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After a User Dies, Apple Warns Against Counterfeit Chargers
After a Chinese woman was earlier this month evidently electrocuted while talking on her iPhone while it was plugged in to charge, Apple is warning users to avoid counterfeit chargers. From CNet:
"Last week, reports surfaced in China that suggested the woman, Ma Ailun, might have been using a third-party charger designed to look like the real thing. Although third-party chargers are not uncommon, they vary widely in terms of safety and quality.
Earlier this year, safety consulting and certification company UL issued a warning that counterfeit Apple USB chargers were making the rounds and that consumers should be on the lookout for them due to their lower quality and possibly dangerous defects. The company posted the guidance on its site after a woman was allegedly electrocuted while answering a call on her iPhone."
Whether or not the counterfeit charger was the cause, they have reinforced their image and promoted their chargers (as well as discouraging customers from buying their chargers elsewhere).
There are lots of "third-party" Android chargers out there -- ordinary MicroUSB things. If "counterfeit" (i.e. non-Samsung, or whatever) chargers were a problem, wouldn't this happen all the time with Androids?
Sounds like Apple is just taking advantage of the opportunity to scare people into paying the Apple Tax.
I'm not buying it, how could you possibly screwup a USB charger to the point where it would be lethal? I mean the cables aren't generally thick enough to carry enough 220V current to kill someone before they melt and 5.5V DC certainly isn't going to kill someone.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
... and while it does a good job of charging, it does have a "sparking" habit whenever I plug it in to a wall outlet. Honestly, if this was truly a concern for Apple, they should make their chargers cheaper, or license aftermarket production to the spec of originals. I saved a bundle (about 50%) by going with a Chinese knock-off.
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
Using my official iPad charger charing my iPhone 4S while using the apple noise blocking headphones. Maybe the charger should be grounded.....
When I finally dumped my iPhone 3G, it was because it kept shocking me every time it rang. I don't know about the iPhone 5, but I think blaming the charger might be a little simplistic given that experience.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
I was expecting a story about credit card fraud. Not that this is any better...
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I accidentally read counterfeit charges and though Apple wanted to prevent people from filing lawsuits or something.
No one is going to die by having 5volts applied to their face.
But they do die from having 220 volts applied to their face.
The issue is that the counterfeit chargers short and deliver the mains directly to the head. It doesn't matter what electronic device is involved. hell, doesn't matter if any electronic device is connected to the end of the other side of the USB cable when the circuit is completed.
See the commentary at the top of the page from this link:
http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and-why-you.html
--Paul
A faulty charger can add the mains voltage to the USB voltage. A connected device will still charge.
With an Android device you will not notice it as the device has a plastic casing. With an Apple device you have a metal casing connected to the USB connector. Grab this with wet hands and you get electrocuted.
So saving a few bucks on the charger is definitely not the way to go. There are Youtube videos showing how el-cheapo charger ignore any safety standards.
Especially in China.
Are you saying that China has counterfeit electronics? And that they don't meet safety standards? This simply must be a joke.
I don't understand how your comment is modded insightful.
Think about the size of these chargers, the AC/DC components are not far apart at all. In a cheap, POS charger it would not be inconceivable for something to crack, break, shift, or otherwise create a short between the AC input to the DC output...running direct to the phone. So yes, I'm pretty sure you could die with 110/240V directly to your face.
It's possible by having the charger fail in such a way that it's not 5 volts any more -- or that the 5-volt pair is at a substantial voltage relative to earth ground.
I have an MS degree in electrical engineering (not that it matters) and I have had a personal experience with a bad charger design (generic USB charger in this case with an Android phone).
The issue is that it was not a floating ground design and it was not a three prong plug. In short, the ground being sent to the phone is one of the legs of the 120v line. In my case, I had the phones headphone out connected to a cable to run into a stereo receiver. The key here is that the ground line was exposed and it brushed against my skin while I was holding a properly grounded device. I got to feel what 120v feels like. Luckily for me, it was just brushing against my skin, and my connection to ground was not perfect.
Anyway, I now have switched to three prong usb chargers, and I am glad Apple is making this a more publicly known issue.
Most Android phones are plastic, a material which doesn't conduct electricity very well.
Yes the charger was counterfeit, it was actually made in USA.
remember the explding batteries a while back?
But a cheap USB cable is not going to carry 220v very far. The cable will likely burnup first.
They profit from everything: "Do not buy third party accessories, they'll kill you; buy ours and you won't die."
Wouldn't the USB cable catch fire first?
Don't you have a bridge to crawl back under? The Google fanboy trolls have become way worse than the Apple ones were 3-5 years ago...
Relying on vague memory of EE classes of 15 years ago: A badly built power transformer wouldn't shock someone with the transform voltage but the direct line. Poorly constructed circuits short from melting stuff contacting metal they shouldn't. If the circuit shorts and there are no GFI or fuses or other safety features, the power lines instead of being 12V DC or 5V DC or whatever are now 120V AC.
Safety features like fuses and GFI cost money where if one is seeking to make a fast buck on knock offs throwing out a few of them will make it even more profitable.
To me this is one of those forehead slappers. If you want to minimize cheap knockoffs, make your certification process cheaper and more straightforward.
Obviously Apple is going the other way, trying to use technology/encryption to force vendors into their certification and licensing process with the idea that they can control this market and make money off it, too.
Of course this has failed, and knock-offs are starting to proliferate, and it's hard to know if what Apple really cares about is the rare and unlikely chance of serious shock or if it wants to curtail products from unlicensed vendors.
its a step down transformer and a voltage regulator. 5vdc and 1 amp. 1 amp is what killed not a non branded charger. I mean yes stuff needs to be safe and up to code but what a bunch of tripe that article is spouting.
This is what's known as "spin" in non-apple ecosystems. I know Apple would never lie to you though, so let's just call it "iSpin"
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You will be electrocuted before the cable fails. It's likely that only a single leg of the 220V outlet will be forwarded to the phone therefore we are really talking about 110V. You holding the other end of the cable completes the circuit to ground. You will probably die or have serious injury before the load that you introduced melts the cable.
I wouldn't count on the cable acting as a fuse.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Makes little difference if you burnup firstist.
100-220 V at 60 Hz can be lethal fairly quickly. You don''t need a hell of a lot of amperage, so a thin wire can handle it briefly.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
The new "lighting" connector is very solid and handy, contrary to micro USB.
Its designed that way for obvious reasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Mini_and_Micro_connectors
"The Micro plug design is rated for at least 10,000 connect-disconnect cycles—significantly more than the Mini plug design.[38] It is also designed to reduce the mechanical wear on the device; instead the easier-to-replace cable is designed to bear the mechanical wear of connection and disconnection"
So... take the advice from us here at Apple, and pay us $79 for a $5 charger.
Signature intentionally left blank.
Cue the Apple haters claiming that Apple engaged in a conspiracy to manufacture and distribute lethally-flawed apparently-counterfeit chargers in order to destroy the market for 3rd-party chargers and lock up all the profits...
No. the cables aren't built so cheaply that they would melt enough to break a circuit when a little heat is created. That's what fuses are for and USB cables aren't fuses.
I've had several iDevices and have to say that apple branded cables suck. I've had to replace every apple branded cable with a generic because the sheath is thin & there's no support near the connectors, so the sheath cracks and wires are exposed. ( I've had 2 iPods and currently have an iPad ) I had the apple branded cable for less than 6 months and wires were visible at the connector... I've had the same iPod and cheap chinese cable from a no-name chinese company for well over 3 years now. It gets the same abuse that it did before & isn't even starting to show age. The new "lightning" connector doesn't seem to be as bad, but only because of the design of the connector as a whole. I wouldn't be too surprised if it was an apple cable...
It doesn't carry the current until the current has somewhere to flow. Namely, through you. Sure, the cable will melt in a matter of seconds, but that's a few seconds of electric shock, which is plenty.
I would think that metal cased phones only exasperate the issue of allowing that voltage to get to the person holding that phone in a most efficent manner too.
The issue is that the counterfeit chargers short and deliver the mains directly to the head. It doesn't matter what electronic device is involved. hell, doesn't matter if any electronic device is connected to the end of the other side of the USB cable when the circuit is completed.
In the case of the woman who died, it was reported that her iPhone was still fine. So it seems 220 Volt was delivered only to her, and not to the phone at all (I doubt an iPhone or any other phone would survive being hit by 220 Volt).
The cheap adapter may have sent big voltage to the phone connecteor... But IT'S THE APPLE DESIGN that bring that voltage outside the phone...
If the two leads of the charger are (relative to ground) 220V and (220+5)V, the phone should charge just fine and the user would still be fine...
If the charger send a rogue voltage (like 0V and 220V), the phone internals should get fried... but the user should still be fine...
But some retard thought it'd be cool to use the metal frame of the phone as an antenna... This lead to the "antenna-gate" with people losing their phone signal when holding the phone the wrong way, but that part is more funny than other. But this also mean that any invalid voltage sent to the phone connector may also reach that metallic frame and the user... With the sad consequences that you've seen here !!!
When you see electrical recommendation for electric appliances, you see that the box of an electric device should be grounded or completely insulated... Apple failed that basic recommendation... and THEY are responsible for that part.
Any phone charger can go rogue... this is even true for Apple's "official" chargers (even if risks are lower).
You might be inclined to say "Apple can't be held responsible for counterfeit chargers," but I disagree. Even my hairdryer has an automatic shutoff in case of a short. You'd think they could build this very, very basic safety feature into a device you hold up to your brain, especially since Apple is well aware that consumers are regularly conned into buying sub-par counterfeit parts.
Wouldn't the USB cable catch fire first?
No, of course not. By the time you've run enough current to melt/ignite the insulation, you've run enough current to kill. It's not as though the insulation melts as the first electron passes by.
And, oh, by the way, since you seem to be unaware, an uninsulated cable can deliver enough current to kill you, even one covered in flaming insulation ;-)
Now if you're talking about the conductor melting instead of just the insulation, oh good lord, of course that does not happen before dangerous current has flowed. Good grief.
No
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I am shocked!
They are if you pass enough current through them. You just aren't trying hard enough.
That's one way to force the use of proprietary hardware. Such a benevolent company. Use Official Apple Product or DIE!
It's not just Apple suggesting a counterfeit:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57594449-37/iphone-related-death-in-china-could-be-linked-to-fake-charger/
Granted, a guy listed as "phone expert" on Chinese media isn't exactly conclusive, but given that China actually had fake Apple stores for awhile I would not be surprised if some idiot who didn't know what he was doing made deadly chargers and slapped an Apple logo on them.
OTOH iPhone 4 has been out for three years. And it didn't kill anyone until Ma Ailun.
"After a User Dies, Apple Warns Against Counterfeit Chargers" Why would I be careful with counterfit charges only after I, a user, die?
Crap switching power supplies from China are a huge problem. You not only have to look for a UL logo, but check the logo in the UL database. UL even has special rules for China about where the UL stickers come from.
Tests of computer power supplies have shown that the UL-certified ones will consistently deliver their rated current. That makes sense, because that's how UL tests them. Others, loaded up to their rated load, overheat, shut down, burn out, or in a few cases, catch fire. The really bad ones lack key safety components, like a fuse.
I bought some laptop-type switching power supplies on Amazon which showed a UL logo in the picture, but the delivered power supply looked different and lacked a UL logo. I raised hell with Amazon over that, and they kicked that seller off.
No one is being killed by the 5v on the USB bus. The problem is the counterfeit chargers are often poorly designed and can fail in a way that shorts the USB cable to the AC power.
Righto. And it would seem there must have been something else contributing, path-to-ground-wise.
, and they contain a bit more than a simple transformer and regulator.
They take the AC line voltage, rectify it to high voltage DC, chop the DC up into high frequency pulses with a MOSFET, step the pulsed voltage down with a specially designed transformer, then rectify the output to low voltage DC. A sample of the output DC is then fed back to the primary side circuitry to achieve closed loop regulation.
Because the primary side of the system is at line potential, the insulation in the switching transformer (and the optocoupler used in the feedback loop) is all that prevents the output side from presenting a shock hazard with respect to earth ground. The quality of construction of many of the Chinese knockoff chargers is downright terrible, and I could easily believe that an insulation breakdown. Dave Jones "EEVBlog" did a teardown of one of these a while back. Scary stuff if you know what you are looking at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE
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iOS 7 (which I'm using as a developer) has this interesting feature whereby it warns you if you're not using an "Apple Certified" accessory. IT did this for my cheap charging cable - popping up a warning as soon as I plugged it in. I'm very curious about how this actually works.
It's current that kills you, not voltage, and it doesn't take much. Even a cheap USB cable will transfer more than enough power to kill you if you're unlucky.
If it's thick enough for 500mA(minimum USB standard), it's enough to kill you, as it only takes 100-200mA. Matter of fact, it says that 100-200mA is actually more dangerous than above 200mA if the victim can get prompt attention.
I don't read AC A human right
the part that plugs into the wall is mostly USB, with notable quirks so they can support high amperage modes.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
http://pigroll.com/755_plug-in-usb.html
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Better: don't buy at all.
I have an excess of Nokia, Samsung and HTC chargers, all compatible. I just pick the nearest one..
it isn't actually clear if it WAS a counterfit charger.... Apple wants you to believe it is, but maybe it isn't...
Pardon me for interrupting the usual /. dialogue with something relevant to the original topic, but Ken Shirriff did a couple of teardowns a year ago that point out exactly why the counterfeit chargers are Not Safe. The safety issues revolve around poor isolation practices between the line and USB sides of some USB chargers.
Major items include
1) lack of "double insulated" construction in the internal transformer.
2) parts placement of line and USB side components on a single circuit board such that paths may be readily formed between line and USB sides from moisture, construction errors, or component failure.
3) inadequate margins between line side and USB side in overall layout of the charger internal components.
http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html
http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and-why-you.html
I thought that in any electronic device, the case was insulated from the electronic and therefore the power source. The electronic would fry anyway in a mater of milliseconds, stopping the current from flowing in the process. Anyway, 220V most of the time is not fatal unless you're very unlucky. I read somewhere that she was taking a bath while answering her phone.
Maybe Siri just didn't like her?
What? Any USB charger will charge an iPhone/iPad just not as fast as one made for the it. The 30 pin cable is the only thing that is proprietary and even then you can get them cheaply. The problem here is that someone made a counterfeit one which was shoddy and killed someone.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Anyone looking to buy anything should avoid China. There, that's much more realistic.
First? Remember, no current is flowing until the circuit is completed. The amount of current required to flash-ignite the charging wire is quite high compared to the amount necessary to cook human nervous tissue. Even if the wire burned through its insulation almost immediately, it could already be too late.
Also, remember that USB cables actually have moderately high current tolerances. Carrying any meaningful amount of power at 5V requires a relatively high amperage rating. 1A at 220V is quite a lot of power when applied to the human body, and that's merely what these charging cables are expected to carry in normal operation. In practice, they can probably manage several times that without anything worse than becoming a bit warm will occur. At 2.3A, that's over half a kilowatt (minus minor resistive losses in the wire, which will heat it but probably not melt/ignite it) being delivered to the head...
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
I too have a non Apple charger for my Powerbook. Not because of price, but because when the Apple one failed, EBay notwithstanding, there was no way to replace it.
The only advice the "Geniuses" at the Apple Store could give me was "Hur hur, that's like so old Grampa. Get a new laptop".
*sigh* Young people.
This is a solid explanation of how the phone could be safely plugged in, but very dangerous once it's brought to your head. A cable with a resistance of 0.1 Ohms carrying a current of 1 Amp will experience a voltage drop of 0.1V, which means it will dissipate 0.1 Watts (I * dV) - a meager amount that the wire can maintain indefinitely (and indeed, is designed to). This happens regardless of whether the wire is carrying 5V or 225V; all that matters is the voltage drop *along* the wire (and the current on the wire, which is partially a function of that voltage drop).
Now, if you shorted the wire itself (rather than shorting the mains to one side of the wire), then (under normal circumstances) your wire is now dropping the full 5V that is the difference between its positive and ground terminals. To get a voltage drop of 5V with only 0.1 Ohms of resistance, you need 50 Amps (dV = I * R -> dV/R = I). 50A current times 5V potential drop is 250 Watts of dissipated heat, which would destroy your wire if the USB port could supply anywhere near that much current. The numbers for 220V are even more frightening (P = dV^2/R, so that would be 484000W). But, that won't happen unless the wire is shorted to itself. If the wire (at 220V) is instead connected to ground through a human being (with a resistance between that person's head and ground of, say, 49.9 Ohms) then you've got (220)^2 / 50, which is a mere 0.2% of the number given above. That's still about a kilowatt, enough to kill you very quickly.
As for the wire, it's now carrying 4.4A (220V/50 Ohm), but it still only has 0.1 Ohm of resistance and is therefore dissipating a mere 1.936W across a voltage drop of .44V. That's many times its normal dissipation, but still it might not even be enough to melt the plastic coating.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
(For thick rubber gloves and rubber soled shoes)
Nope. You can run as many volts as you like over a thin cable; it's amps that would cause it to heat up and fail.
Every USB power brick i've seen has a floating output. That is in normal operation neither side of the output is connected to "mains ground".
So it's quite feasible in a failure scenario for one side of the output to be connected to mains live while the two sides of the output remain at 5V relative to each other. The phone would probablly be fine with this, someone holding the phone not so much.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
you do not need a lot of power to kill someone with >100V.
Even a cheap cable will deliver the milli-amps required before dying.
You can put a large voltage on a copper wire the size of a human hair. 1mA of current could kill you. At 220V, 1mA is only 220mW. That "heat" isn't even going to be dissipated in the wire so trust me, the cable won't feel a thing.
Why the hell doesn't Apple isolate the USB cable from the user? Then nobody would get hurt if they applied 220V to a USB cable as long as they didn't stick the open end into their mouth.
It greatly contributes to the danger that iPhone's cover material is aluminum rather than plastic.
I came here to say exactly this. Apple is the one who ensured that the only manufacturers selling chargers for their products were those with no accountability.
If they did not use absurd proprietary designs, then most consumers would buy chargers from companies which have such qualifications as "an address" and "a name".
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
It's called MHL and it's an industry standard. It's also implemented in many phones now, though nobody knows its existence even through their phones may already have had it for 1 or 2 years.
I bought the cable and it's very impressive. Full HD transfer, though not without one or two seconds of delay.
Or maybe not charge a ridiculous amount of money for a proprietary charger so people wouldn't be forced into buying a much less expensive 3rd party one? Nah... why do that?
FWIW, the shoddy quality of knock-off chargers is well-documented. Bottom line: stay away from them.
http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html
don't buy a phone made of metal, lol.