Test/review of Proelio Quick Charge QC 3.0 AR-QC 3.0

Proelio Quick Charge QC 3.0 AR-QC 3.0







Official specifications:

  • Input: AC 100~240V 50/60Hz

  • Output: QC 3.0 3.6 - 6.5V 3 A / 9 12V 1.5A / 6.5 9V 2A (Output will according device to change)

  • Size: 5x2.8x4.8(cm)

I got it from Aliexpress dealer Proelio Digital Specialty Store







This cheap charger arrived in plastic back inside a envelope.



























Measurements

  • Power consumption when idle is 0.14 watt

  • Usb output is coded as Apple 2.4A, Samsung, DCP, QC3, Samsung-AFC, Huawei-FCP

  • Minimum QC3 voltage is 4.2V

  • Weight: 39.2g

  • Size: 90 x 37.8 x 25.7mm




The charger can deliver nearly 4A at 5V, this matches fine with a 3.5A rating, but is slightly above what a usb plug is rated for.
The voltage is slightly on the high side, this is nice for some devices.



At 9V the current is down to 2.8A, again well above the rating of 2A



At 12V the current is about 2.1A, rating says 1.5A.



The output current is a bit lower when using 120VAC.



Running the charger at 12V with 1.5A output current for 1 hour worked fine.
The temperature photos below are taken between 30 minutes and 60 minutes into the one hour test.



M1: 77.5°C, HS1: 88.0°C
HS1 is the switcher and M1 is the rectifier diode.



M1: 59.7°C, HS1: 81.3°C
Here HS1 is the rectifier diode.



HS1: 73.1°C
Here HS1 is the transformer



HS1: 86.1°C
Here HS1 is the switcher.



M1: 64.4°C, HS1: 86.0°C




At 0.5A the noise is 59mV rms and 1024mVpp, this is very high



At 1A the noise is 75mV rms and 1421mVpp.



At 2.5A the noise is 98mV rms and 1240mVpp.



At 9V 0.9A the noise is 105mV rms and 1765mVpp.



At 12V 1.2A the noise is 122mV rms and 1860mVpp, here the noise is even higher.




Tear down



Holding it in my vice and whacking it with a mallet broke the top off.



At the input is a fusible resistor as fuse, the switcher IC (U1) is unmarked. Between mains and low volt side is the opto coupler and a fake safety capacitor (The usual 1KV type). On the low volt side is a large rectifier diode and the smoothing capacitor.









On this side is the bridge rectifier, the QC controller (U3) and the reference (Q1: 431)





There are some slots to improve the safety, but that is not enough. With slots there must be 4mm from mains to low volt side, here is less than 2mm. Around the slot must be above 6mm, but there is only a little more than the 2mm from before.

The charger passed the 2830 volt test, but failed the 4242 volt test between mains and low volt side, this makes it unsafe for 230VAC countries.



Conclusion

This usb charger can deliver the rated current, but has lot of noise and bad safety.

Stay away.



Notes

Index of all tested USB power supplies/chargers
Read more about how I test USB power supplies/charger
How does a usb charger work?