Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Chinese ac adapters on eBay
Alex Eisenhut:
This drop in quality must have happened in the last two or three years. I have a 12V 5A adapter for my LiPo charger and it works well.
Bud:
Cant trust industrial suppliers either on unknown or little known brands they stock. Bought a 1A adapter from Digikey that blew up (literally exploded inside) at 0.8A load. I since buy only established brands adapters, though they are triple price.
Alex Eisenhut:
Lesson learned for sure. I might have to update my sig.
janoc:
--- Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on February 09, 2020, 03:48:21 pm ---This drop in quality must have happened in the last two or three years. I have a 12V 5A adapter for my LiPo charger and it works well.
--- End quote ---
Not really, this has always been like this. You get what you pay for. If you buy something for $2-$3 delivered, what do you expect to find inside when the budget for that thing had to be literally pennies otherwise the seller wouldn't make any profit? Quality and longevity costs money because one can't use the cheapest parts and cut corners everywhere.
When it comes to mains, buying cheap from China (whether via eBay, AliExpress or whatever) is a good way to pay a lot more when one's house burns down or when someone gets electrocuted. That doesn't mean that you can't get a decent quality supply from there - but you can't go for the cheapest one!
However, by that time you can buy from a reputable local supplier as well - lot of otherwise identical products have a cheaper "Chinese" version where all "non-essential" parts such as filters and protections have been gutted or not populated and a "western" version, where these are installed to make the device comply with the norms and legal to sell. E.g. some Uni-T multimeters are like that and I am certain it is the same with the power supplies as well.
beanflying:
--- Quote from: janoc on February 09, 2020, 01:00:26 pm ---
--- Quote from: beanflying on February 09, 2020, 06:19:27 am ---Depending on YOUR local regulations and not the advice of others from around the world make sure your ass is covered if YOU are doing the importing of mains anything to sell or for others to use. It only takes one thing to go wrong and you can be in a world of legal hurt.
In Oz for example selling a non compliant wallwart/supply of any sort and generally all states require them tested prior to sale. This simply doesn't happen and garbage is being sold online or via $2 shops or even major retailers in some cases. :palm:
Digikey, Mouser, E14 etc won't in our case have the paperwork and testing done. So technically using supplies from them puts the seller of them at risk in spite of maybe meeting US or EU standards.
Find a local company that meets your regulations and do it right. If it is just for yourself then play safe and enjoy and use whatever you want ;)
--- End quote ---
Don't Oz authorities recognize e.g. FCC, CE or UL testing when approving stuff for sale? I can't imagine someone like Mouser selling stuff in Oz that isn't legal there or that they don't have the paperwork in order. If nothing else they have to ensure the plugs are correct already, given that they are different from every other major market. Of course, that assumes you are ordering from a local subsidiary (e.g. Mouser Australia, if there is one), not directly from the US. If you couldn't rely on a vendor like that then there is nothing you could do at all, except getting a supply certified yourself (good luck with that ...).
That major retailers (not specialists like Mouser or Digikey) sell dangerous crap that they got from some fly-by-night importer somewhere is another matter - that is common even here in France where you can find literal deathtraps being sold in Fnac, Carrefour and similar places, sometimes even without the CE markings (which is flat out illegal, regardless of how meaningless that marking is).
The advice to "find a local company that meets your regulations and do it right." is pretty useless, IMO, because I can't imagine he will be ordering custom made power supplies from some local outfit and having them certified, unless he is going to sell hundreds of pieces. Or rely on some local mom & pop vendor - who is importing the same junk from China as the mall down the road, because they don't have anywhere else where to get it from anyway.
--- End quote ---
And this is WHY giving potted advice from elsewhere in the world on Mains powered devices is NOT APPROPRIATE. No Australia does NOT recognise CE as 'approved'. https://esv.vic.gov.au/technical-information/electrical-appliances-and-equipment/equipment-classes/ Broadly we and New Zealand have and maintain a standard and as I mentioned an approvals process.
So it is you who is giving bad and generic advice on what you think and not fact.
The OP needs to check their local regulations!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version