Iphone charging...

apparantly the headphones where plugged into the LAPTOP, not the phone, the phone was plugged into a cheap charger and the laptop was pluged into a wall brick also for charging

it is tough to think how the circuit could have ben made unles she was pligging into the laptop and touching metal on it or the headphones had exposed wiring. and she then also picked up the phone will connected to its charger

none of this would explain the burns on her chest of course

see here for more destails http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10929662/Woman-in-Australia-killed-by-cheap-phone-charger.html

it is tough to think how the circuit could have ben made

I have a photo of the internals of a cheap charger.

They rely on a small piece of foam to stop the phase pin from making contact with the internal circuitry.

I'll dig out the direct link from the investigation ...rather than relay on some reporter.

Mark

The shoddy build that these chargers is quite impressive.

Problem is that the good ones are a total rip off, whilst the cheap ones then flood the remainder of the market. There is little room for well built, reasonable priced units and no way of differentiating them from the cheap stuff even the original equipment can barely do that !

So a good biz plan works around making something that is totally  superfluous but cool and is merely a play on an existing device or technology and totally and utterly avoids at all costs any area or product  which may cause fire, maiming,death or worse still Litigation!!

A USB powered dancing Lemon for example!!

'nuff said ...So Hipster

John Alexander wrote:

 

If you are going for this Market then the money comes from the Hipster component  not the guts so I would not even bother doing this yourself and focus on the cool black rimmed glasses bit of the project

If you are lucky you'll just avoid all contact with the Law. However if you manufacture enough to make a living I think that this is almost inevitable and as you say you are responsible end of even if you are the innocent end vendor ... assumption is the mother of all ...$%^ ups!

Hi Shabaz, I'm not sure the market will stand  another cheap charger.

Fortunately the ixxxx market seems to be particularly rich(literally) in "hipster" devices, in that case you can charge a lot more than the generic product. If you are going for this Market then the money comes from the Hipster component  not the guts so I would not even bother doing this yourself and focus on the cool black rimmed glasses bit of the project and buy a charger module from a reputable source for cheaps!

John A

Another reason to design your devices to be tolerant of the biggest load of rubbish you can get. If you can do that and still operate correctly and safely then you are a winner and the design is likely to work wherever it's sourced or built. Unfortunately that takes more skill and time, both of which represent money that a project might not have.

Agree with what mcb1 said, furthermore in the UK (and probably Europe) claiming ignorance of the law is never a mitigating factor (even if you hire someone - hence you should hire the best team you can afford) - you'll be liable no matter of fault, but the penalty will be much worse if you actually were negligent enough to not be aware of the legislation.

but if the thing burns someone .... as the thread has repeatedly mentioned; it is not far-fetched), then you'll be liable.

Worse than that is there were warning given prior.

In some countries you might be able to claim you didn't know, but if the content of these posts were discovered, then that claim might be shown to be untrue.

We're simply trying to warn of the possible problems.

In reality unless you design is much cheaper to produce and has benefits people will pay for, you might struggle to compete against our Asian friends.

Mark

Hi Martin,

A URL was given earlier that will auto-generate a circuit if you tell it voltage, current etc. It will even let you tweak parts

if some are unavailable.

So, you now know how to get your circuit. And the components can be purchased from a distributor. And you can then

set about testing it.

You stated earlier that you don't want to hire anyone but want to do this yourself.

However, it won't be production-ready (you stated you want to make these for a living). For that you really do need to

hire an engineer, or be prepared to buy and read up relevant standards for the country in which you sell it, make

measurements to confirm it complies, and use materials that comply with the standards too.

.

For instance, that $0.99 board, can you confirm it is made of flame retardant material that won't burn if it overheats?

Or that it doesn't radiate noise beyond legislated levels?

Or that it does not contain certain chemicals (all depends on your country's regulations).

There is no website anywhere with a production-ready design, something like that is chargeable, by hiring an engineer

in your region.

If you don't want to hire anyone (which I think you've already stated you're not prepared to do), then the slower path

is to study the standards for your country and build your design based on that.

The thread did digress into charger safety but if the thing burns someone (this is a realistic possibility whenever

charging a device is involved, as the thread has repeatedly mentioned; it is not far-fetched), then you'll be liable.

Hi Martin,

A URL was given earlier that will auto-generate a circuit if you tell it voltage, current etc. It will even let you tweak parts

if some are unavailable.

So, you now know how to get your circuit. And the components can be purchased from a distributor. And you can then

set about testing it.

You stated earlier that you don't want to hire anyone but want to do this yourself.

However, it won't be production-ready (you stated you want to make these for a living). For that you really do need to

hire an engineer, or be prepared to buy and read up relevant standards for the country in which you sell it, make

measurements to confirm it complies, and use materials that comply with the standards too.

.

For instance, that $0.99 board, can you confirm it is made of flame retardant material that won't burn if it overheats?

Or that it doesn't radiate noise beyond legislated levels?

Or that it does not contain certain chemicals (all depends on your country's regulations).

There is no website anywhere with a production-ready design, something like that is chargeable, by hiring an engineer

in your region.

If you don't want to hire anyone (which I think you've already stated you're not prepared to do), then the slower path

is to study the standards for your country and build your design based on that.

The thread did digress into charger safety but if the thing burns someone (this is a realistic possibility whenever

charging a device is involved, as the thread has repeatedly mentioned; it is not far-fetched), then you'll be liable.

So a good biz plan works around making something that is totally  superfluous but cool and is merely a play on an existing device or technology and totally and utterly avoids at all costs any area or product  which may cause fire, maiming,death or worse still Litigation!!

A USB powered dancing Lemon for example!!

'nuff said ...So Hipster

John Alexander wrote:

 

If you are going for this Market then the money comes from the Hipster component  not the guts so I would not even bother doing this yourself and focus on the cool black rimmed glasses bit of the project

Hi Shabaz, I'm not sure the market will stand  another cheap charger.

Fortunately the ixxxx market seems to be particularly rich(literally) in "hipster" devices, in that case you can charge a lot more than the generic product. If you are going for this Market then the money comes from the Hipster component  not the guts so I would not even bother doing this yourself and focus on the cool black rimmed glasses bit of the project and buy a charger module from a reputable source for cheaps!

John A

but if the thing burns someone .... as the thread has repeatedly mentioned; it is not far-fetched), then you'll be liable.

Worse than that is there were warning given prior.

In some countries you might be able to claim you didn't know, but if the content of these posts were discovered, then that claim might be shown to be untrue.

We're simply trying to warn of the possible problems.

In reality unless you design is much cheaper to produce and has benefits people will pay for, you might struggle to compete against our Asian friends.

Mark