Foreign Electronic Appliance

[goodison1234]

I have just bought a machine from South Africa which runs a single 25 watt candle bulb. The device needs a plug - but the wires (both white, one with a black stripe up it) doesn't match British colour coding.

Which wire is which, and what plug will I need? And any other advice would be nice as I don't know much about electronics (usually I can wire a plug!) but the fact its South African is worrying me in terms of wattage, ampage, hertz difference etc.

Help!

Alex.

[smorodina]

It doesn't matter which way you wire the plug for a lamp, and the mains voltage in SA is the same as UK. So the supplied lead should be fine wired to a British three pin plug - one wire to live and one to neutral.

[tony1941]

Generally, smorodina is right, but what exactly is this machine???? (the worry I have with lamps is the screw-in type where you must have the polarity right for some older fittings). The standard SA wire colours are here:

http://www.soew.co.za/Product_mainscord.html

and as you will see, they are the same as the UK. Your wire sounds more like audio speaker lead. I once had a mate who wired up his HiFi speakers using old type 5 amp plugs and then took the system to a party in a house with some old sockets...........you can probably guess the result. Incredible nois, but it didn't last very long.

Seriously, though this machine sounds worrying; any more info would help me advise you.

Good luck

[goodison1234]

The machine is a Biltong Machine, it is effectively a moulded plastic box with a light bulb partially covered at the bottom. Biltong is dried meat, similar to beef jerky. The idea is that strips of cured/marinated meat hang in the machine for a day or two for it to harden. I know the idea to the majority of people reading this is probably revolting, however since I tried it on my visit to South Africa it is the nicest thing I have ever eaten.

The machine was purchased from;

http://www.biltongmakers.com/

The machine is very basic indeed (only a light bulb using electricity). It doesn't seem like a professionally made device, however, I would have been unable to produce it.

So, now I have a plugless, dodgy wired, amateur machine :-(.

This bloody hi-fi wire!! - Will it be safe??

Alex.