So when I went in to set up for the second day at 3D Printing World Expo, one of the booths (who shall remain nameless because I don’t think it’s their fault, per se) had a small “magic smoke” event. A Meanwell-clone PSU had fried on its own, releasing a fairly impressive amount of smoke for about two minutes.
I see a lot of these clone PSU’s these days, and most of them are of uncertain quality. I’m convinced that they are often not made to meet safety certification/compliance.
Be careful.
And… at least in the world of cheap ATX power-supplies, they at least make an effort of putting NRTL (UL/ETL/CSA/TUV/etc) stickers on them (whether they actually had one is yet a different question). These supplies don’t even bother with that…
I used to be the director of the City of Los Angeles Electrical Testing Laboratory that can certify products sold in the city of Los Angeles. I saw a lot of these equipment failed because of poor design and sloppy in construction. They don’t meet the codes and standards recognize by the city. They have shock and fire hazard issues.
@Simeon_Rico , my understanding is that in Los Angeles, if you are found to operate non-compliant devices, you may be cited and be ordered to have the equipment immediately removed from service? Back when I was fresh out of college, my then-employer told me a story about a major customer that suffered a weeklong loss of business because of that, and I’ve always wondered how often that happens.