motorcycle usb charger fried the charging port on my iphone..explanation?

[iblastoff]

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i have one of these usb chargers:

its connected to a SAE cable with inline fuse (7.5) that is in turn, connected directly to my battery (my bike is a ducati scrambler if that matters)

I've had this setup for over a year (and even longer on my old bike) with no problems.

this afternoon, i plug my iphone 6s into the charger and set it in my ram mount. as i put my helmet on, i noticed smoking coming out of the USB port area! (at least i'm pretty sure i remember it as such. very small chance it was coming from the charging port on my iphone but i dont' think so).

i unplugged it immediately. but now my phone doesnt charge at all. no response when plugging any cord into it.

my first thought is that maybe the fuse on the SAE connector was fried. but i popped out the blade fuse and tested it with a multimeter and it seems to be just fine.

the usb charger itself is supposed to have "5V/3.1A output with quick disconnect and over-current protection, CE & ROHS certified" according to the product page.

i cleaned out the charging port on my iphone and turns out there was a bunch of lint in there. but i don't think that would cause such a high level issue?
i've since completely disconnected the usb charger from my battery just in case.

anyone know what may have gone wrong?

 

[GreyGhost]

Moisture is a common cause. My wife lit her S8+ on fire with a good car charger (that is still being used with no problems). She didn't see a moisture warning but that is my best guess (I get the warning quite often on my Note but I've never plugged it in with the warning active). We haven't plugged it in again, but it is pretty ugly in there. Wireless charging all the time for her now.

It is possible to get smoke even with protection on the charger. 15 watts through some lint could easily light on fire.

 

[nobbie48]

Moisture is a common cause. My wife lit her S8+ on fire with a good car charger (that is still being used with no problems). She didn't see a moisture warning but that is my best guess (I get the warning quite often on my Note but I've never plugged it in with the warning active). We haven't plugged it in again, but it is pretty ugly in there. Wireless charging all the time for her now.

It is possible to get smoke even with protection on the charger. 15 watts through some lint could easily light on fire.

Small soldering irons are 15 watts and melt solder so......

 

[GreyGhost]

Small soldering irons are 15 watts and melt solder so......

I would love it if they included a proper protocol for high-power USB. It would be damn simple for the charger to tell the phone that is it put out x watts. They phone knows it is taking in y watts. If the numbers are more than a tiny bit different, phone sends a kill signal to the charger to cut off power. Yes it would require a chip, but given that the chip would be inside every charger and phone, I can't see it costing more than a few cents. Oh well, that ship has sailed, maybe in the next standard.

 

[Blackfin]

A failure in the USB charger of its 5V regulator would be my guess. If you could get a voltmeter in there on pins 1 and 4 you'd probably see battery voltage. The switch in the buck (switching step-down) converter probably failed shorted, resulting in battery voltage appearing at the output.

Your phone might be repairable; hopefully nothing downstream of the battery charger circuit was damaged.

 

[cycling]

Did the same thing for my Go Pro. I think that the charge directly from the battery is too high. Fluctuates. (There is a joke there somewhere, Eh Joe?)
So I got a power bank. a spare battery. When I am stopping for a tea, a quick charge and boom, good to go.
I run a camera for the front and rear. For the rear camera I can plug in the power bank directly.
Works itself out.

 

[FLSTC]

Suggestions: Your usb-lightning cable may have been damaged with this event. Try a different cable with an authentic apple cube. You can also try a hard-reset of the phone to see if that resolves the no-charging situation.

There's an awesome cell-phone repair guy/shop - Promenade mall, just outside of the T&T - "Vaughan Cell Phone Repair"

 

[Mad Mike]

I had one of those -- inexpensive Chinese USB port. Crack the case open, the electronics are not sealed, all you need is a drop of moisture to get past the cap and hell can break loose. Spend a few extra bucks on something like an Oxford or Battery Tender brands -- they are potted and sealed against moisture mayhem.

 

[GreyGhost]

I had one of those -- inexpensive Chinese USB port. Crack the case open, the electronics are not sealed, all you need is a drop of moisture to get past the cap and hell can break loose. Spend a few extra bucks on something like an Oxford or Battery Tender brands -- they are potted and sealed against moisture mayhem.

Yikes. One of the amazon reviews said charging while listening to music messed up how the music sounded. Even before it gets wet, things have gone very wrong if noise is making it through the charger.

 

[iblastoff]

I had one of those -- inexpensive Chinese USB port. Crack the case open, the electronics are not sealed, all you need is a drop of moisture to get past the cap and hell can break loose. Spend a few extra bucks on something like an Oxford or Battery Tender brands -- they are potted and sealed against moisture mayhem.

i do have the official battery tender usb plug but it doesnt seem to be weatherproof at all. i'd like to keep usb access at my handlebars. if i kept the tender there, i'd have to basically permanently tape the SAE connection right at the body. i guess that would be fine if the actual plug is more reliable.

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