USB-C Power Meter Helps You Spot Counterfeit Accessories Before They Fry Your Gadgets (gizmodo.com) 152
USB Type-C cables are not all created equally. In fact, some USB Type-C cables fail so badly that they will permanently damage your hardware. Benson Leung, an engineer on Google's Pixel team, discovered early last year that there's even more risk to your electronics when you've got a cheap USB-C cable with an older USB connector on the other end that doesn't properly regulate power draw. In an effort to weed out the bad cables from the good, a company called Satechi has released a "Type-C Power Meter" that makes it easy to tell if your USB-C gadgets are at risk of getting fried, or under-powered, by a sketchy accessory. Gizmodo reports: The simple pass-through adapter connects between a USB-C cable and a USB-C device, providing real-time data about the power draw, in either direction, including details about voltage, amps, and the amount of energy that's been transferred since it was first plugged in. The monitor can let you know if an external battery pack is providing the proper amount of power to a smartphone that it claims to, or if your MacBook or Chromebook is receiving sufficient power from a charging cable connected to its USB-C port to actually charge the battery. What the monitor can't do, however, is protect a device if there's a detected problem in the power flow. It's not a surge protector, nor does it have any built-in alarms or warnings because it has no idea what the power requirements are for whatever device you're using it with. You'll have to make sure you're aware of how much power a device is supposed to be drawing, and confirm that it matches what the Type-C Power Meter is reporting, as soon as you plug it in.
My cable recommendation... (Score:5, Funny)
I use only the spun-gold Monster Type-C cables. I know, they cost quite a bit at a little over $600 a foot, but the power is so smooth, and a certified genuine Yogi meditated over them. If you really care about the performance of your equipment, you buys these and do without food.
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Why not just get a USB-C to micro-USB adaptor [microcenter.com] and just use it w/ a standard micro-USB cable available anywhere? If you want the gold monster cables, even for that you can get that in micro-USB at standard rates, and then use it in combination w/ this adapter
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So cheaper per foot than the Apple version?
So, I'm about to buy a new smartphone (Score:2)
My current phone sucks beans, but I can hold off another 6 months
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You call it the current phone because it draws a lot of amps?
Nice geek accessory, but....30 bucks! (Score:2)
Or you can buy a cheapo multimeter, which is far more versatile, for less than $10....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digita... [ebay.com]
Granted, not as cool, compact and easy to use.
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Sure if you cut open a cable and placed your multimeter inline with the power wire. Decent cables aren't cheap either. So it seems a lot easier and more fool-proof to buy a purpose-made monitor, and you'd come out nearly the same.
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How does a monitor prevent a device from being destroyed?
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
What bugs me about USB power (Score:5, Insightful)
What bugs me about USB power is that the negotation for more than a tenth-amp (half-watt) takes place partly on the data lines. That means they need to be connected between the peripheral and the source.
So any charger device for a power-hungry gadget (such as a smartphone) will have a full four-wire connection and have the opportunity to attempt to exploit any USB port vulnerabilities of the device. Making a "condom" adapter to only connect the +5 and ground wires will normally provide reduce performance (if it works at all). Vetting one that does connect to the data lines on both sides is difficult - both to insure that it does what's intended and doesn't have a backdoor, and that it, itself, isn't such an attacking device.
Given that Russian intelligence was already caught handing out phone-cracking "USB chargers" to many countries' high officials at an international conference, the threat not just a hypothetical.
(Note that some powered hubs just tie +5 and ground to the supply, rather than try to negotiate and enforce per-port power limits, too.)
IMHO: A USB device that depends on its power source to limit its input current, and can be damaged by a host that is willing to deliver more current that it requested, is defective by design. The negotiation and enforcement is for the benefit of the power source (for instance, a laptop trying to protect its battery life).
Ditto USB hosts (Score:2)
IMHO: A USB device that depends on its power source to limit its input current, and can be damaged by a host that is willing to deliver more current that it requested, is defective by design.
Ditto any supply (such as a laptop's USB port) that can be damaged by an excessive load - all the way down to a short to ground. Current limiters are not that costly, and one smart enough to negotiate higher limits involves enough custom silicon that it can also be designed to enforce the higher limits in a self-protec
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The USB-C spec allows for as much as 20V to be negotiated. For anything but the cheapest crap devices I don't think it's too much to ask that they be able to handle that or at least disconnect electrically rather than burn out. Any supplier of power should, as you say, not be damaged by even a dead short.
I can understand if a $5 thumb drive can't handle it, but there's no excuse for something like a chromebook burning out.
The meter might be useful for some things, but I suspect it's more likely to tell you
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If the shiny device can't cope with 20V, then an engineer should have stuck a 5.1V Zener diode in the design.
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Ha Ha Ha! Where are your peas now?
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You need to match the peak power of the zener to the characteristics of the polyfuse
I know, but it's Saturday, and this was just a quick test with some components in my stock. In the meantime, I've replaced the zener with a 2.2 Ohm resistor, and hooked up my scope to get a view of the energy. Turns out the resistor eats about 500mJ before the polyfuse kicks in. The zener I used is only rated for 4 mJ (40W * 100 us). That's quite a gap, so for a reliable solution you need quite a beefy zener diode. All in all, I think it's easier and cheaper to make a device that can just handle the highe
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What bugs me about USB power is that the negotation for more than a tenth-amp (half-watt) takes place partly on the data lines.
In theory. In practice, very few devices do any "negotiation". They deliver the power to any device that plugs in. I am not sure if I have ever seen a device that actually uses the official negotiation protocol.
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I am not sure if I have ever seen a device that actually uses the official negotiation protocol.
Every device charging above 700mA does some form of negotiation if for no other reason than to prevent your house burning down. If you supply a USB jack on a phone with 5V with a beefy powersupply it'll charge incredibly slowly. The official protocol includes dumb signalling such as simply supplying 2V on D+ and 2.7V on D-.
However for the newer fast charge standards the device will need to tell the upstream supply if it wants more than 5V, that requires some kind of negotiation.
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They should have specified that the cable resistance must be monitored by the endpoints and the charging must stop if it's too high (i.e. the wire is heating up or is too t
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If you get a $2 extension cord to hook up your AC, it's your own damn fault when it sets on fire
And if the store sells the same cable for $50, it is no longer your our damn fault ?
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IMHO: A USB device that depends on its power source to limit its input current, and can be damaged by a host that is willing to deliver more current that it requested, is defective by design.
Current limiting is to protect the supplier of the current. Bad current negotiation can damage the power supply, so of course the power supply should limit the current. A bad power supply may break, though. I think the main problem is that USB-C can use a range of voltages and a 5 V device plugged into a 20 V power supply will blow up the device unless the 20 V supply is signaled to throttle back to 5 V.
But maybe I misunderstand. Unfortunately, the reporting about this topic (Leung's findings) is very fuzzy
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Just build a USB condom that negotiates for maximum power but doesn't pass the data lines through to the phone.
Most phones just ramp up power draw until the voltage sags anyway, even if they can't communicate. Few ports actually limit power to 100mA, especially chargers.
What's the solution though? (Score:2)
If you are going to have power adapters that can provide 100 watts, in the form of 20v 5a that are on the same setup as devices that might draw 5v 100ma you have to have some kind of communication.
It isn't the current draw that is the only issue, it is the voltage. New USB specs allow for higher voltages. That's a problem if the receiving device can't tell it what to set it at. The charger I have for my phone can do 5v, 9v or 12v. My phone wants 9v. Somehow, the phone has to tell it what to send.
In terms of
Some days I wonder (Score:2)
Sometimes I wonder... Why did Apple make lightning connectors and thunderbird or bolt or whatever connectors..
Other days I know exactly why. I switched from Android from day 1 to an iPhone 7. I personally don't use the headphone so haven't noticed it. The battery is awesome. The UI reminds me of Windows 3.1. Far from perfect, hoping to switch back soon (battery life is killer for me, plus phone durability). Then I see more issues with Pixel or USB-C and it makes me want to be a luddite.
Problem is USB-C Specification/Implementation? (Score:2)
I would think that any specification for consumer grade hardware that could end up damaging the devices they are built into is the root cause of the problem.
Products like this (which are repurposed development tools normally used to check USB Operation - I have several in my office) strengthen my resolve to not purchase USB-C equipped systems.
So how does it help again? (Score:4, Informative)
The simple pass-through adapter connects between a USB-C cable and a USB-C device, providing real-time data about the power draw, in either direction, ...What the monitor can't do, however, is protect a device if there's a detected problem in the power flow. It's not a surge protector, nor does it have any built-in alarms or warnings because it has no idea what the power requirements are for whatever device you're using it with.
It can't measure the power flow unless it's put in-line with the device you're charging and the charger.
It has no automatic warnings or alarms. You have to sit there and watch it while your device is charging.
Didn't Benson lose some equipment [arstechnica.com] as soon as he plugged it in? If this device can't really test anything on it's own, how is it going to "help me prevent my gadgets from being fried"? Once I've hooked it to my device if something goes wrong it's too late.
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and even if it's a slow burn you wont know unless you know what the numbers mean
even on slashdot the majority know jack shit about electronics (hence all the countless pi and arduino posts over the years) so abcxyz data on a device means fuck all nothing
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You're missing the point. The point is that this is a Slashvertisement for a device that has existed for many years only in this case supports USB-C.
All the talk about preventing frying devices is purely to draw in readership based on earlier coverage of this risk on Slashdot.
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Yeah, and the damage potentially happens far faster than your hundred-millisecond scale reaction time.
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It doesn't. Gizmodo is being stupid again.
It's a neat device for us nerd-types because it's an easy way to see how much power a USB-C device is drawing (and at what voltage). However that's the limit to its use. It can't detect for or protect against bad USB-C adapters.
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So how does it prevent my device from getting fried?
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Most cable testers are not put inline, so that if your cable is bad, it doesn't fry anything. Tha'ts one of the points of a cable tester. That it can independently test cable. For instance, you don't need a switch to check an ethernet cable (and even if you did plug a bad cable into a switch, there is logic there not to overwhelm and fry the equipment on every POE switch i have seen. Ports rarely fry in my experience. XLR testers, while very low power, also operate on the same principle.)
The point he is mak
Lousy Headline. (Score:3)
These sorts of widgets can come in quite handy(nothing you couldn't do with a decent multimeter and some socket bodging; but socket bodging is annoying and tedious): I used to use them a lot when dealing with 'Smartboards' that used a (vendor supplied) overlength USB cable; but depended on bus power, and could be increasingly glitchy if they weren't getting enough of it. Having an easy way to know which computers used the 'meh, connect USB power to the 5v rail, maybe with some kind of fuse' method, and were good for plenty more than 500ma; which ones took a '500ma is by the book; if you don't like it, go cry to the USB SIG' stance; and which ones(mostly laptops) were spotty about being able to provide as much bus power as standards demanded.
Also handy for getting a look at whether your cheapo portable battery pack droops atrociously under load; testing the various devices that use a min-USB connector for power to see how much the really draw, etc. but not a piece of safety equipment.
It is really off-putting to see this sort of mislabeling. The functions this thing is actually capable of(assuming the vendor didn't screw it up) are quite handy to have in your tech-widget drawer; but it's blatantly dishonest to imply that it has much chance of saving your expensive gadget in the event of a nasty power delivery failure.
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That's why you test it with your friend's phone first.
You need to look out for Nathan-K and Bensen Leung (Score:3)
This Gizmodo article has for a title "USB-C Power Meter Helps You Spot Counterfeit Accessories Before They Fry Your Gadgets"
but..... FTA
"What the monitor canâ(TM)t do, however, is protect a device if thereâ(TM)s a detected problem in the power flow. Itâ(TM)s not a surge protector, nor does it have any built-in alarms or warnings because it has no idea what the power requirements are for whatever device youâ(TM)re using it with."
So, really, it does nothing, and by the time you see 40V hitting your phone when it's expecting 12, I think it's going to be too little too late before the magic smoke escapes, and really, who knows what the charging spec on their devices is, really?
The amount of cables that Nathan-K and Bensen Leung test that don't match the spec, don't work to spec, do work to spec with exceptions, melt or any of the above combination is nuts.
Nathan-K has a page up on G+ with more details:
https://plus.google.com/collec... [google.com]
They've a spreadsheet of tested cables:
https://docs.google.com/spread... [google.com]
Personally, my favourite comment regarding USB-C comes from the register:
https://forums.theregister.co.... [theregister.co.uk]
"it's a design error
An electrical specification which allows multiple, software-controlled supply voltages, but does not require connected devices to tolerate the highest available voltage.
What could possibly go wrong?"
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It's happened before. The FireWire ports of Macs can actually supply max FireWire voltage (48V). Guess what? A certain Firewire hub couldn't take that, so it was well know if you bought one of those, it wouldn't work in your Mac. In fact, your Mac would let the magic smoke out.
The reason for this was a Firewire
Re:You need to look out for Nathan-K and Bensen Le (Score:4, Informative)
The reason for this was a Firewire card in a PC, due to PC limitations, would only ever supply up to 12V (PC power supply rails only max out at 12V).
The reason for this is not the 12V power supply. It's not hard or very expensive to put the required circuitry on the card to boost that to higher voltages. The real reason is the card manufacturer being cheap.
Who is this for? (Score:2)
There are people who buy the premium/OEM accessory because they do know better.
The former group are not going to shell out coin for a power meter they likely won't even understand the meaning of. Feel free to argue that it's about education, but look how prevalent email and phone scams are some 10 years after they arrived. Don't know about you folks, but I'm kind of over getting told I'm a paranoid freak because people
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You don't get dangerous acetylene cylinders in the cheap bin, you don't get them allowed for sale at all.
Why should USB cables that can burn your house down be treated differently? The consumer should not ha
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Why should USB cables that can burn your house down be treated differently?
How much are you willing to pay for your USB cable?
How much are you willing to pay in taxes for customs to inspect and carefully vet every package coming in for false certifications?
That's why they are treated differently. When you have something that costs several hundred dollars and needs to pass through another local party within HSE rules before it becomes usable, certification is easy.
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You are a bit slower on the uptake than normal today, try some coffee. It's about what people get from their local vendors who buy in bulk and not mail order. It's about the sort of checking that is already going on for thousands of other products, just not USB cables, so the extra costs end up being minimal.
Make that many thousands when you've got
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Why should USB cables that can burn your house down be treated differently? The consumer should not have to know better unless they buy direct from China or something.
There is also the little problem, that this devices does not help at all finding such cables. That requires measuring the resistance of the cable and the temperature resistance of the isolation material used. Also a cable may just have a small stretch that heats up (broken stands), so some x-raying may be in order, or at least temperature measurements with a heat-camera.
All of that is wayyyy out of what an ordinary consumer can do. I fully agree with you. Dangerous cables should be illegal.
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It's well within what Walmart or a major cable distributor can do.
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Have you failed to read the story? This is not what we are talking about. We are talking about a device that claims to let ordinary users do this. Your remark is both obvious and irrelevant.
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There are people who buy fake premium/OEM accessory because they think they do know better.
FTFY.
Since when is the _cable_ limiting "power" draw? (Score:2)
Voltage regulation and current-limit are solely the task of the USB port. The cable does not come into it at all. The only thing the cable does is tell the device about itself, and of course that information can be wrong. However if that fries the device, the device is at fault for incompetent protection circuitry design and not the cable.
I do not see how this gadget helps at all. IT seems to be a simple USB power meter, vastly over-priced.
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THIS!!
Holy shit - how incompetent can you be as an engineer to design an electrical connector interface which is specifically intended to negotiate a power delivery rate and not put in a way to prevent the remote device from exceeding your power supply capabilities? AFAIK, there has never been a sink device* that has failed, only the supply devices (Apple and Google/Chrome), which is exactly the side that should be controlling the maximum capacity of the connection.
*if someone has a link to a confirmed case
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The take-home lesson (Score:2)
The lesson I'm taking home from this is to avoid USB-C until they get the kinks worked out.
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No need to avoid it. Just lube up and say hello to the Genius at the Apple store. They'll take good care of you.
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But then I'd have to use an iPhone. No thank you.
Ports Should Be Optiocoupled (Score:2)
They put optocouplers in most CNC controllers, and perhaps they should put them in computers as well. Perhaps something can be done about the power leads as well.
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A cable doesn't 'regulate' anything, it CONNECTS (Score:2)
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Wasn't actually aware that USB-C cables differed from other USB cables in that there is in fact active electronics embedded in the cable assembly. Apologies for any confusion or consternation this may have caused.
Advertisement (Score:2)
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It's not so much about the port itself as it is about how common it is. It is in use in enough devices that it's cost effective to make cheap knock off chargers.
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yes its so common I buy USB devices multiple times a month and have never encountered it
hell USB 3.0 devices you have to seek out
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Re:At this rate, we'll have to go British style (Score:5, Informative)
I agree. A short cheap cable with an inline fuse could solve this problem. No reason to turn the function of a fuse into a fancy overpriced gadget.
No it couldn't.
USB-C is the standard that charges tiny little Bluetooth headsets and your MacBook. Same cable. It's also the standard that's supposed to be able to tell the difference between the big power supply for the MacBook and the little one that came with the Bluetooth headset, so that the MacBook knows that it's not going to get what it needs unless the big power supply is at the other end. Conversely, it also keeps the big power supply from totally detonating the Bluetooth headset.
The key to this technology is the ability for the cable and the devices at either end to essentially have a conversation about what's charging what. The problem here is when that conversation gets a bit garbled...and the capacity at one end and need at the other end are allowed to misalign, catastrophically. Sure, you could put a fuse inline to keep your Bluetooth headset from melting...but then you'd only be able to charge your Bluetooth headset with that cable. And the whole point of USB-C is about getting away from that paradigm.
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So, how does this device prevent your device from being destroyed?
Re:At this rate, we'll have to go British style (Score:4, Insightful)
I've heard thar we're not actually supposed to read the fine summary, but I did so anyway, and couldn't help thinking that a better title would be, "USB C Power Meter Helps You Spot Counterfeit Accessories While They Fry Your Device". But maybe that's just me.
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Yeah. Looks like it doesn't actually do anything to prevent damage but you can watch it to see how much voltage and current it actually takes to fry your device. How many people actually know what voltages are safe for each of their devices?
Also, why do they use the word "counterfeit"? I understand that some counterfeit devices could be defective and not follow the spec but others could meet the spec and be just fine. Also, some "genuine" devices might fry your device.
Better to just call devices that don't
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Conversely, it also keeps the big power supply from totally detonating the Bluetooth headset.
I'm curious how it would achieve that, as amps tend to be "pulled" rather than "pushed."
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The problem might be though, that as the cable is "smart" if the BT headset is requesting 5V and it's being sent 40V (Due to a bad cable), according to the spec the BT headset isn't required to tolerate that, so it's charging circuit is blown away.
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Why do so many people risk their device on the absolute cheapest $2 charger from a no-name shop?
Because that's what's in the $2.00 bin next to the checkout at most stores, and most people see them and think "oh, I need a new and/or spare charger".
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And are those people going to also go buy the $30 usb C power meter?
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Re:Or just do this. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Even for the well educated, there's no good way to tell apart a bad device from a good one.
Sure there is -- the well educated will have the not-so-well-educated use a cable on their device first.
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Perhaps, if they knew there was a difference in cables/chargers. The main problem, and the reason the market for cheep crap exist, is ignorance, and education seems to be a dirty word these days.
Hold on! There is one of those badboys on Ebay for 5 dollars!
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And are those people going to also go buy the $30 usb C power meter?
Aaaaaaand? You just won the discussion! The answer is no, they won't.
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And are those people going to also go buy the $30 usb C power meter?
But how would they know that the $30 usb C power meter they buy is not itself a counterfeit anyway?
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Why do so many people risk their device on the absolute cheapest $2 charger from a no-name shop?
Because we have been trained that way for a long, long time. I watched a 5 cent difference in RAM price cause two nerds nearly come to blows once. We have people who go apeshit nuts about the price differences between computers - even if those differences are small, and not compared correctly.
So the makers of counterfeit stuff at rock bottom prices will find a willing, even demanding market.
Re:Or just do this. (Score:4, Funny)
Stop being cheap and buy known certified products from official channels in the first place, instead of cheaping out with items from Alibaba.
Exactly. I buy all my USB devices from Amazon, so I know I am safe.
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Stop being cheap and buy known certified products from official channels in the first place, instead of cheaping out with items from Alibaba.
Exactly. I buy all my USB devices from Amazon, so I know I am safe.
Um.
I can't tell if this is sarcasm...because that's what this should be.
For example, a recent check of "Apple" chargers and cables on Amazon turned up that 90% of them were counterfeit...some of them dangerously made. And that seems all the more insane when you realize that there's only one Apple Computer, and yet Amazon doesn't seem to notice/check/even care about all the unsafe power adapters coming from a constellation of crappy little factories, when they could have a single unified stream coming direc
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Benson is know for his Amazon reviews. Find a cheap on with his stamp of approval and you're ok.
Re:Or just do this. (Score:5, Informative)
"Stop being cheap and buy known certified products from official channels"
Please, there's plenty of UL/CE-listed crap out there where the second you take the power transformer apart you can find violations.
Certification means jack shit in this day and age.
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"Stop being cheap and buy known certified products from official channels"
Please, there's plenty of UL/CE-listed crap out there where the second you take the power transformer apart you can find violations.
Certification means jack shit in this day and age.
No, there's plenty of devices that have a fraudulent UL/CE stamp on them out there...there's a difference. The difference is in where you get your devices from...and recognizing that just because it's a major retailer doesn't mean that you're necessarily getting good product.
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"Stop being cheap and buy known certified products from official channels"
Please, there's plenty of UL/CE-listed crap out there where the second you take the power transformer apart you can find violations.
Certification means jack shit in this day and age.
Certification means that a few "samples" of the product were sent for certification and met the requirements. There is no guarantee that what the manufacturer is putting in the retail package is actually the same as the certified samples. Your best bet is to go with well known companies that would have a lot to loose from a tarnished reputation
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Your sample vs actual product is typically covered under other quality certifications that companies need to meet to get a certification in the first place.
I'm not sure that's the problem. The real issue is that any idiot can write UL listed on the side of their product. Customs doesn't check on the way in, and half the time the seller is in China outside of the reach of the law. That's the reason having a certification on the body of a product means jack shit, no one looks it up to see if its true.
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Certification means jack shit in this day and age.
I don't know how true that is as a general statement - maybe more so in the US than elsewhere? But I've spent most of my life in Australia where the regulations seem to have kept most bad hardware out of the way of most consumers. We have pretty strong consumer protection laws so unless you're literally buying shit off ebay in China and importing it directly you can buy most stuff pretty safely.
I'm in the UK now and it seems reasonably similar here, but I spent two years in the midwest and also didn't have
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But I've spent most of my life in Australia where the regulations seem to have kept most bad hardware out of the way of most consumers.
Errr no. We quite regularly get electrical safety notifications, ACCC notifications, news articles, and what not about faulty products making their way and having negative consequences in Australia. We have just the same problem as everywhere else. We are part of an international world with the inability to check everything coming in our doorstep, so half the crap has certifications that weren't worth the effort to laser etch on the body (assuming they were and not just printed).
Some of the specific standar
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"I don't know how true that is as a general statement - maybe more so in the US than elsewhere?"
Nah, I'm fairly certain it holds true globally. Do you know how many A+/N+ certified people have no clue what they're doing? Security 'experts' making the most basic level mistakes (not sanitizing inputs.) Cisco-Certified Network Admins that can't even configure an ASA to work alongside the damned Cisco switch...
And these are people I talk to that live in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, UK (Eton and Dorney,
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CE isn't a certification you apply for. The designer self-certifies that they followed the CE design rules and could be in trouble if they didn't, but most products with a CE mark are not independently tested.
It's a bit like the FCC Declaration of Conformity. It's a declaration of conformity by the manufacturer.
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Certification means jack shit in this day and age.
Certification is effective when it is traceable and the end user takes ownership of it. Unfortunately that's not true for consumer safety certifications.
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Bend over and take it, with original prices from Apple and Samsung.
Fuck that. A big part of the problem is the obscene markups at the original vendors. People assume anything cheaper is just the same, because the 70% markup IS 65% profit.
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Some of the counterfeits were sold at Full price from trusted retailers such as Amazon and marked by the seller as Genuine OEM parts. There's literally no way to tell the difference, unless you Order the part, and then run tests on it or inspect it thoroughly, with a Bonafide one to compare to.
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Does it have a "Made in Britain" label? If so, be careful - it'll probably spontaneously combust.
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"Made in Britain" label
Sorry, I want only genuine EU products.
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Just too bad that they don't have it regulate and limit the current.
It would not be that difficult or that much more expensive to make a device that, in addition to displaying voltage/current when plugged into a USB-C cable/device, simply auto-steps the system through the voltage ranges to check for proper operation without requiring $SHINY that you want to protect to be connected.
This device sounds like somebody had acquired a crap-load of very basic bargain-bin voltage/current sensor/digital-readout ICs and looked for the easiest and cheapest way to design something to se
Re: (Score:2)
It's easy to understand -- hardware manufacturers are hoping that if they constantly change up the hardware, then it will make people buy new hardware at a faster rate than they otherwise would.