The larger Chinese-made chargers <i>generally</i> don't have these issues (though a few apparently do).<p>Notice that this fake contains all or nearly all the components required to build a safe and working charger, including full safety isolation, fuse protection, and output regulation. The manufacturer's entirely capable of building one, they've just fatally compromised on safety in order to fit everything inside a tiny fake Apple shell.<p>(The blog post says it doesn't have a fuse, but generally instead of having a seperate fuse the input resistor on these power supplies is a special fusible resistor which is manufactured to also work as a fuse. Saves a few cents and some space at the cost of using a specialist component. Unfortunately it's impossible to tell it apart from a normal resistor just by looking.)
I have an friend's fairly expensive espresso machine in pieces in my living room due to electrical "problems." The (indeterminate far east supplier) blatantly omitted about half the input side circuitry, including the supply filtering. Numerous components identified on the PCB were never installed.<p>One lonely resistor protected the IC V_in for far longer than I would have imagined possible (years) before exploding.<p>As someone who is actively working to increase my electrical circuit-related design chops, intuiting how this thing continued to operate has been an interesting exercise.
This is how a real charger looks for comparison: <a href="http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-...</a>
This article is old (March 2012) and has been submitted at least twice prior. Here's the small discussion from the last time this was submitted to HN, over a year ago.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3699293" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3699293</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3699293" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3699293</a>
I bought what looked like a legit iPhone charger in Turkey a few weeks ago. However, if you touched the tip of the cord while it was plugged in, it would shock the hell out of you. I guess they skimped on a ground wire? I am not an electrical engineer. Would appreciate an explanation if anyone can speculate.<p>EDIT: I don't use this charger anymore, just to be clear.
Anyone have any thoughts on this slim 45w charger?
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/GPK-Systems%C2%AE-Portable-Notebook-Smartphones/dp/B00AQLCMRM" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/GPK-Systems%C2%AE-Portable-Notebook-Sm...</a><p>They seem to have good reviews across their range of products and have certification logos. However, I've been hesitant.
One of my favorite electronics tear down, he looks at two fake apple chargers.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE</a>