Teardown of an IKEA Koppla USB power supply.

bigclivedotcom2 HN recommenders · 2017–2021
730K views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2016-04-08

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.

Watch on YouTube

3 comments from Hacker News

@BrailleHunting2017 · in “Man dies charging iPhone while in the bath”

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] [VIDEO] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK]

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@fnord1232017 · in “A quick look at the Ikea Trådfri lighting platform”

Also of interest is this teardown of the Koppla USB power supply: [VIDEO] It's also a pretty darn good piece of kit.

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@Daneel_2021 · in “Apple iPhone charger teardown: quality in a tiny expensive package (2012)”

Big Clive also did a fairly comprehensive teardown of the IKEA charger and was pleasantly surprised with the design: [VIDEO] He also confirms that the control chip is a 1699-02.