Here is another product from China that shows that quality control leaves much to be desired. I recently bought this USB 3.0 High-Speed 4-Port USB Hub from a well known local emporium. It is really a nice looking product and looks quite durable from the outside. The inside is another story which I will get to soon. I bought this unit to construct a low power and low ampere distribution unit. I will not be using the data lines for this project. In my opinion this unit will work for my purpose. I will in a future posting provide more information on the construction of the distribution unit. Now back to what is inside this USB Hub. It was easy to open the plastic box. After opening the box and inspecting the unit it was clear that the soldering of the components were poorly done as can be seen in the images below. The unit worked fine but if I was the manufacturer I would ensure that this shoddy type of soldering be addressed. I know these units are mass produced but this is no excuse to sell a bad quality control product. Be as it may my soldering iron did the necessary and hopefully no future dry joints will be experienced. I also do not like the look and quality of the solder that was used.
Once again if you buy certain Chinese electronic products you might be in for a surprise of how the unit looks on the inside. If I left the unit as I bought it, it might work for many years without any problems however I prefer good soldering joints as I had my fair share of dry joints from many electronic products including Icom Amateur Radios. No I do not run Icom down. I bought two brand spanking new radios from reputable dealers and experienced dry joints within the first week of using the radios. Although fixed under the guarantee I never again purchased any Icom radios for my shack. This happening with two brand new radios within purchasing them a month apart. The end result led to:
"Once bitten twice shy!!"
