3 ms·

I don't buy it either, the charger cable would melt instantly or the usb port would explode. I'm reminded of an article I read way back about a teenage boy who

by jbob2000 9y ago

I don't buy it either, the charger cable would melt instantly or the usb port would explode. I'm reminded of an article I read way back about a teenage boy who had committed suicide. Except it wasn't suicide - he died of auto-erotic asphyxiation. But no family will let that be written in the papers (at least, not immediately) so they went with the story that he hung himself and was depressed. There was another story recently of a girl who electrocuted herself in the bath when she dropped her phone into the water while it was plugged in. I was skeptical of that as well - who wants to tell people their child committed suicide by taking a toaster in the bath? Best just say it was the cellphone. I don't blame the parents if this is their cover up.

klodolph 9y ago
Why would the charger cable melt? Is this your intuitive guess here, or are you basing this on your understanding of electrical engineering? It takes 100 to 200 mA to kill someone. A typical charger would put out 1,000 mA in normal operation. Heating follows P = I^2 R law, so it should be obvious that you can kill someone without melting your USB cable. The problem here is with putting a high voltage through the USB cable, which might damage the cable since it's not designed for such a high voltage, but even the small amount of insulation in a USB cable can be enough that the attached person will die before the cable fails.
- kec 9y ago
  Amperage kills you, but it takes voltage to get to your heart first. 5VDC across your body's resistance (somewhere around 1MΩ in normal conditions) is nowhere near enough current to feel, let alone harm you.
  - klodolph 9y ago
    Right, and the charger is plugged into the wall which provides 220VAC. The cheap chargers are unsafe because they don't have enough clearance between the high voltage and low voltage sides of the circuit, so the isolation can fail and energize the USB port with 220VAC, for example. This is a well-known failure mode of cheap phone chargers, and it should be obvious why these shortcuts are illegal in most countries. Teardowns of cheap USB chargers online explain what I'm talking about, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE
pythonboi 9y ago
The story about the girl in the bathtub was filled with a lot of rumors. In the end, the girl may have touched a frayed electrical cord after she dropped the phone in the tub. Electroboom has a video of him explaining this likely cause on his Youtube. I would link it but Youtube is blocked at work.

klodolph 9y ago

Why would the charger cable melt? Is this your intuitive guess here, or are you basing this on your understanding of electrical engineering? It takes 100 to 200 mA to kill someone. A typical charger would put out 1,000 mA in normal operation. Heating follows P = I^2 R law, so it should be obvious that you can kill someone without melting your USB cable. The problem here is with putting a high voltage through the USB cable, which might damage the cable since it's not designed for such a high voltage, but even the small amount of insulation in a USB cable can be enough that the attached person will die before the cable fails.

kec 9y ago
Amperage kills you, but it takes voltage to get to your heart first. 5VDC across your body's resistance (somewhere around 1MΩ in normal conditions) is nowhere near enough current to feel, let alone harm you.
- klodolph 9y ago
  Right, and the charger is plugged into the wall which provides 220VAC. The cheap chargers are unsafe because they don't have enough clearance between the high voltage and low voltage sides of the circuit, so the isolation can fail and energize the USB port with 220VAC, for example. This is a well-known failure mode of cheap phone chargers, and it should be obvious why these shortcuts are illegal in most countries. Teardowns of cheap USB chargers online explain what I'm talking about, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE

pythonboi 9y ago

The story about the girl in the bathtub was filled with a lot of rumors. In the end, the girl may have touched a frayed electrical cord after she dropped the phone in the tub. Electroboom has a video of him explaining this likely cause on his Youtube. I would link it but Youtube is blocked at work.