Potential Electric Shock Hazard ?

carl wolf wrote:
The power adapter places one-half of the input line voltage - at a very low current - onto the iPad chassis. That's what you are measuring, and that users are feeling.

No matter what anyone says this is not static. The proof being if it was, is when you touched the aluminium case any static discharge would be momentary and only repeat later after your body has built another static charge.

This is a 50 herz induction being felt through the fingertips probably due to skin or surface effect due to there being a dummy earth pin on the plug. This is an ungrounded earth pin on the plug that is plugged into the 240 vollts mains.

It is a design fault and slight though it is, there is a potential danger from any metal cased object becoming serious if the earth pin is not connected and the power supply becomes faulty.

Apple need to address this problem on both the ipad and ipad2 as it happens on both.

I feel Apple are not treating it seriously because of the cost of replacing millions of power adapters.

Perhaps the UK Trading Standards Office need to be informed

femina wrote:

This is a 50 herz induction being felt through the fingertips probably due to skin or surface effect due to there being a dummy earth pin on the plug. This is an ungrounded earth pin on the plug that is plugged into the 240 volts mains.

Eh? An ungrounded earth pin. So what you are saying is that a pin connected to the earth terminal in the socket is not earthed?

I am convinced that you have a hardware problem with your charger. I did some checks just to satisfy myself.

The first test doesn't prove much because U.S. power is different from most of the world. However, I measured zero VAC from earth ground to the case. I then reversed the position of the AC plug and again I measured zero VAC from earth ground to the case.

In my second test, I eliminated the effects of the different power systems. The iPads are identical and the chargers are identical. The only difference is mechanical - the physical arrangement of the prongs, In any event, with the charge not plugged into AC, I measured infinite ohms from the case to each of the prongs. I'll wager that you do not get infinite ohms from at least one of the prongs.

Message was edited by: Philly_Phan

carl wolf wrote:

"I found that if I measured between earth and the case I got over 89 vac !?"

The power adapter places one-half of the input line voltage - at a very low current - onto the iPad chassis. That's what you are measuring, and that users are feeling.

It had better not be doing that!

Yes it is a charger hardware problem it is called a dummy earth prong on the plug.

In the UK we have a square 3 pin connector and the actual part that pushes into the mains socket slides onto the apple's two wire connector converting it into a connector that can be plugged into the 240 volt mains, and it is unacceptable that apple would use such a shoddy system on both its ipad and ipad2.

Yes gummsie the earth prong serves only one purpose on the apple and that is to unlock the live and neutral connections on the mains socket. If you are unfamiliar with our plugs, the earth prong is slightly longer than the live and neutral so as it is inserted it lifts the locking gate that prevents live and neutral connecting until the earth has already made contact. That of course means you need a 3 wire setup from the ipad to the charger and plug. If you only have two wires then the earth prong has to be a dummy and the potential hazard of a metal case going live with 240 volts AC at some time in the future is hugely increased. This possible risk is unacceptable and should be addressed by apple and not ignored until someone gets seriously injured or even killed.

"It had better not be doing that!"

Well, it is. It's the industry-standard method that ALL computer-related product manufacturers use to assure that the device complies with (inter)national agency specifications for emitted radiation.