Advice sought on why 6.8A USB charger melted USB cable today

[Ian Field]

<jurb6006@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:0b30ab1b-af56-41ac-875a-80798259daf4@googlegroups.com...

First of all, to melt a wire or connector, there must be an overload.
Unless the charger went overvoltage it is not at fault. check what you
were charging and its cable.

To quote a paragraph from the OP;

"When I pulled it off the iPad, it was noticeably extremely hot,
but it doesn't seem to have damaged the iPad (AFAIK)."

Seems to indicate the iPad was working (and apparently undamaged) - and
since the device got hot, a short in the cable isn't that likely.

Maybe mis-wired cable reversing the polarity, or regulation fault in the
charger.

 

[pfjw@aol.com]

On Tuesday, December 1, 2015 at 3:49:11 PM UTC-5, Danny D. wrote:

Ian Field wrote, on Tue, 01 Dec 2015 18:32:51 +0000:

Probably worth figuring out what the problem is before one wrecks the nice
shiny pad someone got for Christmas - or burns down their Christmas
tree

I tested it with another cable but same charger and iPad overnight.
It didn't get hot.

So, I think it's the cable.

Possibly, even likely, that "it's the cable". But the lesson to be leaned is that if one in six is bad, that is a pretty wretched record. And whether at 5V or 50V, 5 amps is a considerable amount of current that *will* melt fine wire if shorted. So, poor quality control is a real concern. Are the remaining five ticking bombs, or are you *sure* it is just this one cable?

Put another way, you get what you pay for.

Put yet another way, do not rely on your equipment to protect itself from a bad peripheral.

I could purchase a Rolex watch when we were in China for US$5. It said so right on the watch!!

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

[jfeng@my-deja.com]

On Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 3:56:09 AM UTC-8, pf...@aol.com wrote:

I could purchase a Rolex watch when we were in China for US$5.
It said so right on the watch!!

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA
The amazing thing is that it does a much better job of keeping time than a real Rolex, with a typical error of about 1-2 seconds/month.