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by Dylan16807 3782 days ago
A cable with a mains plug at one end and USB on the other is obviously wrong, though.

Mains power is legitimately difficult to deal with. Power that's five volts out of spec is not.

2 comments

A cable that puts 5 volts into random pin is also obviously wrong.

It's a balancing act between the probable failure modes and the cost of replacing the broken devices. Hostile manufacturers is not common enough of a failure mode (vs just Amazon sending a replacement device) to accept the additional cost for every single unit made. It makes no sense to spend 1 dollar more per device if it saves 1 cents per device on average for replacement costs.

If this kind of issue becomes more common then it might make sense. But for now it doesn't seem likely.

>A cable that puts 5 volts into random pin is also obviously wrong.

I mean that the physical object is obviously wrong. Such a cable looks like any other cable.

Just as a side note, some of the cheapest USB chargers have 1mm or so of clearance between high voltage and low voltage circuits, which places them one small accident away from the "mains to USB adapter cable" territory.
I know, but that's not a cable. You need more diligence when buying transformers, but a wire with a plug shouldn't be able to do unexpected damage.