Crappy PSU analysis

Pulling apart a too-cheap-to-be-true PSU. Guess what... it was too cheap.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• teardown
• usb
• hub
• dangerous

[AintBigAintClever]

I'd recommend changing the video title to include the brand name. My scathing review of Maplin's shitbox jump starters shows up as a recommended video when you view their own jumpstarter advert, nice :)

[mikeselectricstuff]

@AintBigAintClever Problem is stuff like this often goes under multiple names, and I wouldn't be surprised if many different hubs use the same junk PSU.

[AntiProtonBoy]

surely this does not pass any safety certification in your country.

[mikeselectricstuff]

@AntiProtonBoy Almost certainly not, but safety regs don't usually cover whether anything actually works properly.

[evhgl87]

wow. just wow. do you have any made in germany/uk/usa boards to show how its done correctly?

[mikeselectricstuff]

@evhgl87 I doubt anyone makes mains adapters outside China these days - there are plenty of perfectly good Chinese ones out there. I always pull apart any Chinese mains stuff to check safety.

[charleswolfman]

"lets carefully remove the ferrite core." *WHAM!*

Love the vid.

[BeJ95]

The way you removed that ferrite was very "photonicinduction style" :)

[rocketman221projects]

Why not just put a voltage divider in there, it would work better. What a bunch of cheap made in china crap!

[randacnam7321]

@ForViewingOnly Without a specific standard the real CE mark could refer to ANYTHING concerning the device it marks.

The Chicoms use this crap as industrial warfare. They use our useful idiots to destroy our real economy (read: making things) with regulations and undercut whatever is left with ultra cheap crap like this. And China's reputation with regards to equipment quality is already shot.

[nikomo0]

You have no idea how sick I feel because of watching this video.

The fact that someone on this planet, is willing to build something like that, let alone sell it, makes me sick.

[DoubleM55]

Imagine plugging your $300 hard drive, not to mention valuable data on it, and than losing all of it because you saved a few bucks on this cheap hub... I would feel very stupid :)

[scopeboyr00lz]

Over on 4hv.org we always wondered how these things managed to work with just one transistor. I see the answer is "they don't" :) Great video!

[ssj3gohan456]

This is actually slightly better in some respect than what I found roughly half a year ago

ssj3gohan.tweakblogs. net/blog/6487/een-adapter-van-­$4-is-het-wat.html

That PSU had iron filings or clippings inside and maybe 1mm creepage, as well as absolutely fake ground connection (the ground connection was tucked very near to high voltage lead from the primary cap), plus the obligatory ridiculous output noise. Lots of fun with these things.

[parp12345]

One layer of sellotape seperating the mains winding from the low voltage winding - scary!

[HB45175]

@ForViewingOnly It's actually not even a CE mark (the separation between C and E is too small), that is the China Export mark.

[ForViewingOnly]

... Does the CE mark actually mean anything nowadays when it is just two printed letters that anybody can print on an item?

I also wonder, does the Chinese government condemn or condone the production of fakes in their own country? After all, fakes will ruin the country's reputation. Maybe they don't care and are happy to take the money?

All these thoughts aside, thanks for an interesting teardown video.

[ForViewingOnly]

Interesting video. I'm really concerned about the dodgy cheap electronics coming out of China. I bought a Samsung phone charger on eBay a few months ago and wondered why the eBay listings kept saying "genuine Samsung product". Now I've seen the 'Fake Britain' TV program I really don't know how we can trust any cheap electronics sold on eBay. Reading reviews of 'genuine' iPod PSUs on Amazon (Marketplace sellers) shows that some of these PSUs have actually popped/exploded! Scary stuff!...