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USB Charging Tower

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  USB Charging Tower Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> - 2025-05-08 14:11 +0100
    Re: USB Charging Tower "Alan K." <alan@invalid.com> - 2025-05-08 09:30 -0400
    Re: USB Charging Tower Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2025-05-08 15:04 +0000
    Re: USB Charging Tower Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-05-08 13:37 -0400
      Re: USB Charging Tower Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> - 2025-05-12 11:12 +0300
        Re: USB Charging Tower Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2025-05-12 12:45 +0000
          Re: USB Charging Tower Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-05-12 15:36 -0400

#184350 — USB Charging Tower

I'd appreciate some expert comment on the reliability of this device;
https://www.poundland.co.uk/usb-charging-tower

I regularly leave devices (tablets and phones) on charge overnight, but 
they have independent adaptors. I'm not quite sure just why, but I feel 
reluctant to use this tower with (let's say) three devices plugged in.

Ed

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#184353

On 5/8/25 09:11 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
> I'd appreciate some expert comment on the reliability of this device;
> https://www.poundland.co.uk/usb-charging-tower
> 
> I regularly leave devices (tablets and phones) on charge overnight, but they have 
> independent adaptors. I'm not quite sure just why, but I feel reluctant to use this tower 
> with (let's say) three devices plugged in.
> 
> Ed
I do notice it's 5 amp input, meaning all 5 ports at one time would only max out at 1 amp 
each?   Maybe one draws a bit less leaving a bit more for other ports.

I've seen better ones that are not towers.   I'd be afraid of tipping it over.  Of course 
you'd plug cables in and leave them plugged into the tower but remove them from phones 
etc.

It's space saving for sure.

-- 
Linux Mint 22.1, Cinnamon 6.4.8,  Kernel 6.8.0-59-generic
Thunderbird 128.10.0esr, Mozilla Firefox 138.0.1
     Alan K.

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#184358

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:
> I'd appreciate some expert comment on the reliability of this device;
> https://www.poundland.co.uk/usb-charging-tower
> 
> I regularly leave devices (tablets and phones) on charge overnight, but 
> they have independent adaptors. I'm not quite sure just why, but I feel 
> reluctant to use this tower with (let's say) three devices plugged in.

  For my taste, too few specs and too cheap (~ EUR 6).

  Specs should list the Amps per port, minimum and maximum. The package
says "Fast charge", so the maximum per port should be at least 2A.

  I have a similar device which has a mains plug on the back (your
device probably has some mains cable, but that's not even shown or
listed). The mains plug is replaceable for different countries ('travel
adapter'). Handy when traveling in Australia, but at home in The
Netherlands, I just use multiple adapters, each in a mains socket, or in
a multi-socket mains-adapter (our 2-prong plugs are very small,
probably not feasible for the UK).

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#184362

On Thu, 5/8/2025 9:11 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
> I'd appreciate some expert comment on the reliability of this device;
> https://www.poundland.co.uk/usb-charging-tower
> 
> I regularly leave devices (tablets and phones) on charge overnight, but they have independent adaptors. I'm not quite sure just why, but I feel reluctant to use this tower with (let's say) three devices plugged in.
> 
> Ed

It could be implying the BC standard, which is 5V @ 1.5A max.
Then, three devices would "fit" into the 5 amp limit as 4.5A .
There might be some statements of fact, accompanying your fleet
of devices, better enabling you to determine what percentage
of the fleet will "work good" with the tower.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#BCS

Part of becoming a Battery Charging wizard, is acquiring a
USB current meter. There are piss-weak designs with poor display
capability. And there are meters with both USb-A and USB-C connectors
and they also observe USB-PD negotiation and print not only
the consumption at the moment, but also, what the negotiated
limits are. By inserting a metering device between the source
and sink, it allows you to better understand what the sink
device is doing (standard charge or quick charge), and perhaps,
what "triggers" certain behaviors.

The tower is too cheap to be particularly intelligent, and
my guess is it limits to 1.5 amps. Some Apple devices charge
at 1 A or 2 A, and if they detect one of the older charging
methods, they would switch to the 1 A method.

The tower PSU would have a 5A current limiter, and switch off
on overcurrent or overheat. The individual ports could have
a Polyfuse on them, set to 2.2A on each port. But at that
price point, it's a little foolish to assume any sort of
"special circuits" in there, and it might not have any
protections at all.

But at least, for the companies making the power adapter,
they do have good compliance with common sense,
and some of the junk they used to sell, has been shown the door.
There was one year, where USB to SATA/IDE adapters for the
bench, the adapters provided with those, were blowing like crazy
and ruining hard drives. Then the year after that, it stopped.
I think somehow, the riot act was read to those people.
and anecdotally, they cleaned up their act. Whether it was
a series of better silicon solutions that did it, I don't know.
Not many adapters are sawed open and reverse engineered now.

Charge one device, verify surface temperature of the
"active" part of the circuit for peak temperature. Charge
two devices, verify surface temperature. If the design
is too cheap to be realized, I would hope the thermal
signature would hint at how well it works. Where ever the
mains plug is located, that's where the SMPS will be for it.
Adapter makers, don't like long mains cable paths. If there
is to be a long mains cable path, the cabling is modular and
separates from the module.

   Paul

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#184406

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> writes:

> Part of becoming a Battery Charging wizard, is acquiring a
> USB current meter. There are piss-weak designs with poor display
> capability. And there are meters with both USb-A and USB-C connectors
> and they also observe USB-PD negotiation and print not only
> the consumption at the moment, but also, what the negotiated
> limits are.

Do you have any suggestions for these good kinds of USB current meters?
Do they integrate this is sort of thing in the modern multimeters? Would
be handy.

I've so far only had these USB leads with a little display that show a
watt reading. Not super accurate but good enough to see what's going
on. Sold on Aliexpress with "Baseus" brand at least.

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#184408

Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:
> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> writes:
> 
> > Part of becoming a Battery Charging wizard, is acquiring a
> > USB current meter. There are piss-weak designs with poor display
> > capability. And there are meters with both USb-A and USB-C connectors
> > and they also observe USB-PD negotiation and print not only
> > the consumption at the moment, but also, what the negotiated
> > limits are.
> 
> Do you have any suggestions for these good kinds of USB current meters?
> Do they integrate this is sort of thing in the modern multimeters? Would
> be handy.
> 
> I've so far only had these USB leads with a little display that show a
> watt reading. Not super accurate but good enough to see what's going
> on. Sold on Aliexpress with "Baseus" brand at least.

  In my experience, these things are commonly called 'USB power meter's.

  Mine measures voltage and current. It's already somewhat old, having
only USB-A and Micro-USB connections and only upto 5.8V and 3A, so no
USB Power Delivery capability. Mine is brand Voltcraft and sold through
the Conrad electronics (etc.) website. I use conrad.nl. The company is
German, so conrad.de and probably also in/for other countries (I didn't
see a country selection).

  FWIW, I wouldn't buy this stuff - or most other stuff for that matter
- from Aliexpress or similar sites. Rather spend a few Euros more and
buy from a local/reputable supplier. But YMMV/YMWV.

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#184416

On Mon, 5/12/2025 8:45 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:
>> Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> writes:
>>
>>> Part of becoming a Battery Charging wizard, is acquiring a
>>> USB current meter. There are piss-weak designs with poor display
>>> capability. And there are meters with both USb-A and USB-C connectors
>>> and they also observe USB-PD negotiation and print not only
>>> the consumption at the moment, but also, what the negotiated
>>> limits are.
>>
>> Do you have any suggestions for these good kinds of USB current meters?
>> Do they integrate this is sort of thing in the modern multimeters? Would
>> be handy.
>>
>> I've so far only had these USB leads with a little display that show a
>> watt reading. Not super accurate but good enough to see what's going
>> on. Sold on Aliexpress with "Baseus" brand at least.
> 
>   In my experience, these things are commonly called 'USB power meter's.
> 
>   Mine measures voltage and current. It's already somewhat old, having
> only USB-A and Micro-USB connections and only upto 5.8V and 3A, so no
> USB Power Delivery capability. Mine is brand Voltcraft and sold through
> the Conrad electronics (etc.) website. I use conrad.nl. The company is
> German, so conrad.de and probably also in/for other countries (I didn't
> see a country selection).
> 
>   FWIW, I wouldn't buy this stuff - or most other stuff for that matter
> - from Aliexpress or similar sites. Rather spend a few Euros more and
> buy from a local/reputable supplier. But YMMV/YMWV.
> 

The feature set is quite variable.

https://www.amazon.ca/Voltmeter-Monitoring-Precision-Multifunctional-Multimeter/dp/B0BGCF7X4L

That one claims to be able to recognize various power interchange protocols.
It knows what USBPD 3.0 is, but it can't actually measure all the way out
to 48V @ 5A = 240W. It can only measure up to 65W, and you'd have to find
the table of values, to discover what ones are missing. Some of the protocols
are older, and involve various "strap" schemes on D+ and D-, so the device
measures the voltage on those two pins, to detect older charging standards.

That one might be made by Charger Lab, and is an AliExpress item.
But they will put any fly-by-night brand on it, for vending purposes.

You would think, when someone does a good job, others would
copy it, but not with that one. And good luck finding a domestic one.
We could do that here as a "hobby project", where an Engineer spins
board sets and makes batches, and sells in batches (product not available
for some months, until new batch comes along). But doing that is a
good way to lose your shirt. If you, say, spin a batch, and some
influencer says not to buy it, you could be stuck with thousands
worth of inventory.

Just getting proper photos of all the operating modes is a problem.

   Paul

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