13 ms·
USB power supply puts 220 Mains power out on USB jack
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoThis takes some horrific failure to accomplish, I imagine.
- mmastrac 10y agoThe problem appears to be the transformer: https://youtu.be/3Hdn0MuCK_0?t=20m49s https://youtu.be/3Hdn0MuCK_0?t=20m49s (and specifically a bit of shredded insulation https://youtu.be/3Hdn0MuCK_0?t=25m35s https://youtu.be/3Hdn0MuCK_0?t=25m35s)
- aembleton 10y agoBig Clive, who makes these videos does some brilliant tear-downs. I recommend watching his other videos.
- yoodenvranx 10y agoBig Clive is _the_ channel for teardowns of everyday electronic stuff. I am actually not that interested in this kind of stuff but somehow I still watch most of his videos. If you are into more... entertaining teardowns you should have a look at AvE. Even if you don't like it you will still learn some useful canadian terms ;) (edit: just to make it clear, AvE is actually very knowledgable. His "boltr" teardown series of electronic power tools is most likely the most thorough you will find on the internet) My third goto channel for electronic stuff is EEVBlog who also does amazing stuff. If you are going to watch one teardown today then please watch his rather famous video about the worlds worst tablet computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk
- aembleton 10y agoThanks, I'd not seen that tablet computer before. Incredible!
- mulmen 10y agoJust this weekend I watched entirely too many AvE videos and now I am fluent in Canadian. His style is... unique. I think it's great but I'm sure it's not for everyone.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago> If you are going to watch one teardown today then please watch his rather famous video about the worlds worst tablet computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk* I'm crying out of laughter right now. This is absolutely brilliant. That is, the teardown - the tablet itself is an abomination. Thanks for posting this. This channel is great and seems to have a lot of educational content besides teardowns too.
- kbenson 10y ago> the tablet itself is an abomination Yes, but I find myself strangely impressed. I like to imagine someone walked up to an engineer and said "So, I just told client $foo that we can provide a tablet version of our PC software. They need it by end of week. That's not a problem, right? Because the CEO is fully on board with this..."
- csours 10y agoAnd then the engineer went home, got drunk, and talked his niece/nephew through building this on a bad skype call.
- seany 10y agoMikes electronic stuff is also quite good.
- waiseristy 10y agoTesla500 as well
- cellularmitosis 10y agoSee also scanlime http://youtu.be/UTUYl-2g-r4 http://youtu.be/UTUYl-2g-r4
- InclinedPlane 10y agoAlso afrotechmods: https://www.youtube.com/user/Afrotechmods https://www.youtube.com/user/Afrotechmods
- k_sze 10y agoYou mean this? https://www.youtube.com/user/mikeselectricstuff https://www.youtube.com/user/mikeselectricstuff
- blakes 10y agoAvE is definitely one of my favorites. The only youtube channel I contribute to. I'll probably starting contributing to Big Clive as well.
- megablast 10y agoActually found that incredibly annoying. These guys managed to get something working, probably with very limited knowledge and funds, that deserves an award. It just seems this guy expects everything to look like an Apple ipad when you open it up.
- ksml 10y agoHe definitely doesn't expect it to look like an iPad; he points out that he's cool with them cobbling together off-the-shelf parts like the motherboard and the touchscreen controller. His issue is with how badly things are botched, like soldering the batteries directly, and then selling it as a fully fledged industrial product. If you have "very limited knowledge" as your comment says, then you shouldn't be doing business. That's irresponsible. At worst, designing products without experience could lead to electrical fire.
- stordoff 10y ago> My third goto channel for electronic stuff is EEVBlog who also does amazing stuff. If you are going to watch one teardown today then please watch his rather famous video about the worlds worst tablet computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk Oh boy, that thing is a MESS. When he first opened it, I thought it looks like the sort of thing I'd knock together - not pretty, probably mildly unstable, but gets the job done. Then he took a closer look, and it's the sort of thing that wouldn't even be acceptable as a secondary school project, never mind a device to be sold.
- vidarh 10y agoYikes... That tablet makes the cheapest, crappiest Chinese Android tablet I've bought look like an amazing feat of engineer in comparison (though that's probably mostly because almost all of them are slight tweaks on Allwinner or MTK reference designs - most of them, regardless of manufacturer look almost identical).
- adrianN 10y agoI like that the company that produced this apparently still exists.
- cm2187 10y agoIncluding sexual lubricants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i7_-NtJeB4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i7_-NtJeB4 Someone has to review them...
- Symbiote 10y agoThe vibrating cock ring is the next related video, and is much more interesting. There's a tiny motor, possibly the kind used in mobile phones, which he takes apart.
- makomk 10y agoFrom Poundland, which - for any non-Brits who haven't come across it - is our more upmarket equivalent of a dollar store and sells all kinds of interesting items that he's done videos about.
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y agoPoundland? Sex lubricant? The marketing just writes itself...
- 0xffff2 10y agoCan someone explain why the transformer is on the DC side of the circuit in the diagram he draws at the beginning of the video?
- sitharus 10y agoThis is a switch mode power supply. In order to use a smaller transformer it uses very high frequency AC rather than 50/60Hz mains frequency. In order to do this it rectifies the mains input to high voltage DC (330/220Vish, depending on the mains voltage) then using a power transistor rapidly switches this on and off at around 1-10kHz. Then the transformer outputs low voltage AC which is re-rectified and filtered to produce low voltage DC. The switch mode chip monitors the output voltage and modulates the switching frequency to maintain a constant output voltage. If you look closely at the board (and he talks about this in the video) there's a separation between the high and low voltage sides. Only the transformer and certain specialized components should cross this (Y-class capacitor and optoisolators). Cheap power supplies often miss this out which could allow a small bit of loose solder being able to send mains voltage to the output. Look at other videos by Big Clive to see the horrors. The high voltage side is a bit of a misnomer. It's really just the non-isolated side - the chip runs on 5v or similar, but it's not completely separated from the high voltage DC so isn't safe for human contact.
- rlpb 10y ago> the chip runs on 5v or similar How does the chip get 5V, out of interest? Given that it's not allowed to be connected to the non-isolated side?
- sitharus 10y agoNormally though an additional winding on the transformer. Switch mode transformers have three or four sets of windings. The primary (high voltage), secondary (low voltage) a bootstrap winding (for the chip) and sometimes a flyback winding. The bootstrap winding takes off a variable voltage depending on the local supply and uses a linear regulator to produce the required voltage. For a better explanation than I can manage in text the EEVBlog channel goes in to all sorts of regulators and how they work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM7t1Mpu7s4&list=PLn-ZIFhWxhWpbwaHZNTBWoOmeyeVPCq_i https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM7t1Mpu7s4&list=PLn-ZIFhWxh...
- voltagex_ 10y agoHow do I know what I'm buying is safe? I've sworn by the Nexus chargers in their various incarnations and http://www.amazon.com/Charge-Charging-Station-Micro-USB-Samsung/dp/B01BBYJQ5I/ http://www.amazon.com/Charge-Charging-Station-Micro-USB-Sams... (I have a Tronsmart and an Aukey vertsion)
- yoodenvranx 10y agoI play Ingress a lot (a GPS based mobile game where you run around a lot in the real world so most players use external batteries) and at least 60-70% of the whole community uses Anker products. I personally know at a dozen people who use Anker wall plugs and all of them (including me, 1 wallplug and 2 battery packs) are very happy.
- mmanfrin 10y agoAnker and recently Aukey. And iOrange for cables. The problem is that smaller brands hit the Amazon lottery and get a lot of early 5-star reviews, then swap out their product with one made of cheaper components. I think for Anker, their brand has become a bit bigger than is gamble-able on a bait and switch, so I'm continuing to use their products.
- cm2187 10y agoNever seen a video from this guy but I love the massive beard moving at the bottom of the video when he speaks!
- reiichiroh 10y agoHmm, I've always bought Anker and occasionally bought other brands like Mpow, Oldshark (haha) and Aukey which seem like yet another rebrand from the same batch of Shenzhen factories. I know Anker has considerably more Customer Service backend and better packaging but I wonder if their products are engineered any better?
- cyounkins 10y agoGoogle engineer Benson Leung tests a bunch of USB 3.0 cables/chargers and has generally found Anker to be good. Spreadsheet of results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wJwqv3rTNmORXz-XJsQaXK1dl8I91V4-eP_sfNVNzbA/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wJwqv3rTNmORXz-XJsQa...
- DiabloD3 10y agoAs a reminder, if you're buying a USB charger or battery, or MicroUSB, Type C, or Lightning cable please buy Anker products. They are not expensive, but they are the best products you can get your hands on. I own multiple Anker products, and have never discovered anything better than these. The only non-Anker charger I currently use is the Google Nexus branded Qi charger (plugged into an Anker multiport brick), and the original Chromecast brick plugged into my Chromecast.
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoThe one thing that I can't find from Anker or any other reputable, reasonably-priced supplier (last time I checked, anyway) is a single-port charger that is small enough, horizontally and vertically, to not sprawl out onto adjacent outlets in a power strip. I don't understand why this is so hard. My first smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, came with one, but it failed within a year and Samsung wanted like $50 for a branded replacement.
- MarkyC4 10y agoI buy those little 3-inch extension cables to get around this problem.
- pinot 10y agoLike an Apple one?
- DiabloD3 10y agoThe Apple ones do not speak standard USB charging resistor ladders, thus max out at 500mA when charging non-Apple devices. On the flip side, Anker chargers speak both, and charge newer iPhones and iPads faster than that huge iPad charger does.
- DiabloD3 10y agoAnker power pins are oriented to only block one socket in a typical up/down arrangement in the older version of the product. So, my 4 port charger from them? Only uses 1 socket, and doesn't block the one above or below it. Also, their 5 and up port new and old ones don't hang off the plug, they have a short normal power cable. https://www.anker.com/products/71AN3654WS-WA https://www.anker.com/products/71AN3654WS-WA This is the one I have. Their new version of the product doesn't seem to be oriented that way anymore. So, yeah. Not quite what you were looking for, but they do exist.
- Animats 10y agoThat's scary. Not enough isolation between the line side and the output side. Classic cause of electrocution and fires. The standard for this is UL 1310, Class 2 Power Supplies. Not sure if this design complies. There's a lot to be said for split-bobbin transformers, where there's a solid plastic barrier between the two windings. This just has wire insulation and some tape.
- makomk 10y agoThe really scary thing is that as he points out, it actually seems to be designed with an apparently reasonable amount of isolation between the primary and secondary - it's just that something managed to completely abrade the insulation. Not sure if it was UL compliant as designed because their requirements for transformer construction are quite complicated, but it certainly seems plausible. He's reviewed numerous really questionable power supplies[1] with a gnat's whisker of separation between the mains and low voltage sides and much more dubious transformers, but somehow none of those actually managed to put 240 volts on the output... [1] Such as the cheap shitty pink USB charger from China: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioAq7PI1Uwg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioAq7PI1Uwg
- Animats 10y agoThe really scary thing is that as he points out, it actually seems to be designed with an apparently reasonable amount of isolation between the primary and secondary - it's just that something managed to completely abrade the insulation. That's the argument for a split bobbin. With a hard plastic wall between the two coils, in addition to the wire insulation, it's hard to get a short between both side of the transformer. Here are some split-bobbin transformers for switching power supplies on Alibaba.[1] Split-bobbin seems to add about $0.10 to the price, raising it from $0.89 to $0.99. [1] http://wholesaler.alibaba.com/product-detail/EE22-split-bobbin-transformer-for-charger_60428582199.html http://wholesaler.alibaba.com/product-detail/EE22-split-bobb...
- PhantomGremlin 10y agoSplit-bobbin seems to add about $0.10 to the price, raising it from $0.89 to $0.99. So, there it is. Good luck finding a miscreant to hold accountable if this sort of cost reduction kills someone. And even if you could hold the culprit accountable, that still can't undo the loss of life anyway. It's all just collateral damage from the race to the bottom.
- aembleton 10y agoHere, Clive looks at an Ikea USB power supply: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRe9w5PKmsE&nohtml5=False https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRe9w5PKmsE&nohtml5=False Much better made.
- mulmen 10y agoI recently discovered AvE and now bigclive. I'm not sure how I missed this particular internet rabbit hole but I love it.
- aembleton 10y agoIf you want another rabbit hole to start down, I can also recommend Techmoan. He doesn't do teardowns, but instead likes to buy old HiFi gear and reviews them. Some of them are incredibly obscure such as the Tefifon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNTAmLRmUg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNTAmLRmUg
- mulmen 10y agoThis is great, thank you!
- yoodenvranx 10y agoI just copy/paste a comment I made below: > My third goto channel for electronic stuff is EEVBlog who also does amazing stuff. If you are going to watch one teardown today then please watch his rather famous video about the worlds worst tablet computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk
- AndrewNCarr 10y agoIf you like AvE, check out This Old Tony. He is more machining focused, but he did do a clever multimeter 4/1 video.
- yoodenvranx 10y agoIf you are into machining then check out Clickspring, oxtoolco, Abom79, Keith Rucker, Keith Fenner, Shadow HKW, ... If this is not enough then go and visit this list: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtisanVideos/comments/3v264a/meta_lets_make_a_list_of_artisan_youtube_channels/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtisanVideos/comments/3v264a/meta_... (But be careful, this is the ultimate rabbit hole)
- tn13 10y agoI have always buy Amazon Basics chargers.
- serf 10y agoThis happened to me with a cheap reflow heat gun. [1] Got a nasty bite as soon as I touched it. Got what I paid for I guess. Made me rethink super-cheap AC equipment from the internet, that's for sure. [1]: www.amazon.com/Kohree-Digital-Rework-Station-Solder/dp/B00ITMPQS2
- wodenokoto 10y agogreat video. I don't know a lot about electronics, so I am left wondering two things: why did the fault not stop after i pulled out the first two components? wouldn't that break off the power circuit inside? why did the fault stop after he removed the transformer?
- cristoperb 10y agoThe first two components he removed (the filter Y-capacitor and the opto-isolator) are supposed to be open-circuit to direct current. And since they were not at fault (ie, they were not shorted), removing them from the circuit didn't change anything. The fault probably stopped after he removed the transformer because in the process of desoldering and yanking it from the board, he caused enough strain/vibration that whichever wire was shorting the primary and secondary windings moved and was no longer causing a short. That sort of intermittent fault is common in hardware, and quite annoying to debug.
- simook 10y agoHe's like the "Bob Ross" of electronics.
- hacker42 10y agoWhy does he handle the bare wires of the test lamp near the mains? Is there no risk the way he hooks it up?
- aembleton 10y agoThe wires are insulated. Yes, there is a risk but this is what he does. Check out this video for a story of a risky thing he did with a heating element and a bath (4:30 is where it really gets going): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUn17ccR2a4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUn17ccR2a4
- marshray 10y agoIf you are wondering "How could an isolation transformer ever get past QC with abraded or nicked insulation?", you might find this video interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEJn74Z3wHk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEJn74Z3wHk
- LeifCarrotson 10y agoYou can still run those through a bed-of-nails tester to verify insulation, continuity, and pinout.
- marshray 10y agoYeah, that will catch a lot of direct shorts and opens but some problems just don't show up until the device has been thermally cycled and baked in for a few thousand hours of usage. It's also possible that there was another problem in the circuit which caused overheating in the transformer.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- digi_owl 10y agoThe cost of us wanting everything cheaper, and yesterday...
- drauh 10y agoThat seems sped up, like a 1920s movie.
- akurilin 10y agoI've had a portable Bluetooth speaker blow up in my bedroom a couple of years ago while charging. Something malfunctioned in the battery section. The only reason that didn't set the building on fire was that I was right next to the speaker when it burst into flames. My immediate reaction was to assume my SO playing a really unfortunate firecracker prank on me, but half a second later it was obvious it was the speaker's fault. Turns out batteries can make pretty flames and a lot of fairly unpleasant smoke. To this day, still can't believe how lucky I was to be right next to it with a pillow as it blew up. The company was kind enough to send us their top of the line product for the incident, in exchange for the faulty unit (for them to study) and a written agreement to not take em to court. Still pretty uncomfortable around charging devices with batteries to this day, but the reality is that it's unavoidable and there's no point in developing a phobia about it.
- dom96 10y agoAren't there legal tests that any appliance which plugs into the mains must pass? I'm surprised this kind of thing is possible, but I guess not performing such tests cuts costs.
- InclinedPlane 10y agoThere's so much forgery of UL and other certification marks and so little enforcement or punishment for doing so that you can't rely on them.
- alex_hitchins 10y agoSometimes even large well trusted companies get fake products shipped to them. I think EEVBlog highlighted this with the FTDI case. People were buying what they thought were authentic FTDI chips (and paying the proper price) but being delivered fakes that then went on to be bricked by the driver update. There is so much margin in swapping good stuff with dreadfull stuff there are several points in the procurement chain where people can try their luck passing off crap.
- jhallenworld 10y agoHeh, ground fault interrupters should probably be required on every circuit.
- duskwuff 10y agoThat only works if the device is grounded, and the fault is to ground. Neither is the case here. :(
- makomk 10y agoThe most likely danger with this fault is that someone would touch both the live device and ground, causing a path to ground. This would cause any RCD to trip. It's obvious that whoever owned this didn't have one installed because even the cable shorting to a grounded radiator didn't cause a trip.
- ratfacemcgee 10y agooh man i don't even need to click, i know its big clive! i spent all of saturday watching his videos holy shit there are some dangerous products on the market!
- jklp 10y agoNot sure if HN knows about Mehdi Sadaghdar's (aka ElectroBOOM's) YouTube channel, which is somewhat similar - but takes a more lighthearted view on electronics. E.g. Compare Big Clive's mention of a full bridge rectifier in the video vs Mehdi's YouTube video of the same thing :) https://youtu.be/sI5Ftm1-jik https://youtu.be/sI5Ftm1-jik
- Renaud 10y agoBoth channels are pretty funny in their own way. While BigClive churns out a lot more videos and is more eclectic, Mehdi's ElectroBOOM is clearly more comedic.
- yitchelle 10y agoI love this guy. His skids are like slap stick for the makers. However, on the serious side, I wish that he would publish a complementary video showing the real story of what he is doing. My kids would watch his videos, and then run off the find the bits to do exactly what he did. Hmm..Luckily I was there to let them know of the real consequences.
- Eupolemos 10y agoAh, yes - the FULL BRIDGE rectifier-man :D
- hatsunearu 10y agoMan, I know I shouldn't have taken his videos seriously, but I got a little careless playing with my Nixie Tube Clock project with 170Vdc on it, thinking that it wouldn't hurt me. It hurt A LOT. Granted, my hand was wet a little, but man it fucking hurt.
- otsdr 10y agoI much prefer Clive's joke-to-useful info ratio.
- userbinator 10y agoSeeing the wire damage reminded me of this Boeing 787 fire... http://asndata.aviation-safety.net/reports/2013/20130712-0_B788_ET-AOP.pdf http://asndata.aviation-safety.net/reports/2013/20130712-0_B... ...caused by a battery short resulting from the two wires being trapped against the case and eventually the insulation abrading through when subject to vibration. Even the highly regulated aviation industry isn't immune to simple defects like these.
- lips 10y agoApple chargers, USB-C... When will Amazon offer a hardware fault bounty?
- christogreeff 10y agoI love the simplicity of and the humor in the Big Clive videos. The methylated spirits video was quite... hilarious. DO NOT try this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep2I3Gf3Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep2I3Gf3Sec
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- leoc 10y agoGot your Power Delivery right here.
- basicplus2 10y agoA true isolation transformer has an earthed copper shield wound in between and physically separating the primary from secondary windings, anything less is unsafe. One of the many reasons I detest "double insulated" equipment, as it is impossible to determine if it has been designed for safety or not without ripping it apart and destroying it. This is a real issue in Australia as our regulators do no regulating and most equipment I have investigated does not comply with Australian Standards even though manufacturers lie and put standards compliance numbers on them. Also the Australian Standards should be considered an absolute Minimum not "super safe".
- mavhc 10y agoDoes the Australian Standards body require that devices are sent to them for testing? Then there could be a database you could check as to whether a device has passed.
- basicplus2 10y agotechnically yes.. but it is not enforced
- basicplus2 10y agoI should also add that if you are an Australian manufacturer, you have to submit your product for testing for design compliance and you won't last long if you dont, but importers can import anything with none, yet another impediment to Australian manufacturing.
- eterm 10y agoIf you're worried you can order 2 at the same time and then rip one of them apart. It's an expensive solution but it should give peace of mind.
- krisoft 10y agoBut would it give peace of mind really? Right in the linked video. It would seem the widget is properly designed, it has a thick separation gap between the two sides on the pcb. It would seem, that you could test 10 of these and they are all fine, and the 11th kills you. Or is that transformer design obviously unsafe?
- wiml 10y agoQuestion for the knowledgeable: why did one of the insulation layers have some metal foil in it? He commented on it as he was unwinding it, as if it was a little odd but not completely bizarre.
- Houshalter 10y agoI get that tingly feeling when I hold my ipod after plugging it into the wall through a usb adapter. It's given me a minor shock once I think. That's very interesting.
- gargravarr 10y agoThe scary part is most of us would plug our phones into one of these chargers without thinking there'd be any more than 5 volts at the output. Best case - destroyed phone. Worst case - fire or electric shock.
- oxplot 10y agoFinally a possible explanation [1] as to why Apple chargers (USB and laptop) give you tingles when touching the metal casing of the device they're plugged into. Would love to know if the mentioned capacitor is indeed the reason and whether it leads to enough efficiency to justify the scare it causes with first time customers. [1]: https://youtu.be/3Hdn0MuCK_0?t=2m14s https://youtu.be/3Hdn0MuCK_0?t=2m14s