[portpilot.net]



Seems to work as advertised.

Blocks data. My Mac sees the PortPilot on the USB bus, but not my iPhone.

The display indicates the power-draw.

Interesting: Both iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 draw .75 Amps when charging, .5 Amps when the battery hits about 99% and then .25 Amps when the battery has charged. Waking the phone from sleep briefly kicks it up by .25 Amps. Playing a simple game keeps the draw steady at .5 Amps and playing a graphics-intensive game keeps the draw steady at .75 Amps. Power-draw drops to the baseline almost immediately upon exiting a game.

I got this device for two purposes:

First is for charging while attached to other people's computers. It annoys me that photo-stealing apps and iTunes launch immediately upon connecting my phone. I often have to tether for extended periods as part of my job, so this is a pretty frequent occurrence.

Second, I often hear complaints about USB ports that stop working and while I have always been able to get the ports working again from a "dead" state, it bugs me that I don't know why they die. I assume that there's too much power-draw from various devices and the SMC kills the port to prevent damage, so I recommend powered hubs when I encounter the problem. Now, I can test the theory.

Cool gadget!

VERY cool, in fact!

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Paul F.
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

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I have a powered hub that stops working over time; if i connect my iphone, it does not charge or become available to offload photos.

a reboot fixes it. annoying.

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Neat; put myself on the notify-me (general sales) list.

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The photo seems to show that there are three LEDs to specify which type of USB port it detects: dedicated charging port (DCP), PC, or Apple.

What would the device indicate if you plugged it into a Linux PC, Playstation 3, HDTV, or any of various gadgets that have USB connections but talk to things like thumb drives?

What about Windows under BootCamp on Apple hardware? Would it show PC or Apl?

Why not just recharge from a wall transformer block and not bother connecting to strange computers?

/Mr Lynn

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"Hillbilly at Harvard"
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The HAH weblog: [hillbillyatharvard.wordpress.com]

Topical weblog: [walkingcreekworld.wordpress.com]

On the river in Saxonville.

Quote
mrlynn
Why not just recharge from a wall transformer block and not bother connecting to strange computers?

1. When I'm in the field, I have to tether to other people's computers to accommodate various limitations of the local networks and test stuff like VPNs.

2. While that might be fine for many circumstances, there's often no convenient power outlet available.

3. Of those public charging stations one might encounter while traveling, there are often only USB connections available. There's no easy way of telling whether those are legit or are skimming info off of the phone.

...

Quote
TheTominator
The photo seems to show that there are three LEDs to specify which type of USB port it detects: dedicated charging port (DCP), PC, or Apple.

What would the device indicate if you plugged it into a Linux PC, Playstation 3, HDTV, or any of various gadgets that have USB connections but talk to things like thumb drives?

Dunno. I haven't got much to try it with.

Quote
TheTominator
What about Windows under BootCamp on Apple hardware? Would it show PC or Apl?

That'd report as a PC.

I just tried handing over control of the USB port for the PortPilot to Ubuntu and Win8 under Parallels. It lights up as "PC."

...BTW: iPad charges at 1 Amp and the display changes to "DCP" when I connect it. I think this indicates when a port is capable of fast-charging power-hungry devices like iPads.