Teardown of an IKEA Koppla USB power supply.
bigclivedotcom2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2017–2021
explainer · intermediate · evergreen · 2017–2021 on HN
Big Clive takes apart an IKEA Koppla USB power supply to assess its safety, looking at isolation and transformer construction.
Cited as a teardown of a well-made, safe USB charger, and as evidence for why quality chargers matter.
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3 comments from Hacker News
Also of interest is this teardown of the Koppla USB power supply: ▶ this video It's also a pretty darn good piece of kit.
TL;DR: spend the $19 to buy a real, big brand USB charger because they have more to lose than grey market no brand. Tragic. Probably cheap USB without mains isolation or maybe enough water dripped down length of cable and socket to create a circuit, because USB is supposed to be 5V DC. Watch these USB charger teardown horror-shows to further understand why it's rational to pay for proper, authentic CE+UL, high-low isolation and quality components (ie insulated tape in transformers): link ▶ this video link link link link
Big Clive also did a fairly comprehensive teardown of the IKEA charger and was pleasantly surprised with the design: ▶ this video He also confirms that the control chip is a 1699-02.