“just switches OFF”
Most half decent power supplied employ various monitoring, control and 
protection circuits… Over-current, low input voltage, temperature, on/off 
control inputs etc., etc. These usually use low level digital control signals, 
perhaps something like this is being asserted internally. Like a spurious 
/reset signal can in a digital system… We’ve all observed that, haven’t we?
T

----- Original Message -----
From: ce-test, qualified testing bv - Gert Gremmen
Sent: 10/31/12 08:53 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [PSES] Possible Counterfeit EMC Components?

 Brian, This was an industrial marketed power supply (component) as not 
suitable for use by the end user. Compliance is not required legally, but the 
product is marketed as compliant (and was at its supply side) But what is 
baffling me is that the product just switches OFF, no change of voltage or 
added ripple, but switching OFF. That is the worst that can happen in my view. 
The problem for my customer is now finding a DC power supply that does not 
exhibit any "unexpected" behavior. BTW most DC power supplies do not comply at 
the DC side, only because a choke and a few caps cost 60 dollar cents and the 
standard does not require DC conducted measurements. And it's not only a 
conducted emission problem. If you look at the test set up of DC power supplies 
when exercised (!?!) for radiated emissions and you can get hold of a picture 
you will see load resistor banks connected with 10" of wire.... because with 
10' they would fail. Now you purchase one of these and include it in yo!
 ur Ethernet equipped super-dupe application, only to find a test failure on 
conducted emission on the ethernet port. How many time it will cost you to find 
out it's the DC power supply leaking through the center tap of the ethernet 
transformer ??? Gert Gremmen -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: 
[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Namens Brian Oconnell Verzonden: 
woensdag 31 oktober 2012 21:29 Aan: [email protected] Onderwerp: RE: 
[PSES] Possible Counterfeit EMC Components? Mr. Gremmen, et al, Will assume 
that the unit had previously passed your EMC tests. Otherwise - is this a 
component P/S? Read the EMC report? Test conditions? Compliance level? I have 
previously whined and stamped my feed on this subject. I oft review requests 
for custom power products with some remarkable specs. Most are considered 
doable, with a given budget. But the problem being discussed seems to be 
long-term product/production control. Unless you are a MS or Apple, very 
difficul!
 t to do if the mfr is an Asian contract house. Many more western 'power 
supply' and component companies will leave the market. Those remaining will 
eventually merge and move to Asia and other exotic locations having poor beer. 
So the future expectation will be to AQL each shipment of critical components 
and power supplies at receiving inspection for the life of your product. My 
experience with some Asian component factories is that they have a different 
concept of 'fraud' - where 'fraud' is not an ethics issue, but a business 
issue. Brian -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of ce-test, qualified testing bv - Gert 
Gremmen Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 12:22 PM To: 
[email protected] Subject: RE: [PSES] Possible Counterfeit EMC 
Components? Had a 200 Watt power supply last week that simply shut-off (fold 
back) at 10V/m . It was applied in a laboratory equipment for creating 
expensive bio-cultures for vaccination ...
  These cultures may cost up to a million dollar. This was not a cheap !
 unknown manufacturer, but one With a quality system implemented. Design update 
without re-test ? I also had a 3 different Iphone charger imitations that were 
exact replicas of the Apple product (including the PCB lay-out), but the EMC 
components were left out. I cannot believe this is ignorance of the problem. 
This is pure fraud. Over 100 dBuV output signal between 150 and 1500 kHz !! 
Gert Gremmen Ce-test, qualified testing -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: 
[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Namens Brian Oconnell Verzonden: 
woensdag 31 oktober 2012 19:50 Aan: [email protected] Onderwerp: RE: 
[PSES] Possible Counterfeit EMC Components? As an employee of a power company, 
am very 'sensitive' to control of procurement process. Build to print is not a 
big issue, but component procurement has always been a concern. Have just 
returned from some of employer's Asia factories where a considerable amount of 
time was spent going through supply bins. While at the !
 Shenzhen site, observed a CAB's factory audit. What a load of doo-doo. The 
only time the auditors do anything in an Asian country (other than Japan) is 
when the agency wants to bring in more revenue - which results in some rather 
creative variation notices. But the TJ, Mexico factory, where most of the 
custom stuff is done, is less problematic because: 1. They are next door to 
engineering. 2. The culture supports a different set of ethics. 3. Agency FUS 
audits tend to be more legitimate. Moral of the story -> know your suppliers 
and be aware of the culture of both the engineering group and the production 
sites. If your parts change structure or behavior - contact the engineering 
group first, because the factory has little control and even less interest in 
fixing the customer's problem. The designers care - it is their reputation and 
their baby. Brian -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of McInturff, Gary Sent: Wednesday, Oct
 ober 31, 2012 7:47 AM To: 'John Woodgate'; '[email protected]!
 ' Subject: RE: [PSES] Possible Counterfeit EMC Components? Morning Ed, John 
has it correct. A company that produces thousands or even hundreds of thousands 
generally scales up its builds and inventory of parts as the design matures, 
but nothing can go to production release unless the company is sure that the 
design meets its goals. You wouldn't want to have order 10,000 input line 
filters only to find out that the compliance test identified a problem with 
that part and it needed a change. The logistics of returning and purchasing the 
correct parts is quite expensive. Obviously the design team tries to verify as 
much as early as possible, but it can't (or certainly shouldn't) go full blown 
production until after Engineering design verification is complete. There 
should be no known issues on a design when its thrown over the wall to mass 
production - and manufacturing shouldn't accept it until they are convinced 
that the design is complete. As I read it - the designer did exa!
 ctly what he should have done, his manufacturing arm doesn't! seem tied into 
his quality or design process or Design change request process and changed his 
design to reduce cost with no regard to performance. This happens a lot with 
off shore suppliers that aren't poorly monitored. I had a SMPS from a very 
large vendor that for the first two years we used the supply performed well. It 
had been used in several designs and had gone through a series of compliance 
tests successful. A new end product design which also used the power supply was 
going through final tests and the supply failed an immunity test. Since the 
supply had been used and verified in many other designs I assume a bad unit. 
After swapping it out a couple of more times it was obvious that something had 
changed. When I called the supplier to inquire I got "Oh you wanted one of 
those supplies". They had made some cost reductions without telling the 
customer base and they knew the supply no longer met the requirem
 ents but shipped it without changing the part number etc. T! here was !
 no way that our purchasing department could tell anything was different. The 
vendor knew it but not his customers, and we certainly weren't the only 
customer of this "off the shelf" supply. The cost of purging inventory and the 
line shutdown while correct power supplies were shipped was very expensive for 
us. It might be noted that the vendor saved themselves lots of money, but they 
certainly didn't pass on the cost savings nor did they reimburse us for the 
cost of the inventory purge and lots production time. Some countries are almost 
famous for making cost reductions without verifying them. I think someone 
earlier pointed out that their supplier thought they could cut the cost of a 
motherboard if they took off all of those pesky "bypass" caps etc. As a 
military guy you likely familiar with MIL-TFP-41 (Make it like the F*&#$ print 
for once!) Sometimes you don't get what you pay for. To amplify Johns comments 
just a bit, one should do production audits but that can be prohi!
 bitively costly to do effectively when lots of product lines are involved. 
Gary -----Original Message----- From: John Woodgate 
[mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 3:55 AM To: 
[email protected] Subject: Re: [PSES] Possible Counterfeit EMC 
Components? In message <[email protected]>, dated Wed, 31 
Oct 2012, Ed Price <[email protected]> writes: >I thought that compliance testing 
was supposed to be done on the >"as-shipped" product, not the designer's 
prototype. Neither: the prototype is not representative and 'as shipped' is too 
late. Maybe the 'pre-production' phase has been eliminated from modern 
manufacturing, but it used to produce 5 to 10 sample products using the 
purchased parts and built under as close to production conditions as possible. 
In those days, some moulded parts might be replaced by fabricated parts, but 
with 3D printing.... These samples not only increase confidence in the design, 
and eliminate bugs, but
  can be used for compliance testing. - -------------------------------!
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