to take a ferry sleeping on the floor for 10 hours.

I’ll re-read what you’ve recommended. Thanks for telling me not to wire to the earth :hehe:

Will post a pic up when I get around to doing it just to make sure there’s some kind of internet epitaph for me before I mysteriously cease posting silly threads after rewiring the plugs.

The CD player’s wire is built in. It’s a very nice piece of kit, but not quite audiophile in design (i.e. no detachable power cable). Yet when you play it, it’s so hard to tell…

Have a good night - lights out :smiley:

12

colour doesn’t matter because if it’s a euro plug with 2 wires only, you can plug it in the socket both ways (over there), so it makes no difference whatsovever.

So if you’re plug looks like this: http://www.parkmanagement-zwijndrecht.nl/pmo/zwijndrecht/images/stories/foto/stekker.jpg
Then just ignore the earth and wire the other two whichever way you like.
If it looks like this: http://www.ph8.nl/upload/news/39/4599/stekker.jpg then you have an earth connection.

It’s no problem at all, I’ve done it dozens of times.

13

Why not just use a plug converter, with a built-in fuse? I use them for my Australia plugs and have no problems.

14

Yes I’ve done this also or if you have loads of euro plugs you can fit a UK plug to a six socket adaptor and then your all set.