Counterfeit power cords

[LongRunner]

These aren't as outright horrible as others mentioned, but I still have some doubt about their legitimacy:

WJ plug 1.JPG (94.92 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

WJ plug 2.JPG (82.91 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

WJ C13 1.JPG (66.56 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

WJ C13 2.JPG (85.13 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

WJ C13 3.JPG (31.45 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

The "LTSA" designation, as I understand it, refers to a light-duty flex (H03VV-F, or H03VVH2-F in the case of "LTSA-2F"); for ordinary-duty (H05VV-F), it should be "GTSA" (or "GTSA-2F" for H05VVH2-F).

WJ flex.JPG (98.1 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

WJ versus Phino 1.JPG (152.21 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

WJ versus Phino 2.JPG (138.31 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

This one, if I recall correctly, came with a Palsonic TV set some years ago. The design of the plug appears to be copied from Phino (which can also be found rebranded "Powermaster", like the off-white cord shown here), although the C13 end is dissimilar. It just about survived a 10A load, although the plug pins got very hot. It's quite a stiff cord, as were two I had with the same plug but in H03VV-F and with a different C13 end. I've now cut it apart to recover the copper (27 grams of it, between the 3 cores)…

Hou Ta 1.JPG (82.1 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

Hou Ta 2.JPG (102.4 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

Hou Ta (TriAce) flex.JPG (30.9 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

I don't know what device this one came with. It seems OK under load (some warmth at the ends, but not dangerously hot). The connector designs actually match those shown on the website of Hou Ta, so maybe it's just a real cord of less-than-stellar quality.

The text positioning is a tad sloppy (being partly cut off by the frame), but no catastrophe there.

Fan-Jet plug 1.JPG (35.37 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

While no date code is visible, I'm willing to believe it dates from before 2005 (when insulated pins became a requirement of AS/NZS 3112).

Fan-Jet plug 2.JPG (50.94 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

Fan-Jet C13 1.JPG (70.36 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

I don't recall seeing that logo on the really bad ones.

Fan-Jet C13 2.JPG (76.85 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

Fan-Jet flex.JPG (22.94 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

The openings are a bit wider in the Fan-Jet, so I'm still not sure if this is safe.

C13 ends (Fan-Jet vs. I-Sheng).JPG (21.73 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

Having stripped the end of this cord, it has the correct IEC colors and (at least in the earth) 20 strands of 0.18mm copper (working out to about 0.5mm², not officially approved for 10A but can just about hold it with good ventilation).

Chung Kwang 544001 flex.JPG (37.23 KiB) Viewed 28067 times

And a not-so-dangerous Fan-Jet cord (one which actually survives 10A, even if it gets quite warm)? The "(star)544001" might even be a standard of sorts, having seen a few cords from different manufacturers with that same code. (The design of the really dodgy "Fan-Jet" cords is nothing alike, for the record.)

[LongRunner]

Some of the navy PATA and FDD cables bundled with Gigabyte mainboards (in the final years of supporting PATA and an internal FDD) also had copper-clad steel cores, in both cases 0.2mm diameter solid (about 32AWG). The manufacturer isn't even named. Sure, for the floppy you can get away with almost anything, but with PATA/100 (or 133 although you're supposed to use the yellow cables for that IIRC) I'd be more cautious.
ASUS did the same, although theirs at least stated the manufacturer (Keen Top) and admitted to being 32AWG (though with no mention of CCS).
If anyone here has experience actually running those cables at full speed, let me know.

Granted, for signal wires conductivity is often less important than strength; but if the PATA specification allowed CCS (I doubt it) then why wasn't it the norm?
I don't care, I have more of these than I can use anyway so I'll just keep the proper copper cables…

2 out of 3 newer Honglin VGA cables also have mostly-steel cores, with only the overall braid and R/G/B/H cores remaining copper (but their drain wires are steel). Which in a way, suggests that they did actually think it through; none of the other lines (vertical sync, ID or DDC) are critical (with the possible exception of +5V on pin 9, if you have something which actually draws some current from it).
For the moment, I'll keep the other unit (though I still prefer the older thick VGA cables containing complete coaxial cores for the RGB)…

[LongRunner]

Long widespread on BS 1363 counterfeits, they were going to get to Australia eventually.
Here's one which came with a tricolor studio light (which also has a fuseholder unsafe for mains):

Australian sleeved earth pin.JPG (221.87 KiB) Viewed 23596 times

In the Kaifeng power-boards (with their raised earth contacts) only the insulated part will touch; contact in other sockets will be unpredictable.
Not that it matters in this case, because the cable is only 2-core anyway (as the text lets slip):

Wrong cable.JPG (39.55 KiB) Viewed 23596 times

Being 5m long, it should be H05VV-F3G1.0 for full IEC compliance.
The wires are at least copper, but much smaller than claimed (0.11mm diameter, 22 strands in active/23 in neutral for 0.21/0.22mm²) so get very hot at 10A.

[LongRunner]

Clearly they just gave up on this one:

Peeking out.JPG (201.79 KiB) Viewed 22955 times

The pins also measure >18mm long (should be about 17mm) suggesting they're positioned further-out than intended; but even so, the insulation on proper pins should extend deeper inside. Wires inside are as wispy as the other DHT counterfeits, and the PSU it came with looks no safer:

Super Shady.JPG (255.52 KiB) Viewed 22955 times

Anyway, later I'll see if either item can survive the rated load

[LongRunner]

This came with my Segway-Ninebot G65 MAX scooter; it's not really a counterfeit, but still defective:

Insulation void.JPG (110.13 KiB) Viewed 3414 times

The PVC overmolding is also rather unclean:

Rough molding.JPG (158.41 KiB) Viewed 3414 times

The rest of this cord looks OK (the now-cut end looks to genuinely be H03VV-F3G0.75) so I'll keep it in case I ever need to make a C14/E to C5 lead (in which case my Belling-Lee plug will come in handy again ; we've already discarded the towel rail I last fitted it to, as that was rusty).
But if you go to Segway-Ninebot's site, they're asking rather a lot for it (I just substituted one of my own spares, which is H05VV-F3G0.75 too)

The scooter itself hasn't exactly performed up to expectations either, but that's another story…