Possible BS: CHARGEDR Inline Charge Booster

[james2k2]

Hi All,

So I came across this product today...
https://cpc.farnell.com/chargedr/4100700/adapter-inline-usb-charge-booster/dp/CS25494

I mean seriously? A magical USB pass-through device that can charge your phone and tablet QUICKER!

Fair play to it, IF it implements a charge protocol such as QC or whatever the iPhone etc uses and negotiates a higher current. But ultimately you can't get more power than what the source will supply .

Thoughts?

[PTR_1275]

The ones I’ve played with previously disconnect the d+ and d- from the USB port and then set them as either voltages for Apple or short for most other devices to think they are plugged into a dedicated charging port.

This only works on computer USB ports (as the farnell page says) but is dodgy and I wouldn’t use them on a machine I cared about.

The handshaking and power agreements are now non existent, you might as well just pull power from the 5v rail.

[TheBay]

Look how much it costs!

[SiliconWizard]

It's just taking advantage of most desktop computers' VUSB current limits which are often much higher than what the standard recommends.
The device fools the phone/tablet by pulling the USB data lines accordingly.

I'm sure it negotiates absolutely nothing with the host, and I doubt it's QC-compliant as it's not stated in its datasheet (and believe me if it were compliant they would BRAG about it). QC would require at least a step-up regulator and some room to dissipate some heat, which this tiny plug obviously doesn't have, as the charging voltage can get as high as 12V depending on the voltage that the charged device imposes on the USB data lines, if IIRC.

Would be fun to do a teardown of this though and confirm that. But I just don't want to shell out over 20 bucks just to do that!

[rrinker]

 And then when the USB port on your laptop blows from overcurrent....

My desktop is rather old by many standards, but one thing they pointed out in the manual is that ONE of the USB front panel connections has a significantly higher current limit than the standard, to use for charging. It seems to work, if the device plugged in properly negotiates - a standard USB port won;t really charge my iPad if it's powered on, but this one special port does. Luckily the case I used has different colors for the two front ports so it was easy to tell

Use a port configured for high power charging, or use a proper charger, this bunk is potentially dangerous for your machine. I guess it's not complete bullshit, it will do what it says, but if plugged in to a port not designed to handle the above spec charging levels, you're just asking for trouble.

[james2k2]

Some great comments. I think ultimately the problem here is the marketing for the product. It's got the same issue as the batterizer (sp?) comedy.

The advertising makes it look like a wonder product when as has been pointed out by comments above it will only actually work in very few circumstances.

I would also like to have one to take apart but the price point doesn't justify any gains. Maybe bigclive or Techmoan could do us the honor.

[PTR_1275]

Portapow in the UK made some similar ones a few years back. There’s definitely other models of the same thing out there for cheaper.

I bought a portapow usb power meter and contemplated getting one of their “magic faster charging”devices, but ended up avoiding it