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Flat Extension Cord

Ribbon cable that can fit under doors and rugs
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(+6)
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My sister was complaining that after laying floor all day the house is full of mosquitos. Why? Because she had to run an extension cord outside for the circular saw and it wouldn't let the door shut all the way. If you were to make an extension cord like a ribbon cable (many small conductors parallel to each other) it would fit under the door just fine, and would also tape down to floors and fit under things far better and I expect with a great reduction in tripping accidents. If you had 66 conductors (each a 24 guage stranded wire or so) one third each could go to the ground and the two live wires and should provide plenty of current handling. It wouldn't even have to be that long to fit under the door, just have a plug on one end, a 2 foot run or so, and then an outlet on the other.

I'm Voltmeter, and I approved this idea.

Voltmeter, Nov 02 2004

flat extension cords http://www.cableorg...ower_extensions.jpg
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 02 2004]

versatrak http://www.chinney-.../cae_eng/office.htm
A system of flat extension cords for temporary or permanent installation. [ato_de, Nov 02 2004]

DeCorp http://www.decorp.com
DeCord, DeWire etc.... flat cabling [phlogiston, Nov 03 2004]

[link]






       With such thin insulation, aren't you afraid of chafing the outer coating and shorting out the wiring? Seems very fragile to me to withstand many threshold crossings.
jurist, Nov 02 2004
  

       [jurist], perhaps it would be ok if it was clearly marked as non-heavy duty, and not for outdoor use.
vigilante, Nov 02 2004
  

       could you not just build a pass through socket to each side of the jamb for such occasions ?
neilp, Nov 02 2004
  

       Kinda baked. [link]   

       Isn't that like "kinda pregnant"? Just kidding...
blissmiss, Nov 02 2004
  

       [2 fries] The extension cord in your link looks like a fairly standard extension cord with an anti-trip strip and a power outlet permanetly attached. I think you'll be hard pressed to find a door that can close with that running across the threshold. It does look like it uses the type of cord that has the three conductors parallel and flat, which is flatter than your standard heavy duty outdoor extesion cord, but I think those are not generally rated for outdoor use.
scad mientist, Nov 02 2004
  

       The resistance of wires changes with the thickness, so depending on how thin you wanted to go you might have trouble with heat generation.
There are extension cords that have the three wires running in parallel, and they fit under most of my doors, but made of only the three conductors not your 66.
brodie, Nov 02 2004
  

       Per [brodie]'s anno - if I am not mistaken, this is the kind of stuff that you throw round the ceilings of houses for lighting and socket rings - my sparky mates simply call it twine, probably for TWINandEarth.
The main problem is that it is not very flexible and is indeed difficult to route easily due to being a solid copper core as opposed to a stranded core.
p.s. I Hope she put an RCD on the socket oulet at the wall! ;-)
gnomethang, Nov 02 2004
  

       "I'm Voltmeter, and I approved this idea."   

       Hah!
bristolz, Nov 02 2004
  

       see, another good reason for having letterboxes. you feed the cable through the slot.   

       I'm po and I aint sure about it. :)
po, Nov 02 2004
  

       btw I think voltmeter has discovered a time machine. his/her account was modified earlier than it was created.
po, Nov 02 2004
  

       Isn't chocolate poisonous to dogs?
lintkeeper2, Nov 02 2004
  

       in quantity!
po, Nov 02 2004
  

       I think it mightbe poisonous to me in large quantities as well (he he, I said tities, he)
scubadooper, Nov 02 2004
  

       Awesome . . . but you might want to check with some of the Half-Bakery's omnipresent EEs. [+] BTW, do you live in a "swing" state? :-D
contracts, Nov 02 2004
  

       //EEs// Excorpereal Excursionists?.
gnomethang, Nov 02 2004
  

       it would be hard to insulate it properly.
-----, Nov 03 2004
  

       Partially baked by DeCorp (linky) for low voltage & data cabling, and it looks like they'll have electrical cabling approved late this year. Sad about their choice of brand names however, DeWire, DePlug, DeCable, DeCord etc.... But then again, you can't have everything. Where would you put it?
phlogiston, Nov 03 2004
  

       [Jurist] et al: I believe that even if you kept the insulation as thick as on a standard extension cord the super-small conductors would allow it to slip under doors, so no loss in insulation.   

       [Brodie] the heat generated in a wire is a function of current, when 22 wires are carry a given current in parallel, the current is devided between them. I haven't the EE to know how to calculate that but I think it would carry decent amounts without going Chernobyl.   

       [Contracts] I do not live in a swing state, I live in California. So good or bad, depending on how you feel about Republicans, breast implants, or robbing water from far, far away.   

       [po] I'm not sure how my account was modified before creation, I have no time machine and my car doesn't reach relativistic speed often. Actually, seeing as how I live in California my car rarely reaches 5 mph between 4 and 6pm.   

       Too bad we can't annotate politician's ads:   

       "I'm So and So, and I approved this message"   

       "Oh yeah? I'm Voltmeter and I don't approve YOU"   

       maybe funnier in my head than in print, but I'll toss it out there and see what you people think.
Voltmeter, Nov 04 2004
  

       It might be possible to engineer a super-thin, heavy duty insulation layer that includes a puncture detector and electronics to cut the circuit extremely fast when that gets tripped. Harder would be to make it so flexible that you could fold it to make turns. Then you'd have to certify it. Sounds like a hefty investment.
skids, Oct 21 2014
  

       You can get ethernet cable in ribbon format over here, think high power would be out of the question though..
not_morrison_rm, Oct 21 2014
  

       Let's face it the solution here is simple. Have a transformer at the plug end which steps the voltage up to.... 12,000V or so, then you can have teeny tiny thin wire. At the other end you can have another transformer, the advantage being that the transformer could have alternative taps for 120V, 240V, 12V, 5V whatever. The insulation would need to be very good though, and possibly way thicker. Potentially thicker than the original insulation/wire combo. Wait, actually, if we use the transformers the other way around, and step the voltage DOWN, to say,12V, then you could have MUCH thinner insulation. Wait, you would need much thicker wire, possibly thicker than the original wire/insulation combo. Boy, this problem's tricky.
bs0u0155, Oct 22 2014
  

       //maybe funnier in my head than in print, but I'll toss it out there and see what you people think//   

       I believe that 10 years of stony silence indicates what people think.
AusCan531, Oct 22 2014
  
      
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