Westinghouse Commits to Green Plug's Universal A.C. Adapter

Ian Lamont writes "Westinghouse is the first major electronics manufacturer that has publicly committed to using a 'smart power technology' that will let people use a single universal adapter to power their laptops, cell phones and other electronics. The universal adapters, which use a technology developed by a startup called Green Plug, will act like a hub that several devices can plug into, and will also shut off the power supply when the device is turned off or has finished charging. The first are expected to go on sale in early 2009 for under $100, according to Westinghouse's CTO. Eventually, Westinghouse and other manufacturers that use the technology could stop shipping adapters with their products, because customers may already have universal adapters at home. However, some manufacturers may not be inclined to use universal power adapters: the article notes Apple gets supplementary revenue from the sale of proprietary connectors for the iPod and other devices."

Comments

This is going nowhere.

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

The cost to add the technology to a company's device is listed as US$2. The cost for a company to produce their own wall wart in China...probably less than US$2....and no licensing fees to worry about and no worries that the customer might not have a charger. This idea is going nowhere.

In this case, I think the Chinese government actually got it right. They've forced all cell phone manufacturers to provide a USB port for charging the phones. Seems like a reasonable standard to me.

Cheers,

Re:This is going nowhere.

[Technician]

Of the electronic items retired every year, 1/4 of them seem to be cell phones. What is also needed is mandantory unlocking of phones when the initial 2 year contract is over. How many phones are tossed simply because it won't work with your new carrier. Often people change carriers when they move because coverage sucks and another carrier works in that area. Now you have a phone to retire, not transfer. Think how much in cell charges we could save with a bring your own phone plan. A good portion of a 2 year contract cost is in a throw away phone.

This is bad for consumers and bad for the environment. Locked cell phones after the intial subsidised plan expired should be illegal. It should be legal to take a phone free from a plan and subscribe it anywhere.

Traveling overseas often means buying a local phone to avoid extreeme roaming charges, where a sim card for your trip should be all that is needed to take advantage of calling plans overseas.

Having a phone for home and one for abroad is crazy. Taking a phone aborad and paying roaming fees is crazy. Pre-ordering a SIM card should be the way things are done, but locked phones prevent it.

I noticed Cellular Toys is now selling unlocked phones. When my contract is up, I'm looking into it.

Re:This is going nowhere.

[Hal_Porter]

Hal Porter said:
The computer will supply at least 5V 500mA to a device before it enumerates.
and got moderated Informative for it.

I don't know who did this moderating, but it must be someone who, like Hal Porter, does not know the USB spec.

A USB device may only draw 100 mA before it is enumerated.
When it is enumerated, it may negotiate more power with the driver, up to a maximum of 500 mA.
When it is connected via a USB-powered hub, the driver will decline this request, and current stays 100 mA max. I know what the spec says, I'm just pointing out that a PC won't enforce that 100mA limit for the excellent reason that loads of devices use USB just as a handy 5V supply and don't have the necessary smarts to enumerate.

If it did enforce it, people would return it as incompatible with this sort of device.

And that's really the point here. The spec isn't the whole story and most USB hosts were designed by people who wanted to maximize compatibility with devices that skirt the rules rather than robotically enforce "ze rules" and then tell users they were idiots for not understanding the spec. It's like something out of theoldnewthing really. The user doesn't know the spec, they just buy cheap USB gizmos. And cheap USB devices will most likely work like this because they don't need a microcontroller. Telling the user you won't support their device and they were an idiot for buying it is just being a jobsworth.

Otherwise, you could draw 2A from any USB port by simply connecting 4 devices through a hub. Ok that's a different case. A non powered hub may well limit downstream power, so USB hard drives won't work if you connect them to it. Or the PC will detect overcurrent and disable the port. Or you'll end running the host port way outside its max power rating. This is a place where it would be correct to enforce the rules because not doing so may actually destroy the host.

Enforcing the "100mA before enumeration" rule is silly though and that's why no USB host I have seen does it.

Re:Stupid Idea! More Power Standardization Instead

[mabhatter654]

if we make them standard, hotels and other places will already have one available! Sure, we might need wall-warts available for just one plug, but it would be the exception.. and everybody would have one!

It's not about the "plugs" it's about the wasted power of plugged in things that aren't being used. The trouble with Wall-warts is they are stupid and drizzle power the entire time they are plugged in, even without a device attached. What do we do? we buy and extra to take on the road, so we don't have to crawl under our desks and unplug them... so we have 5 wall-warts running with no devices all day!! That's what this product is trying to eliminate because it will shut as much power circuitry as possible when the device is not used.