Comparison Between Genuine And Imitation Cell Phone Charger
The cover of the imitation charger is exactly like the genuine one with the Sony Ericsson words engraved on it. I opened the imitation charger by using a saw, a knife and a hammer. First, I used the small saw to deepen the gap between the top and bottom covers. Next I used a knife to force on the gap. After that I used a hammer to knock it out. There was no crack and all the edges were intact and can be easily glued it back.
There are big differences between the original and imitation circuit boards. The imitation one used much less components and this is the reason why it is much cheaper as compare to the original one. The original one has the design of a switch mode power supply where it has the regulation circuit.
The imitation charger circuit board
This is what I have observed on the imitation charger:
1. It does not have a bridge rectifier to rectify the incoming 220 Vac. It uses only a single 1N4007 to do the rectification job which is very unstable
2. No IC or any transistor were used to regulate the voltage
3. I found only one 5 Volt zener diode to regulate the voltage
4. Using a Mosfet 3001 for switching in the primary side and in the output secondary side it used 1N5819 Schottky diode for rectification purpose to get the DC output voltage.
5. In the primary side the main filter capacitor value was 2.2 uf 400 vdc and in the secondary side there was a filter cap with the value of 22uf 25 volt.
The original charger circuit board
By comparing on these two charger circuits one can easily tell how many components were used on each charger.
The disadvantage of the imitation charger is that the output voltage have ripple and it is a not a clean DC. This pulsating DC voltage could harm the genuine battery and a prolong use can destroy the battery. If the phone owner uses the imitation charger they might think that the battery is the problem but actually is the phone charger that causes the problem. Not only imitation phone charger can be found in the market, fake batteries also easy to get and they are cheaper than the genuine batteries.
The bad DC output waveform
As you can see from the picture above, the DC output contains the AC ripple. The reason for it is because the imitation charger uses only one single diode for rectification. It should have use four diodes instead of single diode. This single diode usage that produces the ac ripple will surely ruin the battery life.
The good DC output waveform
The above photo shows the good DC waveform of the original phone charger.
Conclusion:
I suggest that if your original phone charger have problem, you repair it on your own. If you do not wish to repair it then do yourself a favor and get the original charger and not the imitation one.
Article by Beh from Iran and special thanks to his friend Mr Hesam for the help in preparing the article.
Note: Please do not attempt to perform the repair work if you do not know about electrical safety.
If you have any interesting repair article that you want to share to others please do email me.
I encourage you to leave your comments on the post, as well as share the post with anyone you feel may benefit from it using the social media buttons below-thanks.
P.S– If you want to learn how to be a professional power supply repairer please click HERE for more information.
P.P.S–Click here to read the first post by Beh
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Lawrence
October 1, 2012 at 5:01 am
thanx 4 da post also an imitation charger do charge al types of 4nes unlike an original charger. dats da otha way 2 fynd out if yo charger is original o not.
mourad from gabes tunisia
October 1, 2012 at 5:37 am
good job, by using oscillo the problem is clear.
Jeet
October 1, 2012 at 7:08 am
Hi everybody. I like the article because it was clearly explained with pictures and test results. I wish we can have more articles like this in the future. I would like to thank Beh and Hesam for preparing such a nice article.
e.lee
October 1, 2012 at 7:48 am
Its true.Imitation of cell charger is very poor.Using Oscilloscope it's possible to resolve many problems.Nice comparision.
ALVASOL777
October 1, 2012 at 7:57 am
thanks for helping us become better repairers and differentiate between and original charger and one that is not.
bogie
October 1, 2012 at 8:09 am
thanks, i also observed that the imitation charger uses ordinary electronic parts unlike the orginal one its mixed with SMD parts.
Jestine Yong
October 1, 2012 at 8:12 am
Hi Bogie,
You are right. You are a good observant because you have compared it with the first article.
Thanks.
Jestine
TANA
October 1, 2012 at 8:55 am
The general pubic is conned into buying it .They think it is the same as the orignal charger and as it is cheap the temptation to buy is there.. The public must be educated about this. Those who are electronic repairers must play their part in this problem,but the cheap ones keeping coming. I have handeled the cheap and original ones. Thanks to Beh to highlight this problem.
PS: your choise of colour (Yellow) makes it difficult to read. otherwise the illustrations are good..
rica
October 1, 2012 at 9:52 am
switch tranzistor 13003 is not mosfet it is bipolar tranzistor ..
High Voltage NPN Transistor
VCEO = 400V
VCBO = 700V
Ic = 1.5A
VCE (SAT), = 0.8V @ Ic / Ib = 0.5A / 0.1A
Luqman
October 1, 2012 at 10:05 am
Well done Beh... well done.
William
October 1, 2012 at 10:07 am
Thank you very much for the informations. i used imitation charger for sony ericsson. Thanks God, my battery survived, and it destroy the fake charger. question for Mr. Jestine, what are the components usually damage in sony ericsson charger?
Tanny
October 1, 2012 at 10:21 am
Hi Jestine,
Thank you for this useful article.
Does it mean that this also applies to other cell phone charger like Nokia and other brand?
Besides that, I don't really understand how to fix such problem. Then how to identify between the original and imitation before buying it?
Is it safe to use the cell phone charger that is included in the package though it is written "Made in China"?
Thanks,
Tanny
saman
October 1, 2012 at 11:23 am
Thank you very much for information.
Merlin Marquardt
October 1, 2012 at 11:44 am
Very enlightening. Good job! Agree with the comment that yellow text is hard to read.
eric taylor
October 1, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Hi Jestine Is there some way to test a rechargeable battery for usefulness without haveing to charge and wait
untill it may or may not charge waisting a lot of time in the process. Thanks Eric Nottingham UK one of your
earliest members to buy your very usefull PSU repair manual.
Jestine Yong
October 1, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the support on my ebook. As for the rechargeable battery I believe there must be a specific charger for this function. If you refer to laptop battery the below link could be a good charger:
http://laptopcharger.en.china.cn/selling-leads/img_1137084810_1.html
Jestine
Bradley Brake
October 1, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Very good illustration with the scope as one can clearly see. I haven't seen any of the bad chargers but realize they are out there.
Amir Mukhtar Ashrafi
October 1, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Sir,
Thanks you again to share such a nice information about charger adapters.
Actually, there are two types of electronic devices. Branded and Local. Branded machines mostly uses research and safety circuitry for interface equipments. But Local machines or charger commonly uses Less circuitry in order to make device cheap, compettetive and effordable. Due to the Infaltion rate which is hiking frequently, majority of the users prefer to buy cheap and less rates devices. however, cheap devices sometimes makes equipments faulty to dump.
thanks you
Amir Mukhtar Ashrafi
Tesfaye kebede
October 1, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Thanks
stephen
October 1, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Thanks for the information. very useful but the only proble
is how can one knows an imitation and original when even the imitatio
has the company name stamped.?.
sokhom
October 1, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Thank you very much for the informations. I have never repaired complet on this project.
Sokhom
Nestor Luna
October 1, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Thanks for the information, it enlighten me the difference and the advantage of using the genuine charger.
francis
October 1, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Good Day!!!
Jestine,
This information are very useful to me, with direct tips and safety of the user.
Thank you very much.
Best Regards,
Francis
beh
October 1, 2012 at 6:06 pm
HI ALL
i hope this article is useful for all the members
thanks and best regards
beh
beh
October 1, 2012 at 6:16 pm
HI RICA
please take look at this link i found this MOSFET here:
http://www.datasheets.org.uk/13003+MOSFET+transistor-datasheet.html
thanks
beh
beh
October 1, 2012 at 6:18 pm
HI TANA
thanks for your support . yes black color is better.
best regards
beh
beh
October 1, 2012 at 6:22 pm
HI E.LEE
the voltmeter shows you have 5 volts in your out put of the circuit . but . scop shows the quality of that
regards
beh
David
October 1, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Well done!! I learn something every time there is a post! Keep it up!!!
beh
October 1, 2012 at 9:17 pm
HI TANNY
the charger that is coming with your phone pakage to you is genuine and dose not have problem even if on pakage is said made of china also is no problem . but. if you want to buy a chager apart from the phone pakageof market you have to be careful . also other brands like NOKIA , or SAMSUNG .....etc.... they have imitations in market.....best thing to do is you should buy the charger from authorized dealers only
regards
beh
David
October 1, 2012 at 9:20 pm
Thank, Jestine
good information
ivan
October 1, 2012 at 9:24 pm
My question is, if we add a diode rectifier on fake charger, can it solve the instability problem and make it a better charger? Since I don't have an osciloscope, I can't find it myself. thanks.
Jestine Yong
October 1, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Hi ivan,
Good question. Yes you can add in a bridge rectifier to solve the problem.
Jestine
beh
October 1, 2012 at 9:32 pm
HI WILLIM
let me tell you the most problematic parts in chargers are the DC CABLE that is coming out of the chargers this is include the the cable and the socket but if the problem appear in the charger you have to follow the methodesof troubleshooting to find the problems .
thanks-beh
A.T.Sellar
October 1, 2012 at 9:43 pm
How to find in a circuit the program ic is difective
Jestine Yong
October 1, 2012 at 9:52 pm
Hi At sellar,
from repair experience and from ic comparison.
Jestine
Lynn Blakely
October 1, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Thanks for the good article. For those that don't have a scope, the ac ripple can be checked with the AC function of a VOM, or DVM. It would be handy to have a know good charger to compare a suspected fake charger with. I would expect the AC ripple to be in the millivolt range on a good charger. Someone can post more about the exact measurements on this type of product.
Khalid Ahmed Sheikh
October 1, 2012 at 11:25 pm
Hi Jestine,
Thanks for giving us such a repair of sony charger i learned alot from this as well i hope more from u in future,
Thanks
Khalid Ahmed Sheikh
Brij
October 2, 2012 at 1:00 am
Thanks for the Very useful information
mustabz
October 2, 2012 at 6:08 am
Thanks Mr jestine for sharing this important and use full article. it goes well to show why phone batteries are prone to destruction because of fake chargers yet we go ahead and keep buying batteries thinking its them that are fake.
Caution taken and i will definertely share the info.thanks again and God bless.
hasan
October 2, 2012 at 1:47 pm
thanks
vicken
October 2, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Hi Jestin
thank's for those informations about the charger that' good God bless you and your work
bob
October 2, 2012 at 5:49 pm
also ericsson is not correct spelling , great article
Jestine Yong
October 2, 2012 at 9:15 pm
Hi Bob,
Ok thanks already amended it.
Jestine
Anam
October 2, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Thank you mr Jestine Yong for information, better fix the original phone charger instead of buying an imitation
Darren Muscat
October 2, 2012 at 11:49 pm
NIce artilcle indeed.!
The size of the output capacitor is again evident, original 470uF, IMitation 22uF.
Altough convinced when connected to the battery the DC output will be clean DC as the battery is actually a large capacitor. Similar to the car's charging system, the output from the alternator is Rectified AC but will smoothin with the car battery.
Imitation are after the cheapest price ever! The cost of a couple of extra rectification diodes would be negligile and would add much value to this crap of charger!
Jestine Yong
October 3, 2012 at 2:55 am
Hi Darren,
You are right about the output filter cap. They should add in another 3 pieces of 1n4007 diode but the overall cost is the manufacturer main concern.
Jestine
Waleed Rishmawi
October 3, 2012 at 6:45 am
good article. it is always good to buy the original chargers..athough it cost a little bit more but on the long run you save a lot of money on repair when using the fake charger to charge your phone.
beh
October 3, 2012 at 6:33 pm
HI MR YONG
the third part of this article is getting ready . in this part i will tell : how i turn on the charger with out cover. and some more points. hope to send yoy soon.
regards
beh
Jestine Yong
October 3, 2012 at 9:22 pm
Hi beh,
Ok thanks.
Jestine
Sad
October 4, 2012 at 12:40 am
Hi Sir
please tell me how I can check the Zenner diode?
Is it different with other diodes?
mercy
Jestine Yong
October 4, 2012 at 8:27 pm
Hi Sad,
Yes it is different with other diodes. Here is the link to check zener diode:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5724083_check-zener-diode.html
Jestine
Okore Kingsley
October 4, 2012 at 5:39 am
I realy want to Thank Beh for this wonderful article I have seen the reason why my phone battrey went bad, Sir is it good to use car chargers to charge phones?
Jestine Yong
October 4, 2012 at 8:26 pm
Hi Okore,
Good question. Since I have not test the car battery charger thus I can't give any opinion on this.
Jestine
kate
October 4, 2012 at 5:53 am
Jestine thamk you one more time as i keep on learning from you...well done with the use of Oscilloscope.
J.B.LEE
October 4, 2012 at 9:01 pm
It is very usefull "Information sources"
Teddy
October 5, 2012 at 3:31 am
thanks 4 ur information, now i know
god bless you, I hope u continue what your doing for every one..
H Gowda
October 6, 2012 at 7:50 am
Thanks for your kind information
Nimal
October 7, 2012 at 8:05 am
Thank you for the valuable information.
Quoc
October 16, 2012 at 1:13 am
Thanks , this is good artical