Teardowns of wall adapter equipment is always interesting, especially where a combination of AC and DC outlets are provided – I’m usually intrigued by design choices, whether it be using multiple PCBs like in this MVMT wall outlet adapter or observing assumed manufacturing ‘shortcuts’ etc. Things are cheap enough to explore and provide lots of learning (possibly for making your own informed decisions when you decide to layout your own PCB or appliance!):
I bought a USB wall outlet adapter recently so that I can free up my wall outlets while charging my phones and tablets. Of course, before putting it into use, I wanted to open it up to take a peak inside to see if it was properly engineered and at least to make sure that it would not be a safety hazard at the least. After all, this USB adapter is meant to be plugged in all the time.
This USB charger/wall adapter is meant to be mounted on the standard vertical dual outlets, it even has a center hole to allow it to be mounted semi-permanently and more securely. Similar USB wall outlets are a dime a dozen, the one I bought is branded as “MVMT” and can be found in many US stores.
Specification wise, the adapter is rated to provide 2.1A for its USB output. I did some load testing with an electronic load I built before and it appeared that the 2.1A is rated for the combined output from both USB ports. You can see my testing in the video linked towards the end of this post. This means that if you are charging two devices using this adapter, charging time will be lengthened as the 2.1A output current has to be shared between the two channels.
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