BEWARE WALL CHARGERS
 

Hi all,

I recently bought a few players (nano clones) from Hong kong. I have been amazed by them and they all have been great especially the latest mini version 30% smakller than the nano.

The Wall chargers!!!!!!

Well first experience with one I received a 2 pin one and a uk plug adapter it had 2 lights on the back red and green. I used this went back to it 2 hours later and no light and NO more power to the player. It had blown it up.


different charger.. (this morning)

This time I have one of the uk plug usb adapters basically its a uk plug in black and plug usb cable into bottom, This looked much better quality than the 2 pin ones and you dont need the uk adapter.

Ive seen loads of these for sale on ebay for about 4-5 pounds generally in white though.

Well plugged that in this morning connected it to the player and as I turned the switch on.

BANG!!!!! seriously a loud kind of bloody explosions scared the living day lights out of me followed by a flash from the plug and the top section being blown away from the second half which remained in the socket and my hand a few cm's away! was surprised but the player survived and my hand too thank god

Now is this me just being extremely unlucky with these 2 or is there a serious issue with these wall adapters.

Im scared to buy a new one now incase it either blows the player or it goes up again.

A little disappointed as i wanted a wall charger to use when i dont take my laptop with me.

Any advice, experience from others??

My wall charger never presented something like that.. =P
It works perfectly.
But yesterday the green light was lit less brightly.;.
Don' really know why but i don't think it changed something...

jamo9000,
I have had no problems with the 2 chargers I have, however there have been a few posts from people who have had similar experiences, some have even suffered damage to their players as a result of using their wall chargers.
As you can imagine there is great competition in the Chinese electronics market and manufacturers tend to cut as many corners as they can in order to cut costs and increase profit margins, so add ons like the charger are often very poor quality and exported to different countries with little consideration for local voltage differences.
That said I would have thought that a charger with the proper fitting would not have had any problems.
Glad to hear that you and your player survived though your was the most explosive report I have seen posted.

Yeah The one that exploded in the socket luckly caused no damage to me or the player which was a surprise.

The charger before the 2 pin one did unfortunately BLOW up one of my players bloody 2gb one too.

So as you can see I have had 2 chargers and been very unlucky. The one Im using now seems to be ok.

Just wanted to let ppl know of my experience so they can at least be aware when using them.

Re: BEWARE WALL CHARGERS
 

My Mom's charger burnt out recently. Was similar to the second charger you had. Luckily it didn't affect the player. She hasn't bought a new one as yet. At present she charges it by connecting it to the computer.

I've had a wall charger that died as well. Didn't make any explosions though. Could there be a difference in the Chinese voltage against the UK voltage that might have caused this?

I always plug my player into the USB port of my computer, either at work or at home as I'm always on the computer. Never had to use the wall charger to be honest, except for the time that one died.

Hello, the problem is basically the voltage Frequency used in UK, in many other parts of world use 50-60 HZ but UK not and how the charger use a technology called switching (which is based in frequency) make you guest....... (KBOOOM)

Re: BEWARE WALL CHARGERS
 

I was supplied with a wall charger with the vertical pins, well here in "Down Under" we have angled pins for our electrical sockets. I went and purchased a USB charger from Jaycar (which actually comes with international adapters anyway :) ) that can supply 1A (1000mA). It charges it in about 15mins and I've never had any probs with it.

Re: BEWARE WALL CHARGERS
 

thats the frequency difference there, also check the voltage, i think your standard there at UK is 110V, whereas standard voltage in ASIA is 220V.

also standard freq in ASIA is 60Hz as opposed to probably your standard there is 50Hz.

my suggestion for you is to get a STANDARD USB WALL charger in UK and use it on your CHI-PODS.

also the chargers that came with your chi-pods, can probably charge at 300 mA rate, which is even lower than using the USB of your desktop.

im an electrical engineer. hehehe.