different power cord wire colours

Thread Starter

gvmsia

Joined Feb 14, 2020
7
newbie question... i am used to blue, brown and green/yellow wires. i just cut open a pc power cord and the colours were blue, black and black/white. can someone help me figure out which is live, neutral and ground?
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
For what country is this cord? There are standards for colors, particularly for ground and neutral. For example in the USA, Earth ground must be green or green/yellow..
 

Thread Starter

gvmsia

Joined Feb 14, 2020
7
For what country is this cord? There are standards for colors, particularly for ground and neutral. For example in the USA, Earth ground must be green or green/yellow..
no idea. made in china. bought in malaysia. it was from some old computer related device. i kept the power cord to cannibalise it later. i am current trying to use it for connecting to an led spotlight which came with no power plug.
 

Thread Starter

gvmsia

Joined Feb 14, 2020
7
Unless you have the original plug then and you can see where the wires go, you can't do much with it.
UK earth is the same as the USA's green/yellow
yes here most plugs that i have opened up have blue neutral, brown live and green/yellow earth. this cord i am trying to use unfortunately cant be opened up at the plug point. i cut the other end which exposed the strange coloured wires
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
Are you planning to "plug" the wire into a main socket or just use the wire for low-voltage DC to LED's? If low voltage DC, then you can do whatever you want with the colors. If the wire has a plug on it, and you plan to plug it into the mains, then you need to definitively identify what each wire connects to.
 

Thread Starter

gvmsia

Joined Feb 14, 2020
7
thanks everyone for your advice and info. learnt a lot today :) i will try the battery and bulb method... sounds doable. if that doesnt work i will source for someone with a multimeter. thanks again!
 

Thread Starter

gvmsia

Joined Feb 14, 2020
7
the battery bulb method did the trick! and the results were... black/white ground, black live, blue neutral. thank you.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,167
sorry i dont have that device
For continuity checking a battery and a light will be entirely adequate to find which wire goes to which plug pin. And depending on the application line/neutral may not matter, except for those who panic at the thought of lne and neutral being swapped when feeding an isolated load such as a transformer primary. Jus t always unplug it before you grab the bare wires. A simple rule that always works.
 

Thread Starter

gvmsia

Joined Feb 14, 2020
7
For continuity checking a battery and a light will be entirely adequate to find which wire goes to which plug pin. And depending on the application line/neutral may not matter, except for those who panic at the thought of lne and neutral being swapped when feeding an isolated load such as a transformer primary. Jus t always unplug it before you grab the bare wires. A simple rule that always works.
thanks for the advice
 
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