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Potentially Lethal Clone Apple Charger

Charger
Charger

I received this USB supply with a laser module from China that I purchased on eBay. I have heard of these nasty copies of Apple chargers going around, but I’d never received one this bad with a piece of Chinese electronics.

Label
Label

Model No. A1265, so definitely an Apple clone. Apparently capable of +5v DC 1A output. Notice the American NEMA pins. This wouldn’t have been any use to me in the first instance since I am resident in the UK & our mains plugs are significantly different, not to mention significantly safer.

Manufacturer is marked as Flextronics.

Top Of Boards
Top Of Boards

Here is the charger disassembled. Inside the case these two boards are folded together, creating an alarmingly small isolation gap between the mains side of the supply & the 5v output. Both the low voltage output & the feedback loop for the supply runs over the 4-core ribbon cable.
The mains wiring from the board is as thin as hair, insulation included, so there is a big possibility of shorts all over the place from this part of the circuit alone.

Bottom Of Boards
Bottom Of Boards

Bottom of the PCB assemblies. Good luck finding any creepage distance here. There simply isn’t any at all. traces on the +350v DC rail on the mains side of the transformer are no more than 1mm away from the supposedly isolated low voltage side.

Plugging one of these devices into anything is just asking for electrocution.

 

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Mobile Power Pack Upgrade

New Regulators
New Regulators

The original LM2577 based regulators I designed into my mobile battery pack turned out to be insufficient for requirements, therefore they have been replaced with higher capacity regulators.

The 12v regulator (left) is a muRata UQQ-12/8-Q12P-C SEPIC converter, providing a max of 8A at 12.1v DC. The 12v rail is also now independently switchable to save power when not in use.

The 5v regulator (right) is a Texas Instruments PTN78020WAZ switching regulator, rated at 6A. The pair of resistors on the back of the regulator set the output voltage to 5.1v.

Also a new addition is a pair of banana sockets & a 2.1mm DC jack, wired into the 12v DC bus, for powering various accessories.

New Additions
New Additions

Below the USB sockets is now a built in eCig charger, to save on USB ports while charging these devices.

IWA National Festival 2013
IWA National Festival 2013

These changes were made after much field testing of the unit at Cassiobury Park, Watford, for the IWA National Waterways Festival.