Dangerous USB phone chargers
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Today, let's examine some USB chargers. Most of them are generic (read: fake). Such chargers may be quite dodgy. They can cause a fire or an electric shock and electrocution death. But there are also some good ones. I've accumulated a lot of those chargers, so I decided to put multiple of them in one video.
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"I don't want to scare people, but sometimes it's better to be scared than dead"
AHAHAHAH, YOU ARE THE NUMER ONE !!!
Especially at 3:16 ... the fuse is actually the device you're connecting to this doggy charger.... it's very "Dangeruuuus!" lol
NUMER ONE !!!
I love how your cat interrupts you sometimes
😃 my feline fellows
Ginger Kitty Project
This isn’t related to the comment but I love ginger kitties too! I have one named Todd.
Cannot beat a good pussy!
>;o)
The old ones are the best!
I think he is recording on his cat bed
@@mrkitty777 Greetings.
4:17 :D love that "dodgy or not" Format, your conclution is very funny :D
old diodegonewild style. yay:)
back to 80s?
so..... he need more *SALT?*
@@hyzadhanafi7419 even more salt
I so much enjoy your videos. Thank you for taking the time to make content for us to watch!
Also his videos are very educational and he is making us careful about safety.
@@FaysalKhalashi yeah!
I have added the word Dodgy to my vocabulary.
Wild idea: What if you made transparent cases standard for these, so that we could see inside without having to disassemble them? (Provided the label is placed where it won't hide anything critical.) Of course this wouldn't tell anything to people without the electrical knowledge, and some flaws would remain hidden, but I suppose it'd be something… (In Australia, many rewireable mains plugs have transparent covers, so that correct polarity can be verified without disassembly.)
This would be a very good idea!
I love how we are now relieved and satisfied to see a layer of sticky tape between primary and secondary in a smps transformer :D
in an old linear transformer supply the two windings would be completely separate but now a piece of tape means yep, they went the extra mile for our safety
For high frequency transformers the kind of physical isolation you mention is not an option. All international standards that I know of accept 3 layers of tape (not ordinary stcky tape) as a suitable barrier "through insulation" but they also require a clear creepage distance between primary and secondary of at least 6.4mm or 8.0mm for the German standards. The same creepage distance that applies on the PCB between primary and secondary circuits.
While this video found some better power supplies I don't think he found even one that actually meets safety requirements. It is a sad thing when all you can hope for is a thing less crappy than the alternatives. ;-)
@@smbd2010 টঁধঁ
ঠ
lol yeah
And this is why I use my $0.99 charger on a $500 isolation transformer.
Lol 😂
Still a good house burner
I think the charger labeled "Origianl" is a near clone using compatible chips.
Yes, that is a clone, it would have probably been a Samsung that they just copied and called it Origianl :p
7:19 Fantastic, it's a transformer with absolutely no isolation! The lacquer on the wires is only 0.05 mm thick at best, which is not meant for isolating the mains.
I absolutely love any video of yours with the word "dangerous" in it's tiltle. It's a guarantee the video will be intresting. Keep up your great work!
The way he said: "Nice" is really nice... 😍😍😍
Expression is super: 07:20 "Bloddy hell! You must be kidding me guys!"
Of course, there's no isolation in the transformer!
Excellent video, well done and good explanation. Professionally I have designed a number of off line SMPS and looked into a few chargers as you have done and I was horrified by what I found. Thank you for making the video and for helping make this issue public knowledge.
Phenomenal video. Great job once again. Too bad non tech folks will not watch this.
I love how the Origianl one proved to be actually nice while the nice looking ones were dodgy :)))
So true. BTW: The black Samsung charger is definitely a FAKE. The model number is epta10eWe. The W stands for white. AND THE POWER SUPPLY IS BLACK
A long time ago, I bought a cheap (4$) charger that is supposedly a Quickcharge one, has two USB 3.0 outputs. I had more expensive chargers that got "tired" in less than half a year but this one just keeps on going..
I love the (super dodgy !!! ☠) decal,
you can make shirts of this, and
make some money.
i would buy merch from him....
@@pdavidp4563 what you mean? I WILL buy it! Not Would
BTW: The black Samsung charger is definitely a FAKE. The model number is EPTA10EWE. The W stands for white. AND THE POWER SUPPLY IS BLACK.
I would buy a shirt
I only use my dodgy chargers on 120V so I'm twice as safe. LOL. Very informative post. Thanx.
i dont think 120V is any better xD
120 V is not safe. Americans think it is and there are horrible number of deaths as a result.
Great video! I posted a few videos on a USB charger that I bought years ago which used just a single TO-92 transistor with no optocoupler or even a primary-to-secondary interference suppression cap. It also only used a half-wave rectifier. The voltage regulation was not great (4.5V under load, 5.8V no-load), but not as bad as one might think. The downside of it was the output current, as it could only supply about 300mA max.
Great video as always; it's always fun to see inside some of those sketchy cheap USB power supplies.
Your adorable cat is like the icing on the cake; it makes a good video truly great!
Can I have a DODGY shirt? Or DODGY ringtone even with your original voice?
@Alex Tarasov dodgy stickers? You mean with phenol? 😂
Thank You for Your warning and explanation!
I've seen some of these knockoff iPhone chargers in a local shop and they were dirt cheap. Told my friend that was with me to watch out for fake ones because they are deadly.
I don't know what it is, but there's just something about your Czech accent…
dodgy!
Czech or Indian ?
@@MrSamsyria Czech, he's not Indian lmao
It just triggers me ah
in first 10 seconds I thought it was intentional...
There is no interference filter, no inrush resistor, no proper fuse. There just a diode, which is gone wild. That's nice!
Thank you very much for this video which I am sure will save lives! Thank you for all these videos you make, I appreciate them and I follow you very regularly! Continue like this. Thank you !
This is an important video. I have disassembled several chargers bought at local local stores and every one of them was unsafe. In addition to shock risk they can start fires. These things are everywhere and often left plugged in all the time. We need to spread the word.
My main takeaway here is, non-IC power supplies can supply up to 800mA. Any more and you need the chip.
Also, the board in that 9V/500mA looks like a repurposed USB circuit. Even has a place for the USB port.
This doesn't have to be a rule. I have seen old power supplies in CRT monitors, they were about 50W and still made of just 2 or 3 transistors, no chip.
A lot of switching power supplies are repurposed. It's easier to reuse an existing design and board layout and just change few capacitors, resistive divider and number of turns of the secondary winding.
@@DiodeGoneWild True. I should have clarified. I meant specifically with these cheap USB power supplies. You can always beef up the non-IC design with more power transistors, but there's only so much room you have in a tiny USB charger case. :)
Very beautiful cat! I am so addicted to your channel and always hope to see your cat and maybe learn something.
I had a counterfeit Samsung charger which said "Made in Vietnam Сделано в Китае"
Translation: Made in China
I never buy USB chargers off the internet. I never buy mains powered appliances off the internet. In fact, I only use chargers that come from reliable name brand stores and show UL labels. Problem avoided. (Apple and IKEA are good, not cheap, but what is your life worth.)
@si Markeyan Not so. I bought two chargers from IKEA, and took one apart. It was of very high quality, not like the internet cheapies. Apple chargers are the best; buy directly from an Apple store and you will not get a counterfeit.
your videos on safety are actually very educational, well done and thank you.
My accent is totally gone after this video. I can taaalk veeery veeery straangee noow.
Great video! Lots of useful information. Chargers are usually easy to open and a quick look can save a life. Thank you!
I love the afterword. Thank you for the awareness spreading.
Dodgy ones all seem to have either dry joints right off, or poor joins that will be dry very soon, along with them all using the solder joints to be mechanical holding for the sockets.
For two of the chargers, you say that they are nice without checking the isolation of the transformer...
Because he wants to use them after teardown?
I'm wonder if those charges are cause of fire, here in the US because a lot of houses use carpets. Thanks for all your videos, I really learn from you.
Wow, you're like a musical Big Clive. Awesome! :D
This reminds me that I have one charger that is not original, my notebook "dell" charger. Will surely open it and take a peek to see if it is safe!
Mauro Sans just measure the output voltage. The original one is always had stable voltage and had voltage tolerance +_ 1%
Confirmed. The communication charger is using the Qualcomm Quick Charge. I searched for the datasheet. It gave me a page of chargers and devices supported.
It is version 2.0 quick charge.
EXCELLENT VIDEO. I have got a few small shocks of these kind of power supplies. I measures 80v between earth and the USB socket. Seems to be common on many of these PSU's. Something to do with the interference capacitors they use. Maybe you could see if this is right
Thankyou for uploading videos again i really love all your videos
Just two decent ones out of that lot.
The lack of winding isolation frightens me more than the flash over gap.
if i had to use a dodgy one i would connect the phone to the charger and BEFORE pluging it in to the wall socket turn the socket off.
Then turn the socket on, no touching anything else.
When charged turn the socket off.
I'm sorry but you are not going to get ridd of me, that's a threat :)
Certain people hate cheap multimeters due to lack of protection, i have never had even one explode or kill me, i think lol.
Yes, I also wonder how they can make the transformers like this and have a good sleep. They are probably hand made by very cheap uneducated workers (maybe seamstresses?) who just loosely follow some instructions and don't even know that electricity flow through those "strings". When I have to use my phone on a charger, I stay away from anything grounded. I use a good charger, but I do this subconsciously.
I have made a couple of analogue old school chargers. Using a REAL mains transformer split bobbin. 100% isolated and earthed. Followed by a 5 volt regulator and good smoothing. You probably could use this in your bath (not recommended however!!) Not as portable as some but at least I will probably live to tell the tail.
With so many rules and regulations on most of the objects in our daily life, it amazes me that so much deadly stuff is allowed to be sold in the UK
If YOU import items into the country it is YOU who are responsible. It is not practical for anyone else to open the millions of packages that arrive every month, examine the contents, and conduct electrical inspections and tests. Unless of course you want ALL private imports to be banned.
It is not permitted for retail shops, mail order companies, or other suppliers in the U.K. to supply any electrical item that does not meet the U.K. electrical safety requirements. It is a similar situation in other other first world countries.
@@Mark1024MAK thanks for the reply. I've purchased off eBay and the product started to smoke so I was lucky to be on hand to turn it off. I had my money refunded but I don't think they'd pay for a new house. The C E mark is not a safety mark only China export I found out. Certainly buyers beware.
Jeff Cole - Fake products and unauthorised look alike products often are marked with or described by lies, misleading descriptions and copied trade marks, copied certification marks and similar. All of which are meaningless and are only there to help make the items look good.
Jeff Cole - just to see how bad some power supply units / adaptors / chargers were, I bought some from eBay some years back. I deliberately went for some of the cheapest. All with pins suitable for the standard U.K. three pin sockets. And all being sold on eBay.co.uk in our currency (£’s).
Construction quality inside the units was terrible. Just like some of the units in Diode’s video, there were multiple problems. Poor quality components. Inconsistent values of the capacitors - from the same seller, the lower power unit had higher capacity capacitors than the higher power unit! Either the Y class safety capacitor was completely missing, or it was a normal non-safety capacitor. Cheap PCB. Mains wires that could touch the low voltage output circuitry if they came loose from the solder pads on the PCB. Nowhere near the minimum required isolation clearance between mains voltage circuits and the low voltage output circuitry. No fuse, no inrush limiting resistor and no interference filter components. Poor quality transformer. Case screws that were so small that one knock and the cover could come off. Basically, they had been made as cheaply as possible.
Fun fact it's not allowed. But somehow nobody stops the guys who sell these here locally. These dodgy charcheres can be ordered via Alibaba directly from China in packages of 50 or 100 units, for less than 1 $ per unit. So it's probably relatively fast money to sell them for 10 to 15 £/€ per unit on Ebay or Amazon Marketplace.
Maybe let's teardown old Siemens, Nokia, Samsung, Alcatel etc. chargers? It is easy to open and quite interesting, and maybe copies of old Nokia chargers which if I remember was sometimes very bad... I had one copy of Nokia 7250i, 3310, 3510, ... charger which was giving shock when touching phone connector.
Your magnetic screwdriver holder seems to magnetize screwdrivers. A tiny piece of metal in the first supply is just wanting to drop somewhere to short something.
I tend to inspect all chinese supplies or mains equipment. There are good ones too but the cheapest ones are usually dodgy or pure dangerous. If cannot inspect them yourself, it is safer to stick with reputable distibutors and reputable products.
Making those tiny transformers is a pain. At one time I needed small transformers and keeping the insulation distance and getting it tiny at the same time is not too easy. I used 2mm gap (ie. 4mm in total for creeping around the insulation) and extra insulation for wires coming from the side. All that makes the transformer quite a bit larger quickly. Smaller gap and potting is probably the only way to way if you really need them tiny.
Just want to say, these safety points are important. A lightning strike near my home sent a voltage spike into my home into my usb charger, down through the usb cable, into my cell phone, and into my hands giving me a zap that felt like I touched mains line momentarily.
I was lucky that it wasn't worse, and arguably, I shouldn't have handled anything plugged in during a lightning storm. Maybe I put too much trust into suge suppressors. The phone survived but the charger was litterally smoked. I didn't do autopsy but suspect that a narrow isolation gap contributed to sending mains voltage down the USB cable.
I Think You should make this into a series. For example people send You couple things to review , You see how it looks and works, then Deicide - dodgy or not. You could throw in some explaining as well, just to let us know how it actually should work.
I have a test probe like you showed at the end of the video, which I bought from a "discount shop" for about $2. I only use it to test for "mains voltage present", by holding the tip near an insulated wire I suspect is live. I never trusted it to actually touch live wires, it is supposed to be able to show voltages. It has an LCD which works but no internal battery. A range of resistors are connected from the tip to the LCD. There are two "touch" points, which I think work in some way by "capacitance". I look forward to your opinions on this tool.
PS - The tip looks like a screwdriver, but mine doesn't look strong enough to use in any serious way.
Original phone charger is safest. Thx for an entertaining video.
there's is no oem samsung charger in this video, but counterpart of samsung adaptive charger at near end of the video is very nice, the different maybe just no load power consumption, on oem is very efficient.
0:06 what a way to start a video!😂😂
I like this episode!
I wish most of your videos where this long with this many items! :-)
Chargers you can buy: Aukey's Quick Charge enabled chargers, Hama chargers (Germany or close proximity), FRIWO, and of course the original ones from your phone or device manufacturer.
Here’s a handy hint with the genuine apple chargers: they have the serial number printed inside the USB port. I’ve never seen this done on a cheap clone, or *any* clone. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen. It’s just that I don’t think I’ve personally ever come across it. I hope this helps a little bit.
I would never use a crapple charger. Its way too over complicated. More to go wrong and difficult repair if it does. I also would not use the unsafe dodgy chargers either. Just use a good quality safe generic one.
well the orignal apple chargers seems more dodgy than these I had brand new iphone se and ipad with their chargers both of those chargers got smoked up i bought another 2 iphone orignal chargers spending $$ then each of them got smoked same way while charging overnight finally now I use a old borrowed samsung charger and it works like a charm
the problem was with the houses power supply but again everyone uses the chargers in the house but only crapple ones got burnt 4 times now the house wiring isn't still fixed but anyways crapple is shii
also I opened up the burnt chargers first two were orignal last 2 were china all seemed to blast a capacitor or melt the transformer
@@simontay4851 they’re overly complicated because they need to be. I’ve had a cheap charger nearly burn my house down-with mum in it. I am very careful with what I plug into my walls, and apple chargers are fantastic. Failing that, Anker and whatnot are also great, too.
My ears are bleeding 😂 přízvuk děsnej jinak super námět 👍🏻👍🏻
Charger at 25:52 is for a NiCD batteries in old school RC cars. I had a connector like that on the RC car battery in the 90s.
I am quite surprised with the failure of the SAMSUNG chargers in the isolation distance. I have 2 of them and they are both super loaded with components, common mode filter and isolation distance of 2-3mm. They also increase their output up to 5.5v in order to send the device whatever current it requires! Seems that you have semi Samsung ones mate!
Those are not real Samsungs. Samsung wouldn't make it that dodgy. And all those spelling errors in the russian text on them...
@@DiodeGoneWild yes they were counterfeits but proper ones at least in terms of power output, especially the one that held 5V on 2A! Nice review!
@@DiodeGoneWild Not to mention all those dodgy Chinese capacitors...
@@DiodeGoneWild Wasn't there one that said "Made in Vietnam" in English, but the Russian text says "Made in China"?!
Another excellent video, thank you Diode 👍👏😀
Bro why dont u make a hi-end charger from scratch,and list the parts on the descriptions,it would be great
Safety regulation- 'Diodegonewild verified dodgy' 😂
4:37 it's fit in to the reversible european plug which has the ground at the top and bottom of the plug.
Love your cats way of thinking.
One of the output capacitors is organic polymer with good high frequency characteristics and low ESR and the other is standard electrolytic low ESR. They would have different resonant frequencies.
It is cheaper to obtain the required output capacitance this way.
Large output capacitance is required because the input filter is small. One larger organic polymer is more expensive.
These are a few reasons I can find. They might not all be correct.
The second one is the exact shape of a type A (North America and some other countries) plug. They just put the European pin spacing on it.
These days, interference prevention coils are not always necessary. By allowing the transistor or IC to switch slower, the strength of the generated harmonics gets consideraby lower which allows the device to pass the RFI tests.
Switching slower does make the power supply less efficient.
The small one had the right european connector, your plug is just a one mostly used in Swiss
The plug he has from what I seen when traveling used in Slovakia and Czech republic
Actually Swiss have completely different. That is the French socket which is used also in Belgium, Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia so it is used by 133 million people. I think it also is used in Kongo. It is compatible width all modern European plugs that also work on Schuko.
Essentially those are Neighbors of Germany and they did not want a German socket.
The white "Samsung" has "made in Vietnam" in English, and "made in China" in Russian 🤣
10:54 mini heart attack 😆
A safer way to charge your phone while bathing is to use a power bank. But then again, don't submerge it in the water. :P
Always waiting for your videosss. Nice😀
Great video, thank you.
@9:30 Are you sure that's a fuse? That looks a lot like a Xenon light to me; meant to provide overvoltage protection without blowing. If I'm right, if the voltage is too high, the light will conduct and shunt the current to ground. With this use, the light it emits is irrelevant; the voltage drop and current it dissipates is what's important. I can't see into the tube very well, but if it's a light, then it will have two elements inside that are not physically touching. It would conduct only when the gas turns to plasma.
I think it should be standard for chargers to have a ground pin, so that if there is a short to mains, it would trip the breaker, instead of potentially electrocuting you.
1:02 SAEETY MARK... it's promising... :D
UPDATE: 22:56 even better... :D
Safety Mark is a safety testing program in Singapore where most electrical appliance are controlled items, it is illegal to sell electrical stuff without the safety Mark. this safety mark is fake.. The code is not found in the register.
Assembly on vietnam, maybe
@@TerenceAng yep, definitely fake, even the logo has typo.
Origianl
Origami
Suooooper dodjeaah 😂❤❤
I afing love this guy
Can you review Blitzwoolf chargers made by Banggood or Xiaomi? Because i have a lot of them but seems to be solid chargers!
Regarding the pair of capacitors, one low-ESR then the one in parallel being a general purpose one. That's actually common practice, IF you have an inductor in series between them. That's a CLC or pi filter, and because the second cap doesn't do as much work some designs shave off the extra cent a second low-ESR cap would cost.
If course, that relies on having the inductor in place!
Maybe the high ESR of one of them is kind of damping the ringing... :)
@@DiodeGoneWild I think one of them is organic polymer and the other is aluminium electrolytic low ESR.
They probably have different resonant frequencies.
I really want to find out the real reason two different capacitors with close values are used.
Multiple capacitors in parallel, identical or otherwise, are quite common to reduce ESR/ESL and ripple current through individual capacitors which improves their lifespan. Makes good PSUs better, enables lesser PSUs to get by using crappy caps a little longer.
They are different. One is organic polymer and the other is aluminium electrolytic low esr.
A good info packed 33 minutes well diodegonewild
What happens if you remove the interference capacitor... can you please make the experience and explain to us where the danger is.. thanks...
if you remove it, it´s not dangerous to you (unless something else fails of course), but it may be dangerous to electronics you connect to it, or at least disturb their operation. It may also put out lots of EM radiation which will disturb things around it as well.
Have you ever considered getting an adjustable constant current USB load? I recently got one on amazon for like $13 and have gotten a lot of good use out of it
Oh s*** we've got 3 of those triangular double port for Sam for Apple ones with the blue light!
You forgot to mention the earth pin on the UK style adapter isn't actually connected to anything, and would pose a major shock hazard as it was made of metal. They should have just molded the earth pin as part of the case.
That would not help much. What would be better is if the 5v output is connected to earth.
You can upgrade the first by adding a fuse and as it has a ground pin connect it to output negative!
Nice cat
maybe the black samsung chargers transformer has the low winding for the feedback loop. And the primary winding is in the center.
perfect video as always . really love your ckear videos and i hope your warnings come across.
i think there's no filtering because it's a small charger, so it doesn't affect the electrical grid
The second charger doesn't have all the problems of the first one, it can supply what it claims while the first one couldn't!
But what use is that when there is absolutely no mains isolation, except the lacquer on the wire? That transformer is a death trap, and the charger rightfully earns it's "super dodgy" rating.
@@TheSpotify95 of course, but it doesn't kill you first time you use it (or it is extremely rare), and also depending on what phone and phone case you have you won't really feel the leakage. It's also possible that you leave your phone charging and then go do something else.
What the people who make these chargers want is money, they do not care about safety. They also do not care about how much they pay their employees for the work.
Really nice vid about safety and electronics! Thanks a lot for investigation.
the proper apple charger looked nice inside.. I would liked to see a video on it so you could show us how a proper charger should work..
Why is it good to have a larger distance between primary and secondary sides of the board?
22:58 ''Origianl'' XD
13:29 Funny, it says "Made in Vietnam" in English but "Made in China" in Russian 😂😂
I like how you talk like runforthecube
I would have liked to see transformer windings on the last two.. maybe time did not permit?
I will open every chargers before use now. Thanks.
It is unfortunately the only way. There is so little enforcement of electrical regulations that the problem is way beyond Ebay and AliExpress. Many "reliable" shops sell dangerious chargers :(
25:38 it's an airsoft gun NiMH battery charger, probably from a cheap replica which ships with a battery and a charger like this. You'd use a processor charger for anything other than NiMH.
That's strange because the circuit board (upon teardown) clearly has the wrod USB printed on it, as well as a place for a USB socket! Maybe they used a standard PCB and then just taped the other connector on as you see, instead of soldering the USB port on and maing it a USB charger? (Of course you would also have to adjust the radio of turns in the transformer to gt it from 9V to 5V.)
"...but sometimes it's better to be scared than dead.": Well, ok, maybe, sometimes. But what's really worse is being scared to death.