Test/Review of Ravpower 30W Dual SUB Turbo+ wall charger RP-PC006

EDC Gear for Flashlight Carriers USB Power Devices
1

Ravpower 30W Dual SUB Turbo+ wall charger RP-PC006







Official specifications:

  • QUALCOMM QUICK CHARGE 3.0: The world’s fastest USB charging technology provides up to 4x faster speeds - charge compatible devices from 0% to 80% in just 35 minutes.

  • DUAL USE: QC 3.0 port charges at a powerful 12V/2A and also provides 5V/2.4A output for non-QC devices - dual port design lets you charge 2x normal devices (iPad, iPad, etc.) at the same time for 4.8A total output.

  • SMART: Includes RAVPower’s exclusive iSmart charging technology plus QC 3.0 INOV (Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage) for maximum efficiency charging.

  • CONVENIENT: Small and travel-friendly charger with 100-240V universal power supply and foldable pins.

  • SAFE: Durable casing with over-heating, high-current, and voltage-surge protection for 100% safe charging.

  • Input: 110-240VAC

  • Output 1: DC 5V/3A, 9V/2A, 12V/2A

  • Output 2: DC 5V 2.4A max (iSmart)

  • Dimensions: 2.1 x 2.1 x 1.1 in / 53 x 53 x 27 mm (Wrong, see below)

  • Weight: 3.41oz / 96.9g


I got it from Ravpower



Ravpower uses a white cardboard box with very few specifications on.



The box contained the charger, instruction sheet and warranty card.











Measurements

  • Power consumption when idle is 0.3 watt

  • Lowest QC3 voltage is 3.63V

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

  • QC output is QC only.

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

  • Dimensions: 65.5 x 88 x 28.2 mm

  • Weight: 103.9g





This charger has a very good output profile, it will compensate a bit for cable looses (Voltage increases with load) and it has overcurrent protection at about 2.5A on the iSmart output.



Quickcharge is supposed to deliver up to 3A at 5 volt and it does, with a overcurrent protection at about 3.2A (Very good).



At 9V the current is supposed to be down to 2A, but the charger can still deliver 3A.



The 3A is also aviable at 12V.




Loading both QC and iSmart output for 1 hour works fine (I only loaded 12V with 1.5A, because that is the usual QC limit).
The temperature photos below (Except the inside photos) are taken between 30 minutes and 60 minutes into the one hour test.



M1: 86,7°C, M2: 56,0°C, M3: 62,1°C, HS1: 89,3°C



M1: 57,1°C, HS1: 57,9°C




M1: 74,8°C, M2: 71,6°C, M3: 61,2°C, HS1: 81,8°C
HS1 is the transformer, M2 is the two QC diodes.



M1: 59,8°C, HS1: 74,2°C
HS1 is the rectification transistor and circuit board.



M1: 59,9°C, M2: 57,0°C, M3: 70,5°C, HS1: 79,1°C



M1: 70,4°C, HS1: 85,3°C
HS1 is the two QC diodes.



M1: 89,1°C, HS1: 93,4°C
HS1 is the iSmart buck converter chip.



At 0.5A the noise is 14mV rms and 200mVpp



At 1A the noise is 15mV rms and 160mVpp



At 2.5A the noise is 19mV rms and 255mVpp



At 5V and 2.5A on QuickCharge the noise is 5mV rms and 110mVpp



At 9V and 1.8A on QuickCharge the noise is 6mV rms and 125mVpp



At 12V and 1.2A on QuickCharge the noise is 5mV rms and 117mVpp




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.



The mains part is covered in isolation paper. When it is removed a red fuse, a black inrush current limiter, a common mode coil and the mains switcher transistor can be seen. There is also a blue safety capacitor and a rectifier transistor.
The small elevated circuit board will be covered later.



Here is the large piece of isolation paper that separates usb connectors from mains.



With the small circuit board removed another inductor can be seen and a blue led between the usb connectors. Notice the capacitors are 25V



On the first picture the inductors for the two buck regulators can be seen and the led between the usb connectors.
On the second picture the inrush current limiter (NTC1) and the red fuse can be seen.



The mains transformer has one output winding that goes to the rectifier transistor. This rectifiers to 14.1V unloaded on the capacitors.



The paper also covers the mains part of the circuit on this side of the circuit board.
There is a bridge rectifier (DB1), a mains switcher controller (U1) with the opto coupler next to it (A 357 type). The part next to D2 is probably the voltage reference.
U3 is a synchronous rectifier controller (MP6901).
U6 is the switcher for the iSmart output, this chip must include a synchronous rectifier, because I cannot see any diodes. The 5 pin chip next to U6 is the iSmart auto coding ship.






This circuit board handles the QuickCharge function, it is supplied with about 14 volt at CN1 and CN2 is connected to the QC output.
U1 (CN4514) is a buck regulator and U2 (SC0163D) is the QC3 controller.



The buck regulator uses two diodes in parallel.





It looks like the safety distance is slightly on the low side.

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



Conclusion

This charger looks very good, it is able to deliver rated current, has very low noise and has proper over current protection on both outputs.

I will rate this charger as very good.



Notes

The usb charger was supplied by Ravpower for a review.

The Ravpower website has an artistic rendering on how this charger looks inside, it do not match my teardown, but some of it is correct.

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

I love the thermal imaging! Looks like a good power source…

3

Interesting. The Blitzwolf one similar to this seems like it lacks the buck converter. I’ve read in one of your reviews that QC3.0 devices negotiate voltage in 200mV steps over a great voltage range. I’m wondering whether the Blitzwolf can even do that or if it fakes QC3.0 compatibility.

4

The Blitzwolf do not fake QC3, it has two secondary windings, one for 5V and one for QC with a QC switcher. This charger has one secondary and two extra switchers, one for QC and one for 5V.

I was thinking about doing some graphics to show how the two chargers work, but laziness won out.

5

Excellent. The first time I looked that the Blitzwolf’s PCB I missed the inductor inbetween the USB ports that’s probably used for the QC 3.0 buck circuit. Also for some reason, the Ravpower is quite hard to find outside of Amazon (delivery costs to Greece from Amazon UK are not great).

Last question, you mention that “QC output is QC only”, does that mean that it won’t work at all with a non-QC device connected or that it will supply no coding on the data pins?

6

QC only includes coding for USB charger (DCP), maybe I ought to be more specific on that.

7

HJK, thank you for your wonderful writeup and teardown.

I was testing a very similar charger (RP-PC017B) and found they instead coded it for 45W (15v@3a) over USB-C PD. As a result it appears to overcurrent and do some questionable things at load, including dropping 15v rail to 10v or less, or overheating and shutting off.

I believe RavPower may have attempted recycling this 30W reference design’s internals. Or, they made an error with the USB-PD chip (programmed for 45w instead of 30w). The safety silkscreening on the side (“15v/2A Max”) suggests the latter is the case.

Do you think this reference design would be able to maintain a sustained current output of 15v/3a? Judging by the “QC3 12V” graph and the FLIR image from your sustained test, I am thinking perhaps not.

If you ever get the opportunity to examine the (RP-PC017B) model, I’d be very eager to see if the insides are similar. I lack your skill at circuit analysis so the most I might be able to offer is cutting it open and sending pictures.

Thanks again for your wonderfully detailed report.

8

Did you test this one : https://dodgereviews.tumblr.com/post/152465888808/review-ravpower-36w-2-port-type-c-charger ?

9

Yes, that is the one it seems. Myself and a gentleman I collaborate with tested the US plug variant.

The issue is with the USB-PD “Power Delivery Object” codings. You need a specialized Sniffer device to handshake and accept them. We discovered that Ravpower mis-labeled the charger electronically, using a chip claiming it could do 15v/3a, 20v/2.25a. As a result high-power devices like laptops would attempt to draw the full 45w from it. It actually nearly damaged my associate’s USB-C Chromebook. This also is in violation of some important USB-C specifications.

https://www.chromium.org/\_/rsrc/1415817646427/chromium-os/twinkie/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/102612254593917101378/posts/e91WpjRFizs

Photo of the USB-PD coding in question:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102612254593917101378/album/6351939942892695649/6351939961977797474
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102612254593917101378/album/6351939942892695649/6351945375432744562

However, that is quite a tangent. I was mainly curious what elements in this design (circuit board) you felt might be strained by such a task. Looking at the FLIR image, it looks like it could either be the iSmart Buck converter chip (U6) or the components on the daugherboard. The fact the daughterboard is detachable makes me even more suspicious they retooled this design.

It’s interesting how different testing methods lead to such different conclusions! This is a good thing I think; it means results are unbiased due to application. (My tests are heavily USB-C biased.) So I am eager to learn from your objective expertise in circuit analysis and charger design!

10

There are many components in the circuit that defines the power level:
Mains switcher transistor (This is fairly easy to change for higher power level).
Transformer. It must be able to handle the magnetic field, frequency and current (Current depends on wire thickness) without getting too hot.
Rectifier diode, it has to handle all the current and voltage.
Snubber network, when handling higher power, it must be able to handle more energy in the peaks.

In this design with a separate buck converter, it must also be designed for the actual power handling, again it is the switcher, the inductor and the diode that has to handle the power.

Diodes get heated from current, more voltage would not directly make a diode warmer, but it might require a diode rated for more voltage and it would warm more up.