5 ms·

I think this justifies my habit of buying Anker chargers. They're expensive but seem decently engineered. If they were cost-cutting, they wouldn't have 2 temp

by rwmj 1y ago

I think this justifies my habit of buying Anker chargers. They're expensive but seem decently engineered. If they were cost-cutting, they wouldn't have 2 temperature sensors, input filtering, properly rated & branded components, etc. Even if this one failed, it seems to have failed safe. Also the transformer manufactured from a multi-layer PCB is pretty wild [about 20 mins into the video], I've never seen that before.

progbits 1y ago
Indeed, this is way different than the cheap aliexpress stuff bigclive usually tears down, where 1mm track clearance separates you from death by mains voltage. You do get what you pay for.
- londons_explore 1y ago
  I would be interested to know - has anyone ever died when a consumer charger becomes faulty and connects the AC to the DC side?
  - rwmj 1y ago
    Lots of cases where cheap chargers cause house fires. Whether that's specifically because the AC & DC sides were connected would be hard to tell after the fact. https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=house+fire+charger&d=HOMEPAGE_PS https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=house+fire+charger&d=HOMEPAGE...
    - makeitdouble 1y ago
      We have no idea if they were cheap. Too many people assume that just paying more will get them quality, that's far from guaranteed, and opens the way to so many scams.
- rft 1y ago
  DiodeGoneWild also has quite some of those: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfUGOPyKWwiriWhjmdtvjBw_J7X_X5OnU https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfUGOPyKWwiriWhjmdtvj... The worst has to be the charger without any isolation between mains and output: https://youtu.be/qTpVhNCot3Y?t=81 https://youtu.be/qTpVhNCot3Y?t=81 Edit: just to make it obvious, check the upload date for the second link
- tgsovlerkhgsel 1y ago
  You often do get cheap when you pay cheap, but paying more doesn't guarantee that you don't get the same cheap thing with a different brand on it. Unfortunately at least two of the popular known-to-be-good brands, Aukey and RavPower, misbehaved in ways that got them banned from Amazon (IIRC fake reviews). IIRC Anker also had some scandal, recall or exploding product or other reason why I stopped trusting them (in addition to the Eufy scandal, where they released a supposedly privacy-friendly/local-only/e2ee camera that was everything but that, then lied about it for months when caught).
amelius 1y ago
On the other hand, the guy said "bloody complicated", and that's not a good sign.
- hnlmorg 1y ago
  Complicated designs are neither a good nor bad sign. Sometimes complicated designs are just the result of solving complicated problems. And USB-C is anything but simple.
  - amelius 1y ago
    If you have ten types of charger, all of them working fine, and one of them is 10x as complicated as the others, then that's at least a bit suspicious, since more components means more opportunities to fail.
    - npteljes 1y ago
      Could also mean more insurance. In case nothing happens, insurance complexity seems overprotection, but when something happens, nothing is too much for people to get back whatever value is lost.
      - amelius 1y ago
        Insurance can also break and take down the rest of the circuit.
        hnlmorg 1y ago
        Only if the circuit is designed by amateurs.
    - rwmj 1y ago
      Firstly you can have extra components (like the temperature sensors in this Anker supply) that monitor other components, and will shut down the power supply in case of an anomalous condition. Secondly for most circuits, most of the time, you can simply leave out components and the circuit will continue to work, at least on the happy path. For example take a typical PC motherboard, snip off some of the capacitors, and chances are that it'll still work. Big Clive has examples of very cost-reduced circuits where components are simply not mounted - there are even pads on the PCB for them, they appear in the reference design, but the manufacturer didn't include them, and the device will appear to work until it suddenly doesn't.
1oooqooq 1y ago
the video is a total joke for people with any clue. yes, Anker throw the kitchen sink at problems, but not for quality. their only metric is reviews. so now warming up is much more important than working after two months, etc. the cherry is the top port receiving 5v that will then go to the negotiated c ports i don't know why you took it as an endorsement

by rwmj 1y ago

progbits 1y ago

Indeed, this is way different than the cheap aliexpress stuff bigclive usually tears down, where 1mm track clearance separates you from death by mains voltage. You do get what you pay for.

londons_explore 1y ago
I would be interested to know - has anyone ever died when a consumer charger becomes faulty and connects the AC to the DC side?
- rwmj 1y ago
  Lots of cases where cheap chargers cause house fires. Whether that's specifically because the AC & DC sides were connected would be hard to tell after the fact. https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=house+fire+charger&d=HOMEPAGE_PS https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=house+fire+charger&d=HOMEPAGE...
  - makeitdouble 1y ago
    We have no idea if they were cheap. Too many people assume that just paying more will get them quality, that's far from guaranteed, and opens the way to so many scams.
rft 1y ago
DiodeGoneWild also has quite some of those: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfUGOPyKWwiriWhjmdtvjBw_J7X_X5OnU https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfUGOPyKWwiriWhjmdtvj... The worst has to be the charger without any isolation between mains and output: https://youtu.be/qTpVhNCot3Y?t=81 https://youtu.be/qTpVhNCot3Y?t=81 Edit: just to make it obvious, check the upload date for the second link
tgsovlerkhgsel 1y ago
You often do get cheap when you pay cheap, but paying more doesn't guarantee that you don't get the same cheap thing with a different brand on it. Unfortunately at least two of the popular known-to-be-good brands, Aukey and RavPower, misbehaved in ways that got them banned from Amazon (IIRC fake reviews). IIRC Anker also had some scandal, recall or exploding product or other reason why I stopped trusting them (in addition to the Eufy scandal, where they released a supposedly privacy-friendly/local-only/e2ee camera that was everything but that, then lied about it for months when caught).

amelius 1y ago

On the other hand, the guy said "bloody complicated", and that's not a good sign.

hnlmorg 1y ago
Complicated designs are neither a good nor bad sign. Sometimes complicated designs are just the result of solving complicated problems. And USB-C is anything but simple.
- amelius 1y ago
  If you have ten types of charger, all of them working fine, and one of them is 10x as complicated as the others, then that's at least a bit suspicious, since more components means more opportunities to fail.
  - npteljes 1y ago
    Could also mean more insurance. In case nothing happens, insurance complexity seems overprotection, but when something happens, nothing is too much for people to get back whatever value is lost.
    - amelius 1y ago
      Insurance can also break and take down the rest of the circuit.
      - hnlmorg 1y ago
        Only if the circuit is designed by amateurs.
  - rwmj 1y ago
    Firstly you can have extra components (like the temperature sensors in this Anker supply) that monitor other components, and will shut down the power supply in case of an anomalous condition. Secondly for most circuits, most of the time, you can simply leave out components and the circuit will continue to work, at least on the happy path. For example take a typical PC motherboard, snip off some of the capacitors, and chances are that it'll still work. Big Clive has examples of very cost-reduced circuits where components are simply not mounted - there are even pads on the PCB for them, they appear in the reference design, but the manufacturer didn't include them, and the device will appear to work until it suddenly doesn't.

1oooqooq 1y ago

the video is a total joke for people with any clue. yes, Anker throw the kitchen sink at problems, but not for quality. their only metric is reviews. so now warming up is much more important than working after two months, etc. the cherry is the top port receiving 5v that will then go to the negotiated c ports i don't know why you took it as an endorsement