Cheap Smart Charger Teardown!!
Added 2021-04-09 21:25:59 +0000 UTCCan a $15 battery charger be any good? I've gotta open this one up, so let's take a look.... and Enjoy!
Comments
An interesting 2nd take on the UFO thing. The problem that I've always wondered about is that these "objects" out there are "unidentified". There have been RF jammers on shortwave for decades that we haven't been able to figure out the origin of. Probably Russian. Maybe Chinese. Well, why do we think "drones" couldn't exist 30-40 years ago? The motor and RF control technology was there. Just as some people mocked up fake "Big Foot" feet to make marks in the snow to fool people that there's a real "Big Foot" around, they could have mocked up fake "UFO" aircraft in the form of simple drones with DC motors and AM radio transceivers to control them. The problem with Fran's vid was the words "are real". Most people equate "UFOs" with aliens. So, to say "UFOS"s are real makes people misunderstand that this immediately means that extraterrestrials, aliens, etc., are about. Let's think of horses before zebras, as teaching doctors like to say. It's more likely that the "thing" is a simple hobby drone, or an artifact of your video screen, or a neato technical feat of your sworn enemy who hasn't yet figured out how to scale it to be a weapon to threaten you with. But we have no proof yet that "it" is from another life form, and that's all anyone wants to be sure about, one way or another.
Peter Knazko
2021-05-27 03:56:27 +0000 UTCi had one of them chargers ,im glad yours still works fran , mine blew up...there great when they work .hahaha
Richard Vickers
2021-04-15 19:21:13 +0000 UTCIt was stuck on pretty good, so I left it be.
Fran Blanche
2021-04-11 16:34:36 +0000 UTCI won't know till the next time I need a charge....
Fran Blanche
2021-04-11 16:33:38 +0000 UTCNot a bad unit at all, good separation and what looks to be some effort put in with power device placement. I'm more amazed you didn't remove that plastic off the 7-segs!
Anton
2021-04-11 14:22:34 +0000 UTCI think the difference is that with the $120k device you can likely trace every single step of the production process from the design down to exactly where each component came from. Cheap Chinese electronics are often excellently designed. It's just they're also often put together using whatever components they could get hold of that day from the Shenzhen market.
Chris Crowther
2021-04-11 09:10:39 +0000 UTCWow! It's actually fascinating to see the other end of the electronics design/quality spectrum. $12? You couldn't buy a sheet of Kleenex from a aerospace/defense contractor. It was clean, and free of flux too. When I think of all the horrendous paperwork, safety studies, design peer reviews, sourcing of components, all the MIL-SPEC and FAA environmental qualifications tests, this device would fail every one of them. EMI/RFI noise, nuclear hardening, vibration and temperature tolerance, explosive atmosphere, power input/output range, and then all the program management involved, this device would NOT cost $12 per unit, but probably exceed $120,000 even for a large order. I envy the desigers in China that can design and build something without all that overhead and still have a clean product as the end result. I loved your "cracked egg" reference! Always fun to watch your handiwork. In my world, an unseated connector would not happen as that interconnection technique is not robust. Did you ever get it connected to your bike? Is it still working?
Matt Wietlispach
2021-04-10 23:31:09 +0000 UTCThat is indeed a well made "cheap" device. I don't believe there is such a thing as a boring Franlab video!
Dr Andy Hill
2021-04-10 08:35:50 +0000 UTCYou need a Big Clive style 'spudger' would be good for opening such cases. Although your method also seemed effective
Dr Andy Hill
2021-04-10 08:30:03 +0000 UTCFran, a follow up to the comment I made about a 1960s traffic signal with a digital countdown amber. I found some newspaper clippings and the parent. https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/Countdown%20traffic%20signal%20patent%20US3480909.pdf, https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20h.pdf (the one I saw), https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20i.pdf, https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20a.pdf, https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20b.pdf, https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20c.pdf, https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20d.pdf, https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20e.pdf, https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20f.pdf, https://steven-ruhl.com/images/PDF/count%20down%20g.pdf
Steven Ruhl
2021-04-10 03:16:18 +0000 UTCC’mon Fran, let us know if it works... Excellent video (as always!!). 😀
Darrell Ashby
2021-04-10 02:11:42 +0000 UTCYeah.. looking inside of these cheap PSU's is scary
veritanuda
2021-04-09 22:08:18 +0000 UTCFran, you have to be the hardest working person on uTube. You've got everybody beat when it comes to value for the support buck. I really appreciate it!
Carol K Stouffer
2021-04-09 21:47:55 +0000 UTC
