Electronics > Beginners
Why some people died in their bath after smartphone dropped into water ?
james_s:
Considering what I have seen inside cheap knockoff phone chargers, it would not surprise me in the least if someone is shocked, potentially lethally by an isolation fault, especially in 240V land.
Refrigerator:
There are chargers that have their primary and secondary winding wires lay on each other without any additional insulation and this could very easily cause an electrical connection between the two if the enamel insulation on the wire got damaged.
DiodeGoneWild made some videos on dodgy chinese chargers:
AVGresponding:
--- Quote from: thinkfat on January 27, 2020, 09:38:30 am ---I suggest watching bigclive on YT tearing down cheap USB wall warts for an explanation.
--- End quote ---
Some of the gear he pulls apart is hilariously scary; it's not unusual for him to discover line voltage directly on the USB socket :wtf:
tooki:
Remember when BigClive joked one time about the next thing being the Chinese making a USB charger from a capacitive dropper, and then within a year, he tore down the “gay death dalek” camping light which, lo and behold, had a capacitive dropper USB charger? 240V mains on a USB port... :clap:
Brumby:
--- Quote from: tigrou on January 27, 2020, 09:29:36 am ---AFAIK most USB chargers deliver max. 5V, which is non lethal.
Because of ohm's law, you need a much higher DC voltage than that to get enough current flowing trough your body and killing you.
So I don't understand how it is possible.
The possible explanations I see are :
- they get killed not because their phone dropped into the water, but because the charger itself dropped into water (eg: not plugged into socket directly but plugged into an extension coord).
- the human body resistance is considerably lower while in the water, making 5V (and enough amps) dangerous.
- lithium battery capable of delivering high voltage when dropped into water while being charged.
--- End quote ---
Forget about the 5V. The actual stated voltage delivered by the charger has NOTHING to do with the problem.
--- Quote ---- under some conditions, some chargers (eg : counterfeit ones with improper isolation) will deliver more than 5V.
--- End quote ---
This is the area your thinking needs to explore. Aside from the obvious situation of a charger being dunked in the bath water where mains can come into direct contact with the water, in poorly designed/constructed chargers, other paths can exist for mains power to go where it shouldn't
See other posts above for links to examples.
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