Meet Fritz der Netzverteiler aka a mains distributor. Some time ago I obtained various NOS/NIB parts and stuff and it appeared that most of it was German produced stuff of high quality. I also wanted to switch off all my equipment with just 1 knob, having seen too many molten adapters and stuff breaking down when people were not at home.
The challenge was to make something that switches off all my audio devices and filters mains voltage when switched on. It should be built with NOS/NIB quality parts, be small, have the outlets at the backside, look industrial (DDR Design as I call it) and unobtrusive and it should be safe & sturdy. So it started and, again making matters more difficult, it should be done with hand tools and recycled stuff. Since most parts are of German Qualität the device should also look and behave German I thought
I encourage to pronounce all German words as German as you can.
The switch is a Naim und Krauser CG4 type with nice look and feel, since I am in the EU both L and N are switched. The mains filter a 25A rated industrial Netzfilter with MOVs and GDTs for over voltage protection and Blitzschutz Mains fuse is a 5A T(Träge) so Leistung is limited to 1 kVA (say: ain kaa-vow-aah) in total which is more than adequate with my stuff. The casing is a waterproof casing of Gussaluminium for which I have a tic. The holes for the Kopp Schuko outlets were filed by hand. Had the casing sandblasted, then pulverbeschichtet in anthracite… and left it only to buy a ready made distributor. By now the project was already too big to fail regarding cost and time.
Recovering from a nasty flue I saw the device and decided to finish it. Now this always ends up with something going wrong and this time it was only a Knipex sidecutter that failed due to stupidity. Of course the casing is way too small and I found out that I should have wired the outlets before I assembled the other parts ;-)
Fritz has a red 230V Leuchtdiode that only glows when he is switched AUS! in analogy to TVs and other stuff that have a red LED glowing when the device is in standby. It helps finding Fritz in a dimly lit living room. When switched to EIN! then no LED disturbs.
Anyhow, I leave it up to you to either like it or really hate it but mostly to give you an idea what else can be built besides nice electronics. For some reason I could not find 4.8 mm Faston connectors used on the fuse holder so these are in backorder.
All I can tell is that Herr Fritz does his job tüchtig. Wiring will be redone. Scheiße!
The challenge was to make something that switches off all my audio devices and filters mains voltage when switched on. It should be built with NOS/NIB quality parts, be small, have the outlets at the backside, look industrial (DDR Design as I call it) and unobtrusive and it should be safe & sturdy. So it started and, again making matters more difficult, it should be done with hand tools and recycled stuff. Since most parts are of German Qualität the device should also look and behave German I thought
I encourage to pronounce all German words as German as you can. The switch is a Naim und Krauser CG4 type with nice look and feel, since I am in the EU both L and N are switched. The mains filter a 25A rated industrial Netzfilter with MOVs and GDTs for over voltage protection and Blitzschutz
Mains fuse is a 5A T(Träge) so Leistung is limited to 1 kVA (say: ain kaa-vow-aah) in total which is more than adequate with my stuff. The casing is a waterproof casing of Gussaluminium for which I have a tic. The holes for the Kopp Schuko outlets were filed by hand. Had the casing sandblasted, then pulverbeschichtet in anthracite… and left it only to buy a ready made distributor. By now the project was already too big to fail regarding cost and time. Recovering from a nasty flue I saw the device and decided to finish it. Now this always ends up with something going wrong and this time it was only a Knipex sidecutter that failed due to stupidity. Of course the casing is way too small and I found out that I should have wired the outlets before I assembled the other parts ;-)
Fritz has a red 230V Leuchtdiode that only glows when he is switched AUS! in analogy to TVs and other stuff that have a red LED glowing when the device is in standby. It helps finding Fritz in a dimly lit living room. When switched to EIN! then no LED disturbs.
Anyhow, I leave it up to you to either like it or really hate it but mostly to give you an idea what else can be built besides nice electronics. For some reason I could not find 4.8 mm Faston connectors used on the fuse holder so these are in backorder.
All I can tell is that Herr Fritz does his job tüchtig. Wiring will be redone. Scheiße!
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