3rd party products packed with 1st party items

[FireHazard51 | 2,047]

Just wanted to share something I caught before it became an actual disaster.  I notice that my PlayStation Move controllers weren't charged when I went to use them the other day.  Which is add since they are hooked up the Sony PS3 Move charging station all the time.  I figured I must of unplug them for something else to be plugged in so I chased the power line to the plug.  Turns out it was plugged in.  I notice the wire look odd so I unplugged it and this is what I found.

Spoiler

I've seen this before on other cables before that carried low voltage.  The strain relief absolutely fail because it's way too stiff compared to the wire going into it.  But I've never seen this happen to a wire carrying 120V.  In going online to find a replacement charger I was paying very close attention to the power plug to see if Sony changed the design since this would of been caught not too long after it was heavily used.  What I ended of seeing what every new (open-box) charger had a different power plug than mine.  I couldn't find any used ones with my style plug either.  I actually purchased the charging station (Sony's 1st party charging station) from Amazon as a used product.  I can only think that they swap out/replaced this very universal power cord with a 3rd party one that was a cheap as possible to buy.  

So the lesson I learned is that you should check your power cords and see if they look to be of a good design and in good condition.  The strain relief should actually move with the cord versus the wire moving most of the way and the strain relief moving just a little bit.  Of course aging of the plastic will cause the wire to be more prone to breaking.  And of course this should be very critical to check when purchasing any used items.  Sony products have always been good for me so I was very confused when I found the cord was in such a damaged state with little abuse/use.

[drxandy | 3,236]

You can find replacement cables at thrift stores sometimes, they don't always have the figure 8 with the square edge but almost always have regular figure 8 cables (sometimes even sony ones). I like to snag em when I see em if they're high quality, always nice to have replacements but since I've been finding consoles with no cords my stash has dried up.

Eeeek on that being plugged in! Gnarly mannn.

[RH | 4,955]

30 minutes ago, drxandy said:

You can find replacement cables at thrift stores sometimes, they don't always have the figure 8 with the square edge but almost always have regular figure 8 cables (sometimes even sony ones). I like to snag em when I see em if they're high quality, always nice to have replacements but since I've been finding consoles with no cords my stash has dried up.

Eeeek on that being plugged in! Gnarly mannn.

 

I agree to this.  Even for us seasoned thrifters/yard salers, a pile of wires is an easy thing to glaze over.  If you have time, always rifle through them a bit.  You can be surprised at what you find and even a "common" cable like this can be worth the $.50 pick up if you already don't have 2-3 extras lying around.  I have an entire box filled with spare cables.  Most of the time, I don't need them.  However, when something like this does happen, I usually do have the item I need.