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Generic 1A USB Car Charger Teardown

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Lets look at the other side. Holy Long Leads Bat Man! Those leads (in the red box) are WAY too long. Compare their length to the ones on the USB connector (in blue). While the soldering looks OK, the long leads show a general lack of attention to detail and cutting of costs.

Now we get a good look at the circuit board in general. The more signs of cost cutting. The solder mask (the stuff that makes the PCB green) has huge empty spaces around the solder pads. You can clearly see the brown PCB through there. This increases the risks of short circuits etc. Once again cheap design.

The main IC seems to be an MC34063 switching regulator. A veritable workhorse in USB chargers. While this IC can drive up to 1.5A it is only considered good for up to 700mA continuous before heat becomes an issue. Uh oh.

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