[ladyada]

Hi Rhizome, adafruit does not distribute the specific USB charger we carry at Frys - sorry to hear you had a bad experience with them but it was certainly not the same one from the adafruit shop the parent poster was referring to!

[rhizome]

This appears to be what I purchased, and it looks exactly the same:

http://www.frys.com/product/6740515

[ladyada]

I assure you that just because two adapters look the same do not have any relation to the insides. (After all, counterfeit Apple adapters look the same as genuine ones, but you wouldn't think they are the same on the inside after reading this article.) The black plug casing is a common molding style used by many factories - but its the electronics inside that count :) The best way to know if they are identical is to look for the UL certificate number, those are unique to each design.

We have a photo of our label here http://www.adafruit.com/images/large/ID501label_LRG.jpg

[rhizome]

I can assure you that as a run-of-the-mill customer, I will likely never check a UL code. I don't know if you get your casings from the same place, putting your own electronics inside, but I feel that if you want to trade on your identity as a purveyor of quality products you're going to have to look at least a little different from bad products. To borrow and twist a line from Seinfeld, "Adjacent to trash, is trash."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKC5jjFkfgo

I did make the mistake, though, so sorry about that.

[sliverstorm]

ladyada does not manufacture that charger; the website offers it, along with other general-purpose knickknacks, to compliment the main offerings- DIY electronics kits. This last bit is significant- ladyada's run-of-the-mill customer is not going to be your standard Joe looking for a charger for his cell phone.

[vostrocity]

I was traveling in China and picked up a charger that looks exactly the same from some street vendor. When it comes to cheap, no-name accessories, no one is going to spend money designing custom casing.

[makomk]

Just because it looks the same doesn't mean it has the same internals, especially with cheap made-in-China kit.

[rhizome]

Wow, really? What if they're all made in China using the same enclosures, does that bring us back to the "check the UL code" method? I know I don't memorize UL codes, so that may be a nonstarter in at least a few situations.

[gjkood]

Hi Rhizome, I am not sure how much of an electronics hobbyist you are. But if you are into electronics hardware, you may have had a chance to stumble upon ladyada's store 'http://www.adafruit.com and maybe even took a look at her background at 'http://www.adafruit.com/about/. My best guess is she knows what she is talking about. As someone above mentioned, her run-of-the-mill customers are not your average Joe customer.

I believe that she is meticulous about what she sells in here store and tests them out before she makes it available to her customers. She is not rebranding the products as hers. She is just assuring her customers that she is doing due diligence prior to selling it on her site.

I like Fry's just like the next guy and they have great deals, but I don't expect to get high tech stuff there or necessarily high quality stuff. They are just another big box store but also catering to your average hobbyist. I don't know if the purchasing department there puts as much effort into checking out the products they sell.

You got what you paid for at Fry's.

[justin66]

I expect that even if you were that dedicated to ferreting out the best chargers, there's plenty of variation in quality when dealing with chargers that are manufactured in the hundreds of thousands and move through the supply chain very quickly. I've been very happy with my HP Touchpad chargers but that's not the universal experience.