Page 1 of How good is your USB charger?

Not quite as interesting (or remotely scary) as how likely is this cheap charger you bought off ebay from China to kill you, but still interesting!

http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html


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I'm not Geeky enough, or clever enough, to read the whole thing but a rough look seems to say that cheap sh*t is just that and the old adage that you get what you pay for holds true.

Snaps

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My new Flash Fiction blog. All my own work
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I used to be with it, but then they changed what `it` was.
Now, what I`m with isn`t it, and what`s `it` seems weird and scary

Your rough look pretty much tells you what you need to know.

One thing it didn't really cover too much, which applies heavily to cheap and nasty USB chargers, is the lack of isolation between high and low voltage sides, and poor (if any) spark gaps.

To save you googling, if they fail the 5V DC coming out of the end can be more like 220V AC. At best that will fry your components, at worst it'll fry you.

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The company I work for recently rebranded and as part of that it decided to give every employee a portable USB recharger. A few days after doing so they had to recall them all because they were overheating to the point of being dangerous. Moral of the story, when buying super-cheap Chinese USB chargers for your staff spend the extra 5-p to get the ones that don't melt. Not one of the more sensible uses of the marketing budget...







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Quote:
Rob Shepherd says...
"Your rough look pretty much tells you what you need to know."
I have to confess the one thing it did make me realise is there's an awful lot going on in one of those things.
Ignorant me assumed it was just a plug with a basic bit of gubbins to switch 240 mains to whatever is needed out the other end.
You may gather whatever electrics I ever did in school has long been forgotten.

Just on that if anyone knows an online 'Electrics for idiots' for us two syllable old farts I'd be interested.


Snaps

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My new Flash Fiction blog. All my own work
500ish

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I used to be with it, but then they changed what `it` was.
Now, what I`m with isn`t it, and what`s `it` seems weird and scary

Quote:
Snaps says...
"Just on that if anyone knows an online 'Electrics for idiots' for us two syllable old farts I'd be interested."
Youtube covers everything you may ever want to know. Here is a great starting point:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Afrotechmods


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This item was edited on Tuesday, 22nd March 2016, 14:26

Thanks.
Work now but I'll have a wade through that when I get back.

Snaps

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My new Flash Fiction blog. All my own work
500ish

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I used to be with it, but then they changed what `it` was.
Now, what I`m with isn`t it, and what`s `it` seems weird and scary

I'm looking to buy my niece a portable USB charger and noticed that 90% of the brands on amazon selling these are all new to me!

When I go to the Belkin brand I recognise it's £50 which is considerably more than the cheapest!

Question is, what's the sweet spot for cost that balances quality/safety and VFM?

I don't think you need to spend £50, when you say portable USB charger what do you mean? Throw a link to a few things that you like the look of!

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She has an iPhone and also a MiFi dongle as my sister doesn't have broadband in her house.  It's just something to keep in her school bag, mostly for emergencies, but if she does a day trip away or a session in the library it would be nice if it could keep the MiFi going and also give the phone a charge or two.

The Jackery would be great if it was 10,000mAh...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poweradd-Dual-Port-Portable-Tablets-Silver-Lightning/dp/B00J03VYXK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480065998&sr=8-1&keywords=portable+powerbank&tag=myrev09-21

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Certified-Jackery-Portable-External-Lightning/dp/B01A6L85CC/ref=s9_simh_gw_g23_i2_r?_encoding=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=EHDNDX10R95V9EYKGRWN&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=16f14aeb-bd11-4e9e-8c26-9ca0139074ee&pf_rd_i=desktop&tag=myrev09-21


Cheers
Ross