12V 50A 600W power supply - what's inside 

I subscribe to dozens of electronics channels and none other give me remotely as much joy to watch as yours. I absolutely adore your style. You are one of a kind and can make even the most mundane of items exciting to watch. Your passion for what you do is very clear and quite contagious. Much respect!

I was missing this "you have to be kidding me guys" :)

A wax filled capacitor... the chinese never disappoint 😂 Would've been nice to see the power supply working since paraffin starts melting at 50C 😀

Those capacitors are reaching syuper dodgy levels that shouldn't even be possible.

That "K" vent is the Rubycon vent, on the right is the NCC vent. Wow, amazing, hidden disaster.

Those capacitors are filled with wax the same way some car dents are filled with bondo.

I can already picture DiodeGoneWild saying "Even more lammmpss" as he connects the lamps to the power supply.

I love it that you explain everything that is going on, on the board. Never stop doing that ! Thank you !

I think they put the nippon chemicon labels on top of the salvaged capacitor 😂

Oh man, your videos are so fun and relaxing. Love it!

I had "even more salt" flashbacks.

OMG The trouble they go through to and still obviously cheat is annoying. Thank you for yet another excellent video!

I actually find it quite good/nobel that they can recycle so many components. However changing makings and hide dents is not acceptable. If they can desolder components more carefully I would not reject to the idea of buying recycled electronics

Oh no you got me all excited and then the vid ended, well played sir, I await your next video.

I have a similar one, but it is a half bridge topology, using a TL494. What's shady about it is that the power supply of the TL494 comes from a separated winding of the transformer, and it's not regulated. What's worse is that the cooling fan is also connected there (12V fan), but that voltage goes above 18V when the PSU is loaded. You get a "load regulated fan speed", but it also drives the fan out of it specs. I also bought two of them, and one blew up as soon as I connected it. Taking it appart I found that there were a LOT of solder blobs shorting a lot of critical components. After replacing the mains bridge rectifier, the fuse, both the main capacitors and the NTC, and it came back to life. So it's good you take it appart before testing it.

its vfc - vax filled capacitor

14:21 LOL And, thank you for warning about potential toxic chemistry. Great video!

hehe does anyone else mimick his accent when tinkering with electronics or fixing things? I find myself saying "It worrrrrkksss", etc. :D Love your channel mate, I'm a complete and total electronics noob, but I still find it super interesting. Your attention to detail and thoroughness is second to none.

Love this guy. Taught me loads

Could you please explain those transformers and gate driver transformer detail soon on your next video?. How much the windings, transformer size, and inductance of it.

Hi diode thank you for the video! Where can one learn on flyback designs, 2-switch forward, etc? Love your videos and your knowledge, keep up the great content!

You're doing amazing job. Thanks!

Damn, I wish you had powered it on before taking off the capacitors. Might have given some nice fireworks. They might measure ok at low voltage, but who knows if the insulation would hold up after that torture.

Really good ideas and good work

I Always enjoy your show, thanks

Others : Let's open the screws, see, and then close. DiodeGoneWild : Let's pry out some doomed capacitors. One of the most valuable channels on youtube that give info about how china industries run on their cheap products.

Interestingly, I bought that EXACT SAME SMPS last week and it has what appears to be the EXACT same layout and components, but it's 60v, 10A 600watts. It would be very interesting to send you some pictures and see how they get the different voltages and amps out of the exact same layout.

Always wait for your video ☺️☺️

Very well explained

They use a pair of pliers to pull these capacitors off and recycle them before putting them on this board. They sightly crushed the capacitors in the process. It looks like they tried to fill in the dents with wax before rewrapping them. Strange?

The "K" shaped capacitor vent is Rubycon. The "Y" shaped vent is Nippon ChemiCon. I think the wax trick is because it's self levelling, when they heatshrink the new label on it, the wax re-melts to fill the voids. I'm also looking at this bridge rectifier mains side, and wondering, will it really survive 600W of power draw, entirely without heatsink? I have not seen unheatsunk rectifiers in PC PSUs which are anywhere near this powerful. I suppose it will just about work in 230V region, but what about 115V region? The total mains current is doubled, and it's carried by only two out of 4 diode elements, so each carries 4 times the current, this seems very dodgy! The thing that is most scary about PSUs i think is ultimately the magnetics, you rely on the transformer to separate you from deadly mains. I almost hope that the transformers are salvaged from something good, but they can take damage with time too. Transformers must be the by far most expensive components in the PSU to manufacture, and even more expensive to QC properly. There are cheaper, safer and more trustworthy 12V PSUs you can get for the power. Server power supplies, like from Hewlett Packard and Dell, usually 600-800W. They come from a redundant array and have a card edge connector, they're written-off or decommissioned units, sometimes they have faults in PWR_OK circuit or something of the kind. They're guaranteed not to have run more than a few years, they are taken out of the array before they are expected to possibly fail. If they're manufactured by LiteOn, then they have a fairly tolerable, temperature controlled fan, if by Delta, then they get loud. Also some get loud because the fan control circuit has died. The manufacturer isn't printed on the PSUs, but can be found by E-number UL search.

This is the best video you ever made. You really made my day. Super cool and I love you "bloody hell" I am an electric engineer and I often wonder why the Chinese have a good design but totally failed to build it properly... take care and carry on making those videos 😉

Very good review video

Capacitors and mosfets have probably been reused by other boards !!! Great video!!

Are you going to draw the schematic, or is your cat going to do that for you?

No power factor correction either (easy to tell by the voltage selector switch), which should really be there at 600W.

I love your power supply video. Keep it up 🥰🥰🤩

I wish you will made video explaining working schematic of this and working principle of that topology !

Nippon chemi-con are very good capacitors but probably taken from scap (probably they aren't real nippon)

IMO those big caps were of two different manufacturers, forcefully ripped from some appliance with pliers (there's no time or money for solder irons somewhere it would seem), ripping away paths; then their outer plastic film torn away, dents filled with wax and reskinned with some other plastic film, then tossed in a generic bin of caps to be used as parts. I'm actually surprised at the fact that they didn't give completely different capacities than those declared. if we're talking about recycling electronics parts I'm all into it, but should be some basic safety or quality issues to be taken care of. I guess you get what you pay for, and I'm aware of the fact that "safety" and "quality" are things that some people give absolutely no Fs about.

Chinese PSUs are just like a cars in Soviet Union -- you should disassemble and reassemble them after the purchase to make they work finally. And don't forget to file some sharp edges! ;D

with capacitors filled with wax i'll be surprised if it can deliver 50amps ! and btw great video as always can't wait for the next episode, thank you !

11:55 that capacitor is a Rubycon only they make caps with K shaped vents. Likely taken from used electronics and re sleeved so they could use caps from multiple manufacturers and make them look like they're the same. Geez with those huge dents in the side I'm surprised the dielectric between the plates wasn't damaged. Nothing more exciting than caps at mains voltage shorting out.

Those power supplies never have control circuit for the fan, they lie! Could you please tell me what are the diodes?

Great findings, Diode! Its a shame they build all these cheap power supplies with recycled used parts and even pay a lot of attention to hide the mistakes and problems. I have never seen a electrolytic Cap like this put in wax to hide bulging! They should put at least the same attention into mounting the heatsinks! :-) I am interested in seeing the proper load test for this device with 50Amps! You could use some big resistive wire or some power resistors as well together with the lamps if not enough. Please also try a modification of the output voltage which will probably be quite easy with these cheap supplies. In most cases a simple voltage devider at the TL431 will do i guess. Maybe you have to investigate some precaution for too low and too high voltage.

They are reaching professional Level in waxing

"50" amps, sure. The coil windings and component styles give it all away. That and that it only had "RoHS" as a marking... but the recycling definitely is green.

i gotten a few of similar power supplies, and yes ALL those parts are recycled, those capacitor are recycled from returned or failed units were they clean em up and re wrap the skin on em, plus all those parts are off the shelf components you can get em in bulk for under 5$, its not surprising that parts look similar or slightly off cause there grabbed from a bucket in a factory. i work for an electronic company and we find these trash parts "new" from china but there just salvaged from rejected parts. also those boards you can get for 1$ at PCB factories there a common board that you can get as you can use that board in that video for 12v 20amp 220watt to 600Watt as you then need a bigger board to add more Moffsets and 2 more rows of capacitors. However this is the first time i seen the wax fill, as most would use pliers to press em back into shape as you peel the skin off the cylinder has tool marks and rust spots from old tools and there metals touching the bare tin casing. Anyways good video, love seeing someone looking into these power supplies since there are soo many of em and there getting harder to find quality ones.

Very good video. Thanks !

Another cheat: With only one silicone pad, the transistors on the mains side capacitively inject current at 95kHz into the grounded chassis. The switchers I worked on in 1984 had two sil-pads with foil in-between (actually assembled as one piece). The foil in-between was connected to neutral (or one of the DC rails -- I forget which), to keep the 95kHz coupled current to the primary side. (The neutral (or hot if hot & neutral are swapped) does not inject much current into the chassis because it is only 50 or 60Hz plus harmonics. Any higher frequencies on the mains are coming in from outside.)

It is very similar to the Ender 3 PSU, and it has the same text about the fan.... but that one is a half-bridge topology, with KA7500 control chip.

The wax on the capacitor is not only fill the dent but also being use for making it heavier, the same thing as sand inside the 18650 li ion battery

RoHS and CE certification on the label of course. However, in the case of products from China, this means Risk of Huge Scam, or also Risk of Horible Shit. Chinese Electrocution.

could you do a video explaining two switch forward? or do you have one already? I remember the capacitor with both legs in the same hole. well spotted..

15:08 eeeevaannn morrr... Laaammmpppp.......

I have exact same power suply on my 3d printer! Great video! CZ: Mám ho už od roku 2018 a jede každej den úplně bez problémů.

It was Easy to Open but hard to fix it.

Considering they are made using child labor, the kids did a pretty good job!

That clamp bar arrangement isn't horrible. It tends to apply force more evenly than a screw through the package hole.

Great sir 👍 Plz Make video about your temperature metar..

Haha... So much 🤣 funny 🤣... Waiting for next part

Someone needs to tell the salvage crew to remove the solder before pulling off the capacitors with pliers.

Amazing how much time and effort they put into "recycling" components in a way that's deceptive. I mean, I'm all for recycling, but c'mon.... little honesty would be nice. They're obviously trying to save every penny while making these things, which is why them using thermal pads AND thermal compound is really confusing. lol

11:30 What's this! Bloody Hell....hahahah

Ur cat is just awesome😀

Excellent video, a lot of these kind of power supplies generally look fairly well made for a Chinese product, however this particular one looks much more cheaply made then the usual low quality ones from China.

Could you share some good links for learn more about power supply? You mention topologies maybe share some links for that too?

"Mum can we have electroboom?" Mum: "No son we have we have electroboom at home" Electroboom at home:

yep typical coming from wung hung low factory The cap cans probalby were part of a tuk tuk in a previous life LOVE THE VIDEOS

Been power 2 5k chinese diesel heaters for 3 years with 1 of these and it is showing no signs of trouble.

Looks like those caps have passed through a car body shop! :)

Reusing semiconductors is better than using cheap counterfeit parts because the originals are more reliable even after reusing. Same can't be said about those mangled capacitors.

My father bought this power supply for his amateur radio, haven't failed since the day he bought it.

I have a similar 12v 30a psu that failed. I suspect it is the power transistors. I want to replace them but want to know which ones to use to make it better. The ones that came out of the unit is E13009L and J13009. Thanks.

vyděl jsem hodně, ale kondenzátor plněnej voskem??? Tak to je hodně :D

Now I know what a modern wax capacitors look like. Only seen them in old equipment before. :)

More reason to thoroughly test components bought from china. I remember spending sleepless nights on a particular project, only to realize some of the jumper cables I bought didn't have the copper wires in them. At that point all I could do was laugh, I couldn't even be mad. Dented capacitors filled with wax huh!😅

I got the 12V 20A version i recieved it in exactly the same way with dented capacitors

I was writing a comment to try to persuade you on talking about the output ripple of this PSU (I have a similar one) and maybe some ways to make it better. but I see I am an hour and seven minutes too late...

Perfect I like very much thanks you

Bloody Hell! Thanks for the video! LLAP

For those who are not familiar with these products: A) Always multiply their Watt rating indication by the correction factor 0,48. Thus the Chinowatts are converted to Realwatts. B) Further derating of the output power might be necessary, depending on the ambient temperature and humidity of the installation place. As a rule of thumb, use minus 30 Watt per degree Celcious, above the 18 degrees C ambient temperature. C) There is nothing wrong with their waxed caps. It's merely an innovation of the Chinon Shiticon, the original manufacturer, used in order to destroy their competitors. D) Always wear protective glasses when you see these caps working. They tend to explode unexpectedly, if you stared at them...E) Enjoy your buying preference safely and happily!

I have the same power supply only 24V / 21A. It actually was able to deliver 560W before the voltage started to drop. Mine has 13009's in it, very curious how this one will perform!

this would be perfect for a car amplifier if you want to use it indoors :)

14:21 The cat explains why those caps is hopeless...

I’ve never seen wax used as ‘body filler’ on capacitors. Yikes! 😳 I’d rate this power supply as: Extra Super Dodgy

Wax doesn't make any sense to me. I'd think that it melts when they apply heat to shrink the fake cover foil on. So much extra work when they could just have desoldered them with a little bit more care and inserted them in their original state instead. Undamaged old and used caps would be so much more trustworthy than damaged old and used caps disguised as fake quality ones.

I have one that looks exactly like it. It's a 60V version and only 8 Amps. Mine has only one transistor and one diode. The space for the extras are left blank. Also, the two power resistors driving the bases are in parallel and have a very weird value. It uses an LD7575 PWM controller chip, One 20N60S5 N-MOSFET and one 20JL2C Diode. Maybe it just looks the same, but I think they are all the same PCB, with different resistors for different voltages. What is the numbers on the 2 PTCs? I can't read the markings on mine. They both blew up open circuit and the markings have left the building!

Capacitors gone wild... :D

The wax is just crazy....oh my god wow.

I don't think i would trust the whole thing untill all the capacitors were replaced with decent ones. And the bad heat sinking of cause. I would not trust it at 50 amps, 20 amps would be my expectation. They lie about the parts, so nothing stopping them doing the same for the maximum current. I'm sure you will make it good and reliable :-D

Hello, sir can you please teardown a HP or such server PSU, those are noisy but very reliable, so if you please explain those that will be really helpful. Chinese wax smoothing was a delight to watch.

5A maybe, 50A if you like fireworks :)

Yaaaaaay finally

How did you connect wires with those small halogen lamps with reflectors ? 😕

Dodgy capacitors r us, I love your cat

I need the value of the first inductor before the bridge rectifier.. please.

Help! My capacitors are leaking some kind of conformal coating... wait... A FLAMMABLE CONFORMAL COATING!!!

Good point you were making about the fact that those designs by themselves aren't horrible. Just the really bad assembly and components, that you absolutely can't trust at all. I have seen going as far as faking NE5532 opamps, which by themselves are already so super cheap these days. I sometimes buy chinese knock-offs and just replace the board. In the end this is quite often still cheaper but also reliable when replaced with proper parts. In most cases it would cost me more just to get a display and chassis for example. Depending a little bit on the type of product obviously.

Hahaha full of hidden surprises !