Woman Killed by iPhone Used 3rd Party Charger

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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According to a just released report from the South China Morning Post, the Chinese woman who was electrocuted when answering her iPhone 4 was still connected to an unauthorized battery charger. The charger appeared to malfunction, allowing a full 220 volt charge to run through the battery.

"Knockoff chargers sometimes cut corners," Xiang said. "The quality of the capacitor and circuit protector may not be good, and this may lead to the capacitor breaking down and sending 220 volts of electricity directly into the cell phone battery."
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Well, it was China. Sometimes, you can find a good product... Other times, you get things like this. Cutting corners is an understatement. It uses the lowest quality shit to make it work for a small amount of time then breaks so you go buy another one. Sadly, this time it resulted in a death. :(
 
Not surprised. I bought a 3rd party cheap ac adapter for my mom's iPhone and it got so hot that it melted some of the outside plastic so I unplugged it and threw it out.

I hate what Apple charges for their replacement crap but I won't be buying third party solutions. My mother is bed bound and the horrible thought of a fire being started for her .. is worth paying whatever I need to for the peace of mind.
 
TheWeazmeister said:
So it was a "feature" of her iPhone...got it.
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How the fuck did you get that out of the article? 3rd party charger failing = iPhone's fault?

Man the apple hate train is getting quite stupid these days.
 
220v phew, try 250v 13amp when your 7 years old, still here :)

Also the story I read was that the lady who it happened to only got shocked, not killed, it said she was in considerable pain during the shock but had no lasting effects.

So its gone from a quick shock to death in the space of two days.
 
xIronCrossx said:
How the fuck did you get that out of the article? 3rd party charger failing = iPhone's fault?

Man the apple hate train is getting quite stupid these days.
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TheWeazmeister #doucheme

I read that as he/she is calling him/herself a douche or wants to be douched.
 
MajorDomo said:
"Knockoff chargers sometimes cut corners," Xiang said. "The quality of the capacitor and circuit protector may not be good, and this may lead to the capacitor breaking down and sending 220 volts of electricity directly into the cell phone battery."
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This does not make sense. AC-to-DC power supplies are supposed to decouple the AC input from the DC output with a transformer, which serves the dual purpose of reducing the voltage (from 220v to 12v or 5v, for example) and isolating the device from utility power, to prevent the raw, high-voltage from getting to the device.

Capacitors are typically used for smoothing and filtering, and for simple timing circuits, and I can't think of any reason one would be placed between the high- and low-voltage sides of the circuit; the two should have been completely, physically isolated.

I don't doubt that the power supply was at fault, but I suspect something has been reported incorrectly.
 
malachy said:
This does not make sense. AC-to-DC power supplies are supposed to decouple the AC input from the DC output with a transformer, which serves the dual purpose of reducing the voltage (from 220v to 12v or 5v, for example) and isolating the device from utility power, to prevent the raw, high-voltage from getting to the device.

Capacitors are typically used for smoothing and filtering, and for simple timing circuits, and I can't think of any reason one would be placed between the high- and low-voltage sides of the circuit; the two should have been completely, physically isolated.

I don't doubt that the power supply was at fault, but I suspect something has been reported incorrectly.
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I doubt that there was a transformer in it... It's 4 diode, a transistor and maybe a couple of cheep capacitors :).
 
Damn, poor thing. :( Worrying about whether or not a cheapo is going to last is one thing - but now worrying about if it's going to KILL me? Sheesh.
 
malachy said:
This does not make sense. AC-to-DC power supplies are supposed to decouple the AC input from the DC output with a transformer, which serves the dual purpose of reducing the voltage (from 220v to 12v or 5v, for example) and isolating the device from utility power, to prevent the raw, high-voltage from getting to the device.

Capacitors are typically used for smoothing and filtering, and for simple timing circuits, and I can't think of any reason one would be placed between the high- and low-voltage sides of the circuit; the two should have been completely, physically isolated.

I don't doubt that the power supply was at fault, but I suspect something has been reported incorrectly.
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This power adapter wasn't an LINEAR device. It was a switched mode device. The input power is rectified, then buffered in a high voltage capacitor (around 400V rating). Then it is pulsed and opto-coupler feedback monitored through a MOSFET (usually) into a transformer into the secondaries and smoothed out to whatever voltage (5V in this case).

If the primary capacitor fails, or one of those pesky Y-capacitors shorts straight or some traces somehow came into touch with shoddy soldering, I suppose you can get a very high voltage at the secondaries, and that can kill.
 
I purchased a few iPhone like cube chargers from a swap meet in San Diego. Many of them are falling apart. It worked well, but when I pull them from the outlet, the two metal prongs and its plastic backing often stayed in the outlet exposing the inner electronics. As someone mentioned above, it is just a bunch of resistors and capacitors. I was surprise that they worked at all considering many of my other transformers are huge and bulky.
 
Thank goodness for regulations like electrical code and GFI!
 
Gnimble said:
I purchased a few iPhone like cube chargers from a swap meet in San Diego. Many of them are falling apart. It worked well, but when I pull them from the outlet, the two metal prongs and its plastic backing often stayed in the outlet exposing the inner electronics. As someone mentioned above, it is just a bunch of resistors and capacitors. I was surprise that they worked at all considering many of my other transformers are huge and bulky.
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They are switch mode devices. They are similar to your computer's PSUs, not like a linear device with a single, big and heavy transformer. Switch mode power supplies are more efficient and much lighter, but harder to service and fail in spectacular ways.
 
MajorDomo said:
According to a just released report from the South China Morning Post, the Chinese woman who was electrocuted when answering her iPhone 4 was still connected to an unauthorized battery charger. The charger appeared to malfunction, allowing a full 220 volt charge to run through the battery.
Click to expand...

The irony of a Chinese guy, in China, talking about cheaply made junk and cutting corners...
 
Interesting; I had my initial apple shcarger fail. and purchased several 99 cent cheapo chargers which are still working fine after 4 years.
 
xIronCrossx said:
How the fuck did you get that out of the article? 3rd party charger failing = iPhone's fault?

Man the apple hate train is getting quite stupid these days.
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LOL, the lack of a sense of humor on Apple fanbois is an even bigger failtrain. Cheap Chinese charger fails, it doesn't have anything to do with Apple as the article points out numerous times, and u get butthurt :p
 
Thanks to posters above for explaining the difference from transformer type devices. I was also wondering how they were hit with mains through a transformer.
I'm still wondering how 22ga wire can support enough current to kill a person.
 
RocketTech said:
Thanks to posters above for explaining the difference from transformer type devices. I was also wondering how they were hit with mains through a transformer.
I'm still wondering how 22ga wire can support enough current to kill a person.
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It only takes 200 mA across the chest to stop someones heart (and only 30mA across the heart itself). The average cell phone charger normally runs at 1-2 Amps (at a perfectly safe 5 volts) and the rated ampacity of a 22g wire is 5A
 
Doesn't her iPhone come with an original charger? Apple probably paid off the investigator to report that it's a 3rd party to save face. I don't think anyone is going to notice one less d-bag anyway.
 
...I just realized, isn't Lightning a terrible name to give to a power connector?
 
Although the person that got killed by a iPhone was using there older iPhone charger and not the new lightning style.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Damn, poor thing. :( Worrying about whether or not a cheapo is going to last is one thing - but now worrying about if it's going to KILL me? Sheesh.
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Eh, we don't use 220v as standard in the states - so you'll be fine. 110/120 is just enough to give you quite the tickle.

Now, if it was an exploding battery that killed her, that's another story.
 
RocketTech said:
Thanks to posters above for explaining the difference from transformer type devices. I was also wondering how they were hit with mains through a transformer.
I'm still wondering how 22ga wire can support enough current to kill a person.
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Your resistance to getting electrocuted varies a lot, I think from person to person, and from time to time. Sometime a little and you are dead, other times, nothing.
 
This is the worst article ever; it contains ZERO facts about the incident. The entire thing is nonsense and speculation:

"may have been a knockoff"

"Knockoff chargers sometimes cut corners"

"The quality of the capacitor and circuit protector may not be good"

"It is still unclear what caused the malfunction"
 
Not surprised.

Having taken one of these apart myself, there's often less than 1mm separating the high-voltage primary from the secondary. Real UL certified chargers generally have at least 3mm of separation.
 
TheWeazmeister said:
LOL, the lack of a sense of humor on Apple fanbois is an even bigger failtrain. Cheap Chinese charger fails, it doesn't have anything to do with Apple as the article points out numerous times, and u get butthurt :p
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Yes, because pointing out that a retard comment is retard makes you a "butthurt Apple fanboi" :rolleyes:

If you were trying to be humourous, you clearly failed. ;)
 
Tudz said:
Yes, because pointing out that a retard comment is retard makes you a "butthurt Apple fanboi" :rolleyes:

If you were trying to be humourous, you clearly failed. ;)
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Proof that comet goldfishy fans don't have a refined sense of humor. :p
 
BryanSTG said:
This is the worst article ever; it contains ZERO facts about the incident. The entire thing is nonsense and speculation:

"may have been a knockoff"

"Knockoff chargers sometimes cut corners"

"The quality of the capacitor and circuit protector may not be good"

"It is still unclear what caused the malfunction"
Click to expand...

QFT

Not surprising considering the article website is called "Mac Rumors". A website dedicated entirely to all things Apple? Might be the slightest amount of bias perhaps?
 
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