Test/Review of BlitzWolf 30W QC3.0 Dual-Port USB Adapter BW-S6

EDC Gear for Flashlight Carriers USB Power Devices
1

BlitzWolf 30W QC3.0 Dual-Port USB Adapter BW-S6







Official specifications:

  • Brand: BlitzWolf®

  • Model: BW-S6

  • USB Port: 18W(Max) QC3.0 Port + 12W(Max) 2.4A Port

  • Total Power: 30W (Max)

  • Input: AC 100-240V~50/60Hz 1A

  • Output: 2.4A Port: 5V/2.4A (Max), QC3.0 Port: 3.6-6.5V/2.4A 6.5-9V/2A 9-12V/1.5A (Max)

  • Size: 53X 53X25 mm / 2.09 X 2.09 X 0.98 inch

  • Color: White, Black

  • Weight: 100g±10g

  • Certification: CE,FCC,RoHS,Qualcomm QC3.0


I got it from Banggood



Blitzwolf uses a brown cardboard box without much text on the outside. The EU version is in the large box.



The box contained the charger, instruction sheet and a note.













Measurements

  • Power consumption when idle is 0.4 watt at both 120VAC and 230VAC

  • Lowest QC3 voltage is 3.5V

  • QC output is QC and auto coded with up to Apple 2.4A

  • 2.4A output is auto coded with up to Apple 2.4A

  • The charger has a blue led inside, that is shining out through the usb connectors.





There is no obvious overload protection on the 2.4A output.
The efficiency curve is a bit interesting, why does it take a jump at about 1.4A?



At 120VAC the improvement in efficiency happens at 0.75A.



Most test is done with the white EU adapter, but I did the above curve to see how much difference there was between the two adapters. It looks to be fairly minor.
I also increased the maximum current to look for a over current limit, but did not find one.



QuickCharge must use a seperate converter and it has a overload limit.



QC is supposed to deliver less current at 9V, but id can deliver the same current. I did this test at 230VAC, but the efficiency jump has moved down.



At 12V the over current limit has moved a bit down, but the adapter can provide much more power than rated.



Loading both QC and 2.4A output with rated power for 1 hour works fine.
The temperature photos below are taken between 30 minutes and 60 minutes into the one hour test.



M1: 61,1°C, M2: 51,7°C, HS1: 72,3°C
HS1 is the QC diode D5.



M1: 60,0°C, HS1: 72,8°C
HS1 is probably the rectifier transistor.



M1: 61,6°C, M2: 60,2°C, HS1: 63,7°C



HS1: 74,5°C
HS1 is the transformer.



M1: 70,9°C, HS1: 74,0°C
HS1 is the transformer and M1 is the rectifier transistor.



At 0.5A the noise is 11mV rms and 260mVpp



At 1A the noise is 15mV rms and 290mVpp



At 2.5A the noise is 19mV rms and 310mVpp



At 5V and 2.5A on QuickCharge the noise is 34mV rms and 270mVpp



At 9V and 1.8A on QuickCharge the noise is 31mV rms and 220mVpp



At 12V and 1.2A on QuickCharge the noise is 24mV rms and 165mVpp




Tear down



I could not break the glue with a vice or mallet, I had to cut it open, with the square shape it was fairly easy.



This piece of plastic has a shield on it. This shield goes all the way between the two sides of the charger, through the slot in the circuit board. It was glued very solid to both sides, the plastic in the shield broke before the glue.



The circuit board has lots of parts on it. Lets start at the mains input (Red/black wires): A red 2A fuse and a black inrush current limiter, then a capacitor and a common mode coil. After the 3 capacitors there is the mains switcher transistor (Q1) and the mains switcher controller (Marked 281H01/360AP). Just beside the slot in the circuit board there is a blue safety capacitor.
On the other side of the transformer we have the rectifier (Q3), this is a transistor, i.e. the circuit is using synchronous rectifications.
The chip besides the usb connectors marked 431 is probably the voltage reference.
The inductor between the two usb connectors is for the QuickCharge converter.


Here I have zoomed in on the chips behind the usb connectors. The large chip is a HX1314G DC-DC converter. That means the small chip must be the QuickCharge controller (It is marked: N03/PGP6 maybe 61). The mounting of the small IC is not very good.



The first photo has the rectifier transistor. Notice one of the capacitors is marked 25V, it must be for QuickCharge.
On the second photo the QC inductor and the safety capacitor can be seen. Between the two usb connectors are a small led.



On the first photo the mains switcher controller and the common mode coil can be seen. The second photo start with the common mode could, then the yellow capacitor, the black inrush current limiter, the red fuse and the transformer and the rectifier transistor.



There is also a lot of parts on the bottom too. At the input there is a bridge rectifier (D1). A optocoupler (IC1: EL357N). Auto coding of the 2.4A usb output (U4). Synchronous rectifier controller (U2). The diode D5 is related to QuickCharge.
The question is how do the circuit work, the QC output can either increase or decrease voltage and it need a output voltage range from 3.6V to 12V, i.e. both below and above 5V. Looking at the transformer it can be seen that it has two secondary windings, one for 5V and one for QC (It is 14.8V unloaded). D5 is rectifier for QC and the 25V capacitor is used to smooth that voltage.






The isolation distance is enough. Due to the plastic shield going through the slot, it does not matter how close parts are to the slot (Without the shield the distance would have to be 4mm).

Testing with 2500 volt and 5000 volt between mains and low volt side, did not show any safety problems.



Conclusion

This charger is very powerful, also too powerful for a single usb output. I would very much have liked an overcurrent protection on the 2.4A output. Except for that the charger work very well with low noise and auto coding on both outputs.

I will call it a good usb charger for both regular and quick charge usage.



Notes

The usb charger was supplied by Banggood for a review.

Read more about how I test USB power supplies/charger
2

Thanks HKJ. Blitzwolf seem to making a good name for themselves. I wonder how long until the imitations start?

3

At the moment I’m charging my S5 Neo with a Samsung 1A adapter. It also seems that 1A the standard charging current for the device. It also supports QC3.0. The question is, would QC3.0 charging reduce cycle life of the battery?

4

That is basically up to the manufacturer of the phone. The charger only provides power, how it is used to charge the battery is controlled by the charge circuits in the phone.

5

Thanks HKJ I just purchased 2 for mine and my wives LG G5’s….

6

According to communication with Samsung, it does and they sell a Samsung adapter for it. It’s not on the Qualcomm list probably because the device uses an Exynos processor. Even without QC, the phone happily maxed out a 1.9A tablet power brick I used somewhere else. I bought this adapter since my current 1 amp brick charges it glacially (3.5-4 hours, a lot longer if I’m using it) and I also got a USB meter compatible with QC voltages (google “USB safety tester”, model J7-t) for fun.

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Received it. With a USB tester I found out that QC port is 30% slower charging an actual device. My Samsung phone (S5 Neo) seems to draw current depending on input voltage, higher voltage means more current.

BW QC3 output is at 4.94V under load. Device draws 0.7A.
BW 2.4A output is at 5.15V under load. Device draws 1.05A.
Samsung 1A travel charger (old 2014 model) is at 5.1V under load. Device draws 1A.
Samsung 2A travel charger (2016 model that came with pad) is 5.3V (!) under load. Device draws 1.3A. This charger seems to increase voltage as current increases, it’s at 5.2V with no load.

Results for tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1” 2016, same voltage-depended current control)

BW QC3 output is 4.9V under load. Tab draws 0.95A.
BW 2.4A output is 5.15V under load. Tab draws 1.25A.
Samsung 1A travel charger (old 2014 model) is around 5.05V under load. Tab draws 1.1A
Samsung 2A travel charger (2016 model that came with this pad) is 5.35V under load. Tab draws 1.5A.

Surprising results. It seems that USB charging is even more complicated than coding on the data lines.

8

Many devices adjust the current depending on the voltage. The idea with QC is not that the 5 volt is slightly high, but that the device can tell the charger to raise the voltage.
With QC2 it is either 9V or 12V, with QC3 any voltage between 3.x and 12.0V (The low voltage can be used to bypass the internal charge electronic in the device, this will reduce heat in the device). But QC will only work with devices that ask for it, any other device will just get the 5 volt.

9

I understand what QC does, but I assumed that the performance of the QC port with non-QC devices would be similar that of the 2.4A port. Apparently lab testing with electronic loads doesn’t really reflect real life performance.

I think I might just buy a second Samsung 2A power brick for my phone from a local store and relegate the Blitzwolf charger for other uses.

10

Depends on what real life performance you are looking at. It shows the chargers performance, but it do now know anything about how sensitive your device is to voltage and how long and good cable your are using. Using a usb meter will also show much worse result than real life usage with any voltage sensitive device.
What you need is a test of your phones and pads on their charge performance, I do try to include that is with my usb battery charger tests, where I add 0.5ohm in series with the power supply.

11

This QC3 blitzwolf seems to have much lower noise than the older non QC3 version(Test/Review of BlitzWolf 24W Dual wall charger). If costs wasn’t an issue, it would be better to get this over the older version even if I wasn’t using the QC3 feature?

12

I would prefer the low noise version, but it depends on you phone if you need it or not. Most phones will work equal well with both.