China DC wire colors

[mobern]

I purchased a replacement for my LPG solenoid valve. It was made in China. It has a yellow wire and a blue wire. I'm not seeing clear info from my internet search. I think yellow is negative ??

[capt jgw]

I believe that's correct, but on a solenoid I don't think it matters. The ones I've worked with had both wires the same color with no polarity indication.

[AiniA]

Yellow is for ground. It is the same colour code as in Europe and most of the world. We are the odd ones.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by AiniA

Yellow is for ground. It is the same colour code as in Europe and most of the world. We are the odd ones.

We are not the "odd ones". Yellow has been the ABYC color for DC negative for several years. Most of us don't think it is necessary to rewire our boats to reflect this change.

[SailingHarmonie]

it's a solenoid. It's a coil. It doesn't matter except in the extremely unlikely case it has a flyback diode.

And, by the way, in Europe, in a DC system BLUE is negative, not yellow.

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

it's a solenoid. It's a coil. It doesn't matter except in the extremely unlikely case it has a flyback diode.

And, by the way, in Europe, in a DC system BLUE is negative, not yellow.

Which makes sense that they used yellow and blue since it's not polarity sensitive, either can be considered ground or positive as it doesn't matter.

[thinwater]

IEC is brown and gray. No yellow, no blue.


Remember that AC and DC standards are different.



China and Australia use blue for negative. Yellow is usually protective ground, and brown or red should be hot.


But that said, I've seen stuff from China use other color codes, for other countries. No tellin'.

[GordMay]

I doubt that Chinese manufacturers adhere to ABYC color codes - nor any others, on a reliable basis.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by thinwater

........ Australia use blue for negative. ...........

Really! Perhaps we should tell the guys who make the DC twin sheathed cable, they are still using Red and Black with black being the negative.

For single phase AC, we use Brown for active and Blue for neutral.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Really! Perhaps we should tell the guys who make the DC twin sheathed cable, they are still using Red and Black with black being the negative.

For single phase AC, we use Brown for active and Blue for neutral.

---


And that is the trouble with wire color codes! They are not reliably followed, in part because of imports from many countries.



Red/black is the AC single phase code in Australia, and those colors can be used for DC, but there are also other permissibly options.


Not picking on you. In the US the DC negative is black, but it is white on the caravan you are pulling, which leads to a lot of confusion, since the AC neutral is white and the AC hot is black.


It's just crazy.



Australia & New Zealand

• RED or BROWN = +Ve (L+)
• BLACK or Light BLUE = -Ve (L-)
• GREEN or GREEN / YELLOW = Protective Earth “PE”.