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Universal Power Adapter Struggling For Support
Ian Lamont writes "Last year, there was a lot of hopeful discussion surrounding an initiative to have the consumer electronics industry standardize their products on a USB-based universal power adapter devised by Green Plug. Eight months later, the effort has stalled. The reason: manufacturers have balked from using Green Plug's technology. '... Gadget makers seem to have no compelling financial incentive to adopt Green Plug's technology. It would require them to add Green Plug's chip, or similar hardware and software, into every phone, camera, or music player they build, making them more expensive and more complicated to build. Another stumbling block for manufacturers: A universal power supply would kill the market for replacement power supplies. Manufacturers sell these at a steep markup price to customers who lose or break the original one that came with the device, and aren't tech-savvy enough to procure a low-cost generic replacement.' Green Plug is now trying to drum up public outcry through a (slow) website, but the number of supportive comments and votes remains relatively low."
This being a genuine question - how did regular bog-standard USB win its war against the random assortment of proprietary plugs? I assume there would have been similar issues for manufacturers when USB first rolled around, and we still ended up with USB everywhere
USB was starting to get popular as I was getting my first modern computer though, and I never really saw much of how it grew and developed - did it fight a war, or did it just waltz on into victory? Can this do the same as whatever the heck standard USB connectors did?
I've got to add that using Apple as an example of leading the way to USB power is a bad joke for me, personally. I have the last gen MacBook Pro and bought an external hard drive for my local back-up. It turns out USB doesn't provide enough power via a single connector, so you have to use a USB A/B connector and splitter to plug it into two USB ports. Apple used to put both USB ports on the same side, but changed it with the previous generation - so now the awkward splitter on the A/B cable can't reach both ports and I have to plug in my USB keyboard to the MB Pro so that the splitter can work.
In other words, USB as a power supply has been a terrible annoyance for me. I like Apple in a lot of ways, but their approach to ports the past three years has been fucked. (Dropping firewire was both stupid and shows they'll throw their customers overboard in order to make two bucks more profit - even when it comes to a technology that Apple themselves talked their customers into using.)
IEEE 1394 S3200 supplies up to 45 watts right now. 1.5 amps at up to 30 volts.
I'm sure this will bring up arguments to the contrary, but as a data transmitter, it's also superior to USB in supporting peer-to-peer device communication and multiple hosts per bus.
The old problem of higher per unit costs due to licensing fees has been resolved, as the fees have been discarded.
Does anyone know what the price difference is for basic Firewire vs. USB chips, connectors, and cables these days? That is, say I wanted to make my device (keyboard, MP3 Player, whatever) use either USB or Firewire; anybody know about what the marginal cost difference per unit might be?
Anyway, any time anybody's complaining about the deficiencies of USB, I suggest that we already have a radically superior alternative before us, which needs only wider adoption to rule. In the future, I'd find it ideal if my computer could have only two kinds of ports in back; a bunch of Firewire ports, and a couple of Display Port ports for monitors. Maybe some day we can get that down to one port.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
I was thinking about making something just like this. Currently sitting on my desk, I have my laptop, 2 external hard drives, a wireless router, a USB hub, and a cell phone charger, some speakers, and an LED desk lamp (powered by another cell phone charger). Except for the speakers and the laptop, all these devices take 12V and/or 5V. I was thinking about getting a small ATX (or similar) power supply and adding some connectors for power. Then I would cut the proprietary end off each gadget's power supply and turn them into adapters for my "standard" connectors (.1" headers would probably work well). That way I could make a cord exactly as long as I need, and I only have to have one power cord plugged into my surge protector, instead of 3 wall-warts and 2 power cords. It would also make my desk neater since I wouldn't have bundles of coiled up cords that are longer than I need.
Here is the maximum power requirements of everything that runs at 12V or 5V. During normal use, I will never max out everything, so I could probably get away with a 120VAC to 12VDC power supply and a PicoPSU or something similar.
8A @ 5V; 40 watts
5A @ 12V; 60 watts
USB connectors should be standard. Problem is what manufacturers do with said connector.
;)
Example: my Motorola cell phone uses the standard mini-USB form factor for both charging and data transfer, but other brands of chargers(except those specifically designated for Motorola) with the same form factor will not work. My phone also cannot "talk to" my computer or even charge from my computer's USB without an extra kit(which is just a usb cable and a driver CD) I would have to buy. Until then, I'm going to hook my cable up to a sampling O-scope and reverse engineer that bitch
The USB connections themselves are only a form factor. As the summary stated, any manufacturer can do whatever the hell they want with it after that. The MBA's who came up with that idea should be shot, but they've still made their company lots of dough.
You mean like going on eBay, searching for "iPod power", and buying one for 6-10 bucks? If that's a challenge, are you even capable of operating the device?
China has enforced the law to require all new cell phone to use standardized USB power adaptors since last year, to cut down adaptors in landfill. Why is democratic, earth-caring nation dragging its feeds?
In fact, USB has several issues : it is 5V while almost nothing works with 5V right now, which implies a conversion everywhere. But if we want to put converters everywhere, 5V is very low to start with, it'd be better to start with 18-19V like most notebook adapters. Also, the USB plug delivers low power which is often not enough to power a hard disk, reason why most USB/ATA adapters ship with a second wire to double the power input. Another problem with such a low voltage is that you cannot have a common rail between all plugs, because if one eats slightly too much, all others will fall below 4.5V or even 4V and will be under-spec.
Last and not least, USB is a terrible plug. You always have to try it both ways, you can't visually know if you have to plug it upwards or backwards. And even when you're in the correct direction, you have to approoach very precisely for it to plug correctly. How many of us really look at the plug when trying to insert it ?
I really think that the EIAJ connector has more future. Fit it with 13-20V and make the spec so that it should never go below 13V even when highly loaded. That way, you can design miniature power converters which will be able to provide 12V without much hassle (even 1 single component for the cheap ones). With that as a standard, you could see plugs everywhere including in airplanes, providing unregulated voltage which will fit every usage up to about 65W per plug. And that plug does not need to be looked at in order to insert it. We could even imagine a smaller version for small devices, similar to the common mini-jack found at the other end of USB plugs to bring more power to 2,5" USB/ATA adapters. This would be nice for ipods, mobile phones, etc...
The other advantage is that many equipments nowadays are already compatible with that voltage (eg: notebooks) and will not even require any additional converter.
The spec does not support 1 amp. If you want to talk about manufacturers going off on their own to extend the spec in a proprietary fashion, I think you lose the usefulness of the standard USB interconnect. A good example is the Macbook Air cdrom, which works with nothing except the usb on the Macbook Air.
No, what that says is that initial device current must be limited to 100mA (USB2) or 500mA (USB3) per port, that the current drain of bus-powered hubs must be limited to ((# of ports)*100mA)+100mA (which is why bus-powered hubs > 4 ports are rare), and that that is the minimum a root hub must be able to supply in order to conform with the specs.
According to the full spec, not just the FAQ version, devices are free to negotiate for up to 1A (USB2; dunno about USB3 but I'd guess it's higher), and it's up to the root hub to say "yay" or "nay".
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
No, you're right. A friend of mine won a Nokia contract years ago to design one of their now (or once) ubiquitous phone chargers. One of the criteria was that the parts had to come to less than US$2 which he was able to do with some novel transformer tricks.
I use are my electric shaver (stays in the bathroom
Actually my electric razor does charge over USB. I use USB chargeable AA batteries in it. I got some as a promotional item but usbcell.com sell them online. I have to admit I was skeptical but these things really are brilliant.
Now if only they would start selling the AAA ones I would not need to buy replacement batteries for my headphones once a month.
You might want to investigate the Kensington model K33197US power supply. It's a counter to your argument. I'd rather it be open source, but the thing is too ingenious and practical to ignore, regardless. The Kensington design is what the Green Plug should have been.
The only thing you need is multiple usb hubs routed to one connector. You can do this with a Y-splitter. I own two, and carry one with me incase I need two connect a usb external drive to my 2005 powerbook g4. Works great.
As for the macbook air superdrive, you're still wrong. The reason why the macbook air superdrive doesn't work is because there's a firmware check on the ide to usb controller board. Power has nothing to do with it, but branding does. For $9, you can the replace the board and it will work just fine in everything.
The pursuit of profit is directly in opposition to the pursuit of innovation.
That's a fact proven by:
1) Medical companies and Hospitals: No "financial" incentives to cure a person. Only symptom treatment matters.
2) Arms Manufacturers: The F-16s and F-15 require high ground maintenance to run. No incentive to produce single-shot planes with no frequent repairs and services.
3) TVs & PCs: shoddy manufacturing and no spares: forcing you to replace the entire unit.
4) Laser printers: No common refill packages.
China had decreed that ALL mobile phones manufactured from 2008 need to have only USB adapters for charging. Period.
The business of business is business and nothing but business.
Which is why customers always LOSE.
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer