Advice needed. Dc-Dc converter

Hi. I'm building electrics in my camper van. I brought a 12v to 5v converter from Amazon to wire up a 5v unit to my 12v leisure battery. I wired it incorrectly at first by wiring it in reverse. When I wired it up currently it started to burn. So I have sent the item back. But I was wondering if this was a result of a faulty item or by what I did?

Thank you

Stephen

90%+ what you did. Wiring the input backwards probably blew some component inside, possible creating a short circuit. When you wired the right way, it just short circuited itself and burned something else.

That's great, we'll not great but glad that I know it was me not the product. Thank you for your advice

sagor1 said:

90%+ what you did. Wiring the input backwards probably blew some component inside, possible creating a short circuit. When you wired the right way, it just short circuited itself and burned something else.

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I would have gone for 99%+

It's almost always catastrophic to connect power the wrong way.

There are lots of devices that have reverse polarity protection in them, but cheaply-made converters like that tend not to be protected.

LED car bulbs are usually protected, because they are replacing a component that would work either way round. Some will even work both ways round.

Very low power devices are often protected, as all that is needed is a diode. Higher power devices like that converter would loose a lot of power in heat if an extra diode were to be added, and other solutions are expensive, so it is the kind of device that will be damaged.

It is Chinese. They saved a 10 cents cost by not including an idiot diode.