Evolv-ing Thread

[dwcraig1]

I don't have one my self, but have worked at Cottages in the bush, were an unusable cell signal was turned into 3 bars! If you have a weak cel signal? a Booster mite be a good investment

The bars you see are between your phone and the amps output antennae, I have one here in my office, I'm in an underground garage. The signal is better in my "office" than if I go outside by the amps receiving antennae.

 

[BillW50]

Wish digital TV antennas would work as good. Tried the same with the digital TV antenna and barely picked up 7 channels, and none of them were any good.

I dreaded the FCC mandate to switch from analog to digital broadcasts back in 2009 (that was the year I think). I knew it wasn't going to be good to me. And I was right, only two channels now vs. like 15 I had with analog. My expensive TV antenna tower could pull in TV signals sometimes up to 200 miles away. One was on the other side of Lake Michigan at 150 miles. Now with digital, I haven't been able to pull in anything more than 40 miles away.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Yea, but look at all that bandwidth that the FCC got to sell. <sarcasm emoji>

 

[cigatron]

Wow impressive. What does your USB voltage report as up that high? My machines usually are reading 4.6v @ 1A and 5.04v unloaded.

.99v is what the dna reports when plugged in to charge a drained battery. At some point the amps drop (during cell balance mode) .

 

[BillW50]

.99v is what the dna reports when plugged in to charge a drained battery. At some point the amps drop (during cell balance mode) .

I think you mean .99A, not volts. But on dna C's with the right theme, you can see the USB voltage. With non C, you can see the USB voltage with EScribe or use EScribe to program the screen to see the USB voltage during charging.

 

[SlickWilly]

I have one of these little gadgets I got off Amazon for $4, it gives the volts and amps being drawn from the charger. Mine is like this one but a different model that they don't sell anymore. If you look around you'll see they have a ton of them ranging from cheap to outrageous prices I can't believe anyone would pay. https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Multimeter-PATHONOR-Voltmeter-Capacitance/dp/B079GT871M

 

[TrollDragon]

I have one of these little gadgets I got off Amazon for $4, it gives the volts and amps being drawn from the charger. Mine is like this one but a different model that they don't sell anymore. If you look around you'll see they have a ton of them ranging from cheap to outrageous prices I can't believe anyone would pay. https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Multimeter-PATHONOR-Voltmeter-Capacitance/dp/B079GT871M

Was just going to link one of those it's an awesome little device, a must have.

 

[BillW50]

I think how most of those devices (including mods) work is by testing how high the USB voltage is under load. As long as it is in the acceptable range, then they will charge as high as the device can handle. If the USB voltage is too low, they reduce the charge current until the voltage is up to acceptable range and then use this current.

The problem I have with those USB multimeters, is to read current, they add some resistance and then read the voltage across it and calculates the current. Well fine and dandy, except the device is getting less voltage. And often they will downshift to a lower current for charging.

 

[awsum140]

I've never charged a mod from the USB port on a PC, other than the little charge they might get when plugged in for Escribe. The 200s all draw .99 to 1.0 amps and the 250s draw 1.5 amps, at least according to the USB multimeter I have. The 250C draws ~2 amps so I think they all meet spec. I don't charge 75s with USB, just swap in another battery. For the cost of a decent wall wart, or even a multi port charger, it isn't worth gambling a PC port/mother board to me. The OCD in me made me buy the USB multimeter.

In terms of added resistance I don't think it's really a very significant factor. It might be .1 ohms or so and that might be on the high side. According to the one I have, which also calculates watt hours, there's no visible difference and I think you'd need an ammeter that resolves down to thousandths to see what the difference really is. On top of that, while LiPOs can be fast charged, they live a lot longer with moderate and slow charges.

 

[dwcraig1]

Add one of these and find just what can be had from that USB port/power bank , up to 3 amps.

$5.48 15W USB Adjustable Constant Current Electronic Load Device Discharge Battery Tester - 0.15-3A adjustable / for mobile power bank at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

 

[TrollDragon]

The problem I have with those USB multimeters, is to read current, they add some resistance and then read the voltage across it and calculates the current. Well fine and dandy, except the device is getting less voltage. And often they will downshift to a lower current for charging.

All I want to know is if the USB port or wall wart is capable of putting out 1, 2, or 3A... The amount of draw from the USB dongle would be moot for me.

 

[TrollDragon]

How would a device draw more current than the USB port can provide?

The same as plugging devices into a high current USB source, the device is only going to draw what it needs.

 

[TrollDragon]

I didn't know FT sold Pi's. I gave all my LaunchPad's, Arduino's and STM32 boards away a long time ago. Looks like it's time to get back into tinkering, a different kind of shiny to chase.

$77.08 Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Starter Kit (54 Pieces) - 1.2GHz Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 / 1GB RAM / 802.11b/g/n / Bluetooth V4.1 / 16GB microSD storage / w/ heatsink & shell case & cooling fan & more at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

 

[awsum140]

The only Pi I want to fool with has apples or peaches inside and is best with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

 

[TrollDragon]

The only Pi I want to fool with has apples or peaches inside and is best with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

That stuff gets in my mouth and makes me round.

 

[Seiggy]

I have one of these little gadgets I got off Amazon for $4, it gives the volts and amps being drawn from the charger. Mine is like this one but a different model that they don't sell anymore. If you look around you'll see they have a ton of them ranging from cheap to outrageous prices I can't believe anyone would pay.

Xtar V101 USB Current/Voltage Detector is another one for about $6. Bought a hand full and gave some away. Great for checking what your device is drawing when charging. Also used for checking for bad USB ports on PC/Laptop, Wall Warts working to spec., bad USB cables, etc.

 

[BillW50]

I love XTAR products. And I love my two VC4 battery chargers. Although they are really picky about really clean power connections or the charger will drop down to a lower charge rate. Luckily it tells you on the screen if this is the case.

I used to use a PowerBot PB5007 Ultra High-Performance Rapid USB Charger from Amazon. It has 7 USB ports, 12A, at 60 watts. It supplied plenty of power and all. But what garbage! It worked for 2 months and while I was busy at my desk, no USB device was plugged into it, I heard a loud pop and smoke started to pour out of it.

Good thing I was here to unplug it. Later I bought a XTAR 45 watts 6 port USB charger. 2.4A for all 6 ports. No problems with DNAs, cellphones, tablets, etc. Although the VC4 chargers like always still need very clean connections. They are just really sensitive for any voltage drop on the USB supply. Not a huge problem, just clean them regularly.

 

[dwcraig1]

I just received my refund from Element Vape, pretty fast, I added another $105 to it and bought 4 new tires for my older car that my son (2 week old licence and 18) is driving these days. Old tires not bad but new ones are better. I would have bought them with or without the refund so...never mind.

 

[BillW50]

I've never charged a mod from the USB port on a PC, other than the little charge they might get when plugged in for Escribe. The 200s all draw .99 to 1.0 amps and the 250s draw 1.5 amps, at least according to the USB multimeter I have. The 250C draws ~2 amps so I think they all meet spec. I don't charge 75s with USB, just swap in another battery. For the cost of a decent wall wart, or even a multi port charger, it isn't worth gambling a PC port/mother board to me. The OCD in me made me buy the USB multimeter.

Not a problem for me. My power supplies are beefier than standard. And 11 years ago I came up with a plan to buy some computers one more time in my life. So I bought 3 docking stations and 8 laptops that plug into those docking stations. They run any OS made for any PC machine from 2000 to present. And for the past 11 years, they all have been performing just like new (knock on wood).

So it really wouldn't break my heart if somehow one quits now and then. As I planned for this to happen 11 years ago. And that means spare parts for me. And USB2 ports are all supposed to be built to specs. They must provide 500mah reliably. And if you plug in something shorted, the USB supply has to drop the power (but also keep the other ports up and running). And once the short is removed, it has to supply 500mah again. So you really shouldn't be able to hurt any USB2 port except maybe physically damaging the port. Although if they didn't follow the accepted USB2 standards, anything could happen.

In terms of added resistance I don't think it's really a very significant factor. It might be .1 ohms or so and that might be on the high side. According to the one I have, which also calculates watt hours, there's no visible difference and I think you'd need an ammeter that resolves down to thousandths to see what the difference really is. On top of that, while LiPOs can be fast charged, they live a lot longer with moderate and slow charges.

Well the problem are mainly those XTAR VC4 battery chargers. They are absolutely very picky on the supply resistance to the board. You can forget trying to use those USB meters inline with them. Some other device that draws 1 to 2A sometimes doesn't like them either. As they too will drop in current if they are inline too. They seem fine for devices that draws 500ma or less.

 

[tiburonfirst]

The only Pi I want to fool with has apples or peaches inside and is best with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

when it comes to the one with apples inside a nice chunk of cheddar will do it more justice than ice cream