USB Charging Port Questions

[Danny G]

All valid points.

Don't get me wrong I love me a wireless charger, I have one on my night stand and here at work.


I just haven't found one I like in the car. I need a magnetic mount with wireless charging and I would be one happy camper

[ArdWrknTrk]

So, how do you have a ferrous metal on the back of your phone that doesn't block the frequency coupling required for wireless charging?

(I have the same charger, btw)

I find that strong magnets mess with the responsiveness of my screen.

[Gary Lewis]

I'm going to try to revive this thread as I have a few questions and some info.

As anyone who is silly enough to be following along on Big Blue's Transformation will know, I'm doing all sorts of things to provide charging capability for mobile devices.  And that includes having copious amounts of AC available as well as several charging ports behind the seat.

But these questions and info have to do with the always-hot port in the ash tray.  And as a lead-in, yesterday I discovered that in the month Big Blue has been sitting in the shop being transformed the battery got pulled down quite a bit.  At first I assumed that the fact that I'd had the doors open for ~8 hours/day with the dome and courtesy lights on must have done it, but then I realized that the USB charger has an LED in it and it had been on 24x7.  So, I've come to the conclusion that whatever I put in the ash tray's spot cannot have an LED.

With that I started going back through this thread awa recent publications on the topic of charging standards.  One of the good reads I found was this Digital Trends page.  And it gives this table of USB charging standards:




But, Qualcomm produces some of the most widely used charging circuits, so their standards are important as well:




Given that, it seemed to me that the best approach would be to go with a DC power port, which would let me upgrade chargers as the technology continues to evolve, but make sure that charger doesn't have an LED.  And right now the best appears to be a charger with both a USB-A (USB 1-3) port and a USB-C (USB 3.1) port.  Danny G has one and it doesn't appear to have an LED, but in reading through this thread I've not found what the brand/model is so I'll email him and ask him to chime in one this thread.  But beyond that, all of the A/C chargers I've found have LEDs.

Further, I've found that there are USB-C charging cords that will charge this Surface Pro tablet.  However, they all say that the charger has to have at least a 45w rating, and all of the cigar lighter plug-in chargers I've found are well shy of that rating.  But I wonder how much of that is due to the lack of heat transfer capabilities the plug-in chargers have through their small terminals.  Maybe there's a metal charger that would fit in a 1 1/8" cigar lighter hole in a metal ash tray that could handle higher power?

So, I'm looking for input.  Please!  Who knows of a plug-in USB-A/C charger w/o an LED?  How about a high-power USB-C charger?

[MarkThomas]

This one doesn't appear to have an led or light:



Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/5-Port-Charging-Station-Charger-Samsung/dp/B00UN1LM7Q/ref=psdc_2230642011_t3_B08GQQFJLF

[ArdWrknTrk]

Mark,
The description and the illustration seem to differ.
And I don't see it as capable of 45W output.
You'd need quickcharge 5.0 at this point to output that much.

I will say that I love Aukey chargers!
And appreciate their lack of an indicator LED.

I'm still not convinced that Gary's charger caused his battery to go flat.

[ArdWrknTrk]

So how much power does a cigar lighter consume to get glowing hot in 10 seconds?

I doubt it is a limitation of the socket, and a charger would not be heating up nearly as much as a strictly resistive load.

Most of the power would be pushed to the battery of whatever is charging.

[Gary Lewis]

Mark - I like that charger!  And while I agree with Jim that it won't charge the tablet, it does have the -C port that can be used to quickly charge iPhones, or anything else for that matter.

Jim - I don't know what pulled the battery down, but it wasn't flat.  It still started the engine fine, just didn't spin it as fast as I'm used to it spinning.  And that charger was probably on the whole time.  But the dome and courtesy lights were on quite a bit as well, as was the underhood light at times.

As for the wattage thing with the charger, I don't know how they are doing it but something is controlling the voltage, and taking it up to 20v in some cases.  So I'm assuming whatever that is has some losses to it and that means it'll get warm.  And the rounded points on the chargers don't offer much surface area for transferring heat.  That's why I was wondering if a charger that mounts in the ash tray might use the metal as a heat sink.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I have the two port version of that charger.
It works well for me, but I don't have the latest adaptive charging type of device.

[Gary Lewis]

This is strange.  Amazon clearly says that is an Aukey CC-Y16. But at the Aukey site they don't show that charger.

EDIT: Oops, wasn't done.  Anyway, is it an old one?  Is it a knock-off?

[Gary Lewis]

I just went to the Aukey site and tried to ask them the question below through their only method shown of contacting them - Submit A Support Question:

I was thinking of buying the CC-Y16 on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/5-Port-Charging-Station-Charger-Samsung/dp/B00UN1LM7Q/ref=psdc_2230642011_t3_B08GQQFJLF) but went to your site and couldn't find that product.  Is it yours?  Is it an old version?  Counterfeit?

And I have several other questions I'd like to ask someone about, if we could talk.

By the way, that Amazon order number has nothing to do with you, but I can't send this w/o an order # so I used one of the many we've placed in the last several weeks.

Thanks,
Gary

It wouldn't go w/o an Amazon order number, so used another one of ours.  It finally took it and then popped up a message that said "Network is not stable, please contact [e-mail]".  So I sent them an email at that address.

But I'm getting suspicious of Amazon.  Janey was looking at a board game for the grandkids that normally runs ~$50 and found it on Amazon for $22.  She asked me about it and I read several of the comments, many of which said they'd gotten counterfeit games, as confirmed by the manufacturer.  Amazon said they were verified purchases, and yet hadn't responded to the claims.

Am I paranoid?  

[grumpin]

“Am I paranoid?”

No, I think sometimes sellers stick counterfeit items in to see if they can get away with it. Or just unscrupulous people.

So...we are paranoid!

[salans7]

No, it's well known that counterfeits are floating around on Amazon. I recently bought (6) Autolite plugs and a set of Motorcraft plug wires for my 2002 Ranger from Amazon, but I will be looking for obvious and not so obvious signs of counterfeiting the rest of the night.

[Gary Lewis]

A counterfeit charger could do a whole lot of damage to phones or other devices.  But the way Aukey's site works implies they only sell through Amazon.  Meaning it is a captive brand.  Is that everyone's understanding?

[85lebaront2]

Oh come on Gary, you know Amazon only sells the best Chinese junk.

[ArdWrknTrk]

One of Amazon's tactics is to monopolize a manufacturers output.
Then, after a while that they've lost the rest of their client base Amazon either produces it themselves "a'la Amazon Basics" or makes a leveraged buyout of all their IP and shutters the company.

To the best of my knowledge Aukey is not an Amazon brand..... yet.

[Gary Lewis]

Bill - I've gotten good stuff from Amazon in the past.  But when I saw three recent "purchase verified" reviews of that game where the pieces were said by the manufacturers to be counterfeit and yet no response from Amazon I got skeptical.  There is something rotten somewhere.

Jim - I'm not so sure Aukey isn't now captive.  Check out their form to submit a "support ticket", which requires an Amazon order number - I know 'cause I tried w/o a number.  No go.  So I gave it another order # and got that sketchy response.  And this is the only way to contact them from what I can find on their website.  At the very least the only way to get Aukey components appears to be via Amazon.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, here's another option.  Put this 60w charger board in the ash tray, which we've only used to collect Sonic straw wrappers, and we can easily find another home for them.  It is said to measure 49.00mm(L) x 45.00mm(W) x 11.92(H) which is 1.93" (L) x 1.77" (W) x .47" (H), and there's plenty of room for that - although some packaging is needed,







I looked at this, but it is said to measure 88.48mm(L) x 50.88mm(W) x 26.32(H), which I calculate to be 3.48" (L) x 2.00" (W) x 1.04" (H), and I don't think it'll fit, although I'm going to check tomorrow.

[ArdWrknTrk]

At a certain point you have to ask yourself why you don't just plug a wallwart into the inverter and be done with all this.

L

[Gary Lewis]

That's actually the plan for the tablet.  However, if there's a better solution then why not?

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, here's what I ordered: 36W Socket Dual USB Type C PD 3.0 (36W) + USB A QC4.0 (18W).  The writeup says:

The 36W USB Type-C port supports both Power Delivery (PD) and Quick Charge 4.0 and the 18W USB A port supports Quick Charge (QC) 3.0. Simultaneously charge multiple devices at super charge speeds for a maximum combined output of 6A/36W. Both ports, when used at the same time, provide 18W each of power. Plug only one device into the USB Type-C port to get 36W.

Supposedly it won't do this tablet, but I might buy the charging cable to find out if it'll charge it slowly.  Otherwise I'll use the AC charger.