eBay keyring phone-killer
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- This is unfortunate. It's a well designed miniature keyring power bank that has a design flaw that means a simple factory error can result in it damaging equipment it is plugged into.
Some phones do seem to have protection against reverse polarity, but many USB charged items will be damaged by this device.
The manufacturing error won't affect all of these units, but it definitely affects the one that I bought. It's fortunate that the first thing I plugged it into was a Ruideng USB test meter which appears to have reverse polarity protection .
First charge cycle of the lithium cell indicates a capacity of 600mAh. Which is better than I was expecting, but well short of the 1500mAh stated on the eBay listing. (Which is completely normal for eBay these days.)
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of UA-cam's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators
ive been watching you for over 6 years now and you still dont know how to put the fucking links to these products down in the comment section or what ever fuck so because of people like me who watches you all the time are the ones who make you the money you have today so show some fucking repsect asshole if it wasnt for us AMERICANS you wouldnt be shit so give us subscribers some respect and give back to the comunity asshole
I don't put direct links because the sellers tend to increase the price based on demand. If you search for keychain power bank you will find them.
Jimmy has the little man syndrome sheesh
You almost formed a sentence there, man. Good job!
I do hope you find love in life eventually jimmy ross, you seem to be a sad and lonely individual
I think you will have a hard time, finding a lot of 'AMERICANS!' in this comment section who will be overly proud of what you just posted here.
I'm an American who has watched for years and loves your content, regardless of links. Screw anybody who wants to spew hate and keep doing what you do Clive!
What's baffling is they've been watching for 6 years and never once stopped to ask themselves WHY Clive doesn't include links.
Personally, I've always assumed it was because he didn't want all his viewers to blow themselves to bits or burn their house down by buying these shonky bundles of tat. 😂
Yeah that comment is rather awkward lol, thanks for making a 'counter-comment' of sorts hehe 👍😋
I'm an American who's been watching for years and honestly the first video I never saw was the "Cheap Shitty Pink USB Charger From China" song. I always imagine it performed by Gary Numan.
@@peterclarke7240 Buy as a gift for the people you hate.
"spew hate" lmao if that's your idea of spewing hate I'd hate to be under your tutelage
True story: I worked for a major aircraft company building commercial aircraft. One of my jobs was testing exterior lighting on the ships. One common and repeated mistake an assembler was committing was misunderstanding what they were told. On the left side and the right side wing nacelle lighting there are two sealed beam 24V lamps. Each lamp is connected via a ring terminal. Absolutely no polarity was required. Simple light bulb. The assembler asked an intuitive question: "Which wire goes to which screw terminal on the lamp?" They were correctly told that it didn't matter. Since they didn't understand current or how a lamp worked they assumed it would be quicker to put power AND ground on the same terminal and not have to mess with the other terminal. So along comes the exterior lighting test. That breaker popped every time because both power and ground were shorted together by the assembler. Simple fix, move one of the wires to the other lamp terminal.
I did some investigating as to who was wiring them and discovered the error. Explained how the lamps were to be wired and after that there was no longer a problem when a new aircraft came down the line. Sometimes people are given the correct information but simply don't understand it. Other times a person can be so overworked and rushed that they can easily invert the wires, as may be the case with your Keyring Phone Killer, though it was never intended to kill a phone.
I've worked in the quality field for 40 years and have encountered many similar issues. Some people have a biscuit way of thinking while others have a more engineering way of thinking. When the two communicate it's like speaking different languages. My wife always has an issue understanding what I'm telling her. She's not dumb. Has her MBA. The issue is more with how I disseminate information. Do I do it in a way that is understood by all? Or only by other engineers?
Always enjoy your video's. Thanks.
Not trolling you or even directing this right to you but it reminded me of a joke.
How do know if you sitting next to an engineer in a bar?
Don't worry, he'll tell ya.
@@buckfuhtt2083 i mean... you aren't wrong there lmao
Thank you for articulating that explanation perfectly, I enjoyed reading what you've shared, I agree as well.
Isn't that simply called ambiguity?
Some people just want to watch the world burn. Sad but true.
This is why you put quality control at the end of the production line. Many years ago - perhaps back in the 1980s - I remember seeing a documentary set in a TV factory. There was one worker there who spent all her time whacking switched-on televisions with a wooden mallet, presumably looking for loose connections.
Nah, that's just how you got them tuned into a station right back then.
If some manufacturers will omit two resistors to save a few pence on the overall cost I can imaging the QC just costs too much for them.
@@dom1310df In this case they skimped on the QC and put the two resistors in
Seen that done with a rubber mallet. Toshiba factory.
@@dom1310df *imagine
We had issues with some clock radios when I was at Tandy Electronics many moons ago - the tired workers or forgetful soldered the jumpers for 60Hz when these were for Australia and 50Hz so they ran slow... Easy fix, however we were not allowed to fix them...
I got a Tandy clock with a huge display cheap. It had that exact problem. A solder-blob link fixed it.
I worked for a RS store back in the 80s, we occasionally had people ordering quite expensive computer accessories then backing out of the purchase. One I recall was a memory card full of DIP RAM, it was probably something like 256K or something. It was $1000 or more IIRC.
Tandy would NOT allow us (a franchise dealer) to return computer components _unless_they_were_defective.
We couldn't afford to sit on a $1000 product that nobody would ever buy. So we made it be defective. A sturdy 12 volt CB radio supply across the 5 volt bus and GOSH now it's returnable.
@@John_Ridley LOL. Yep!
@@John_RidleyI hear that stun guns are great things to make electronics defective.
@@clallen2000 The problem there is they will arc across tracks and leave obvious burn marks.
Finally, the damn resistors are actually in place! I got a product recently that at first glance doesn't even have the PINS in the USB C connector for the 5.1K resistors that are nowhere to be found on the board...
That might explain why my cheap Amazon LED floodlights only charge with the supplied charging cables. Putting my phone's charging cable into it just makes it do nothing.
@@99domini99 without the resistors, it’ll charge on a usb A to usb C cable but not on a C to C cable.
@@JasperJanssen Most of chargers without resistors give standard USB 5V, just output voltage selection is off. 5k1 resistors is also 5V selection for charger.
USB A to USB C cable links USB port power out with device power in - so also 5V in operation.
@@adamw.8579 The 5k1, for the chargers that honor the standard, are also for the cable detect / activation of the charger, not only current select. Because USB C ports can be both sink and source the resistors are placed so that both devices will not try to charge each other simultaneously. And then it depends on whether or not your device can enumerate. The standard is complex enough to be honest, without getting into PD, but very few respect it.
@@adamw.8579 The CC resistors are not used for voltage selection, they're used to identify USB C port role (sink, source, and some special stuff) and for sources to identify the current it can supply (usb standard, 1.5A, or 3A). To get anything other than 5V at up to the advertised current you need to do Power Delivery negotiation.
Hi Clive, great vid as usual, just wanted to let you know that thanks to watching your videos several years ago I now have solid employment and financial stability working with electronic components and circuits every day. you and Electroboom were the reasons I fell in love with the hobby many years ago. thank you very much and please keep doing what you do.
That's great to hear.
That is a lovely, charming story. Thanks for sharing.
What do you do?
@@samp1312 he solders wires on back to front
@@Garethprice1979 😂😂😂
Note that the connector, as installed, has the red wire on the left and the black wire on the right. (Unless the connector is upside down as installed). Some conscientious factory worker connected the leads directly, making sure they were not crossed so they wouldn't be pinched together and possibly short out due to insulation cold flow when the case was assembled.
Of course the polarity is the other way around on the board, which I consider to be a board defect. The print is small enough that no normal factory worker (or much of anyone else) is going to be able to read it without a magnifying glass.
The big problem here was no 100% final assembly test. Either there was no test station at all, or perhaps the devices arrived in a batch, and the tester guy or girl just swept a bunch into the "finished" pile to keep up with the 30 people on the production line. Or maybe he tested it, the red light lit up instead of the green light, and he decided that since something lit up it worked.
It's USB-C, it's agnostic to orientation. You can lay the wires flat no matter which way they are oriented on the board. Also, it's not something that you would read every single time, you'd read it once and memorize it, and ideally, you'd provide every solder station with a completed example.
but ... the connector is usb-c, therefore it's the same if it's upside down 👆👇
@@arfyness It's supposed to be the same on the *output* side, but if you flip it you swap the positions of the red and black wires.
@@jpdemer5 So then... don't do that.
@@jpdemer5 USBC protocol knows this as well and its dealt with. You can safely use it both ways up, this is simply a manufacturing error don't overthink it.
I thought this was going to be one of those voltage spike things. They draw power to generate huge voltage spikes of on the data pins with the sole intention of breaking the thing they're plugged into.
It may have been assembled by a 10 year old on his/her 16th hour of work that day. We tend to visualize the standard "factory", but that's not what is happening in all parts of the world.
That's what I was thinking.
Maybe they need to stay longer to get more practice...
@@Okurka.lol this is so wrong… 😂
and its also not always that crazy as we think in our spoiled minds either
As Alabama votes today to lower the age required for full time employment
Neat little device, indeed. The issue, coming from a QC inspector's point of view, is that whoever made them probably made the same mistake across several hundreds or thousands of them. I ran into this while working for the QC for a company decades ago. The company had some equipment made in Asia and when a mistake was made, there wasn't one or two, there were thousands of units with the same error.
The problem with china is they don't have quality control. The customer who buys this shit is the QC.
As someone who is very tech ignorant, I found this to be very educational about how these things work. I also avoid buying anything electronic from eBay because I don't trust eBay for such things. If you do a lot of this delving into the tech of things, I will likely subscribe because learning is a good thing.
Makes you wonder if there was a huge batch of these that were assembled wrong or if you were just the (conveniently) lucky one to get the single bad unit.
probably a bunch backwards. been there done similar myself long ago, Friday evening and everyone bolted, leaving me to do six jobs at once(install bearings, magnetize magnets, assemble motors, test and adjust the brush angle(dc motors), boxing them for shipping and then load them on the truck, all with the truck driver standing there complaining and asking when I'd be done!! 🙄
about half through the order, I had flip flopped the polarity of the plugs around and not realized it (there was identical motor lines produced there, except for "labels" and opposite polarities. so very easy to get wrong.
sadly that was an "Union shop stooge shit", we all got grilled over it, including the third party trucking co. they all got grilled for leaving one person to finish a multi-person job and the trucking guy snarled at for even being inside the factory(they were not allowed past the loading dock/office lines) he was hundreds of feet past that area.
there was no cameras back then, but I admitted fault because it was clearly my mistake. I left there months later because I was sick of all the endless horse-droppings and stupendous tomfoolery.
Always best to test new power banks and USB leads with something cheap like a USB light.
I have to wonder if our phones or other expensive rechargeable gadgets have polarity protection built in? I guess it's not something I'd want to test outright though. 😲
Many will, but as you say, it would be quite a reckless thing to test.
I think it was a Samsung Galaxy S1 I had, that I was goofing around with batteries and had hooked up a *_battery_* with the polarities swapped...... and much to my surprise... IT TURNED ON. So they went above and beyond protection, there. heh
(a little different than this, but reminded me of that)
They do, I've tried it on some old phones. I highly doubt that there's any smartphone these days that wouldn't have some sort of protection.
@@twizz420 I just found it amazing, even now, since that's an already "idiot-proofed" against, given the battery packs are only one-way insertable. (and yes... I recognize that makes *_me_* the idiot, here... 🤣)
Irrelevant in the end, but I just now recalled the actual details... I had a battery from another variant of S1 which had the tabs _on the opposite side,_ but I needed/wanted to test it. The pack for the other S1 was just a tad too long, but could still make tab contact; however, I had not even *considered* that me flipping the battery, flipped the polarity pins. 🤦♂️
I was glad that I didn't let the magic smoke out of anything, that day. ☺️
Handheld Nintendo consoles, even the Nintendo switch, are not.
Clive you're a legend. Love your videos and you have personally been a huge source of education for my depth of electronics knowledge.
Ive bought various audio cables in the past, (Phono plugs, Jack plugs etc which have had the left/right audio channels wired the wrong way round.
Spudger, a word I had never heard before your channel. Now I'm the proud owner of 2 and I'm so happy. No more screwdriver gouges.
For reference the iSesamo is vastly superior to the clones. I've been using mine for many years, whereas the cheap clones kinked and broke quickly.
That's a shame because the form factor is pretty nifty. Not a bad idea testing these out before plugging into your expensive smartphone!
I will never understand why they call them 'smartphones', when the same manufacturers put the same phones in Wamarts for $40-80, yet dumb-ass people will still pay $700-1200 for the same phone. If they think they're getting something they can use any differently than I use mine for on a day to day basis, they're wrong. Ìf something happens to my phone, it doesn't break my bank or my heart. I just go buy a new one. It's a telephone, not a rocket. Although, I do have 2 that have splashed down into the ocean. 🤪
@@nicelady51 are you just ignoring the differences in specs/hardware used by these vastly differently priced smartphones? Because obviously a super cheap phone CAN be usable for someone, just not nearly as powerful or usable as a more expensive phone. Technology is constantly growing and changing. It's going to cost more for those newer changes.. Your point is silly.
@@ardiberen I'm talking about normal, every day use as a form of communication. A tele for talk, text, pics, sharing. Not for youtubers making content or using it for large files, sending, etc. A phone for Joe Shmoe and his bride does the trick for less than $100 and they needn't be forced, coerced into more than they need or will ever utilize. Frugality and common sense is not silly.
@@nicelady51 you're calling people dumbasses for embracing technology and not living in the 1990s in terms of phones. A smartphone is still smart. You just have a holier than thou attitude because youre saving a bit of money by buying numerous poor quality phones with very limited features. Congrats. You're so awesome and everyone else not like you are fucked in the head!
@@nicelady51 Being frugal isn't silly but there are vast differences between those devices. OLED high resolution screens, far superior cameras, far better SoC processors/GPUs, batteries, etc. But there's also the law of diminishing returns. A lot of R&D has to go into making something top-of-the-line to a little bit better, so now the price is double to pay back that R&D. Also marketing plays a role of course. Flagships will always cost more because they price them to what people are willing to pay. If people are willing to pay $1200, then they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to charge that much.
Favorite QC story was with Amiga 500. When you got yours you needed to hold the unit a certain high over a table then just drop it to get one of the chips to reseat itself since they come loose during shipping. Or...you could send it back.
I thought that was the Apple III.
@@TheJ602 It could have been both I'm not sure. But I'm definitely sure about Amiga. I most likely read that in Amiga World magazine. Quick google search came up empty though. I do still have my entire collection of Amiga World though. What a fire hazard! heh My back isn't ready to pull those out of the closet.
@@manitoba-op4jx (I'm also radioman) I'm pretty sure that would have voided your warranty though...
Sending it back could have been a risk. My sister was an auditor involved with the Commodore was going broke in the UK- there was a very large warehouse full of returns
@@wakelamp that would be a treasure trove now. retro computers are pretty popular. I actually wish I still had all mine, Vic, C64, C128 and my games collection. Luckily I still have an A500, A1200, and a CD32, plus all the games I ever bought for them.
After watching this episode, I find myself wondering how often you end up repairing some of these items (or rather, modifying them to their correct function, as the case with these flopped wires) and end up using them afterwards.
Slowly but surely learning so much, thank you Clive!
Thought exactly the same thing,
What a strange thing to say. I doubt he would ever use this crap.
Good case study for design for manufacture since you want consistency or things will go wrong in my experience. Even with training people will still screw things up if things are out of place. Don’t want to be flip-flopping wire connections if you don’t have connectors to prevent them from being installed backwards.
Funny how it is the shape and style of my BMW i8 display key !
After watching this channel for a couple of years, it has definitely motivated me to do my due diligence when browsing electronics online. I prefer to keep my expensive personal electronic devices in working condition. 🤣🤣🤣
Shame you didn't buy two of them to see whether it's deliberate or not!!
Can you do a tear down on the Anker power banks that were recalled?
I'm not sure if I should feel better or worse knowing that it's simple incompetence (or lack of QC) and not malice.
Nice find and fix Clive. As a side thought here back in the late 1970's early 1980's with the nicad batteries; those batteries could be charged the wrong way and hold a charge. Even odder yet was the one simple charger I had for 4 AA or AAA it put out AC current to charge the batteries, but they had the the right polarity when fully charged. Odd stuff we all find.
Everyday Electronics magazine had a charger circuit for standard alkaline batteries that used a skewed ac waveform that was designed to refresh the chemistry with more push than pull on each cycle. It worked ok on batteries that were still holding a decent charge, not so good on the more heavily discharged, I had a few leak on me.
I think you might find the "AC current" was in fact biased one way (for example a 90% mark space ratio). This was because NiCds i think "liked" to be charged a little - then discharged slightly - then charged again, slightly discharged and so on. So if you took an AC supply, and had two diodes in inverse parallel, one in series with a resistor - then you had a (very) crude way of applying more power on the positive part of the cycle - and could bleed off a bit via the resistor on the negative part of the cycle. Some of "positive leaning AC" :)
The simplest chargers may look like they are putting out AC current because they use one half wave polarity to charge the cell and the other to add to the cell voltage to make the LED light while also charging the cell in the other position.
It lets them use a much smaller transformer.
Probably the 23456th one the poor factory worker had done in that 12 hr work day :(
I put a drawer side in upside down on one of 10000 drawers I assembled in a 14 hour shift once. I used to just turn my brain completely off. Would often miss lunch break and stay late because I had ear protection on and did not here the shift whistle. Plus I would usually be the only one there other than the paint shop guys and they were isolated from the areas I was working. Took 4 of them to keep up to me processing parts and assembling the furniture. A lot of my job was loading pieces into different machine hoppers. End of the day it felt like I had just got there. Amazed I still have all my fingers.
And I thought it was just luck that he pry’d open some random gadget that gets 1M views if a vid is made. Forgive my skepticism but I’m gonna need to see a box opening starting w fedex drop off, lol, no edits!!
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
That number took a lot of imagination 😂
>:/ prob true \:
Yeah, reversing the polarity doesn't work like in Star Trek, it just makes things go boom, or at the very least, release the magic smoke... :P
Star Trek seemed to do a lot more "modulating" than "reversing", modulation appears to fix everything.
@@DavePoo2 They also had polarisation though. "The secondary gyrodyne relays in the propulsion field matrix have just depolarized!" comes to mind.
I have no idea what you're doing or talking about, but I find it fascinating.
Oh wow up to almost a million subscribers! I have not watched any of your videos in about a year. I watched a lot back in 2015, 2016, 17....love your stuff!
These companies really need to reintroduce safety / quality checking on all products they make. Though that wont likely happen until someone is killed from their faulty manufacturing or can just afford to take them to court and sue them for damage and the potential damages from them simply not checking their products.
Imagine trying to save a few bucks by buying this (instead of a real power bank), only to end up paying hundreds for a replacement phone.
I am an AMERICAN!! And I want to let you know this was a great video, as usual. Appreciate all you do to help educate and entertain us hobbyist types. Cheers from Boston, MA.
Nobody cares you're American.
@bigclivedotcom
That person is no representation of America, and as an American, I feel ashamed of his behavior.
Apologies, and I hope you are having a (non shockingly) great day.
love ur attitude in vids and in description "This also keeps the channel independent of UA-cam's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty"
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THEVBEST WAY TO EXPLAIN ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS IVE EVER SEEN. WHHHHHYYYYY AM I JUST NOW SEEING YOUR CONTENT.
When I read "keyring phone-killer" I was expecting a cell phone jammer, but of course that would be illegal. Then again, not sure Chinese manufacturers would care it was illegal. Would have been handy to make sure your meetings and movies are not interrupted.
It's not inherently illegal to jam cell phones, what is illegal is jamming "authorized" calls. So using them to jam your neighbor out of spite is illegal, but say using them to block people from using cell phones in a prison block is not.
This is reminiscent of the teardown of the USB C charger pulled from Amazon. Excellent design, but *one* small problem ruins the whole thing. I repair vacuums and you wouldn't imagine how many times it's just one component or design flaw that will make the whole machine unusable. (...and how many times have I replaced the switches in my mouse by now 🤔)
Nice little find & teardown Clive!
Indeed, a tired worker or wrong instructions could lead to this error, which should have been caught by QC...
I bought a solar powered Tire Pressure Monitor System some time ago, charged it normally first and would light the Sun symbol on screen when placed in light. Car front window always South with TPMS & small panel behind it, but failing to charge from sunlight...
Turned out one small diode, after the sensing line for light on the panel, was wrong way round...
Desoldered and soldered in right way, now keeps charging!
Sadly the batteries in the four sensors don't last as long as I thought...
Now we know what is responsible for pole reversal
Nice video mister
I had power bank i bought from a store that had the same issue. Luckily my phone has protection from that.
Well, if the board works, you can reuse it in a custom led lamp. That can double as a spare phone battery.
I'm always amazed at the absolute crap you're able to find and show to us. The lack of QC on some of these products as mind boggling.
I am surprised that final test/quality control did not catch that. I wonder how many others have gotten past them... I wish you had demonstrated correct function once the leads were reversed. I expect that capacity can be increased by swapping to a larger cell (and a larger enclosure).
Great as always. Would have liked a little look at the lithium cell. If it was truly 1500.
While working as a CB radio repair technician, my boss showed me a unique way to check for faulty solder joints on the circuit board. He just dragged the edge of an expired plastic credit card back and forth across the board and watched his meter for movement. It's surprising how many connections are just "barely there" enough to work intermittently and drop out at inopportune moments and then reconnect!
This is why I always check stuff especially if I buy it from a dollar store. I bought this LED light bar that's sold on TV and took it apart and it used a dropping capacitor (big red ones) and charged two 4 volt SLA type batteries. It plugged into AC and it did work and charge but the wires they used on the AC side were too thin for my liking so charging by AC was removed. I installed a two cell power bank inside the light and it now charges by USB. Works great
Same thing with this plug in flashlight I modded it to charge off USB but it needs a battery. I'm thinking of taking one of those tiny power stick power banks and using that.
I was hoping you would fix those connections so they are correct.
Lead-acid batteries for anything other than vehicles or "unmovables" (uninterruptible supplies, etc) should be illegal. It's crazy they can put them in consumer goods.
It's unfortunate how factory workers are being worked to the bone and end up being so tired they end up making mistakes. I wouldn't even blame them at that point
He explains and shows things so well. Thank you.
Im American, I actually like watching your videos/ expertise on display.
Thanks and please keep making them!!!
Great video. Makes me think you could 3D print a new housing with space for a larger Lithium cell and also add the LED facility.
This is why I don't buy cheap eBay charging equipment for my expensive phone. You never know what you're gonna get.
Even if the battery was actually 1500 mAh, and the unit was wired correctly, that would still be mediocre for a power bank, when most phone batteries have more than double that capacity these days. 600 mAh is almost useless. I have two proper 10,000 mAh fast-charge power banks, made by Kopplen. They have been well worth the money, since I'm often outside, nowhere near an outlet, for extended periods of time. They do a bang-up job at charging my phone, without killing it.
Oh Clive I'm having a late night panic attack, I'm so scared but you're a friendly voice. Thankyou
The joy of constant panic attacks, not even any escape when asleep, they just wake me up an say no, you get no sleep tonight.
What's causing it? I actually had one a long time ago due to the stress of looking after my mum. I'm not sure panic attack is actually a good description for it.
A backwards voltage USB power supply would be great for an old cassette player that has a backwards polarity barrel plug. The pin is negative instead of positive. I have done a janky workaround with alligator clips to reverse the polarity and a simple USB to barrel plug and it works. I can listen to and record old audio casettes without having to burn through FOUR double A batteries every few hours. A USB powered audio cassette player. (It's a six volt device, but since it's designed for use with batteries, I figured that it would operate fine on five. and it does, thankfully work quite well.)
cool...DVD:)
That's all the Brother label printers. They use a 9 volt, reverse polarity barrel connector. So, I grab an unused 9v (making sure it's not 9v AC, as those were more common than DC), cut off the plug, cut the plug off an unnecessary 12 volt wall wart, switch the wires, solder and heat shrink, and bingo - extremely expensive "brother" power supply. (I grab the 12 volt because it has the right barrel size. I have a 5 gallon bucket of the things)
@@tbelding ok.
@@tbelding 9v DC reverse polarity is standard for guitar effects pedals, maybe the label printer was designed by a musician 🙂
@@connerlabs So, you're saying Fran is to blame?
Ouch that could have been EXPENSIVE. Many Thanks Clive.
i still don't know half of what ur talking about - but u make it so interesting! thank u
I had a rather expensive 'certified' USB-C cable that was seemingly 'polarised'. It charged at a different rate depending on the way up you placed it in the port. It also transferred data very slowly if plugged in 'upside down' (which shouldn't be possible with USB-C). I binned it.
At least it didn't melt through the base of a damp (not particularly wet, not containing a pool of water) plastic bucket like another (expensive) USB-C cable did. The end had fallen into the bucket whilst still switched on. Luckily I smelled the burning plastic before it caused a fire. The metal housing was actually glowing. Amazon didn't withdraw it from sale after I informed them so I assume cables and chargers don't have any short-circuit protection nowadays. It was plugged into a 66W genuine Honor/Huawei charger if I remember correctly. If it had been the 135W version.... 😱
They generally have overcurrent protection, but if it's not exceeding the rated power of the supply, yeah, it will just burn the cable to ashes. The cable is responsible for having the correct resistors or ID chip installed to tell the charger what the limit should be. So, if the cable identifies it can handle full power, even though it can't, and it shorts in a way that doesn't exceed 66W as you mentioned.... it turns the shorted end into a heating element. It will happily keep "charging" the load on the end of it, even if the load is a blazing inferno of melted wires. Mind you, basic soldering irons are in the 50W range, so that's a lot of heat in one spot. Same thing causes a lot of electrical fires with household appliances, the short is only partial and doesn't trip the circuit breaker because it's within the allowed amperage.
What the reversed polarity output indicates is that there was absolutely no final test of the assembled product. They tested the board with no output connector installed, it passed the test, and then they soldered the output leads in place, packed it up, and out the door it went. Duh.
So, we have an employee who did every single piece backwards . . . or who didn't know that the wire color mattered at all, and did ca. 50% of them backwards. Either way, that's a lot of defective product boxed up and shipped out. I hope Clive left a review on the relevant eBay listing. (Posting a link would let readers pile on, to the point that maybe the seller would notice.)
I'd hate to ask, could they have been colorblind? I've heard that red/green/shiny black can get really bad with dark lightning/hues. I've even had someone tell me black garbage bags (as in the standard "black" bags) were green.
@@doublepinger I'm not colour blind but I have seen black bags with a definite hint of green. Still obviously 'black' bags and nothing like the green refuse bags. I wonder - made in the same factory, bit of cross contamination, they're not going to worry about something that gets thrown away after all.
Good to know that I now need to plug my USB fan into a new power bank first to see which direction it spins.
Loved your video, teaches one to be safe from these sort of cheap electronics!
Just use a cable that has the colors reversed 😉
Do you know I nearly brought some of these for us, and I'm jolly glad I didn't! I'm very glad for finding Clive';s channel because he's saved me a lot of electronic hassle. But who should we blame? The manufacturers or the seller for trading shoddy goods, or eBay themselves? 😒
Shout out for the respect you put on the workers ❤❤
For a minute I thought you were reviewing a device that was DESIGNED to destroy a mobile phone.
Quick question : when you encounter something like this, which is quite decently made (your words), do you put it back together (obviously with correct polarity) and keep it with your (by now) big collection or you just bin it ?
Well, here is hoping its a genuine mistake, and not a disgruntled employee who did a whole batch maliciously!
Maybe they were doing the old "She loves me, she loves me not" with their soldering station?
Well.. did you solder them back into the correct places and test it after? Enquiring minds want to know! :)
Not yet, since I've been running a few cycles on the lithium cell.
I was thinking the same thing.
The title made me think this was _supposed_ to be a phone-bricking device that _looked_ like a power bank.
The fact you slide up and down with the fly leads on the side of power cell oozes quality or long term fire
🔥
Looks like a Friday afternoon job..
More like 12hour shifts. 🤔
A great product! Shame it does not meet spec, shame it burned your house down.
I would thought you would of chosen the 110,000mAh version lol
Nice little thing if they didn’t lie, nice circuit too thanks Clive
It was ten times the price.
@@bigclivedotcom lol 😂
By chance I bought one of these several weeks back - but mine, I'm delighted to say, has the correct polarity.
After several charge/discharge cycles, I get around 650mAh effective capacity, which isn't too bad. Charge stops around 4.09V, rather than 4.2V.
It works well, but the USB-C snout, even when fully extended, doesn't quite get into the socket of my Note20, but then I have a heavy duty OtterBox case on it.
The company should hire this guy.
So a question: how large of a battery do you think that circuit board will service?
As big as you want, but the charge time will be increased accordingly.
I'm guessing the battery will probably end up being no more than 800mA.
It's currently under test. I'm guessing much lower.
300mAh max for the battery 🔋
looks like it turned out to be 600. not as bad as expected but still rather pathetic.
I was hoping for a battery powered usb killer like the kind with a capacitor that gets charged with hv A 1200 volt cap might do a good job to a defenseless phone
I refuse to feature those things. It's better that they are not publicised.
Love your stuff big clive been watching for years and and it never fails to get my tinker-juices flowing.
I always test any new charger. Also use a data protection charging cable. I would think most phones of good quality would have polarity protection.
Will you edit the video comment with the cell capacity when it's done?
Yes I will. It's still on test.
I connected the front port on my PC wrong (it was one of those ones with all the individual pin connectors) and destroyed a USB memory stick once. Fortunately nothing of value was lost but I learned that polarity protection shouldn't be assumed.
I've already reported this item to eBay who are looking into the items because I myself found the same error in the black Micro USB version. Such a shame, because these would make a very nifty item to have on the keyring to give your phone a little more juice when in desperate need, or those wireless earphones running low on battery.
I’m an American and been watching for almost 10 years now, love the content.
On the internets, they say that the TP4333 SoC features an integrated power-path management, which allows pass-through charging. Not sure how efficient this will be, but at least you have this option when you think you need it. Which is good, IMO.
A better tester would rectify the input and show the negative voltage.
Also, have a battery, or just a supercapacitor, to allow it to display lower voltages, when you test the current capacity of something.
Think I'll pick one of these up, considering the error with wire it all looks pretty solid on board, I'll just give it a test before using.
Would be handy if travelling abroad and don't get stuck unsure of where to go with a dead phone.
Im surprised you didn't reverse the wires and test how it would have really worked if it was soldered on properly.
Like you said, Clive, a nice little package. I wonder if the worker knows how to wire a plug, lol? Alan Sugar would say, "You're fired," probably, lol?
Electricity never ceases to amaze me.
Battery protection chip appears to be a BRCL3160 from Foshan Blue Rocket Electronics.
love your groundbreaking reverse engineering, but i would have liked to see you fix it real quick, and show us what its supposed to do.
Probably elderly worker unable to read those "G" and "5V" markings.
Great video, thank you for spreading awareness of what these cheap power banks can do to our gadgets.
I’m an American who just found this video. Didn’t even need a link! Great video!
Maybe 7 years old factory worker don't know colors yet.
You should be able to assume that your $1000 phone would have reverse polarity protection, but even that isn't gauranteed these days!
This also shows, that they did not not bother to test the equipment
Great video! I wonder if a diode on the terminal would have prevented the reversed current. The device still wouldn’t work, but it might not destroy electronic devices.
Quality Control! I am pretty Shure thats a thing in the past. I have brought so much stuff in the past (just not electronic stuff) even a brand new car (a gouge on the rear bumper and the cover for the battery laid across the engine and the bonnet closed down it). You remember the sticker with the persons signature and the number of the station they was sitting at? All things of the past.