Wow, that is a 250 dollar USB charger, without hub functionality, wireless charging or built in battery
Most modern devices will survive even extreme levels of electrical noise, but long term affects are largely unknown.
<0.1uV/sqrt(Hz) output regulator spectral noise spec (no load)
Unparalleled charging experience
High precision +/- 10mV RMS output
What a waste of time.
How many devices can pull 3A? They will be expecting to have to deal with standard USB ports or chargers so won't even try to draw that much.
5.5V may cause excessive power dissipation in devices using a linear regulator to charge a single cell, at best they will go into thermal limiting and charge more slowly.
Low noise... You're charging a battery dude, it doesn't matter
Two, Linear regulator? Really? If you can find a modern product that uses a linear regulator in it send me your paypal email and I send you $20!!! Seriously though, Everything has a PMIC (Power Management Interface Controller) in it.
Two, Linear regulator? Really? If you can find a modern product that uses a linear regulator in it send me your paypal email and I send you $20!!! Seriously though, Everything has a PMIC (Power Management Interface Controller) in it.
I hope you weren't serious about that? here is one, right next to the speaker: 5.jpg on this page
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/siglent-sds1000-7'-oscilloscope-anatomy/
Mike, I'm afraid you are quite wrong on a few points.
One, prior to the IPAD 4, nothing would draw more than 2.1A now the max is 2.5. What do you think will happen in 6mo as devices become more power hungry? 3A is very reasonable and future looking.
One of your main product differentiators is a 3A charge rate which is a hard sell because there isn't any device on the market that can currently make use of this. But let's say in 1 year's time the iPhone 7 charges at 3A - what's stopping me from buying 4x Apple 3A chargers for $120?
I will try be constructive.
I feel like your MSRP of $295 is unrealistically high, limiting your target customer base to mainly businesses with huge budgets. I could buy an oscilloscope with $295. If I was trying to get funding for my department it would be difficult for me to make the case to management as to why they should spend $300 on chargers when everyone who has a phone or tablet already has a charger that already works. And even if our chargers died on us, you could buy 4x Apple 12W original chargers + cables which would be UL/CE certified for $100. Just because terrible $5 chargers exist doesn't mean I have to spend $300 to get a good charger.
One of your main product differentiators is a 3A charge rate which is a hard sell because there isn't any device on the market that can currently make use of this. But let's say in 1 year's time the iPhone 7 charges at 3A - what's stopping me from buying 4x Apple 3A chargers for $120?
I think your industrial design and the OLED display is attractive, but adds a lot of money to the BOM without increasing useful functionality to the end user. I say this because I can't see myself spending much time looking at a charger charging. If I want to know how fully charged the device is I can just look at the device. I don't think most people would be interested in knowing the exact voltage and current being output at any given time, they are satisfied with the simple little battery bar in their phone slowly going up.
I congratulate you on a great marketing job. Looks very slick. I'm quite confident that the "crowd" will find your products cool. I'm not convinced, though, that the electrical engineers hanging out here will see the benefits quite as easily.
All iPod, iPhone devices do come with free chargers and adding a "premium" one will not actually improve the charging time. I assume that Apple, Samsung and other reputable vendors have correctly designed its chargers to provide adequate charging current for its devices.
Even though a battery source is able to provide a higher current doesn't mean that a load will actually consume more current. The current consumed is of course dictated by the input impedance of the battery charging circuitry in the device being charged and not by the capabilities of the charger.
Personally, in case I needed a multi-port charger, I would grab one from Amazon for $12.99
http://www.amazon.com/iFlash%C2%AE-Fastest-Smartphones-Universal-Compatibility/dp/B00B6RQLI6
By the way, how did you get this approved by Kickstarter? I thought that "renderings" were not sufficient and that a prototype was required? Were your two PCBs enough to pass the KS review process?
Thanks,
/John.
Looking nice is an important aspect of something at this price point.
Mike, I'm afraid you are quite wrong on a few points.
One, prior to the IPAD 4, nothing would draw more than 2.1A now the max is 2.5. What do you think will happen in 6mo as devices become more power hungry? 3A is very reasonable and future looking.When they're going to need more than 2-3A, they're going to switch to usb 3.0 and negotiate 12v @ 1A or higher.. see slide 9 http://www.usb.org/developers/powerdelivery/PD_1.0_Introduction.pdf
It's not actually true that the OEM chargers do as good of a job. We never would have thought it was true until we tested it and actually saw a significant improvement over OEM (specifically IPAD 4, and Samsung Galaxy S4). I am pretty sure it was because of cable losses. I can understand Samsung not being able to predict cable losses with a variety of USB micro cables, BUT with Apple they expect you to use the OEM lighting cable. So, it's befuddling, but our charger provided about 25% more power to both devices while charging.
Does this run on separate 12 v or so power supply?
You plan to buld your own power supply or buy something readily availlable?
Fancy aluminium box for crazy price, included with cheapets chinese 12v power brick that makes all yourlow- noise, reliability, safety marketing talk worthless?
Mike, I'm afraid you are quite wrong on a few points.
One, prior to the IPAD 4, nothing would draw more than 2.1A now the max is 2.5. What do you think will happen in 6mo as devices become more power hungry? 3A is very reasonable and future looking.
Two, Linear regulator? Really? If you can find a modern product that uses a linear regulator in it send me your paypal email and I send you $20!!!
Seriously though, Everything has a PMIC (Power Management Interface Controller) in it. The 5.5V is really about overcoming the voltage drop in the cable so that the DEVICE see's 5.0 to 5.5V.
Most USB cables have an impedance on the order of 100 to 200 mohms.
At 2A that's a LOT of voltage drop. The voltage boost really helps with this. It's also why we are going to be supplying low gauge USB cables.
Wow, that is a 250 dollar USB charger, without hub functionality, wireless charging or built in battery
Turns out you can't charge a device at high currents while there is a data connection. In fact the data lines are forced to specific voltages in order to communicate the charger's current output capability.
I did a lot of research on USB charging and it's actually much more of a PIA than most people realize.
Wireless charging and battery also present problems for high speed high power charging. I've got a Qi charger and it never charges as fast as a wired connection. Battery solution is a different kind of product and no one talks about what happens when the battery dies in a few years, buy a whole new charger I guess.
OLED display is my favorite feature on the Exigo. But I'm a data nerd.
It's not actually true that the OEM chargers do as good of a job. We never would have thought it was true until we tested it and actually saw a significant improvement over OEM (specifically IPAD 4, and Samsung Galaxy S4). I am pretty sure it was because of cable losses. I can understand Samsung not being able to predict cable losses with a variety of USB micro cables, BUT with Apple they expect you to use the OEM lighting cable. So, it's befuddling, but our charger provided about 25% more power to both devices while charging.
I would not consider voltage drop in a cable be a reason for replacing my free iPad charger with a $295 one, even if the charging time did go down 25% from 6 hours to 4.5. But then again, I would not buy monster speaker cable either. Lamp cord sounds just as good and I don't worry about the cable losses in the scheme of things.
Somehow, though, this reminds me of Dave's 2009 video regarding Audiophile Audiophoolery...
Also, it reminds me of a book I recently read regarding making claims few can verify.
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Them-Believe-Legendary-Testicles/dp/0982379382
Anyways, it will be interesting to see how you guys will do.