Power Supply goes up in flames

[CharlieWorton]

Here's an interesting link from Big Clive:



It seems that someone bought an inexpensive bench power supply, hooked it up to a peltier device, and left the apartment.  Choas and flames ensued.

Scary thing is, I think I was going to buy one of those, before I bought the Korad instead.  And the Korad isn't a high end name brand supply, but at least they hit normal manufacturing standards.  Their stuff doesn't catch fire.  Mostly.

Best, Charlie

[MK14]

Yes, I heard about it here, almost a week ago.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/spontaniously-exploding-bench-psus/msg1227771/#msg1227771

[Electro Detective]

WOW    

 it took this long for one of these -cheapskate magnet- pos PSU to go to Lab HELL ? 

Bravo 

It must be better bad quality ! 

[P90]

I saw that too on bigclivedotcom
scarry stuff for sure.

[CharlieWorton]

OOPS!  Sorry about the inadvertent repost.  I'll try for more new news in the future.  Oh Well!  >Charlie

[MK14]

OOPS!  Sorry about the inadvertent repost.  I'll try for more new news in the future.  Oh Well!  >Charlie

It's ok, an easy mistake to make.

I sometimes worry about the potential for safety risks, with all the cheap stuff imported from China. You can get quality/safe stuff made in China (usually controlled/regulated by Western companies, who look after the Chinese factories, to keep them good quality and safe).

But when it comes directly from (relatively) unbranded companies in China, and they have been 100% left to their own devices, to design/build it how they want. Combined with a super cheap price including delivery, and being sold on (typically) ebay. It is often a recipe for disaster.

I'm surprised there aren't a lot more incidents like that, and that people get injured or worse and hence the governments are forced to take action.

BigCliveDotCom demonstrates a lot of highly unsafe items, coming (usually) directly from China, via ebay. They either catch on fire, batteries smoke/flame badly or potentially electrocute the unsuspecting user, or maybe hide some other nasties.

[mdszy]

I have a supply almost identical to this one! Scary stuff, I'll be sure to never leave it powering a load unattended...

[Red Squirrel]

Wow, that's scary.  Been reading up somewhat on power electronics and want to get into building PSUs, possibly some high power rectifier and inverters for my server room, and possibly solar.  These would run 24/7.  I'd only do this once I've built smaller ones and feel comfortable though and have read up on proper testing procedures (I presume there are standards for that?) and tested them a lot.   How easy it is to mess up a design for something like this to happen?  I would not have figured that something electronic like a PSU would have enough flammable material to burn to this extent.   Like, that even melted the front casing and looks like it even got hot enough to warp the metal!  It almost looks like it was designed by ISIS. lol

[Electro Detective]

It was designed to pass the 'brief' inspection at the end of some back alley assembly line 

After that, it's the buyer's baby (or BBQ)   

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah I wonder how much these cheap Chinese things even get tested.   Turn it on, the LED lights up, ship it!   

[P90]

Yeah I wonder how much these cheap Chinese things even get tested.   Turn it on, the LED lights up, ship it!

if even that... slap it together... ship it... don't worry about it...

[jonovid]

Yeah I wonder how much these cheap Chinese things even get tested.   Turn it on, the LED lights up, ship it!

if even that... slap it together... ship it... don't worry about it...

remember with some cheap Chinese power supply's, heat-sinks & fans are optional extras.  you must add them your self.

[WackyGerman]

It s not a bug , it s a feature . The Wung Hung Lo Power Supply BBQ Special Edition 

[P90]

Yeah I wonder how much these cheap Chinese things even get tested.   Turn it on, the LED lights up, ship it!

if even that... slap it together... ship it... don't worry about it...

remember with some cheap Chinese power supply's, heat-sinks & fans are optional extras.  you must add them your self.

fire extinguisher optional... check.

[P90]

It s not a bug , it s a feature . The Wung Hung Lo Power Supply BBQ Special Edition 

they should include a bag of marshmallows and some sticks with each power supply.

[Red Squirrel]

I kinda want one of these for camping now. 

[keymaster]

they should include a bag of marshmallows and some sticks with each power supply.

marshmallows from the lowest prise supplier in china , what could go wrong ?? 

[P90]

they should include a bag of marshmallows and some sticks with each power supply.

marshmallows from the lowest prise supplier in china , what could go wrong ?? 

It's the talc powder and formaldehyde that gives em that unique one of a kind flavour.  :-)

[Electro Detective]

     Guys, please go easy     

my mouse hand has a cramp, clicking so many Say Thanks   

[SeanB]

Is it made by Ford? I was worried last week, parked and saw the vehicle in front was a Ford Kuga, which has been recalled because they have had quite a few catch fire while driving, and which also had the unfortunate issue of the doors failing locked when doing so, killing at least one person.

[Electro Detective]

It's unfortunate that consumers are not told by commission whore Red Bull and ice tanked sales staff,

that most new purchases include free random BBQ capability ! 

The customer merely supplies the prepared meatloaf   

[ICR9000]

Oh that is nasty.  You get what you pay for I suppose.  BTW what happened to quality control ? etc etc
Our Governments really have let us down now haven't they letting just anyone import inferior rubbish. 

[Electro Detective]

Oh that is nasty.  You get what you pay for I suppose.  BTW what happened to quality control ? etc etc
Our Governments really have let us down now haven't they letting just anyone import inferior rubbish. 

The decadent 'govs' are showing their true colors and grabbing all the   _under the table_   br!be cash they can fit in their coffers (and private piggy banks),   

and **** the rabble serf that foolishly believe it's 'their/our Government' 

People need to read up on some history if they can give games, sports and silly 'lifestyle' distractions BS a break for 5 minutes (lol, no way)  and get a clue.   

There's a LOT of 'Towering Infernos' out there waiting to happen, either by crappy design or too close to airports,
as well as leaving BBQ capable PSUs left on unattended, to recharge a personal vibrator on the 60th floor...   

hmmm, I think I'll give electronics the Ebay treatment and run for politics or council instead,

"the pen is mightier than the differential probe" as they say...or something like that         

[P90]

Oh that is nasty.  You get what you pay for I suppose.  BTW what happened to quality control ? etc etc
Our Governments really have let us down now haven't they letting just anyone import inferior rubbish. 

The decadent 'govs' are showing their true colors and grabbing all the   _under the table_   br!be cash they can fit in their coffers (and private piggy banks),   

and **** the rabble serf that foolishly believe it's 'their/our Government' 

People need to read up on some history if they can give games, sports and silly 'lifestyle' distractions BS a break for 5 minutes (lol, no way)  and get a clue.   

There's a LOT of 'Towering Infernos' out there waiting to happen, either by crappy design or too close to airports,
as well as leaving BBQ capable PSUs left on unattended, to recharge a personal vibrator on the 60th floor...   

hmmm, I think I'll give electronics the Ebay treatment and run for politics or council instead,


"the pen is mightier than the differential probe" as they say...or something like that     

you'll end as corrupt as the rest of em...

[Electro Detective]

yeah, but no one cares about that **** any more, just think of THE MONEY !   

Cheaper than playing a lottery and no crossed fingers each week praying to win 

[CharlieWorton]

BigCliveDotCom demonstrates a lot of highly unsafe items, coming (usually) directly from China, via ebay. They either catch on fire, batteries smoke/flame badly or potentially electrocute the unsuspecting user, or maybe hide some other nasties.

Yeah, my favorite was the 'smokin pussies' doll - marketed to children - in which the female doll hid a huge fireworks sparkler in her vagina.  Clive lit it, and the resultant five foot long shower of sparks set off his smoke detector.  I showed the video to my sister, and she laughed so hard she couldn't catch her breath.

On a more serious note, I can remember the day when products marketed in Canada had to meet safety standards.  With the advent of internet fueled, direct to home marketing of products from a company located in a foreign country, those days are just a distant memory.  Now, it's buyer beware.

[Electro Detective]

Buyer Beware and...

Don't turn it on,

TAKE IT APART !!!      


then test to its rated specifications/blow up/catch fire,
upload to Youtube,
kick off an epic 1000 page thread on EEVblog   

and maybe the word will get around not to buy cheap OS sweat shoppe produced online 'click click' garbage   

[Red Squirrel]

What is the best way to test a PSU, can you simply apply a resistive load and slowly ramp it up to it's rated output, or is there more to it than that, like perhaps on/off sequencing of various types of load like inductive etc.  Would be interesting to build a rig to test various PSUs such as expensive ones and cheap ones from China to see how they fair out.

And for the explosions, of course.   Probably want to do that testing on some kind of metal pan lol.   I'm talking more about general purpose PSUs and not bench ones but guess it would work for bench ones as well.

[Electro Detective]

I'm no expert on testing PSUs, except if I have to really rely on one to deliver the good juice, I do give it a good thrashing under different/nasty loads
with fused and polyswitch protection, 
in case things go south and the notorious Magic Smoke Gang decide on another prison break !!! 

I watch proceedings on a oscilloscope, as multimeters can only tell you the first page of the story,
and let my ears and nose do the rest 

That said, there is NO WAY I would buy any of these crummy  -Made In Hu Knows Where - PSUs,
unless HIGHLY recommended by BRAVE EEVblogites  ,

and STILL I would take the sucker apart and FIX it first   
before thinking about connections to a sitting duck sucker DUT
and over-confident snafu switch-on