Teardown of an IKEA Koppla USB power supply.

in the past I've attempted to recommend that if you want a decent USB power supply go for our prominent brand and I've recommended the Apple one not because I'm an Apple fanboy but because Apple is a huge American brand and they want to protect that brand and they take things seriously so their power supplies are well-made likewise I'm hoping this IKEA one is good too and we're going to find out shortly because I'm about to open this up the Swede one yes after finding this one was live at 240 volts that was there you know that really drove home the message that you have to you know these things are so important we need 5 volt power supplies we need USB first place because from you know things like the phones to lights you know we plug lots of stuff into five volts it's become an industry standard so it makes sense to get yourself a beefy chunky good quality supply that's safe and when you buy what looked like you know what look like Apple and you get them fairly cheap or even pay full price but get them from a non authorized source you could be getting something like this that is based on the one of the Apple chargers but this one in particular is notable for the fact it's got 0.2 millimeter separation between the mains and the low voltage side so it's there for a complete deathtrap likewise this one that is printed Samsung but is really not Samsung I mean I don't think Samsung would put something like this out because it again does not have any proper isolation it's just they've just run the tracks at the same distance as everything else so it's mains here low voltage there so again not see and then you get the brands like the the tiger no I've already opened one of the user it was a little purple version of this I quite like these because all the colors but Tiger is a sort of like similar to IKEA in a ways of novelty stuff and they've got shops all around the world and this one seemed actually pretty good it was very much a cut above this cheap generic ones but I don't think it was quite up to the standard well hopefully I'm not all money yet didn't find out but I wouldn't expect it'd be up to the standard of things like the Apple one or that IKEA one because this is a lot cheaper it's something like five pound with the lead and stuff like that so let's take a look at the let's get all the lesser ones out the way and I'll just move this once lure me because it's not quite so lesser it's actually I use these I think they're okay and we'll take a look at the Apple now here's a weird thing the Apple charger is modular it's designed to be used in various countries so it comes with various adapters and it's got this metal pin in the back and it's not just for anchoring things this metal pin is connected not directly but it is connected to the negative rail of the you know it's connected to the shell so there is a reference to earth but strangely are though this this has got a metal earth pin it's not got the matching connection in here I don't know why they did that so it's not earth then this one has what you may call good suppression RF suppression circuitry as you'd expect from a company like Apple but that means that of all the units I tested this one was the most likely to give you a tingle because it had quite a high leakage current of about 100 microamps this one I've tested the leakage current it has a leakage current that cure unit of 64 micro amps which is typical typically what you'd expect there classing it as a double insulated unit and I'm guessing that as with IKEA has instructions with IKEA common about 35 languages so they use these in every country and not every country has our thing so I think they're just base it on unearth supplies you know and in this case they could have added that extra metal pin but they just class as a double insulated appliance and you are likely if in some scenarios you'll get a very faint tingle particular in the back of your hand if you brush against something while you're holding an object that's plugged into this is just the nature of these power supplies and spiritual power supplies then the ikea unit is rated 3 point 4 amps i've given our good test i've tested up to 2 amps and it held the voltage absolutely fine so i'm let's just open it and this is where i'm going to have a go opening this and I know from opening previous IKEA products that they're sometimes quite hard to open they're really snap together very well and it may even be glue don't really know so if this doesn't come apart quickly then I'll pause just so you don't have to experience the excruciatingly excite of me busting the case open yeah this thing is I can already tell this is going to be chewed up so M yes I'll pause the video and I'll be back shortly okay that wasn't too bad all it took was a few taps the hammer and then the pipe grips n't it actually burst that case open it appears to be at least way nice it's got these plastic pins that push into here and I'm not sure if that's just for alignment I got the feeling it was glued but maybe it's not it's not overly a hundred percent I'm not seeing the shredded remnants you'd normally expect from from glue all I'm seeing shredded remnants where I've used unreasonable force so M that's a yeah it's it yeah it must been glued because it's not really coming up going back together that usually unless these pins are a friction fit but anyway I digress let's say let's get into it and you know what I'm just going to cut off let's cut it off so we can take a good look at this I'm going to be destroying this completely because I as we've discovered from the SWE's unit just because it looks like a good chance former doesn't mean it is a good transformer so let's see what this is using let's switch mode power supply chip is oh it's marked 1 6 9 9 - 0 2 R 5 1 gh I'm not harbor cent sure that is okay let's just say generics which would post plaque so we get the mains come in here we've got watch looks like a little inrush current air yep NTC 1 is our negative temperature coefficient thermistor now these are little resistors basically heat sensitive resistors that start off with a fairly high resistance and then as the heat up it goes lower and that means that when you plug it in initially it stops that huge surge occur because what is happening initially is that the currents going through this bridge rectifier and charging these capacitors which I haven't discharged but I now have no because I've stopped my finger across them look at the separation oh look at the spark gaps and everything this is this is like pro so the mince comes in its gets that nasty surgeon just limited by this MDC thermistor which means if you get lots and lots of things plugged in and they you know suppose you had like I'm all - we adapt with lots of these plug that it means it's not going to be such a high surge that it's going to cause things to trip our crash and then it's got a common mode inductor which is out and dr. with that the live and neutral wound round and so opposite directions so that low frequencies that means 50 Hertz will just pass through it without any effect but high frequency noise or transients will effectively induce a magnetic field that cancels each other out so going the opposite directions that then goes through a bridge rectifier which is a surface mount one with good separation all the way through it stacked the solar collector on each corner for maximum separation a smoothing capacitor a chalk another smoothing capacitor so M this looks like the you know they're making an effort for good filtration then we've got the little switch mode chip and it's transistor we've got the transformer here which I'm going to have to take to bits obviously because there's no other way we can actually determine you know though it looks good it looks quite nicely made and we don't know what's inside so I'm going to remove that I'm going to desolder it and then we'll investigate what's in it it's it feels a criminal thing taking this power supply you know to bits and ruining it when it's a perfectly good working power supply but if I do it you guys don't have to so that's the whole point of this channel well one of the points this channel so we've got the output goes through this air heatsink to diode and then it's got these little Matt air I see this quite common in these products it's got these tiny little chips that are being used to and the text is absolutely main noot on them it really is I'm going to have to actually take a look through a microscope of that text that's absolutely we try to put a whole chips number on it a little soft 23 tape package which is so small I'm not even finding here where is it not Fania it says 198 a.d if that makes any sense i guess they're all the same i think it's just one purport yes one main 8 ad and I'm guessing underneath it says GJ CER I'm guessing those are for negotiating how much power the USB device can have this thing says about 2.1 amp max power outlet and these little chips tend to basically be connected across the 5 volt and 0 volt and then the 2 outputs the chipper across the data pin so this is actually just providing some sort of communication to the device is charging to say you know you can take the maximum you can see take 2.1 amps if you want and the capacitors and output have been skeptical the diodes heatsink which is nice not some much there but it's still enough spacing and it's got the class wide spread capacitor it's got absolutely mega gap there with their proper but an actual routed section out there and the little spark gaps to spark gaps which I'm guessing is for when you've got an electrostatic discharge and the output you know if you go two plugs on in you've got high static charges it means that if the voltage exceeds the rating of all these components as a last resort it can jump physically across as a spark but out about 10 kV that'd be quite a high voltage and the class white capacitor is that 10 nano no it must be 1 nano actually yeah one narrow fard okay right so now I have to take this transformer off and that means cutting it trying to get it off the board it's at least it's a single sided board I shall be back in a moment that was actually fairly easy to get out helped greatly by the fact it's a single sided board I like the way that pins are sideways in this side but long reason that said just to make sure that there's you know there's no confusion about the way transfer goes around is the usual configuration it's got the primary winding plus a second winding on the main side that provides power to the chip but in this case it's not purely what's called a bootstrap winding you get bootstrap and feedback or sometimes they're combined bootstrap is when it provides power to the chip itself once the chip has started when you plug it in there's usually a slate delay as the capacitor in this case it's this tiny little thing here charges via high value resistor and once it's got enough charge in that then the chip itself will burst into action and as soon as it does and starts driving the transformer then it effectively provides its own power supply from the Dogzilla winding but that's also used sometimes for feedback or monitor the voltage on that and it does seem to be doing that here in fact this is for our modern switch whimpers play this is a lot of support components that we require complex a you know and the other winding the third winding is of course the supposedly isolated secondary which is going out to the the 5 volt circuit ring and the bit you're going to be touching so let's say take the tip off this transformer and take a look inside and see what the court is like at the moment I am seeing that the the main side windings are also kind of sleeved which is good it does look like an effort has been made to actually make it relatively safe now where is the end of this OOP and it's actually got our number on it with our date as well that's quite good let's even get this tape off so we can get the bobbin apart and take a look inside now how is this thing stuck together it's looking quite hard actually the core is actually in a plastic housing in this as well it's not just straight a straight metal core rounder how does this come apart let me have to pause again this is not there this is not really immediately obvious how does this comes apart and I think it may involve four so I'm just going to poke out the screwdriver for us and see if I can push that dome but I think the thing may actually have all been sealed up it's not clear at all I shall pause well this definitely isn't going back to go again that was this well glued together and I have to say this an interesting thing there's a little extra wire em from here which is connected to the the negative rail of the power supply and it's just a bear bit of copper wire they've tendered and then it was wrapped around the ferrite core itself just actually glued effectively by the the lacquer onto the ferrite as if it was maybe to screen the ferry I've not come across that that's quite odd so let's say go in further the first one I'm expecting is going to be the serve bootstrap Wayne because it's a our feedback because it's not that critical in the sense that I am it's not the high current winding so sort of sort of it gets the last connection so to speak so it's coming from that side and terminating let's see air oh this may actually be part of the primary by the look of it okay because it does look like this this first walk is coming from what looks like one of the primary connections yeah that's connected to the plus 5 volt real so that is one of the primary connections ok let's cut it and it's sleeved up just until it it just is a really short section of sleeve in the garden it just to get it under the cover here wonder why that under why that is LX say unwind this anyway so this looks like part of the primary and so far it's not going too close to this secondary and the secondary does of that thicken solution which is intact which is good that was the weakness that was the feeling point in the squeeze unit the secondary industry installation had been violated so this winding comes round and it goes to the midpoint tap so that was part of the primary winding I shall cut that off get out of the way and we shall go on to the next layer this could be the bootstrap feedback one or this next one could be that looks like the the bootstrap feedback odd you there's just uh a couple of kills that aren't connected to anything just cluster of wires I haven't broken that hover could that just be sensing it single-ended that's odd I didn't see I connected to anything in there it just seemed to be just tucked up and under the installation okay so this is actually a cluster of wires could they be relying on capacitive coupling between there were sewing there's this that's weird that's something that's new to me almost like it's our capacitively coupled feed pipe winding but also providing power to the chip if it's going to those two pins if it's going to these two pins which it may do I shall think I'm going to get to the end now it's ducking underneath the next layer of insulation oh no it's going all those wires are connected to one pen that's weird oh that's a screening layer because there are two more windings going in here okay so that's a screening layer that's the equipment of the piece of copper tape that was in the in the squeeze supply so at that whole winding was actually just a cluster of wires it looks like three wires just clustered together yeah just looks like a cluster of three wires together with just one connection at one end and just a wrapped round so they are of some sort of screening effect but yet part the primary was outside that that's weird sometimes I think this I you know the switch mode power supplies is a bit of a black art at times that the high frequencies that operate are just normal rules do not apply it's clear that quite a lot of thought and technology has gone into this one then I took it to bits okay I'm trying to find the end here it's a being a loser when they've there's a point that when they put this tape round and then wrap it tightly it really just bonds onto itself the point you can't actually see them so the off comes the next layer and what are we getting now now we're getting the secondary so where the secondary crosses any of these other connections like the strap feedback type connection or the primary connection they have also sleeved the primary as well as the fact that this is double insulated so this is a peer of course and they're relying primarily on the double insulation on this and thus leaving of those other connections for the separation which is reasonable enough it is quite thick insulation and it's in tightest not being chaffed off as in that previous air horror the squeeze 1c yep a very stout thick insulation secondary and now we're into the inner layer which is still going to be it's going to be there the feedback at all of that survey mid one or not I'm not really sure and I'll find out when we peel this off what's going to be next next is the feedback winding a look of it and again it's a series of so this is the pin that's going to the middle so that's actually the one that's going to power the chip via a diode and that is quite odd and that it's it's another cluster of is it three or four words three I think that's very hard to tell actually yeah it's three separate course and I'm guessing this is probably and the scrim you could fool myself and it isn't connected to the negative which is a there okay right over yet that is the the feedback winding and that just leaves the final section of the primary winding so so far it does look like it's been a sensibly designed transformer and care has been made you know taken in making it so I'm coupled with the other features here are the isolation features this does look as you'd expect from Ikea it does look quite a well-designed supply surprising those circuits on is very heavy in the circuitry side and this is now just coming over to the primary side so if I cut that way no that is the loop the look of it that said we have the center point where it's actually this was where this binding here was connected to the outer waning the very outermost winding and then fundamentally I'm just expecting a plastic core in the middle after this good number of turns because it is the primary after all it's the main site that's effectively switching about 300 volts in this case from the capacitor and yes it is just the plastic core and it will be going to direct it to one of those pins and which is that him yep so it's an unusual it's an unusual transformer or something very complex you know it just I'm surprised the Motorsport components in this but everything seems to check out the transformer it seems quite it seems quite well design just good filtering it's got the inrush limiting it's got the modest beef a little heatsink on the support if you think it's not just flat Inglis as as this side on the other side of the diode and it's got the good separation gap spark gaps it's got a slot through between the means and the low voltage where that windings come off and the transformer itself seems to be quite sensibly made and it's got the support circuitry and the capacitors are mounted away from the heatsink so you know what this looks okay particularly given the way it's designed to mount is such that any heat from that heatsink will be going up to the top of the plug further away from those capacitors and they'll be a very circulation I mean I can see holes in the USB casing so there's going to be a bit of air circulation in there as well when they're not all stuff with plugs or the witches put point they'd be under the most lowered but on the whole you know and also these cables are huge it's not just to be flimsy things you find in the Chinese air plugs that you know it's just be dinky thin wires these are actually quite heavy rigid cables with two layers of in solution on them coming from the back pins and onto this or that also alludes to them how they do the multiple adapters because if I undo this screw in this screw this it's going to result in a something separating in a convincement no it's not actually oh that whole outer boat should come off but isn't always probably clipped on as well or that there is that's strange I wonder if they yeah no it must just be the assembly just for for the UK version but yes all in all this wondrous mess that's never ever going to go back together again is well designed without by another IKEA power supply like this I think I would it seems to be quite well engineered just a couple of other things were they've note when you put the circuit board in this isolation gap this slot through the circuit board actually has a plastic bleed more didn't the case that when you put it in that comes right through that slot and provides extremely separation also when you put this in it's got three anchoring points but that actually pushed that whole circuit board one up here and two down here that press that circuit board firmly into place so it's a also quite a robust unit it seems well designed from scratch you know it really has been a lot of thought seems to have gone into this it seems to be a good supply

Channel: bigclivedotcom

Views: 707,790

Keywords: YouTube Capture, ikea, koppla, usb, safety, isolation, transformer, charger, power supply, psu, quality, separation

Id: uRe9w5PKmsE

Length: 28min 31sec (1711 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2016