Would have been interesting to test the voltage stability, ripple and HF noise of these and compare with a genuine apple power supply under various loads. Also would be fun to test the breakdown voltages.
It is illegal to sell this one in Australia even if it was genuine, as it does not have the insulation on the mains pins as required by our laws. The importer could get fined for that.
Just received new 'Genuine Samsung' 2A USB charger from eBay, tested under 2A load using constant current load, charger exploded and tripped house sockets breaker within 10 minutes of test... LOL... now for the refund claim....
Clearly, the genuine Apple power supply is vastly better in that it is a high-speed switching power supply that produces 5 watts at a smooth 5 volts. It's clear that the engineering required to produce the genuine article is much better than the crap ones in this video. When you buy something of quality, you're not just paying for parts. Otherwise, you would just be able to buy the parts and make your own. Just don't complain if your cheap $3 power supply destroys the battery on your $600 phone or burns down your house.
Your videos are usually a bit over my head.... Here, you open the first charger and I went "Where's the bridge rectifier?" .... two seconds later you go "Uhhh, I don't even see a rectifier ....." Thank you for your hard work!. You really are teaching people about electronic design!
You can't please everyone. If he explained every little thing I probably wouldn't watch it. You need to know at least the basics about electronics if you expect to comprehend comments about a circuit. He has "fundamentals Fridays" videos which go into a lot of details and are intended to teach.
Too funny. Almost scary that distance between the 240 and the usb shield. Entirely possible to get 240v straight onto your usb! This is why 2 buck chargers on ebay are NOT a good idea. Apply may be over priced, but simply because something can be sold for 2 bucks instead of 20 doesnt mean you should buy it.
I came to this video because I did exactly that, 240 volts straight into my iPhone... though I thought it was a real apple charger, don’t know how that thing got in my house!
They were blatantly both fake, both has spelling errors on the back. Also a quick google image of a legit one would have been a give away. Still fun tearing them down tho.
Great teardown link too! Glad you posted it. Thanks for doing these videos, they've really helped me out as an engineering student who's just getting jobs in my field.
For anyone who didn't quite get what creepage is, the creepage is defined as shortest distance on the surface of an insulating material between two conductive elements
Because I did not know it was a fake until I opened it, by which time it was too late to get one for Teardown Tuesday. I have to upload the video that night, regardless, or lots of angry people! And anyway, someone else had already done an excellent teardown and analysis of one which I mentioned and linked to.
It is amazing that there are no schottky array, proper power caps and filters, ferrites, and any kind of fuses or breakers. The ripple alone would be enough to damage the tablet or phone. The power and ground planes alone can cause fires. This is why it is very important the read the articles on the oem's website, in this case Apple, and learn how to identify these.
Would be interested to see how well (or more likely, how badly) these perform under load. I suppose it depends if you've got an isolation transformer to hand and you haven't emptied the bins yet!
Dave made this video in 2012 referring to is as a "bloody death trap", come 2014 and a woman in Sydney gets electrocuted by one of these cheap chargers.
It activates when the secondary reaches the correct voltage, which tells the primary driver circuitry to back off. This lowers the output voltage, which deactivates the optocoupler, which lets the driver circuitry start up again. This feedback loop repeats infinitely to provide a (reasonably) stable output voltage. (Let me know if I got anything wrong Dave)
Is not the Y cap protective impedance. Limits amount of fault current from low voltage to mains. Some standards require two of these caps under single fault conditions.
It actually says "infor technology" on the more genuine one, which is a tell-tale sign as well. Nice video though, I love to see what cloners are coming up with to squeeze out the last penny.
Yeah, I have seen the prices at the Apple store. I have one that came with my iPhone, but I found another that someone lost and wondered if there was a way to tell if it was genuine or not (short of sawing both of them open and doing a comparison).
Dave, you should toss on some load on the 5v output and check the ripple and such just to show what crap like these gives you on the output. I`m sure you have a genuine Apple, or at least another usb charger for a Android you could compare it to.
I usually end up with a bad noise in video and audio equipment between grounded and ungrouded switchmode hardware... I fix it by removing those caps, or removing grounding lead. But then i end up with a very low current 110V on the boxes of the grounded devices for the lead removal method.
Best way to tell if you have a genuine charger is by the heft of it. If it feels like it has quite a bit of weight to it, more than likely it is genuine. Compared to the extreme lightness of the knockoffs.
Is there an easy way to tell if it's the genuine article? Is there some tiny mark or molding line or something like that on the Apple that is missing from the imitations? How about some simple resistance check? Weight? Output ripple?
Even if it is true what you are saying, Dave did so much for everyone by sharing experience and stories that YOU MUST BE working for a years to figure it out. IMHO, this is nice video and i'm very glad that Dave can do this full time. Imagine if there was nobody from electric/electronics industry doing this good vblog... This is great... Thank you Dave.
So how do we in general make sure we are buying good(safe) USB chargers an powerbanks ? Lots of pack in ones with budget hardware is likely bundled with chargers made like this. With PC power supplies its relatively easy to find out the OEM and get reviews, but for smaller electronics like this its almost impossible to know what you are buying.
The one on the left looks like it has better seperation between input and output. The one on the right has the input and output caps touching eachother.
I bought a little generic one...and it generated quite a ground potential- enough to give you a nasty shock. But I figured out that the problem was bad capacitors...I recapped it and dead another ground potential test, and it actually tested out with a lower ground potential than my genuine Apple adapter!
Interesting to note, that "Genuine" charger on the left says "For use with infor technology" on the bottom, when it should say "For use with infor-mation technology"...
Can you make a video to explain this. I bought a kill-I-watt to measure the power used while charging an iPhone. I was under the assumption that the power brick would use power even when the phone was not connected. I was surprised to see that no measurable amount of power was consumed until I plugged the phone up. How do they do this? I thought the transformer would be consuming power whether charging or not
Nice Teardown Dave. (i realize this is years old, lol). It would have been interesting to see the scoped output of these two. Aside, these rip-offs are becoming a scourge! For something as simple as procuring a simple mini display port to HDMI cable took me three goes before getting a genuine branded unit that just worked! The first two were bogus with multiple shorts. Geeezzz...
helped a guy from our consumer protection agency break open a suspected fake iPhone 6 charger last month, nothing has changed in the compliance to safety standards. It had separations and gaps less than half the legal requirements still. Soldering was a bit better, seems the factories now have either more experienced children doing the soldering or someone's invested in a machine.
"I forget who actually sent this to me." Come on man! People send you free stuff and pay postage. You do a video about them and get paid for it. At least have the courtesy to mention their name.
I noticed in your DaveCAD drawing, that you're missing the center 2 pins of the USB with R10, R11, R13, and R14. Without those it will not charge an Apple iPhone.
I think AintBigAintClever did a video teardown of both one of these cheap chargers and a genuine Apple one. He tested the performance as well. Worth a look
I do not understand how they manage to pass the EMI limits. I failed to pass without a ferrite. This thing did not have the usual 6.8 Ohm fusible insurge resistor.
It's interesting to note that the even crummier one has considerably more typos in the label. "Power A dapeer" and a stray quote mark before "100-240 V" as _well_ as bad printing on the "For use with information technology equipment" part. It makes me wonder just what exactly was going on at the factory there. Like the guy just typed some shite into the computer to meet a REAL tight deadline and hit "save".
As i worked @ our VDE we simply shorted all creapage and clearance whitch was less than that specified given by the VDE rules (EN 60664-1:2007 / VDE 0110-1) during test For mains like 230V ac they are for creaping absolute minimums for clean, in room use: between AC and AC (mains input leads or similar) 3mm between primary and secondary: 5mm between AC and GND (touchable!): 5mm On PCBs @ 250Veff: 1mm on the PCB itself between pins and 2.5mm to all other things. These are MINIMUM ratings!
Dave - you're correct: The serial numbers are all the same. I got one of these from cashies since it looked like a neat little 240V->USB adapter. It even has the adapeer spelling error on it.
Another interesting EEVblog video - gives lots to think about in terms of judging the quality/safety of generic electronics - and even some insight in electronics design in general. Sometimes its good to take a look at what NOT to do.
What we all want to know is how cheap you can go and still be safe. Would be interesting if someone bought one at $1, $2, $3, $4, $5 etc. And compared them all. I've bought quite a few chargers in the $7-10 range that seems to meet all the safety criteria. Still a bargain considering the $30 you have to pay for an original charger in this country.
ok,original Apple units are better designed,compact,electronically correct and so on....but can you explain why 2 original power adapters exploded on my macbook pro? got a cheap one and its performing quite well,very low thermal dissipation compared to original,no fancy coaxial power cable that burns after a year.
EEVblog I looked at two of the three Apple chargers I own. All were included with various Iphones when originally purchased. I pulled the charger from the box for my refurbished 5S. The underside where the prongs are is blank, no markings of any kind. My older original units have all of the information shown, including "Flextron". I am now curious to know if this is a knock-off replacement included with my 5S or did Apple choose to remove all of the data on charger supplies.
Sorry, but that's all in your imagination I'm afraid. Please point out *specific* examples of how my teardown videos have dropped "quite a lot" in quality.
Yeah, but I'd like to see your comparison of these to the real one. The blog post is informative, but I think it would be interesting to see them next to each other.
I worked a trademark infringement case where I had to send a few of these to Apple. The ones I ran into, being sold at some "Apple Repair" franchise unassociated with Apple, had "Designed by HAPPY in China" on the label. Designed, of course, because that's so much more elegant than saying "made in China."
The second one looks a bit safer. It has insulation between 'mains' and 'output' boards. The first device is PURE FEAR ! Primary capacitor (at mains potential) nearly touches the output board. Imagine using this charger to a phone, which headphones are in your ears.
Dave, I am not sure how much time it would take you but do you think you could toss out an estimated BOM total on some the devices you tear down? For example, these adapters: I am guessing abut $4 in bulk.
This is the best video you ever did and quite useful even for people not into electronics. I live in Thailand and the 20 Baht 0.6 USD chargers kill people here.
the newer lightning based devices have a chip that prevents non apple chargers from charging or powering the unit. I guess it has some kind of security handshake
Is it just me, or is the counterfeit clone using counterfeit caps when cloning the counterfeit? (Chong X on one and Chang X on the other with all-to-similar-but-still-different logos.)
Other than the typos, is there any way to tell a fake one from a genuine one without breaking it open? Do these fakes give a measurably different output in any way if hooked up to a meter?
+Derek Harkness They almost certainly have fake current ratings on them too. Thus I'd measure the current they produce, the voltage drop would probably also be higher (indicating a bigger internal resistance of the power supply), the lack of proper filtering means that the switching noise will seep through as well (it can be measured with an oscilloscope) etc. In short: yes, you can, but not without some proper equipment (or at least a set of resistors with higher power ratings).
No fuses? Excuse me? EVERYTHING is fusible, if you put enough current through it...
Why would you need fuses when there is a 15 amp circuit breaker in the circuit? (sarcasm)
Lol
ah yes, the fusible mains contacts ;)
YEAH! Even humans are! LOL ;-)
Yeah, the tiny 32AWG wire IS the fuse!!!
"Safe" is not just about the circuit, it's about the physical build and the component quality as well.
"I can't seem to lever this one open at all!" Yep, it's genuine Apple alright!
Jep, glueing it shut makes it genuine.
Should send the junk like this to Photonicinduction. Let him crank it up until it pops.
The first fellow photonic fan I've seen :)
Bastrik - Gaming Yep I love watching him bust stuff to fuck :)
Here another one :) i ain't having it made it to my every day language ...
jmcinvale Me too, actually! hehe I should send him mine!
I'm sure he'd 'open it carefully'.
Would have been interesting to test the voltage stability, ripple and HF noise of these and compare with a genuine apple power supply under various loads. Also would be fun to test the breakdown voltages.
CAUTION: For use with infor
mation technology equipment
The one on the left does not say it at all.
Yes it does fucktard
Lawrence Bloomfield The one on the left says infor technology
So does the right
Oh well the right says indie too just not technology
It is illegal to sell this one in Australia even if it was genuine, as it does not have the insulation on the mains pins as required by our laws. The importer could get fined for that.
Just received new 'Genuine Samsung' 2A USB charger from eBay, tested under 2A load using constant current load, charger exploded and tripped house sockets breaker within 10 minutes of test... LOL... now for the refund claim....
The only thing amazing about them is how they manage the small space inside the casing.
The left one "For use with infor technology only". Apple would not split such a word over two lines and also forget the second half of the word lol...
I would love to see the original Apple charger.
+Jovan Janevski www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html
+Jovan Janevski So do I, just to see if this is the same crap or if this is legitimately better!
And..what good would it do?? parts don't addp up the price u paid either lol!
Clearly, the genuine Apple power supply is vastly better in that it is a high-speed switching power supply that produces 5 watts at a smooth 5 volts. It's clear that the engineering required to produce the genuine article is much better than the crap ones in this video. When you buy something of quality, you're not just paying for parts. Otherwise, you would just be able to buy the parts and make your own. Just don't complain if your cheap $3 power supply destroys the battery on your $600 phone or burns down your house.
Your videos are usually a bit over my head....
Here, you open the first charger and I went "Where's the bridge rectifier?" .... two seconds later you go "Uhhh, I don't even see a rectifier ....."
Thank you for your hard work!. You really are teaching people about electronic design!
You can't please everyone. If he explained every little thing I probably wouldn't watch it. You need to know at least the basics about electronics if you expect to comprehend comments about a circuit. He has "fundamentals Fridays" videos which go into a lot of details and are intended to teach.
It's for RFI suppression, to meet EMC requirements etc, not screw up your product wiht RFI noise etc.
Too funny.
Almost scary that distance between the 240 and the usb shield. Entirely possible to get 240v straight onto your usb!
This is why 2 buck chargers on ebay are NOT a good idea.
Apply may be over priced, but simply because something can be sold for 2 bucks instead of 20 doesnt mean you should buy it.
Definitely the case where, at the bare minimum, an air gap should have been cut between the mains lead and USB ground on the PCB.
Who doesn't like 230V on ground into their USB devices.
I came to this video because I did exactly that, 240 volts straight into my iPhone... though I thought it was a real apple charger, don’t know how that thing got in my house!
Also on the fake one, the prongs are crooked as heck.
thats the australian plug design
..... it was a joke dude....
@@noise117 give the guy a break, it's hard to be sure on the internet
They were blatantly both fake, both has spelling errors on the back. Also a quick google image of a legit one would have been a give away. Still fun tearing them down tho.
“both has” great job, doctor Watson.
@@HighestRank Wow I bet you feel really special for pointing that out from over 6 years ago. What a special important person you are!!! Yaaaay!!
HEY IT'S PRETTY GOOD
I`d love to see a legit charger done with a clear outer case, that would be cool!
Great teardown link too! Glad you posted it.
Thanks for doing these videos, they've really helped me out as an engineering student who's just getting jobs in my field.
both were obviously fake, For use with infor technology.
For anyone who didn't quite get what creepage is, the creepage is defined as shortest distance on the surface of an insulating material between two conductive elements
Because I did not know it was a fake until I opened it, by which time it was too late to get one for Teardown Tuesday. I have to upload the video that night, regardless, or lots of angry people! And anyway, someone else had already done an excellent teardown and analysis of one which I mentioned and linked to.
It is amazing that there are no schottky array, proper power caps and filters, ferrites, and any kind of fuses or breakers. The ripple alone would be enough to damage the tablet or phone. The power and ground planes alone can cause fires. This is why it is very important the read the articles on the oem's website, in this case Apple, and learn how to identify these.
Would be interested to see how well (or more likely, how badly) these perform under load. I suppose it depends if you've got an isolation transformer to hand and you haven't emptied the bins yet!
Dave made this video in 2012 referring to is as a "bloody death trap", come 2014 and a woman in Sydney gets electrocuted by one of these cheap chargers.
it is 2015 now, and the sheep have forgotten (or simply didn't care) (and never stopped buying them buy the truck load).
It activates when the secondary reaches the correct voltage, which tells the primary driver circuitry to back off. This lowers the output voltage, which deactivates the optocoupler, which lets the driver circuitry start up again. This feedback loop repeats infinitely to provide a (reasonably) stable output voltage. (Let me know if I got anything wrong Dave)
Is not the Y cap protective impedance. Limits amount of fault current from low voltage to mains. Some standards require two of these caps under single fault conditions.
It actually says "infor technology" on the more genuine one, which is a tell-tale sign as well. Nice video though, I love to see what cloners are coming up with to squeeze out the last penny.
Yeah, I have seen the prices at the Apple store. I have one that came with my iPhone, but I found another that someone lost and wondered if there was a way to tell if it was genuine or not (short of sawing both of them open and doing a comparison).
Dave, you should toss on some load on the 5v output and check the ripple and such just to show what crap like these gives you on the output. I`m sure you have a genuine Apple, or at least another usb charger for a Android you could compare it to.
I usually end up with a bad noise in video and audio equipment between grounded and ungrouded switchmode hardware... I fix it by removing those caps, or removing grounding lead. But then i end up with a very low current 110V on the boxes of the grounded devices for the lead removal method.
Best way to tell if you have a genuine charger is by the heft of it. If it feels like it has quite a bit of weight to it, more than likely it is genuine. Compared to the extreme lightness of the knockoffs.
It was "apple branded"! But a genuine fake.
If you are talking about the ones in the video. The one on the right is used in the USA and the one on the left is for Australia (and not the UK)
Is there an easy way to tell if it's the genuine article? Is there some tiny mark or molding line or something like that on the Apple that is missing from the imitations? How about some simple resistance check? Weight? Output ripple?
The minimum distance really depends on what classification and approvals you want for the device, and these distances will be listed in the standards.
Even if it is true what you are saying, Dave did so much for everyone by sharing experience and stories that YOU MUST BE working for a years to figure it out.
IMHO, this is nice video and i'm very glad that Dave can do this full time. Imagine if there was nobody from electric/electronics industry doing this good vblog... This is great...
Thank you Dave.
how much of a problem is creepage after the transformer? the fact that it's reduced to 5v should/would severely decrease the risk, right?
So how do we in general make sure we are buying good(safe) USB chargers an powerbanks ? Lots of pack in ones with budget hardware is likely bundled with chargers made like this. With PC power supplies its relatively easy to find out the OEM and get reviews, but for smaller electronics like this its almost impossible to know what you are buying.
Some places got different AC voltage supply.
220V or 110V,or even different freqs.
Check your air conditioner's plug,it should be "220V".
The USB tab inside one of them isn't even straight EEEKERS!
The one on the left looks like it has better seperation between input and output. The one on the right has the input and output caps touching eachother.
No point, I linked to a very comprehensive teardown and analysis already.
I bought a little generic one...and it generated quite a ground potential- enough to give you a nasty shock. But I figured out that the problem was bad capacitors...I recapped it and dead another ground potential test, and it actually tested out with a lower ground potential than my genuine Apple adapter!
Besides for the safety and longevity of these fake ones, do they do any harm to the battery they are charging?
Interesting to note, that "Genuine" charger on the left says "For use with infor technology" on the bottom, when it should say "For use with infor-mation technology"...
The words he use for bad safety put me into thinking about safety in my hobby projects from now on! So effective
Can you make a video to explain this. I bought a kill-I-watt to measure the power used while charging an iPhone. I was under the assumption that the power brick would use power even when the phone was not connected. I was surprised to see that no measurable amount of power was consumed until I plugged the phone up. How do they do this? I thought the transformer would be consuming power whether charging or not
Nice Teardown Dave. (i realize this is years old, lol). It would have been interesting to see the scoped output of these two.
Aside, these rip-offs are becoming a scourge! For something as simple as procuring a simple mini display port to HDMI cable took me three goes before getting a genuine branded unit that just worked! The first two were bogus with multiple shorts. Geeezzz...
helped a guy from our consumer protection agency break open a suspected fake iPhone 6 charger last month, nothing has changed in the compliance to safety standards. It had separations and gaps less than half the legal requirements still. Soldering was a bit better, seems the factories now have either more experienced children doing the soldering or someone's invested in a machine.
What does the DC output look like between the fake units and the genuine article?
"I forget who actually sent this to me."
Come on man! People send you free stuff and pay postage.
You do a video about them and get paid for it.
At least have the courtesy to mention their name.
If you send something, stick a Rossman label on it with your name and contact details!
Yeah he is wining ungrateful i always hear him complain unless the thing cost 3000$
You can use this method successfully for developing new specifications
Would be interesting to see an actual genuine Apple charger of same model to compare.
I'd sooner have poorer EMC than a cheap primary-secondary cap
Why the transformer needs a suppression cap between primary and secondary?
I noticed in your DaveCAD drawing, that you're missing the center 2 pins of the USB with R10, R11, R13, and R14. Without those it will not charge an Apple iPhone.
I said in the video I have seen a real one on the web, I have linked to it in the description.
What is the big deal with creepage distance? If they aren't touching, power can't get through right? Can someone explain why it really matters?
"but if the cap fails short, it's dangerous". this is good ESD cap and this located in right place. probably type of this cap is not very reliable.
I think AintBigAintClever did a video teardown of both one of these cheap chargers and a genuine Apple one. He tested the performance as well. Worth a look
I do not understand how they manage to pass the EMI limits. I failed to pass without a ferrite. This thing did not have the usual 6.8 Ohm fusible insurge resistor.
They probably didn't apply to any EMI tests.
It's interesting to note that the even crummier one has considerably more typos in the label. "Power A dapeer" and a stray quote mark before "100-240 V" as _well_ as bad printing on the "For use with information technology equipment" part. It makes me wonder just what exactly was going on at the factory there. Like the guy just typed some shite into the computer to meet a REAL tight deadline and hit "save".
As i worked @ our VDE we simply shorted all creapage and clearance whitch was less than that specified given by the VDE rules (EN 60664-1:2007 / VDE 0110-1) during test
For mains like 230V ac they are for creaping absolute minimums for clean, in room use:
between AC and AC (mains input leads or similar) 3mm
between primary and secondary: 5mm
between AC and GND (touchable!): 5mm
On PCBs @ 250Veff: 1mm on the PCB itself between pins and 2.5mm to all other things.
These are MINIMUM ratings!
does creepage strictly relate the ability for it to possibly short. and no matter what, say it doesn't short, what are the effects of that closeness?
Are there any clones you can recommend or a reputable online shop that's known to sell them?
I have always wondered what is the big idea with the cap between the primary and secondary parts of the supply... So what is it?
I don't think 'one hung low cheapie' is PC. However, I'm absolutely positive that its funny as hell.
Dave - you're correct: The serial numbers are all the same. I got one of these from cashies since it looked like a neat little 240V->USB adapter. It even has the adapeer spelling error on it.
wow! they have a 2nd hand market for this?! how much did cashies charge?
They had dozens of them for ~$2 each. Mind you I bought one before seeing this video, or else I would not have even considered it.
Another interesting EEVblog video - gives lots to think about in terms of judging the quality/safety of generic electronics - and even some insight in electronics design in general. Sometimes its good to take a look at what NOT to do.
What we all want to know is how cheap you can go and still be safe. Would be interesting if someone bought one at $1, $2, $3, $4, $5 etc. And compared them all. I've bought quite a few chargers in the $7-10 range that seems to meet all the safety criteria. Still a bargain considering the $30 you have to pay for an original charger in this country.
The one on the left says CAUTION: For use with infor technology equipment. I noticed that it was a clone as soon as I saw that.
ok,original Apple units are better designed,compact,electronically correct and so on....but can you explain why 2 original power adapters exploded on my macbook pro?
got a cheap one and its performing quite well,very low thermal dissipation compared to original,no fancy coaxial power cable that burns after a year.
I'd love to see what the output looks like of these on a scope...
EEVblog I looked at two of the three Apple chargers I own. All were included with various Iphones when originally purchased. I pulled the charger from the box for my refurbished 5S. The underside where the prongs are is blank, no markings of any kind. My older original units have all of the information shown, including "Flextron".
I am now curious to know if this is a knock-off replacement included with my 5S or did Apple choose to remove all of the data on charger supplies.
Sorry, but that's all in your imagination I'm afraid. Please point out *specific* examples of how my teardown videos have dropped "quite a lot" in quality.
agreed, someone please point it out
I'd argue that the only thing you're lacking in is quantity :-)
Zune brick chargers are rock solid, I've used mine for every device since its release in like 2006 or 07.
"Probably no thought put into that. well, probably no thought put into this whole thing at all" classic line
Yeah, but I'd like to see your comparison of these to the real one. The blog post is informative, but I think it would be interesting to see them next to each other.
I worked a trademark infringement case where I had to send a few of these to Apple. The ones I ran into, being sold at some "Apple Repair" franchise unassociated with Apple, had "Designed by HAPPY in China" on the label. Designed, of course, because that's so much more elegant than saying "made in China."
Is a half-wave rectifier less safe than a bridge one, then?
Also, why would you want a cap between primary and secondary? I'm not sure I get it.
The second one looks a bit safer. It has insulation between 'mains' and 'output' boards. The first device is PURE FEAR ! Primary capacitor (at mains potential) nearly touches the output board. Imagine using this charger to a phone, which headphones are in your ears.
I accept the wires are too close on board. Otherwise, not much diferents from the original.
Dave, I am not sure how much time it would take you but do you think you could toss out an estimated BOM total on some the devices you tear down? For example, these adapters: I am guessing abut $4 in bulk.
This is the best video you ever did and quite useful even for people not into electronics. I live in Thailand and the 20 Baht 0.6 USD chargers kill people here.
"Gotta be killing me"
The slip of the tongue works as well.
What is the optocouler for?
Thank you :)
Why would you want a cap from one side of the transformer to the other?
It's so advanced it's not even very computer assisted any more. Pure magic.
the newer lightning based devices have a chip that prevents non apple chargers from charging or powering the unit. I guess it has some kind of security handshake
Aside from cheap construction, what are the problems with the knock-offs?
Do they do the job or do they have known iissues?
Good match for that power supply would be fire extinguisher that blows up on first use :)
I have a dumb question: if these are SMPS (and they must be judging on the size of the transformers), where's the oscillator?
Is it just me, or is the counterfeit clone using counterfeit caps when cloning the counterfeit? (Chong X on one and Chang X on the other with all-to-similar-but-still-different logos.)
So, i suppose you are keeping the RIGOL DSA815TG teardown for the eevblog #400??
You must have missed where I pointed that out in the video, more than once.
Dave, you've just convinced me to keep away from the cheapo usb chargers. They look down right dangerous.
what is the point of the optocoupler? it looks like it activates if the primary has power but why?
Other than the typos, is there any way to tell a fake one from a genuine one without breaking it open? Do these fakes give a measurably different output in any way if hooked up to a meter?
+Derek Harkness They almost certainly have fake current ratings on them too. Thus I'd measure the current they produce, the voltage drop would probably also be higher (indicating a bigger internal resistance of the power supply), the lack of proper filtering means that the switching noise will seep through as well (it can be measured with an oscilloscope) etc.
In short: yes, you can, but not without some proper equipment (or at least a set of resistors with higher power ratings).
what should be the ripple voltage for a smartphone charger?
I think you come up with some of the most original EE insults.