Review of PortaPow USB voltage/current monitor for mobile device charging w/pics!!!

This is a Review of PortaPow USB Power Monitor v2 and another Premium USB/DC Power Monitor in addition to their PortaPow premium USB cables. http://www.portablepowersupplies.co.uk/ . Despite their location in UK, the products I'm reviewing here are available on Amazon, USB Power Monitor v2: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NTU18KY/?tag=vectron00-20, Premium USB/DC Power Monitor: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...g=vectron00-20, and Premium USB 20AWG gauge cables: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...g=vectron00-20

When it comes to a smartphone or a tablet or any other mobile gadget, usb charging is the most important function to keep your device running. Luckily, the days of proprietary connectors are gone and everybody uses usb chargers with micro-usb connector. Without a doubt it's a blessing since you can share the same charger and the cable between various devices, but the problem is that a lot of people continue using their old chargers with old cables intended for a slow lower current operation. Furthermore, cables age due to wire bending, connector pins wear off, and connector housing latching becoming loose.

All of these "aging" contributing factor are not show stoppers preventing charging of your device, unless wire is damaged and overheats, creating a fire hazard. The problem here is that your device will no longer be charging at its maximum optimized speed. Back in the days of 750mA or 1A chargers it wasn't a big deal. Now with so many new smartphones and tablets with high capacity non-replaceable batteries supporting over 2A and new rapid chargers with Qualcomm QC2.0 chipset - you want to be sure charging is fast enough. So how do you do that? PortaPow has a nice budget friendly solution to help you with this.

USB Power monitor is not a ground breaking idea or the only available product. I have reviewed similar and even cheaper solutions in the past, but they were of a lower quality, had inconsistent reading (due to their own internal power draw), and had hard to read small led display. PortaPow USB Monitor v2 is very compact, about 70mm x 50mm x 20mm, it has a full size heavy duty cabled male usb port that stores in the back, and a full size female usb port built into the device. The display is big and easy to read, and has a backlight which you can activate with a button. The operation is very easy, you disconnect your usb cable from a charger, plug the cable side of the Monitor into the charger, and your usb cable into the monitor - instantaneously you will see a multi-line display with a reading of the voltage, current, and power.

Design.











An example of monitoring the charging of my Note 4 with Rapid Charger (QC2.0) charger:



So the big question: what does these numbers mean to you? And also, how accurate is the reading. In theory, I would like to see current closer to advertised 2A charging, so when I see readings of 1.75A some of the loss could be due to internal power draw and also due to a typical 5-10% of reading inaccuracy and sensing resistor tolerance. But the importance of measurement here comes from a relative comparison. You have multiple chargers all offering 2A output and you have dozens of USB cables that look good from outside. But when you start comparing different combinations, you want to find a pair that will give you the maximum charging speed.

For example, I tried 4 cables with one common usb charger and found 3 of them with 1.74A reading and one with 1.31A reading. All cables looked like high quality, but one obviously gave me a slower charging - I made a note not to use this cable in the future.









Or for example, I had another charger that show a reading of 5.02V @1.53A in comparison to my Samsung charger with 5.44V @1.74A. This is another example where I will be using my original Samsung charger with one of the cables that yielded 1.74A of current.



Recognizing importance of cables, PortaPow also makes their own 20AWG gauge thicker cables to allow fast charging even with QC2.0 rapid charging. The way how it works, the thicker cable you use - the smaller gauge wire number it has. Most of the budget cables are 26AWG, some expensive premium ones are 22-24AWG. This is a truly premium high quality cable at 20AWG to enable the fastest charging without bottlenecking a current flow while still being priced on a budget level.

Furthermore, the cable comes in 2 flavors, one with both Power and Data wires so you can charge and sync the data (that one has green connectors), and another one with Power only wires to prevent data transfer (that one has red connectors). If you are traveling or on the go, and only have access to USB connector from another computer, there is a risk when you plug in your phone or a tablet, the host will start syncing your data in the background without you being aware of it. I mean, it's an extreme situation, but still nice to have an option for a power only usb cable. What I find amazing, these cables cost about for a standard length and a few dollars more for an extended version.







As a bonus, PortaPow came up with a Premium version of their USB Monitor by adding a voltage multi-meter capability and option to monitor not only usb voltage/current but any DC supply of up to 50V and up to 5A. This Premium USB/DC Power Monitor adds an internal rechargeable battery that can last up to 40hrs and recharged externally with an included usb to DC plug cable. When you are monitoring USB or DC power, you can power yourself from the pass-through voltage, but using it as a voltage multi-meter, internal battery comes handy for a portable use.

Unboxing, accessories, and design.















The unit itself is still relatively small and compact with an easy to read clear LCD screen that has automatic backlight, activated when you start measurements or when press any button. With buttons, you have a dedicated power switch, as well as Pause, Reset, and Time/Power buttons. Those are for continuous monitoring of the total energy in Ah or Wh, and Pause/Reset is used during this monitoring. Included probes go to the corresponding color coded ports on the bottom. While, y-cable splitter for USB or DC monitoring goes in the middle.

For USB monitoring, that y-splitter will have In/Out usb ports to be used in a similar fashion as their original usb power monitor. For DC monitoring, you use a different splitter where you have +/- input and output taps to attach the corresponding power wires. The probes, the splitters, the wires - everything is high quality and heavy duty. I was actually very impressed.

USB voltage measurement y-splitter:





DC voltage measurement y-splitter:



An example of measuring voltage at the tip of my laptop's 19V power ac/dc adapter:



Summary.

If you are only interested in monitoring Current/Voltage/Power of your mobile device or maybe of your Solar Battery (very important to find physical location with a maximum charging speed), USB Power Monitor v2 is a perfect solution that will cost you a little over but can save you a lot more in troubleshooting why your phone or your tablet doesn't charge as fast anymore or if you need to buy another "premium" cable. If you are playing with electronics and motors on a hobby level and need more advance monitoring, premium version of this device will allow you to troubleshoot not only usb but other DC devices, monitoring power and measuring voltage. And regardless of any need to monitor USB power, a quality 20AWG cable is no-brainer. So many companies label their cables with "premium" name, but never disclose the actual AWG gauge rating. Here you know exactly what you are getting. Definitely gets my high recommendation!

Review of iDeaUSA AtomicX S204 BT4.0 w/apt-X wireless headphones - w/pics!!!

This is a review of iDeaUSA AtomicX S204 foldable BT wireless headphones. http://www.ideausa.com/atomic_x, available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Z8PWGNG/?tag=vectron00-20

Every week I'm being approached to write different reviews. Often it's by companies I never heard of, most likely re-branded generic products with just a different printed name. I turn down a lot of such requests, but decided to take a chance on iDeaUSA (the name?!?) because I got intrigued looking at the picture of their wireless headphones. It didn't look like any other headphones I've tested before, and that peeked my interested. Let me tell you, I wasn't disappointed a bit!!! Let's me tell you why.

We all know, pictures could be very deceiving, especially on the cover of the packaging box. Regardless of that, the packaging of this AtomicX headphone pair was high quality. Besides a very detailed description, list of accessories, and a tech spec, the box itself was high quality, sturdy built carton with a magnetic flip cover - all together a nice presentation. And once opened, you will find a headphone case with everything inside of it.

Unboxing.











Starting with a case - this is a pure quality EVA hard shell zippered case, nice slim design. When you open the case, you see headphones folded on one side and meshed pocket on the other side with usb and audio cables. Being wireless headphone, it needs usb to micro-usb cable for charging, and also for a dual mode of operation (wireless or wired) - an audio 3.5mm cable. Both cables were of a good quality, especially audio cable which has thicker more durable shielding, in comparison to junk thin cables I found with other headphones.

Accessories.







Obviously, the first thing you notice about the design is that it folds by collapsing inside of the headband. Once folded, the footprint is significantly reduced and you can fit it inside of a slick headphone case. I actually found a lot of things about this headphone to be of a high quality. First of all, headband has a perfect bend radius with a comfortable clamping force. In addition, it is padded all the way around with a nice soft pleather and extra foam padding inside of the headband where it rests on top of your head. Headphones are very light weight with an even distribution of the weight.

The headband height adjustment is precise, and all the hinges are sturdy with a high quality material. The bending part of headband actually has a real aluminum metal surface that looks very premium. Earcups have 360 degree of tilt to adjust comfortably around your ears to fit the shape of your head, and they have a marshmallow-soft earpads. The earpad opening was comfortable for my medium size ears, but for those with large ears it could be right at the threshold. But I think it will still be ok due to a soft cushioning that just going to press on top of your ears.

All the controls are located in the right earcup and very easy to access. At the bottom of earcup you have micro-usb charging port (enabling 14hrs of continuous play!!!), 3.5mm audio port for wired connection, and Mic pinhole port for wireless phone talk. The controls are on the back of the earcup where it's very easy to reach them, including a multifunction Play/Pause/Call button, power led (bi-color blue and red), and volume up/down. The buttons had a solid click action and nothing was rattling or creaking - solid build all around.

Design.

















Pair up with my Note 4 was flawless, headphones were recognized right away and connected to my phone and media audio without a problem. Either talking on the phone while wearing these or listening to the music was high quality and I was actually able to use it within 50ft of distance away from my phone (in open space, of course).

According to the spec, this model supports Bluetooth 4.0 and apt-X codec - VERY important in order to maintain high quality fidelity of the sound. Furthermore, it supports all popular BT profiles such as A2DP, AVRCP, HSP, and HFP. Also, very conveniently it could pair up with 2 devices so you can switch, for example, between wireless listening on your tablet and picking up a call on your phone.

Phone pair-up.





Ergonomics, functionality, and comfort of the design is important, but without a good sound quality this package is not going to be complete. Even with support of apt-X, you can still mess up a sound by using sub-par drivers and poor D/A converter.

To my pleasant surprise, iDeaUSA team got it RIGHT!!! This AtomicX S204 model headphones have a very nicely balanced sound with a decent sub-bass extension, great mid-bass punch, warm detailed mids, and crispy non-fatigue extended treble. I really didn't expect them to sound that good. Especially I was very surprised about their soundstage - an average depth and way above average width - a nicely spacious expanded sound.



Overall, it was nice to see a company that introduced a product with an original design that doesn't try to look like another "Beats" pair of headphones. The lightweight comfortable fitment, quality build and slick aluminum design accents, 14hrs battery life, both wired and wireless performance, a premium quality case, and a rather good sound quality makes these headphones a great value under . These actually get my high recommendation!

Choetech QC2.0 solution - ext 15600mAh battery and dual car charger w/pics!!!

This is a review of Choetech 15600 mAh QC2.0 ext power bank (http://www.amazon.com/CHOETECH-15600...g=vectron00-20) and QC2.0 Dual USB car charger (http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Charge-C...g=vectron00-20)

External Battery and Charger market is probably the most saturated out of all smartphone accessories. From everything that I have tested, I think I shared only a third in my published reviews because the rest is either re-branded, or poorly build, or has low efficiency. But there are products that stand out not just with their quality but also technological innovations that put them ahead of competition. I recently reviewed Choetech USB/AC charger and surge protector which replaced a lot of my other multi-port usb chargers, and now I had an opportunity to test and to review their latest Quick Charge 2.0 (Qualcomm certified quick charger technology) external battery charger and QC2.0 dual car charger. Without exaggerating or hyping anything up, I can tell you with certainty these are two of the most advanced products in their corresponding category I have tested so far. Let me tell you why.

I will start first with Choetech 15600 mAh QC2.0 external power bank. I'm glad to see how a lot of companies adapted environmentally safe boxes with a plastic free packaging. This external battery was no exception, arrived in a carton box with a clean cover graphics. In addition to external battery, Choetech also provided a detailed instruction booklet in English and premium quality high current cable - 3.9ft long with 22AWG gauge rating!!!

QC2.0 enables faster charging of your mobile devices, but at the expense of supporting higher voltage and higher power. Cable is a bottleneck of your charging chain, thinner wires will not be able to carry as much current, can overheat, and will cause the efficiency and the speed of charging to go down. Regular USB data wires were designed to support a standard USB2.0 protocol rated at 0.5A. The thicker the wires, the lower its AWG rating and the more current it could handle. I do have some premium quality cables, but most of them don’t go beyond 24AWG, so I was very impressed with a high quality cable Choetech included with their external battery.

The battery itself is not as compact or lightweight: with dimensions of about 5.7” x 2.9” x 0.8” and a bit hefty in weight with about 355g. But that is expected since we are talking about high capacity 15600 mAh battery that has a number of charging cells. And speaking of charging, before you can start charging your phone the battery itself needs to be charged up. Usually, that’s where you have to wait a long time since most of the battery inputs are rated at 1A. Here you are dealing with a fast 5V @2.1A input which cuts down charging time by a half. And on top of that, the input also accepts QC2.0 charging at 9V @1.5A – an even further acceleration of charging time. Oh, and if that is not enough, Apple fans gonna love this – this battery also has a lightning input port to charge at 5V @2.1A. I have never seen anything like this before.

All these ports are located at the front edge of the battery with an easy access. Right next to the two Input charging ports, you have 2 Output ports to charge your phone. One port is a standard 5V @1A for your older phones or tablets, and another one – the star of this ext battery – QC2.0 port with an adaptive multi-voltage output to support either 5V @2.4A, or 9V @1.7A, or 12V @1.3A. The output voltage and current will vary depending on your phone/device.

On the top, you have a power button to check the battery status and to start the charging. Next to it there are 4 LEDs, corresponding to 25% power increments. What I found to be really cool, the right most LED is bi-color where it’s blue during normal standard speed charging and green during high speed QC2.0 charging, of either the battery itself or the phone. This is an excellent visual feedback and another innovation like I haven’t seen before. And when it comes to charging itself, battery has a healthy 90% efficiency, so you don’t lose as much of the rated capacity.

Bottom line – if you have a smartphone supporting QC2.0 fast charging, this ext battery is absolutely must have due to its high capacity, input flexibility charging from either standard usb input, QC2.0 input, or apple lightning input, and of course being able to quickly charge your smartphone at full accelerated speed. Add 18-month warranty on top of that and a very reasonable price under – and you got one heck of a deal.





















Next is Choetech dual USB car charger with QC2.0 quick charge port. This one also arrived in an environmentally safe box and, in addition to a charger, also included a premium 3.9ft thick 22AWG cable to handle high current without losing efficiency or charging speed. The unit is very compact at 2.4” x 1.2” x 0.8” and lightweight at about 30g. Even so it has dual USB ports, it’s still very small around usb port area. It’s quite impressive to maintain a size of a regular single usb port charger while providing 30W of power with over-current, over-charging, and short circuit protection.

When you look during the daylight, you can see QC2.0 port having a blue outline to easy find your quick charger port. That port is equipped with auto-detect charging which handles 5V @2.1A, 9V @2A, and 12V @1.5A. A regular usb port next to it is a standard port with a fixed 5V @2.4A charging speed. But where it gets interesting is in a dark when you look at the backlight. Without any cable connected, both ports have a cool blue light so it’s easy to find your charger in the car when it’s dark. When you plug in a cable into a regular charge port, the other open port remains lit up in blue. When you connect a fast charging QC2.0 port – the adjacent LED turns green. I absolutely love the visual indication with a different color for QC2.0 charging.

There are many car chargers, and I’m sure we are going to see more QC2.0 enabled ones soon. But a little detail like a background LED light and a changing color when QC2.0 charging in progress is what makes this product stand out from the crowd. And it's always a good option to have both charging ports because QC2.0 charging is fast and if you have a long drive - the annoying message of "unplug your phone" will stay up. In a summary, Choetech is a reputable company and offers 18-month warranty on their products, and for under this is another must have product if your phone supports QC2.0 fast charging. Definitely gets my recommendation.