IKEA SMÅHAGEL USB charger teardown
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- Опубликовано: 14 апр 2023
- Thanks to John for sending me some of the new updated versions of the Koppla charger. Since reviewing that one six years ago I've had one plugged in 24/7 for charging all my USB items, and it has performed flawlessly.
The supply voltage range has been widened to 100V - 240V and the output remains the same at 3.4A total at 5V with a maximum of 2.4A per socket. This charger doesn't offer higher voltage express charging, which is good news for your phone's battery.
I desoldered the mystery capacitor between the main MOSFET's gate and drain, and it measured around 22pF, which makes more sense.
The main circuitry changes are an unusual feature that shuts off the startup circuitry to reduce standby power and a synchronous rectifier to improve efficiency greatly. Each output has its own self resetting overcurrent protection.
The little MOSFET for shutting off the startup resistors is probably a depletion MOSFET that is on by default and turned off by a control voltage.
The transformer is wound in four layers. Primary, secondary, more primary and feedback. The secondary insulation, spacing and sleeving is good.
In the video I mentioned Apple compatibility, but the restrictive nature of status brands like Samsung and Apple does not guarantee compatibility. This industry-standard charger should charge just about every other brand in the known universe though.
IKEA are one of my recommended sources for USB chargers, as they comply fully with safety regulations while being extremely affordable. It's very important to use a good quality charger for your devices to protect them and yourself against damage/shock.
It's also best to use prominently branded cables too, especially for devices that charge at higher currents.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of RUclips's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
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These are remarkably cheap for the US versions, too. I mean, they're not $0.99 or anything, but $8 for a well-engineered, reliable, highly-compatible 3-port charger is quite reasonable.
I figure the higher cost as added insurance. After seeing all the ways cheap devices can explode or overheat, I sleep better at night knowing my gadgets are being charged safely.
@My Cancer Journey Hi. Sorry for your misfortune. What do you mean by “trying to move in that direction.”?
@@mikebond6328 It is unfortunately a scammer, praying on people's empathy trying to scam them for money. It uses at least two different accounts with different names but same logo and story. You'll find them all over youtube these days. I see them in the comments on almost all channels I subscribe to. They never reply to any questions either.
I will have to buy one of these too. I did recommend the koppla to many people from Clive’s last video on them. And yes dirt cheap. There was another one sold buy IKEA that had a remote outlet USB, but that one could not handle the load of an IPad charging and would shutdown and restart. The Koopla works flawlessly
I pay more for cables then the entire power supply! Phenomenal value IMO.
It’s amazing how rare it is to see a product that neither cuts corners nor goes to the extreme of unnecessary features.
I'd say that's very Swedish. 😅
In Sweden, we call that "lagom" :)
@@toxilox just precis! 😂
@@LeifESvə ¹¹❤😂
It is always refreshing to see something that is well engineered after seeing some of the dubious products that I have had to dispose of recently. A great video. 😎
"Smeagle" USB charger!
@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307 My precious....you are the one charge 💍
Regulations in Sweden are very strict. It's not really surprising that a company like Ikea even implements features in their products "just in case".
Not sure about the regulations, they sell lots of crap chargers in Sweden as well. But IKEA is such a big company that they can afford to design things like this by themselves, or at least hire some consultants to do it, which means they won't just buy a more "cost optimised" charger from a shady Chinese company like many others do.
@@martenthornberg275 sure, cheap Chinese chargers are sold in every country, regardless of the regulations. My point is that since these are made for Ikea and sold with the Ikea name on them, they satisfy every possible safety standard, as it's not worth saving a few cents and then having to deal with a house accidentally set on fire. 😁
Said that, Ikea does sell a lots of garbage too. After all their cheap furniture is made of wood scraps glued and pressed together.
Thanks for your hard work. After now watching dozens of power supply videos, I feel like understanding is finally sinking in
I really appreciate the color coding. That looks like a lot of prep work went into it for our benefit. Thanks Clive.
The name fits nicely with their usb-c pd capable charger which is called ÅSKSTORM "thunderstorm". I recently got one of those and was wondering about the name. Make sense for the little brother to be called "small hail" :) Thanks for the great video.
The Å (A with ring diacritic) is mostly pronounced somewhere between the long vowel sounds of "ford" and "saw". Or so it is at least taught to Finns in school.
I definitely prefer the longer version of your videos, very insightful! I’ll certainly grab one of those power supply the next time I visit IKEA.
Ikea has a good history of product recalls, they are recalling products if they turn out not to be safe. That's a good sign for a company. That's why I trust them. I have a Koppla for I think 7 years now. Always plugged in the power outlet. Good enough to power my alarm clock and charge my phone over night. Btw you can use any notebook power supply with USB-C Power delivery to charge your modern Android phone.
It also works the other way round: nowadays I only carry a Koppla (and a suitable cable, of course) to charge my USB C Apple laptop when I'm on holiday.
Mine I believe is IKEA Intertek model: ICPSW5-17GB1 seems well made...
Good circuit convinced me to buy.
I had a moka pot from Ikea I was using it regularly for some times that got recalled, never had an issue with it, they recalled it because the safety valve operating pressure was higher than what the pot could handle, meaning it could blow up if someone over pressure it. I guess the supplier that made it now got blacklisted, how could you cut corner on such safety device. It was a shame, it looks weird but works great, I still missed it, if they put it on sale again with the problem solved, I'll buy it again.
Clive, your commentary intros are a hoot.
Your amazing dexterity in soldering (missed) is exceeded by your reverse engineering and schematic creation. Thanks for helping me understand these things (a little) better. Great work!
My sentiments exactly sir !! It is such a treat to see his octopus fingers do the soldering so well !! And the reverse enggng is second to none !!
Don’t forget his use of the kink palculator.
The mosfet symbol on the bootstrap is a depletion mode device. So you are correct, it's normally on and has to be actively turned off. Marvellous as usual. Thank you.
Comparing this to generic Chinese supplies (even some brand name ones) becomes almost comical - this is quite an impressive design, especially for the asking price.
Thanks a lot for the very detailed teardown, Clive, thoroughly appreciated! And some cred to the kink palculator too!
And the thing is this is also made in China, just that it has proper specification and QC done on it. Shows that if you pay peanuts you get crap, but just a little more money and those manufacturers will in fact deliver things that exceed specifications.
@@SeanBZA Thus the *generic* wording.
@@SeanBZA True, but IKEA will sell many hundreds of thousands of this unit and has a 40bn EUR turnover a year :) This is a halo product that draws people in for bigger stuff and that people impulse buy when they are in the store
After I watched Clive's RUclips video of the Ikea Koppla, I bought one and I've been using it as my primary USB charger for years. It has been very good.
Recently I've been having a problem with one of the USB ports, it was getting intermittent. So I cracked it open, and now I'm going to try to fix or replace the intermittent USB connector. If I can't do that, it looks like Clive's just released video of the unpronounceable new version will be my next purchase. Or maybe I'll just forget about repairing it, buy the new one and put a piece of tape over the intermittent port and use just the two good ports.
Before the Koppla, I bought a cheap two port charger and one day I tried to pull it out of the outlet and the top cover came off, exposing the bare AC pins!! It's a wonder I didn't get shocked! So that was what got me to watch Clive's teardown of the Koppla. I also watched a few of Diode Gone Wild's teardowns of the cheap chinesium chargers and seeing how cheap and dangerously unsafe they were, I decided to buy the Koppla. Thanks, Clive!
The "Cink Palculator" is my favorite line by Clive 2nd only to "Chinglish" ❤❤😂😂🤣🤣
Magnificent work as usual Mr Clive. Very much appreciated. In this example you provide more effective and convincing advertising for IKEA than does IKEA itself!
Well said~~😂
Thanks Clive. At £5.50 it's very reasonable too. They do a similar single USB for £2.50, ideal for powering projects. I purchased a couple of no name USB chargers from Poundland. They were £3.00 each! Will add a couple of these to my basket to keep on standby.
The Ikea site I looked at has the Koppel 3-port charger, this 3-port Smahagel charger, and another single-port charger that's also called Smahagel. I wonder if they've screwed up the naming somehow and the small-hail charger is meant to be the single port one. It's a pity they don't yet do USB C PD chargers.
@@theelmonk They do! ÅSKSTORM has USB C options in 23W and 40W variants.
@@Monkeh616 so they keep naming to a theme then small hail (småhagel) and thunderstorm (åskstorm).
@@tei1337 The name matches a series of modular power outlets called åskväder that have USB and non USB outlets and switches. The name means thuderweather, it do not look like it exists with UK or US outlets, it might only be the EU standard outlet.
@@theelmonk IKEA has another USB supply, ÅSKSTORM (Thunderstorm) with 2x USB-A (10W combined, so a bit anemic) and 1x USB-C PD (30 W max)
Edit - Just a wee bit late, better scroll before answering...
"It's a Goodn' ", Nice one.
I thoroughly endorse your teaching style. Thanks again for your curiosity, research, explanations (as you see them) and for generally making the world a better place.
Thank you for the video! You should desolder that red capacitor and measure its ESR. Capacitors with red or blue markings are often organic polymer type which are at least 10x more expensive than electrolytics, but give excellent longevity and lower ripple due to that low ESR.
They last longer too even at temperature
So good in fact that the last two times I went to IKEA to buy one they had no stock on the shelf (despite showing stock in line)!
Been there before. I will usually scan end caps just incase they pull some nonsense.
Great video, it's always nice to see the output of the power supply on an oscilloscope both under no load and under load. Also each part of the circuit to physically see the chopping circuit in action
Damn, you put a lot of work into your videos. Nicely done, man.
8:02 "it seemed like idiots were involved..."
Worth the price of admission, and then some.
Thanks Clive. These PSU teardowns are very valuable as buying a USB PSU is like playing Russian Roulette. Every USB PSU I see, I question it's safety and quality as there is just so much junk out there. I try to buy stuff that at least has a brand I've heard of, but there is still no guarantee it's any good. I suspect IKEA might be selling out of these now. I just bought a few for myself, they are £5.50 each and shipping for the whole order was £4
Most convincing ad for IKEA electronic products ever 😎
Does IKEA sell their products online?
ad*
Unless you spell the full word "addvertising". I certainly don't, except to ask you.
@@tncorgi92 Yes they do. The charger is only £5.50 but delivery is another £4,00. I then changed the amount to 3 chargers and the delivery charge was still £4,00.
@@tncorgi92 Lol ! 🙂 I didn't notice it was autocorrected. Thx.
Being Swedish, I've always known that the naming of IKEA products seem random but there's always been a system to it, couches are named after towns for example, but at this point I think they're just trolling. 😆
"Småhagel" _could_ mean "small hail", that's a solid literal interpretation, but in reality it's "bird shot". Yup, that's right. They actually named a USB power supply after a type of ammunition.
BTW... In the word "småhagel", the "å" is pronounced like th "o" in "show" and the "a" is pronounced like the "a" in "calm". If anyone cares to pronounce a nonsense product name correctly, or should happen to be in need of that certain type of shotgun ammo, that is. 🙂
This is all very interesting information, thank you!🙃💚🐾
@@joshroolf1966 You are so very welcome. 😄
Small Hail, yeah, ammunition it is.
At least Småhagel isn't pronounced as Smeagol.
Kinda make sense, it is the ammo supply for your devices, essential item for modern day survival.
This is really useful review, since IKEA got exactly the same model selling here with British plug, so I don't have to guess how good they are, thanks for reviewing the charger.
Ikea stuff is always remarkably well designed for the price. Not just their electronics, but everything else as well. And it often lasts for a very long time as well. A lot of our Ikea furniture and cookware is at least 20 years old and holds up really well.
The fact that the furniture *is* "at least 20 years old" also means that it predates ikea switching to the cardboard mesh crap. Ikeas quality has gone down dramatically in multiple areas
@@Knaeckebrotsaege I haven’t seen that before. I have bought some new products using old designs of them in the past few years and they feel identical to the old ones. The ‘wood’ stuff has always used MDF or similar, if that's what you're referring to
@@heindijs Was referring to them switching from all-particleboard/MDF with veneer ontop to literal cardboard mesh inside with veneer slapped on and only the load-bearing corners still being MDF blocks. Looks the same, super easy to damage, nearly impossible to modify and nowhere near as solid. Things like "Lack" tables etc. Plenty of pics showing what I mean when you google for "ikea cardboard desk" or similar. It's literal throwaway furniture now, no comparison to older stuff from pre-2010 that was built more solidly, even if it was just MDF
@@Knaeckebrotsaege Exactly! I bought Ikea furniture ~15 years ago that has held up great. Went a month ago, got another shelving unit in the same range and wondered how it weighed less. Figured it was maybe the packaging? Got it home, and whilst taking it out of the box, I could hear who knows what rolling around inside of the panels used for the sides. Entire thing is hollow now, whereas my old one was solid. You can sure blame the asinine 'green' movement for this happening. Who cares if it lasts, it just has to meet the requirements some government has for the effect on the environment now, not that it gets thrown away in half the time.
I’ve been waiting for you to do a new video of this plug and can’t thank you enough. I’ve been using my old ikea one when I watched your last video many years ago and it’s been with me on holiday to many European countries and it’s been faultless.
I use it for all my devices and it’s never missed a beat.
But now they have brought a voltage for the USA as well. It will be my go to plug to use as well.
Love the videos and keep up the great work.
I'm impressed. This seems like quite the thoughtfully engineered USB charger. Kudos to the engineer(s) responsible for it.
Wow. That was fantastic. So glad I watched the whole thing. Thanks Clive.
Hey Clive,
I wanted to suggest you doing a teardown of the apple 5w usb charger. There are millions of them around and I would like to see if they are actually high quality or not.
The same for the ubiqutous Samsung charger as well please.
I liked your comment at 07:45 about zigzaggy resistors. It is like speed reading for scanning diagrams, you can see the arrangement and intention of a circuit at a glance. Thank goodness they didn't abandon the traditional capacitor symbol in the same way. I started drawing circuit diagrams with pen and ruler last century and obviously on a drawing board the rectangular block for a resistor was easier to draw than all those intricate zigzags with a 45 degree set square. It didn't last long because soon plastic templates made zigzags again quicker to draw than little blocks, but it was too late. Nowadays there is no excuse. CAD systems draw all these symbols for the draughtsman. The decision should be based on which is the most meaningful to the intended human reader.
They used the zigzag symbol when I was in school. Also used capacitor symbols with polarity indicated, don't see that much.
Good, proper, well thought out design. Refreshing!
Thanks Clive for taking the time to do a good tear down. This was a tricky one! 👍🏻😀🇬🇧
I was looking for a teardown of this exact product just a week ago, but couldn’t find any. Decided to order a couple of the new chargers anyway, and am glad to see that they pass your quality check. Thank you! 🙂
I bought one of the previous ones after seeing your video teardown, it's been in constant use and doing great, also bought one of the single output ones to keep in my desk drawer for work use, glad to see the new version is up to spec too.
I also bought two after Clive's last video. Not just because I had the need, but because I also want to show my support for products that are well engineered and designed.
Always appreciate your excellent reviews, Clive. I bought 3 KOPPLAs after your review and all of them have been in use ever since. Thanks a lot..... I just wish IKEA will appreciate your "endorsement".....😃😃😃
Big Clive never disappoints. Well explained. Thank you.
I bought several kopplas as a result of your previous video, and still have two in daily use after all these years.
yeah, I prefer the zig-zags and the "classic" logic symbols.
Extra enjoyable video. I appreciate the longer format
And don't forget ikea also sell class D efficiency light bulbs (ie better than 135lumen/watt), SOLHETTA eg 3.4W for 470 lumen. Only £2.50 for 2.
Super enjoyable video. I kinda wish they'd located the MOSFET heatsink away from the electrolytic caps, but it probably doesn't get that warm anyway.
The only alternative locations are bridging the isolation gap or touching the case above the transformer.
The gate drain capacitor is likely there to reduce emission to meet EMC requirements. I've seen adding a few nf to the gate drain capacitance dropping EMI a couple of dB
Thanks Clive. Just ordered two of these after watching your teardown.
I probably understood 10% of that but your explanation was so memorising I just had to keep watching! Thanks for taking the time!
Thanks for the video Clive, good to know that Ikea puts effort into making their chargers safe and energy efficient ^^ We've had an Ikea power strip with integrated USB charger (think it's from the koppla range) for a while, but my "main" charger for the last ~7 years has been a 4-port model from Anker. They're pretty much the only Chinese company that I trust when it comes to chargers and (USB) cables. But if that one ever fails I already know where to get a replacement ;)
I have 3 ikea chargers and they have been working for years. Very happy with them.
12:00 Drain-gate capacitance is to assure a fixed dV/dt on the drain when switching ON/OFF independant of the MOSFET internal residual cap. Helps with high harmonic EMC noise... both conducted and radiated.
14:56...If that secondary cap is a solid, then it will last long time.
BTW : As a 30 year experienced power engineer, I also did an evaluation of IKEA USB charger and give it a "thumbs up".... we have had 4 pcs in the house for years and they work like a charm. Strongly recommend IKEA chargers.
Well built- safety precautions in order - long lifetime - robust......
BTW-2 ; love your channel Clive👍
Hi Clive they’re brilliant I have 3 around the house, looks very well designed too, thanks for taking one apart 😊
If only they were available in pink! 😊
@@tncorgi92 lol
Very nice to see. Some consistency in an ever-changing world! Cheers Clive!
After getting a UGREEN 65w PD charger with 2 USB-C ports, i can 100% say that having a charger capable of charging more than one device at FULL Speed is an extremely good thing to have to lessen the amount of chargers you need plugged in. They may cost more but they are extremely useful. USB-C to Micro USB adapters are also very useful.
Serious amount of work done for this video. Thanks.
The purpose of the 68 ohm resistor and 56nF capacitor (although it can’t be that high a value) is to add edge control to the NFET’s drain for EMI reasons. A FET can act like an inverting op amp when the gate voltage is sufficient to put it in its “active” mode (i.e., at its threshold voltage, Vth). Think about it: then the FET is biased like this, its gate is the inverting input and the drain is the output of the equivalent opamp: the gate voltage rises and the drain voltage falls. That is an inverting amplifier, albeit one with far less open loop gain than an opamp. However, the FET’s gain is sufficient to do useful things with it, in this case to construct an integrator.
Without getting too deep into the math, this FET-based integrator has a controlled slew rate on the drain of (Vin - Vth)/RC, where R is the 68 ohm resistor, C is the cap across the gate-drain, and Vin is the drive voltage coming out of the controller that feeds the other side of the 68 ohm resistor. Using the values cited, and assuming Vth = 1V and Vin = 5V, the slew rate (= dV/dt) of the drain is about 1V/uS. Since the drain voltage will swing between 0V and about 350V, that means it would take about 350 uS to swing high to low. During this time, the drain current is a linear ramp (thanks to the transformer’s inductance), so there is active power being dissipated by the FET during the transition. That spells "excess power dissipation." You have to do the integral to calculate it, but it’s quite high if C = 56nF. TOO high in fact because it means the switch would have to operate at about 1 kHz, far too slow for a switcher. That’s why this capacitor has to be more like 56 pF, not nF, which would increase the slew rate to about 1000V/uS, meaning the FET turns on in about 350 nS. Much more like it! Bonus points; if you put your oscilloscope on the gate of the FET as it is switching on and off, you will see the gate voltage flatten out when it hits Vth. During this time, the FET is operating in its linear mode, operating as an integrator, which has the effect of the holding the “opamp’s” + voltage at Vth rather than a real opamp’s 0V.
The diode across the 68 ohm resistor shorts it out, creating a faster rise time on the FET as the FET is turned off. There is always SOME driving resistance from a controller chip and SOME parasitic Cds on a FET, so there is always SOME integrator action when a FET is driven on and off. By adding these discrete components, you gain far better repeatable results from your integrator, one that can be calculated. Similarly, it is a common trick to use a PFET, and even an NFET, to turn a high-power load on and off. And often that switched output has a large-value bypass capacitor on it. If the FET is turned on too fast (large dV/dt), then you get a very large surge current dumped into the capacitor (I = C*dV/dt) that can cause the upstream power source to see an over-current event and shut itself off. You can control the dV/dT with this integrator trick to gain excellent control of the capacitor’s surge current. The switch shown in Clive’s video is operating in a different type of circuit than switching a big capacitor on and off, but the integrator principle is identical.
There's some power supply theory for your vast audience, Clive.
Clive, commenting from Ottawa Canada here.
I checked the local IKEA, and they have the old KOPPLA listed in-stock at $9.99 Cdn, but the newer SMÅHAGEL unit is $8.99 Cdn but out-of-stock. They even have a single-port SMÅHAGEL version for $3.99.
Interesting thing: when I searched by their names, KOPPLA came up with a load of extension cords and outlet expanders, as well as the USB device, where SMÅHAGEL only came up with the pair of USB chargers (single and triple port)
I may have to go out and snag a few, as they are better than grabbing a Dollar-Store unit, or paying thru the nose anyplace else.
Also, IKEA has been changing some suppliers, so that may be why they released the new version. Found that out on some of their shelving.
Tremendously interesting and with humourous commentary, thank you 👍
0.5W extra saving on the 'boot' circuit*8760 hours/year*5 years plugged in = 20kWh. At 30p/kWh, if this persists in the UK, this is basically saving the cost of the unit in power, if you leave it plugged in.
I've been using one of those original Ikea chargers since your original video all those years ago and it has been plugged in pretty much since then too!
Amazingly cheap for all those components and quality level. I’ve been using their Åskstorm usb-c charger for years, works perfectly.
I just ran across this channel! This Big Clive guy is awesome at explains these components!
Thanks for digging so deep to find the components. Great job!
The rectangular components were introduced for CAD : the printouts at the time were limited to what could be produced with line-printer ASCII because that's all that was available in the early days. Rather short-sighted in retrospect given how quickly graphics printers and plotters became common, but hindsight is easy.
I think that’s a bit of an urban legend.
@@absurdengineering You could be right, but it was what I was told in the late '70s at University, which is about the right time for both the implementation and the limited graphics. We had line printers and daisywheels. We didn't have laser printers or even efficient dot-matrix printers. The first ink-jet printer, the HP Thinkjet, came out in 1984. The Epson MX80 was chosen to release with the IBM PC in 1981, but dot-matrix printers were for personal computers, not DP departments. Around 1992, the companyt I worked for then (Acorn) was using Sun 3s for CAD. They had a Versatec graphics printer that worked like a coated-paper photocopier, and a roll-fed pen plotter (not inkjet like later plotters). In 1980, at my first job, we didn't have CAD at all - we had a draughtswoman for both schematics and PCB. The PCBs I designed at Uni were crepe tape and letraset pads on acetate sheet.
Don't underestimate how fast things have changed!
All of the schematics I have seen in the US use the zig zag resistor symbol. We never adopted the rectangular symbol.
Good to see it's UL listed, it also helps to identify the manufacturer as Jiangyin Wonder Electronic Co Ltd.
Love how there's a good dose of blue & yellow on the inside
I’m glad you mentioned the asynchronous rectifier control chip, I’d have worried about that.
Excellent breakdown Big Man, looks a good bit of kit.
Excellent teardown of an excellent product so a double positive score sir !
What a treat, 24min video! Love it!
Hi Clive. The construction of this supply is very pleasing compared to the usual crap you find on eBay, Aliexpress or Amazon. Regarding the capacitor@12:00 - unfortunately we only see it from top in the video. Given the light colour it should be an NP0 which is available with the given capacity in 1206. If it is a capacitor it should be thicker than the resistors, typically these small types have nearly a square profile...
Thanks! Excellent to know that such reliable chargers can be had for cheap! The 1-port one actually costs just 4€ over here, so I think I'll buy a handful for powering projects!
It's BigCliveGoneWild! Taking the transformer apart like your Czech counterpart does. Nice teardown of a remarkably good power supply.
Interesting wreck-tifier on the secondary side.
Who is Clive's Czeck Doppelganger?
Diodegonewild. (But check the dates on his videos vs mine.)
@@bigclivedotcom ooo he did the same then😅😂
Really can't stand watching DGWs videos, as good as they may be. That voice and way of pronouncing things (dragging out the ends of words as if they were questions) just drives me insane
@@Knaeckebrotsaege that may be a little pet peeve of mine, but he's characteristic, and I like his content.
Nice video. The capacitor between drain and gate of the fet is a turn off snubber. It will limit the rate if rise of the drain voltage at fet turn off. Usually this is placed between drain an source, here it is placed between gate and drain so its value its multiplied by the mosfet gain (miller effect). It is not possible to be 56nF... I expect something into the 10pf range. It function is to reduce emi (slower turn off) and possibly to improve the turn off switching loss (better efficiency). It is nice to see something well engineered like this adapter and not the usual cheap and unsafe stuff found on ebay.
I subsequently took it off the PCB and it was low Picofarads.
Nicely made. Thanks for taking the time to reverse engineer this. Obviously a lot of time went into this video.
the last few words said it all , been following for years thanks
Clive, to be honest, the zig-zag resistor symbol is better representing _resistance._ Not sure why some countries went with rectangles for schematic diagrams instead.
I much prefer the old-fangled logic gate symbols along with zigzag resistors.
I had been out of electronics for about a decade, and applied for a job where a girlfriend worked (NEVER DO THAT) only to find everything had chamged. Turned me into a grumpy old man in my late 30s.
Easier to draw was the reason iirc. Was all changing when I went to college in the seventies.
Irrelevant now with CAD but drawing around a rectangle on a stencil was easier than drawing a zigzag.
@@Okurka. I am in *Canada.* We use zig-zag resistor symbols... or are we not a sovereign country anymore?
@@LakeNipissing Canada uses American standards for everything.
@@ShaunieDale Actually the rectangular boxes were developed precisely because the early CAD systems were so limited…
Anything beyond basic geometry was beyond a 1960’s computer…
Somehow that really amused me at 17:38, "one moment please" then the transformer was all broke up in bits!!
Drain-gate capacitor is a trick to limit the slew rate of the transistor switching. Essentially, as the drain voltage falls as the switch turns on, the cap will pull the gate a little lower, which slows the turn on. This slightly worsens efficiency at higher loads (more dynamic losses) but since it smooths the switching waveform, it reduces harmonics which reduces EMC. This means they can use a simpler filter network on the input and still meet EU requirements.
there is an effect called Miller capacitance that it was modeled after
@@PaulM1984 yup, indeed, it's essentially increasing the Miller capacitance which normally would limit the dI/dt of the transistor.
I think the red marking on the output cap indicates it's a polymer type, so should have good lifetime
Hi Mike, thanks for the info
Now I want to open it.
If you leave it running 24/7, then "save a little" will add up.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
I'm very glad they are well engineered. I have one running my home internet modem, which stays on 24/7. If I need any more USB chargers in future I'll just buy an IKEA one.
Thanks for the in-depth look! Good to know these electronics don't need to cost a lot to be decent (although IKEA's order volume probably helps there).
I have a late Koppla made in late 2021 (lasered datecode in YYWW format). Bought it after needing some more USB chargers and had good luck with the earlier koppla, helped by your positive review from back in the day. Imagine my disappointment when the 2021 Koppla turned out to have nearly nothing to do with the original. It looks identical, but it's lighter, clearly made by a different company (none of the markings or part numbers are the same or even similar) and it performs worse. Its output voltage is always below 5V, and it struggles powering/charging 3 devices without going out of spec (dipping below 4.75V). The spec of 3.4A output in total hadn't changed mind you. Add to that it does that thing where exposed metal parts of the connected device (aluminum phone frame for example) will have a *very* strong buzzing sensation going over it with your fingers/hand. The older Koppla didn't do that to anywhere nearly the same extent. Quite disappointed really, especially after recommending it for years to friends :( Glad to see it's discontinued now, and this Smahagel thing being at least decent. though the output filtering seems pretty wimpy with a single 1000µF cap. Wonder how much ripple that leads to on the output
As a long-time, very satisfied user of the original KOPPLA, I had to buy a new unit, but at the Ikea store I discovered there were two models, the same-looking KOPPLA and SMÅHAGEL (actually, even the employees mixed up the labels…). Afraid of encountering some "downgrade", I wanted to play it safe and picked the KOPPLA… Wrong choice! Back at home I found this video and some user comments (in particular the one here). I dislike so much when different variations of a product are released with the same name…
I could understand some quality lowering because of cost-cutting after 2020, but not to the point of the issues you are describing. Maybe you got a bad unit?
According to a discussion on Reddit, it is possible that the newer Koppla and the Småhagel are actually the *exact same* models. Case in point, in my Ikea store, there was a showcased unit of each model, and they were physically 100% identical (including the engraved data: same model reference "ICPSW5-17EU-1", and so on).
@@kat_katapult I bought two of the newer ones and both behave the same, with them always being below 5V with any meaningful amount of load and the whole tingling sensation thing on exposed conductive surfaces of the USB devices. Looking at them again I also noticed the old one (E1405-EU3USB) also specifically says it's a "Class 2 3USB Charger", whereas the new one just says "POWER SUPPLY"... doesn't get any more generic than that.
I'm still using the newer ones, but mainly just for LED string lights and LED tape indoors (passive lighting) and other low-tech stuff, or slow-charging my large 20Ah powerbank.
My phones (both old and new) react a bit strange to them (wildly varying charge times) and the whole tingling thing just doesn't feel right even though it's probably safe, so I simply stopped using these PSUs for them
I have the old Koppla version I bought in 2017 and it’s been working great. One thing I would’ve liked to see on the new model is the max load lifted to 7.2A so all three outlets can do 2.4A simultaneously. I also noticed mine has an input on 100-240v 50/60Hz.
The late Koppla PSUs were trash unfortunately. Bought one with a late 2021 datecode lasered into the casing (YYWW format) and it's lighter, its output is never quite 5V and goes out of spec with multiple connected devices (dips below 4.75V). To add insult to injury, its insulation also seems worse as connected devices with exposed metal parts have a super strong buzzing sensation when sliding your finger/hand across the surface. None of these things happened with the old 2017-2018 datecode Kopplas I have, all of which are still in service and doing great. This Smahagel replacement seems decent, though I'm somewhat disappointed by the wimpy output filtering with just a single 1000µF cap
@@Knaeckebrotsaege WHAT? Why would you need more 1000mkF for output? What kind of load doesn't have its own filtering caps but also has such big and rapid current fluctuations? And why it is not in a garbage bin?
Thanks for this review - I didn't think that IKEA's electronics is that good made. I'll buy one the next time I am in IKEA.
After i watched your videos, i understood that electronics need to be nicely engineered. When i did see this video, i waited months to buy this charger, and i can understand it's a huge quality gap than my old crappy charger. So thank you, i am really happy with my new charger :)
Very helpful review, very interesting. Thank you Clive. Only downside, now I want to buy one.
My old version is still going strong after 7 years of non stop usage. On the other hand, my chinese elcheapo car usb thing went down in a blaze of glory. Fire smoke and smell. Glad my car didn't burned to the ground :)
after watching dozens of @DiodeGoneWild 's teardowns of very dodgy chargers, i'm in love with ikea's zero-compromise approach to safety and energy efficiency. going to buy a couple of those! 😍
Thats what i understand, your "Its a good 'un". Thanks for your expertise and advice.
Excellent review and reverse engineer, I've just bought a couple based on this , thanks Clive.
The "små" part is pronounced like the word "small" without the L at the end. Including the longer vowel.
I was going to write exactly that. You beat me to it, by 1-2 hours. ❤
"Små" is pronounced as "sma(ll)" [small, without the L's, but with the long vowel].
Hagel is pronounced "ha(rd) + gel" [ha, with a long vowel, gel with a hard / sharp g (as in go)]
Småhagel = Sma(ll) + ha(rd) + gel
Keep it simple.
Smoe like Joe.
@@herrkulor3771
Sounds like someone from Skåne (skaoene) ...
Skåne is never simple. 😁
@@Trotters79 😉 not quite from Malmö, but from the city with a part that is named Råå, with the river Råån, which earlier was written Rååån, and eel from it is called Råååål.
Since your video on the original Kopla I have never used anything else 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I have 2 of the old IKEA Koppla ones, and I also have an Ikea one that has one usb A and one USB C outputs they are brilliant chargers
Very well made Protection circuit
Tip for getting into ultra sonic cases, use a small hammer to hit the welded areas, it will crack the welds meaning you can then just glue it back together without a gap from cutting away material.
Smart! Strange to think of a hammer an essential part of the complete engineer's precision tool kit 😁 .
@@Okurka. aka The Vise of Truth (I think. It's been a while since he broke it out)
Won't the G-force shock of the hammer be transmitted into the components? There's no desire to glue the case back together to re-use the product if the g-force shock has caused something to degrade.
For ultrasonic welds so like to put it in the freezer then squeeze with an Irwin QuickGrip and wack it with a rubber mallet. Very often it will split at the weld or crack somewhere else. Either way: I’m in. ;)
*I like to
Not “so like to”
Darn autocorrect misinterpreting an intentional tap on shift.
My old ones have been at it for many years as well. They work well for rf receivers like my AIS receiver and SDRs due to the lower noise. Cheap ones will not allow the AIS to receive weak signals from distant ships.
Brit in Sweden here. It's pronounced smoh-hayel. Great work.
That Gate/Source capacitor is called a Miller Capacitor and causes the turn on time to be slower, perhaps for EMC purposes since the transformer capacitance may cause a large current spike at a fast turn on.
One minor criticism is that the primary electrolytics are right next to the heatsink.
Yeah, that is an annoyance.
Thanks Clive 👍🇮🇪🙏🏻
Oh and thanks John 👍
Very well made circuit nice power supply
Never seen an usb charger that have the name of the designer painted on the box.😎
Safety comes first, well designed and engineering and good QC. Proud of Ikea.👍
Although my old Koppla is still working, I bought this new charger last week to show my respect to Ikea~~