Post mortem of what is supposedly a "GaN charger" after the smoke escaped

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Post mortem of what is supposedly a "GaN charger" after the smoke escaped

scottjpalmer

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#288916 1-Aug-2021 10:11

I bought 3 of these a while ago. Haven't used them much but seem to charge laptop and phone fine. The smoke just escaped from one so I pulled it apart. Thoughts? Should I be throwing the other 2 out? 😁

scottjpalmer

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#2753156 1-Aug-2021 11:18

Pretty decent write up here, thanks for the link @ajobbins

Stu

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#2753158 1-Aug-2021 11:32

From the link:

The charger is made of PC flame-retardant white shell..

... for when bits inside get a little too warm?

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JaseNZ

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#2753161 1-Aug-2021 11:51

I would let them know and send details of the fault so they can investigate.

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richms

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#2753232 1-Aug-2021 15:11

Stu: From the link:

The charger is made of PC flame-retardant white shell..

... for when bits inside get a little too warm?

All electronics should have flame retardant plastics. Its the fact that its left out on lots of stuff made for cheap with no approvals that makes them bother to actually mention that they have it in the plastic mix.

Richard rich.ms

Stu

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#2753233 1-Aug-2021 15:13

Absolutely correct. (And I probably should have added /sarcasm to that post)

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ezbee

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#2753257 1-Aug-2021 16:29

Thats a lot stuffed in a small space.

Looks like the power circuitry feeding USB-C1 took the hit, ceramic capacitor C49 looks like it got extremely hot ?
The Ruijun ruh4040m2 MOS next to it has toasted that area of the board as well.
If I identify the parts correctly.
Which one took the other out ?
Either is possible, I suppose.

neb

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#2753363 1-Aug-2021 21:01

Bit hard to tell without looking too closely at the innards but it looks pretty decently constructed, and from the linked article they're using good-quality components, X2 caps, NTC inrush limiter, decent insulation/isolation, all the usual corners haven't been cut in this one. I kept waiting for the dodginess to show up but there isn't anything, so it looks like a fairly decent charger.

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#2755502 5-Aug-2021 09:47

I don't see any anti-tracking slots between primary and secondary, and while the clearance looks reasonably OK on this side of the board, you can see it's pretty tight on the other side.