For those who may be interested .....

I have pulled apart a few 'wall wart' type power supplies and battery chargers in the past and found them to be comprised of no more than a transformer, diode and cap.

My 'newish' wall wart sized LED torch battery charger died last week. I was surprised to find switch mode based circuitry .... transformer, half dozen transistors, switching transistor, diodes, fuse, opto coupler and multiple surface mounted resistors and caps. Primiary side was very typical SMPS circuitry, but without any filtering. Secondary side seems to be current sensing circuitry.

A bit of Googling showed that these are in fact very common, hence my surprise.

My mentor (thanks again Andrew) will be pleased that this battery charger is now operational again .... shorted diode in series with secondary side of transformer. I was very lucky that the fault was in a component that was accessible and big enough to see ....

Cheers,
Ian

Yeah dont know if its metal prices or what (and that is a tongue in cheek statement)
but just about everything is a switcher these days...

They are more efficient I suppose but well the more parts you have the more that can go wrong and really the crappier they are made the sooner they'll fail...like el cheapo Electro's
(lets not go to the possible dangers they can pose from substandard design and built
*oh and Green and *Carbon foot prints lets not go there either at lest as far a manufactures concerned)
(*Anyway thats another subject)

good to hear you got it fixed but these days for most it would be binned

But seems thats were its all headed for **wall warts etc

(that should be "*So Called".** wall wart slang for a DC/AC plug pack)

Whilst quality varies greatly with plugpacks (not really a fan of the wallwart tag) the move to electronics is probably a safer option overall. The better the quality the less heat they produce when compared to older ones with large iron core power transformers. Electronic ones are also more energy efficient and they are much lighter, placing little or no stress on contacts inside a powerpoint.

The downside is probably interference with the high frequencies used in them to allow the use of the tiny transformers that are fitted to the switchmoders. This will be less of a problem when AM and FM analogue radio finally give way to digital - whenever that may be.

I'm not a fan of 'wall wart' either, and I don't care if I never hear the idiotic term "carbon footprint" again.

Hear Hear.

The interesting thing is that the climate change brigade claim that electricity consumption has increased in the two months since the carbon tax was abolished. I guess that means it didn't have much to do with the fact that the weather hasn't exactly been sunny lately.

When I flick the switch off I'd like to think that I am doing my wallet as much of a favour as anything else. The other thing is, if it were possible for Man to remove carbon from the atmosphere the trees would die and the planet would become a big ice block like it did 50 million years ago.

Carbon is an essential element of life as we know it. Simple as that.

But we digress ...

One other disadvantage of some older plugpacks is physical size. Once I had a set of Altec Lansing computer speakers and its plugpack was the size of half a carton of fags. It also weighed more than a kilogram. It wasn't possible to put it in the powerpoint before switching on because it was in the road of the switch and sagged in the socket too. I made a 600mm long extension lead for it and let it sit on the floor.

Regarding size, I noticed recently that there's a wide spaced GPO for bulky plug packs.

http://www.bunnings.com.au/deta-10a-wide-spaced-double-power-point_p4430419.

I wasn't aware of them until I grabbed a bunch of mounting blocks at Bunnings and noted later that one of them was too wide -- thanks to customers mixing items up by tossing them into the wrong shelf bins.

Not a bad idea though I'm curious to know how they attach to a standard pattern C-clip or wallbox. I notice that is a rip of the Clipsal 2000 series. Looks like the patent on the 2000 series is expired if Clipsal is letting other companies copy it.

Some powerboards come with the same feature. 4 or 5 outlets with standard spacing and an extra one that is further away.

Those clip on faceplate GPOs are standard issue at Bunnings, and at Jaycar where they are cheaper.

The only wide GPO accessory that I'm aware of is the mounting block:

http://www.bunnings.com.au/deta-mounting-block-for-model-6212b_p4430565.

Well Guys just a bit of my frustration at seeing another possibly early landfill item
Glad Ian got it fixed though...

I did remove a lot from my post so maybe in that it lost some of what I meant

So going a bit off topic to cover a few points

At one place I worked for I had to just bin so many SMPSU units, thought these were a little bigger then plug packs, and oddly ..seemed to be reasonably well made (thought designed not to be fixed)

Being a technical forum your right Brad I shouldn't use slang terms.. even if they are not an attractive item (again just a bit more frustration)

GTC I should Have Said SO CALLED carbon foot print..the one they like to roll out to beat the green drum with ...I am all for Green but every implementation Ive seen is at best "Bad" at worst so stupid an idea it isn't funny...(but obviously they do take more resources to produce..its just they should last a long time and be reparable to make it worth while in a green sense..ditto CFL's)

Really to my way of thinking Capitalism and Green are Diametrically opposed..but like I said another subject really...and one I dont really see an answer forth coming anytime soon
(The 50's movie about a "white suit" I think sums what I mean perfectly)

Its now kinda a taboo subject as everyone has there own polarised position and best to just agree to disagree, like politics and religion...basically not talk about it..
(thought I did open my trap...sorry)

Anyway my worry more is in build quality (or lack of) and how easily shoddy ones get into this country and can kill people...

RFI is another issue, thought if properly designed that can be minimised...still we all remember those $20 $30 AT/ATX psu's that basically flooded the world

Agree digital will probably do away with the interference...but it will still be there for our lovely Valve radios and thats Kinda sad

Again going a bit off topic but akin to power supplies

On GPO's I notice a few different things with them of late...seems logical that they would add wide space ones for plug packs since our world is now full of them

I think the world really needs a universal in house DC supply unit for each room, Properly designed and implemented to meet Safety standards and by that I mean adhered to
I think the idea has been bandied about before

I've seen wall GPO's now fitted with USB sockets and I guess thats kinda becoming a defacto standard thought not really up to par for a lot of our DC gadgets

Anyway there now is those drop on changers (no wires) for phones...no idea on how well they work as yet (magnetically coupled somehow) and maybe that will be the next step for DC battery powered devices

Cheers

I have always assumed they are an AC coupling with two resonant coils, and rectified later. The phone needs an attachment which is why I stayed away, the phone manufacturer would
have to play ball themselves and build it into the phone.. or more likely just harvest the whole idea for themselves.

Being a technical forum your right Brad I shouldn't use slang terms.. even if they are not an attractive item (again just a bit more frustration)

It's no biggie. I wasn't having a go, just offering an opinion. Some slang is okay, we are Aussies after all. I have to admit I am guilty of it myself.

I've seen wall GPO's now fitted with USB sockets and I guess thats kinda becoming a defacto standard thought not really up to par for a lot of our DC gadgets.

Yep, HPM make USB mechanisms with a transformer wired to the back of them which hang in the wall cavity. They aren't a bad idea but these in particular are fitted with really skinny wires which would be a pain to terminate correctly. We are getting to a stage where more and more portable devices run on a 5 volt DC supply and are recharged via a USB socket and cable. You are right that this is somewhat of an adopted standard. This is where Apple fans will be disappointed though, as Apple seems to be totally disinterested in USB now, despite the system being used on their products before any other. Late model Apple products also will not recharge without being connected to an Apple (or licenced by Apple) charger. Great way to make money but not so great for the customer.

Yes Brad I know you weren't
it just I should have thought bit about that off the cuff slang as a lot wouldn't know what I was talking about
I'll add a correction for clarity but leave the comment in take

Yes USB and GPO..I am a little reserved on the Idea of anything Electronic and Electricity being mixed but I guess it has to happen...by that, there is enough fire dangers with 240V AC (now 230 AC supposedly) without hanging an internal device across Active Neutral in a wall...the design would have to be well thought out for safety and of late from the above I am not so sure this is the case these days
Must have a closer look next time I am in Bunnings or Turks

Yeah I can see the point of keying chargers to devices but it defiantly creates a monopoly on the Market
thought with luck cuts out the killer garbage that gets produced..,still I think it was ring in fruit product that killed that woman

Art yes, I think it is as you say kinda lossy transformer of which the efficiency I guess is questionable
I really got to look into it a bit more...I was thinking of getting one for my Note

Thanks Guys

A few el-cheapo USB chargers have been recalled recently due to them melting down. I just hope (and would normally be fairly sure) that the ones that are part of a GPO are of much better quality. It is much easier to put out a fire that one can see and the switch on a GPO is easier to get to than the dwelling's switchboard.

I think if I installed any of these I would put them in series with an isolation switch (a normal light switch mechanism would do the job. It'd be safer, more reassuring and also mean that the device isn't chewing any power when not in use, as small as that consumption may be.