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Why is it dangerous to chain power dividers? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Besides putting too many devices on a single wall socket, that draw too much power, what is supposed to happen?

Like say I chain ten dividers and put a single vacuum cleaner at the end. Is that more dangerous than plugging it directly into the wall?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Power dividers are RF components, they divide power (and in reverse they're power combiners), if you chain 10 power dividers you get around 30dB attenuation. If you want to compensate for that make sure your system can handle more power.

For extension cords with multiple sockets read the other replies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How does RF attenuation affect power safety?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

OP is talking about extension cords with multiple outlets/sockets, that's not a power divider, the connected devices will draw as much power as they need. The fear with that is you might overload the socket, and it could start burning. But that should only happen if the circuit breakers aren't matched to the wire cross section area, meaning the wires can get too hot.

An actual power divider is something you'll use in RF systems, it literally divides power, the simplest form would be a T-junction and at the other connectors you only get half the power (obviously), so it appears attenuated by 3dB. Let's say you feed the system with 0dBm (1mW) and you want 0dBm at each output you need to amplify by 3dB somewhere and make sure your circuits support that. Using multiple power dividers is not uncommon if you want for example to feed multiple antennas with the same signal.