PowerMe = well drain one to get the other full

[Zucca]

http://www.getpowerme.com/



Sorry if was already discussed somewehere else, I coudn't find anything on the EEVBlog.

Interesting FAQ:

Can I charge my GoPro from an iPhone?

No you can't. There's no way, at the time, to grab energy from an Apple device.

How can I choose which phone to charge and what to withdraw energy from?

PowerMe has a + side and a - side.
Plus and minus symbols are printed on the inside of the cable. Just plug the + side on the device you want to charge, and the - side on the device you want to take energy from.

Those italians are crazy. A startup for an USB-USB cable?

[JPortici]

i remember seeing this indiegogo campaign

they are italian? oh boy

[NiHaoMike]

There does seem to be a way to get an iOS device to supply power.
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/30/phone-to-phone-power-theivery/

[Kilrah]

[Cerebus]

i remember seeing this indiegogo campaign

they are italian? oh boy

At least it means that the cable will taste nice. 

[rs20]

A standard USB-C to USB-C cable will already do this -- in Android, when USB-C is plugged in, a notification appears allowing you to make your phone provide power. And if the other end were adapted into an Apple device, I'm sure that'd work.

So what is this new cable actually doing, that isn't already supported?

[Red Squirrel]

Interesting idea I suppose, but isin't it much easier to just have a battery bank?  If you're in that situation you may not want to actually drain power from another device.
 

[Kilrah]

So what is this new cable actually doing, that isn't already supported?

Just that you do not find a micro-micro USB cable with one end that has its ID pin grounded and the other not off the shelf yet.

Interesting idea I suppose, but isin't it much easier to just have a battery bank?  If you're in that situation you may not want to actually drain power from another device.

For when you don't have one I guess? But given you have to have the cable it's kinda pointless.

[Srbel]

Phones with "On The Go" feature can do this.

[Kilrah]

That's exactly what this is made for...

[Srbel]

Then, I don't get it.

[Kilrah]

A cable with a micro OTG plug on one side (to activate power out) and a normal micro on the other to charge another device with the power supplied by the first's OTG...

[Srbel]

Yes, but that is the OTG feature. Phones already have that. I don't understand why there is a product that does exact same thing that phones already do by default? Or maybe you don't get OTG cable when you buy such a phone? But even then, why is it adertised as some invetnion?

[rs20]

Yes, but that is the OTG feature. Phones already have that. I don't understand why there is a product that does exact same thing that phones already do by default? Or maybe you don't get OTG cable when you buy such a phone? But even then, why is it adertised as some invetnion?

Normally a USB OTG cable (which normally doesn't come with the phone because 99% of users never plug anything other than headphones into their phone) terminates in a female USB socket; so that it "looks like" a computer -- i.e. you can plug a normal USB keyboard or mouse into it, and the phone will recognise it.

You could plug a normal USB charger cable into this, and then those two cables together would perform the same task as this PowerMe thing. The ostensible advantage of the PowerMe thing appears to be that it's a single cable, not a cobbling-together of two different cables.

[NiHaoMike]

Interesting idea I suppose, but isin't it much easier to just have a battery bank?  If you're in that situation you may not want to actually drain power from another device.
 

One rather convoluted use case is if only one device supports wireless charging and you want to charge both devices from a public wireless charging pad.