In the majority of cases, we commonly refer to electrical connectors as either ‘male’ or ‘female’ however, when it comes to Powerlock connectors, the ‘gender’ of these products is designated as either ‘Source’ or ‘Drain’, and the specific application for each is as follows:
- Source - used on the power supply side; the Source of the power.
- Drain - used on the side that is receiving the power (equipment end) the load.
This is important when buying Powerlock Generator Tails. When hooking up Powerlock cables to your Generator, you need Lug-Source. When requiring Generator Tails to feed power to your equipment, you need Lug-Drain.
Cable types available is therefore:
- Source to Drain
- Lug-Source
- Lug-Drain
- Lug-Lug
The source connectors are intended to have their permanent connection at the supply of electrical energy (such as a connection to the electrical grid or an emergency generator), and the drain connectors are intended to have their permanent connection at the equipment receiving power. The role of male and female connectors is opposite to traditional usage in other designs of power connector- the Powerlock source connector has a male pin and the drain connector has a female receptacle. This does not however, compromise safety because the gap between the plastic insulating cap on the male pin of the source connector and the surrounding plastic housing is too small to insert a human finger. The female drain connector also has a spring-loaded plastic cap to prevent dirt ingress and casual contact with the electrical contact; however with sufficient pressure this can be displaced with a finger.
