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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher/Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke – B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Bao Smith – B.Sc. Tim Blythman – B.E., B.Sc. Advertising Enquiries (02) 9939 3295 adverts<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Allan Linton-Smith Dave Thompson David Maddison – B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Dr Hugo Holden – B.H.B, MB.ChB., FRANZCO Ian Batty – M.Ed. Phil Prosser – B.Sc., B.E.(Elec.) Cartoonist Louis Decrevel loueee.com Founding Editor (retired) Leo Simpson – B.Bus., FAICD Silicon Chip is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 626 922 870. ABN 20 880 526 923. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates (Australia only) 6 issues (6 months): $77.50 12 issues (1 year): $145 24 issues (2 years): $270 Online subscription (Worldwide) 6 issues (6 months): $55 12 issues (1 year): $105 24 issues (2 years): $200 For overseas rates, see our website or email silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au * recommended & maximum price only Postal address: PO Box 194, Matraville, NSW 2036. Phone: (02) 9939 3295. ISSN: 1030-2662 Printing and Distribution: 1 Huntingwood Dr, Huntingwood NSW 2148 54 Park St, Sydney NSW 2000 2 Silicon Chip Editorial Viewpoint Finally, some open standards! For years, we have had the bizarre situation that the government requires workers to adhere to certain standards (such as AS/NZS 3000, the Wiring Rules), yet those standards are not freely accessible. You have to pay to access them, although there is a certain amount of limited access available without paying, as long as you register an account. This is the sort of thing that really should be provided as a service by the government. If they are going to require that you follow those rules, they should let you see the rules. It’s also very helpful for those who are not in the trades to be able to access the standards for a variety of reasons. For example, say you suspect that your wiring is substandard and you may need to bring in an electrician to fix it. How can you actually tell if it’s substandard if you can’t check the standard to compare it against? In most states in Australia, the average person is allowed to do things like replace plugs on mains cables, do work inside the chassis of electrical equipment and even build such devices from scratch. Even if you aren’t allowed to work on fixed wiring yourself, you certainly can work on things that plug into it, and logic says that doing so safely is easier if you understand the rules. So free access to electrical wiring rules can only be a good thing. Consider that New Zealand homeowners are permitted to do certain limited fixed-wiring work, although new or altered wiring generally has to be tested, certified and connected by a licensed electrical inspector. WorkSafe NZ does provide official guidance and a homeowner electrical code of practice, but the broader point remains: once a standard or code becomes part of the legal safety framework, access to the underlying rules should not depend on someone paying for them. I understand that maintaining these standards costs money, but so does having a police force, a fire brigade and many other government services that are paid for by tax revenue rather than being charged directly to users. There is also a rule-of-law issue here. Once a document is incorporated into legislation, it is no longer just a technical publication for specialists. It becomes part of the rules that citizens and businesses are expected to obey. In that case, free access should be the default, not a special concession. I’m pleased to see that the Australian Federal Government has announced that mandatory Australian Standards are to be made freely accessible through government-funded, sponsored access. In theory, this is a very good thing and will resolve most of the above problems. However, at the moment the whole thing is quite vague. They haven’t explicitly listed the standards that this will include, although it seems pretty certain that AS/NZS 3000:2018 will be included. We don’t yet know if related standards AS/NZS 3008 for cable selection, AS/NZS 3012 for construction sites, AS/NZS 3760 for test-and-tag or AS/ NZS 5139 for battery systems will be included in the free list. We also don’t know exactly what free access will be like. For example, it may allow you to read the standards on a web page but not download a PDF for use offline, which would be better than nothing but certainly far from ideal. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. These standards contribute to safety in general, and that shouldn’t be locked behind a paywall. by Nicholas Vinen Cover background image: https://unsplash.com/photos/green-and-yellow-light-digital-wallpaper-26WixHTutxc Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au