I’m looking at: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Wholesale-Portable-10Port-Smart-5V-1-5A-2-4A-3-5A-USB-Fast-Charger-FOR-All/32324836619.html
and hoping it’s of acceptable quality. I run a few different items (BBB, RPi, MSP430, AWM002, Gadgeteer, USB drives, …) that use/can use USB for power only. Powered hubs are great but limited, and you can only fit so many wall warts on a power strip, not to mention plugging your USB into the wrong one and getting insufficient current. I’m running a Dangerous Prototypes ATX Breakout Board to get enough power to my RPi2!
The USB Charger seems like a dream come true for all these USB powered devices laying here in front of me. Anyone have any experience with this product? Worthwhile, junk, or salvageable?
I’d probably want to run everything through a USB volt/ammeter at first, eh?
Ive had pretty good experience with stuff from aliexpress/China. (other than the typical fake memory card sizes and fake lipo battery capacities…)
That charger looks awesome actually. I use my usb3.0 hub for the same purpose, but it has no 3.5A ports. I wonder how many of those ports you can use at once. That’s up to 17.5 Amps… But the description DOES say that it uses “[em]science and technology to create the most innovative in the industry[/em]” so… what could go wrong? It uses both science AND technology!
[quote=“mtylerjr”]
It also blew an IC on my wife’s main hard drive, with 8 months of “travelling in europe” and “first year of school” photos - and no backups.[/quote]
You should check out this really cool thing called OneDrive.
Ok, so the possibilities range from “works as advertised” to “complete and total destruction of the universe as we know it.” I’m going to order one, I’ll report my findings back here, assuming the outcome isn’t the latter. I suppose I’ll bust it open, voiding the warranty, ha ha, and give it a once over before I plug anything in. It doesn’t plug into a PC, it’s purely power, so destruction is limited to my eval boards, gadgeteers, etc.
The preliminary results are in! The unit came with a 220V supply cord, but it purports to run on 100 - 240V, so I plugged it into 110V and went to testing.
The voltage output hovers around 5.15V to 5.25V, depending on which USB meter I am using, and does not fluctuate greatly. As for current, the 1A circuit put out a peak of 1.87A charging an LG phone, supplying 1.4A comfortably once the phone settled in. Same on the 1.5A ports. I tested the 2A and 3.5A ports, but I don’t seem to have anything USB powered that requires 2A or 3.5A. Any suggestions on what would? I feel an endurance test is in order, but I’ll have to collect some more boards to draw power. The specs state that it can put out 12A total; we’ll see.
As for the physical quality of the unit, I’ve seen better. The small SMD resistors on the back side are obviously hand soldered, not any better than I can do myself. On resistor is even on upside down, but it seems to resist just fine. But I did not notice any fatal or deadly flaws in it’s construction or design. I would consider the unit good enough, but I do recommend giving the unit a quick once over before plugging in anything of real value.
Science can be understanding something, without the technology to use it. Like black holes, maybe? Semantics 
