No fuses? Excuse me? EVERYTHING is fusible, if you put enough current through it...

"Safe" is not just about the circuit, it's about the physical build and the component quality as well.

"I can't seem to lever this one open at all!" Yep, it's genuine Apple alright!

Should send the junk like this to Photonicinduction. Let him crank it up until it pops.

The left one "For use with infor technology only". Apple would not split such a word over two lines and also forget the second half of the word lol...

CAUTION: For use with infor mation technology equipment

Too funny. Almost scary that distance between the 240 and the usb shield. Entirely possible to get 240v straight onto your usb! This is why 2 buck chargers on ebay are NOT a good idea. Apply may be over priced, but simply because something can be sold for 2 bucks instead of 20 doesnt mean you should buy it.

Just received new 'Genuine Samsung' 2A USB charger from eBay, tested under 2A load using constant current load, charger exploded and tripped house sockets breaker within 10 minutes of test... LOL... now for the refund claim....

They were blatantly both fake, both has spelling errors on the back. Also a quick google image of a legit one would have been a give away. Still fun tearing them down tho.

Would have been interesting to test the voltage stability, ripple and HF noise of these and compare with a genuine apple power supply under various loads. Also would be fun to test the breakdown voltages.

The only thing amazing about them is how they manage the small space inside the casing.

Also on the fake one, the prongs are crooked as heck.

I would love to see the original Apple charger.

I`d love to see a legit charger done with a clear outer case, that would be cool!

Dave made this video in 2012 referring to is as a "bloody death trap", come 2014 and a woman in Sydney gets electrocuted by one of these cheap chargers.

Your videos are usually a bit over my head.... Here, you open the first charger and I went "Where's the bridge rectifier?" .... two seconds later you go "Uhhh, I don't even see a rectifier ....." Thank you for your hard work!. You really are teaching people about electronic design!

"I forget who actually sent this to me." Come on man! People send you free stuff and pay postage. You do a video about them and get paid for it. At least have the courtesy to mention their name.

both were obviously fake, For use with infor technology.

00:14 "Power A dapeer" on the right xD

It is illegal to sell this one in Australia even if it was genuine, as it does not have the insulation on the mains pins as required by our laws. The importer could get fined for that.

Sorry, but that's all in your imagination I'm afraid. Please point out *specific* examples of how my teardown videos have dropped "quite a lot" in quality.

If anyone else has a mind to take their power supply apart, watch out for the capacitors, in a switchmode power supply there are usually high voltage caps that might still be charged. If you're scrapping it it is probably fine to use a screwdriver with a PLASTIC OR WOODEN handle to short the caps out. However, the sudden discharge is bad for the cap. If you want to reuse that capacitor (assuming it's still good) I suggest a high-wattage resistor (do the calculations of the RC time constant and the appropriate wattage) with the leads bent to touch both capacitor terminals, then use a pair of pliers WITH A RUBBER OR PLASTIC HANDLE to lower the capacitor into the right place. Or, glue the resistor(s) to a PLASTIC rod to make a dedicated tool. Just be sure to measure the resistor after the discharge, so that if it fails open (leaving energy behind) you'll know.

take a shot for every time he says "steaming pile of dog turd"

Nice Teardown Dave. (i realize this is years old, lol). It would have been interesting to see the scoped output of these two. Aside, these rip-offs are becoming a scourge! For something as simple as procuring a simple mini display port to HDMI cable took me three goes before getting a genuine branded unit that just worked! The first two were bogus with multiple shorts. Geeezzz...

I don't think 'one hung low cheapie' is PC. However, I'm absolutely positive that its funny as hell.

The USB tab inside one of them isn't even straight EEEKERS!

"Probably no thought put into that. well, probably no thought put into this whole thing at all" classic line

Great teardown link too! Glad you posted it. Thanks for doing these videos, they've really helped me out as an engineering student who's just getting jobs in my field.

It is amazing that there are no schottky array, proper power caps and filters, ferrites, and any kind of fuses or breakers. The ripple alone would be enough to damage the tablet or phone. The power and ground planes alone can cause fires. This is why it is very important the read the articles on the oem's website, in this case Apple, and learn how to identify these.

EEVBlog drinking game: Every time Dave says "steaming pile of dog turd" take a drink! Maybe I might put the soldering iron down....

It was "apple branded"! But a genuine fake.

"Gotta be killing me" The slip of the tongue works as well.

His reaction cracked me up “ you got to be logging me!” LMAO 😂 (7:41)

You could see the "genuine" was fake by reading the text. Read the caution text, what the hell does "infor technology" mean? Apple, for all their sins, do tend to write English correctly.

Would be interesting to see an actual genuine Apple charger of same model to compare.

helped a guy from our consumer protection agency break open a suspected fake iPhone 6 charger last month, nothing has changed in the compliance to safety standards. It had separations and gaps less than half the legal requirements still. Soldering was a bit better, seems the factories now have either more experienced children doing the soldering or someone's invested in a machine.

For anyone who didn't quite get what creepage is, the creepage is defined as shortest distance on the surface of an insulating material between two conductive elements

Because I did not know it was a fake until I opened it, by which time it was too late to get one for Teardown Tuesday. I have to upload the video that night, regardless, or lots of angry people! And anyway, someone else had already done an excellent teardown and analysis of one which I mentioned and linked to.

"I wouldn't trust that thing any further than I could shove it…" I lost it. LOL

Even if it is true what you are saying, Dave did so much for everyone by sharing experience and stories that YOU MUST BE working for a years to figure it out. IMHO, this is nice video and i'm very glad that Dave can do this full time. Imagine if there was nobody from electric/electronics industry doing this good vblog... This is great... Thank you Dave.

"Bloody dog turd... it's a death trap... are you kidding me?!" hahaha

7:25 "Not going to pass any safety standard.. on the planet" lol

It's interesting to note that the even crummier one has considerably more typos in the label. "Power A dapeer" and a stray quote mark before "100-240 V" as _well_ as bad printing on the "For use with information technology equipment" part. It makes me wonder just what exactly was going on at the factory there. Like the guy just typed some shite into the computer to meet a REAL tight deadline and hit "save".

LOL at the one to the left.. "CAUTION: For use with inFor technology equipment"..

What we all want to know is how cheap you can go and still be safe. Would be interesting if someone bought one at $1, $2, $3, $4, $5 etc. And compared them all. I've bought quite a few chargers in the $7-10 range that seems to meet all the safety criteria. Still a bargain considering the $30 you have to pay for an original charger in this country.

Dave, you've just convinced me to keep away from the cheapo usb chargers. They look down right dangerous.

Could be top notch stuff, I have no idea, but his voice is really convincing! :)

I worked a trademark infringement case where I had to send a few of these to Apple. The ones I ran into, being sold at some "Apple Repair" franchise unassociated with Apple, had "Designed by HAPPY in China" on the label. Designed, of course, because that's so much more elegant than saying "made in China."

The words he use for bad safety put me into thinking about safety in my hobby projects from now on! So effective

"but if the cap fails short, it's dangerous". this is good ESD cap and this located in right place. probably type of this cap is not very reliable.

At 1:53 I already know both are fakes. You can see on the better fake the words "CAUTION: For use with infor" followed on the next line by "technology equipment.", and on the crappy fake you see "CAUTION: For use with infor" followed on the next line by "mation technology equipment."

never mind the creep age on the first one how about the solder balls around R7

Dave, you should toss on some load on the 5v output and check the ripple and such just to show what crap like these gives you on the output. I`m sure you have a genuine Apple, or at least another usb charger for a Android you could compare it to.

I think you come up with some of the most original EE insults.

These things are a bit like fortune cookies in Dave's hands :D

how much of a problem is creepage after the transformer? the fact that it's reduced to 5v should/would severely decrease the risk, right?

I said in the video I have seen a real one on the web, I have linked to it in the description.

Eh personally I don't care about UL and other silly certifications if it cuts the price in half. If something goes wrong that's what the 240v breakers are for (or the 12000v reclosers on the pole outside if the breakers also fail). If I wanted to spend extra cash I'd just head to Digikey and build it myself to better specs.

It's for RFI suppression, to meet EMC requirements etc, not screw up your product wiht RFI noise etc.

It actually says "infor technology" on the more genuine one, which is a tell-tale sign as well. Nice video though, I love to see what cloners are coming up with to squeeze out the last penny.

If the mains was ever reversed on either "charger" the filter cap would go bye bye from reversed polarity.

I noticed in your DaveCAD drawing, that you're missing the center 2 pins of the USB with R10, R11, R13, and R14. Without those it will not charge an Apple iPhone.

the newer lightning based devices have a chip that prevents non apple chargers from charging or powering the unit. I guess it has some kind of security handshake

DAve you did not have to open the one you thought it was apple to know it was a fake. If you look at 0:50 doen to bottom it says *for use with "infor" technology*. They did not even bother to write the whole word.

I hope they use the same crap parts in their new fighter planes..lol

If you are talking about the ones in the video. The one on the right is used in the USA and the one on the left is for Australia (and not the UK)

It activates when the secondary reaches the correct voltage, which tells the primary driver circuitry to back off. This lowers the output voltage, which deactivates the optocoupler, which lets the driver circuitry start up again. This feedback loop repeats infinitely to provide a (reasonably) stable output voltage. (Let me know if I got anything wrong Dave)

Good teardown. 1N4001 is 100V, it would be a 1N4004 as least. Why do you say Negative and positive, its AC so it should be live and neutral, or live 1 and live 2.

Yeah, I have seen the prices at the Apple store. I have one that came with my iPhone, but I found another that someone lost and wondered if there was a way to tell if it was genuine or not (short of sawing both of them open and doing a comparison).

I had an AC adapter (not a USB one but it was a switchmode power supply) break at the seam today! Well almost, one side is still attached, but the insides are exposed, high voltage and all.

Teardown a REAL UK apple charger and compare it with a fake one, dave, please!! Something I can't find on google is a teardown of a GENUINE UK apple charger!

It would have been nice to see a control power supply to compare to that you knew was indeed apple.

Would be interested to see how well (or more likely, how badly) these perform under load. I suppose it depends if you've got an isolation transformer to hand and you haven't emptied the bins yet!

Great video. I have one to tear down which has quit working. Just because I can. You made me laugh by calling out the manufacturers. Thanks again.

Yeah, but I'd like to see your comparison of these to the real one. The blog post is informative, but I think it would be interesting to see them next to each other.

It's so advanced it's not even very computer assisted any more. Pure magic.

Best way to tell if you have a genuine charger is by the heft of it. If it feels like it has quite a bit of weight to it, more than likely it is genuine. Compared to the extreme lightness of the knockoffs.

So how do we in general make sure we are buying good(safe) USB chargers an powerbanks ? Lots of pack in ones with budget hardware is likely bundled with chargers made like this. With PC power supplies its relatively easy to find out the OEM and get reviews, but for smaller electronics like this its almost impossible to know what you are buying.

Using stronger glue is hardly an indication that something is better designed. In fact, Apple is known for making equipment that is deliberately and unnecessarily hard to open / repair / recycle, because they prefer to make people buy a new one. Being able to open something counts as a plus in my book (it shouldn't come apart in your hands, obviously, but it should be possible to open it).

Is not the Y cap protective impedance. Limits amount of fault current from low voltage to mains. Some standards require two of these caps under single fault conditions.

I do not understand how they manage to pass the EMI limits. I failed to pass without a ferrite. This thing did not have the usual 6.8 Ohm fusible insurge resistor.

I bought a little generic one...and it generated quite a ground potential- enough to give you a nasty shock. But I figured out that the problem was bad capacitors...I recapped it and dead another ground potential test, and it actually tested out with a lower ground potential than my genuine Apple adapter!

So, just to recap: 1a) Company sells Apple-branded device that can burn your house down... 1b) ...Apple does nothing. 2a) Company makes (arguably similar) phone... 2b) ...Apple launches billion dollar lawsuit!

This is the best video you ever did and quite useful even for people not into electronics. I live in Thailand and the 20 Baht 0.6 USD chargers kill people here.

Interesting to note, that "Genuine" charger on the left says "For use with infor technology" on the bottom, when it should say "For use with infor-mation technology"...

"Official" Apple adapter be like "CAUTION: For use with infor technology equipment". Yeah I think you're INFOR a surprise alright.

The one on the left looks like it has better seperation between input and output. The one on the right has the input and output caps touching eachother.

I usually end up with a bad noise in video and audio equipment between grounded and ungrouded switchmode hardware... I fix it by removing those caps, or removing grounding lead. But then i end up with a very low current 110V on the boxes of the grounded devices for the lead removal method.

There is a much easier way to open those without cutting it open. Hold it with one corner on the ground or desk (so it looks like a diamond and not a square) and then tap the top corner with a hammer. If it doesn't open after a couple of hits, then rotate to the next corner and repeat. Doing this will tweak one shell of the case in such a way that it should break the weak plastic welds to the inner part without destroying the whole case. I've found that this will work with a lot of devices like this and all that is needed is a few soft taps with a heavy hammer. You could probably even wrap the hammer or case in a cloth to keep from scratching the case.

Be happy, the fake one gets opened perfectly, that's a plus ;-)

Dave has a degree in electrical engineering, I would like to think that he knows what he's talking about.

ok,original Apple units are better designed,compact,electronically correct and so on....but can you explain why 2 original power adapters exploded on my macbook pro? got a cheap one and its performing quite well,very low thermal dissipation compared to original,no fancy coaxial power cable that burns after a year.

at 6:58 see the copper whisker under the solder mask to the right of "R1" silkscreen, kinda scary.

EEVblog I looked at two of the three Apple chargers I own. All were included with various Iphones when originally purchased. I pulled the charger from the box for my refurbished 5S. The underside where the prongs are is blank, no markings of any kind. My older original units have all of the information shown, including "Flextron". I am now curious to know if this is a knock-off replacement included with my 5S or did Apple choose to remove all of the data on charger supplies.

I have tons of these fake cubes and have wondered (other than the creepage which doesn't seem possible to fix) if theres things you could do to actually make it better and clean up the output but im not super knowledgeable on it. Is there anything somewhat easy you could think of that would clean up the 5v output?

the fuse on that wong hong low is the explosion.

There are MASSIVE differences form the Apple original. Look at the link I posted that shows the real Apple charger.

Some places got different AC voltage supply. 220V or 110V,or even different freqs. Check your air conditioner's plug,it should be "220V".

As i worked @ our VDE we simply shorted all creapage and clearance whitch was less than that specified given by the VDE rules (EN 60664-1:2007 / VDE 0110-1) during test For mains like 230V ac they are for creaping absolute minimums for clean, in room use: between AC and AC (mains input leads or similar) 3mm between primary and secondary: 5mm between AC and GND (touchable!): 5mm On PCBs @ 250Veff: 1mm on the PCB itself between pins and 2.5mm to all other things. These are MINIMUM ratings!

Dave - you're correct: The serial numbers are all the same. I got one of these from cashies since it looked like a neat little 240V->USB adapter. It even has the adapeer spelling error on it.