Electrical sockets with USB

[RedSnapper]

I want to change one the double sockets int he kitchen to one with usb sockets as well. I'm a little unclear on the differences between the various makes, some of which have 2 sockets and state 2.1amp, some 3.1a 2G, some single socket 2a.

Any tips on what will be best for charging tablets & phones? Would prefer 2 sockets but could live with one.

[JohnB]

I've never understood the attraction of USB power sockets for that reason. The USB standard changes at a far faster rate than the 3 pin plug, so won't anything you put in now be redundant when USB 4 or some new standard arrives?

[AleisterCrowley]

Not really an answer but if you're planning on charging iPhones/iPads check the outputs are suitable as (some?) Apple stuff expects a voltage on the data lines (D+/D-) to indicate max current available. If the data lines are floating they will refuse to work.

[AleisterCrowley]

I've never understood the attraction of USB power sockets for that reason. The USB standard changes at a far faster rate than the 3 pin plug, so won't anything you put in now be redundant when USB 4 or some new standard arrives?

i'd expect the USB physical interconnect (plug/socket) to remain standard for a while - think about all the 'stuff' out there that uses it. The electrical specs change, but doesn't matter if you device demands 1.5A and newer drivers provide 2.5A rather than 2.1A
But- I think there's a new standard with more data pins (and either way up insertion, Praise the Lord, about blimmin' time) USB-C?

[woolly]

USB voltage should be 5v whatever USB standard you are using - the latest USB 3 or 3.1 is backward compatible in this respect, so your sockets won't be outdated any time soon. The various mains + USB sockets available do vary in the currents they provide to the USB sockets - generally it would be better to go for higher rated sockets as they will charge your devices faster (similar situation exists with car USB chargers).

One thing I would caution though - some early/cheap mains + USB sockets have a design flaw that makes them hard to fit into the pattress box. The additional circuitry for the USB charging is sometimes placed in a large protrusion near the outer edge of the back of the socket. If the wiring comes into the box from the centre (bottom or top, depending on which socket model) there is too little room for the wires to bend out of the way, with the result that the socket bulges out or breaks when you screw it back on. Better designs place the additional circuitry nearer the centre of the unit so bulky wires can be routed around it.

I don't know for sure, but possibly better/more expensive sockets will also provide information on the data lines to accommodate smart devices (Apple etc) - I've not had any complaints from my iGadgets on the sockets I've installed (from Toolstation, I think).

[Meatyfool]

Beware! Do your research.

Some of these usb sockets draw watts just sitting there doing nothing.

Not an issue if you leave currently leave wall wart chargers switched on 24/7, but if like me you switch off chargers when no longer needed, the "always on" parasitic consumption is just adding to your base load electricity costs.

Meatyfool..

[JohnB]

I like watching old Grand Designs programmes where someone shows off the enormous switch box where their miles of CAT5 and video cable terminates, and shout "Wifi!" at the telly. Hotels refurbish their rooms much more frequently than domestic users, but who plugs in their laptop into a CAT5 wall socket any more? Anyone want my stash of mini-USB cables? At least the big-end of USB hasn't changed since it was invented. I'd still go for a wall-wart feeding a box of sockets for a tenner.

[Itsallaguess]

I want to change one the double sockets int he kitchen to one with usb sockets as well. I'm a little unclear on the differences between the various makes, some of which have 2 sockets and state 2.1amp, some 3.1a 2G, some single socket 2a.

Any tips on what will be best for charging tablets & phones? Would prefer 2 sockets but could live with one.

We swapped out one of our kitchen-worktop double sockets for one of these LAP socket-fronts from Screwfix -

LAP 13A SP 2-Gang Switched Socket & USB Charger Port White -

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-13a-sp-2 ... hite/1204f

They are currently on offer with an almost 50% discount. At £3.50, and given the ease of swap-out, I'd say just go for it and begin to take the benefit of just having a couple of USB sockets always available if you need them, without the ugly wall-warts that we usually need to do the same job.

We only usually use one of the two USB sockets, as the 2.1A charging rate would be shared if we used both, and we're usually using this for a faster charger of our most-used portable equipment, but we do use both if we're happy with overnight charging at just over an amp each, so there's some good flexibility there.

For this price, it wasn't worth us looking at any of the higher-rate charging sockets, but there are other options available if this is a requirement. We've got high-charge-rate plug-ins if we need a much faster charge (very, very rare), and we've also got a couple of portable power-banks that can supply very long charges in a fully portable situation if required.

The kitchen worktop area is a handy place to have this little 'charging station', given that we can keep an easy, watchful eye on mobiles for text updates etc., if required.

We've been very happy with the above LAP double-socket, and will probably install more. They are a neat solution at kitchen-worktop level, and we have a couple of spare cables stored in a local cupboard. Much better than having black plugs stored about.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Meatyfool]

Another tuppence worth.

How will you feel when next year* you start induction charging?

* Possibly the year after? After that???

Meatyfool..

[pochisoldi]

I like watching old Grand Designs programmes where someone shows off the enormous switch box where their miles of CAT5 and video cable terminates, and shout "Wifi!" at the telly. Hotels refurbish their rooms much more frequently than domestic users, but who plugs in their laptop into a CAT5 wall socket any more?

Me, at home - when I want a 1Gb connection to my server in the closet, rather than whatever my usually adequate wifi gives me.
Me, in a hotel - when the idiots skimp on the refurb, use the theoretical minimum number of access points, meaning that you are competing with half the floor to connect to an access point which is metres away. It's times like those that you praise the lord that the Cat 5 is still connected.

PochiSoldi

[Itsallaguess]

Another tuppence worth.

How will you feel when next year* you start induction charging?

* Possibly the year after? After that???

I'm not sure what the issue is with the possibility of future charging options.

We're talking about a double socket that costs the price of a pint, looks neat in a situation located above a kitchen work-top, and offers two USB sockets which are likely to provide a great deal of helpful charging options for the near-term. Oh, and they are swapped out in around 10 minutes.....

No-one is getting a mortgage to buy these things, and there's usually no great disruption at all in swapping socket-fronts around.

If another tenner needs spending in four years for the next ubiquitous charging solution, I'll install one of those instead....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[RedSnapper]

Thanks all. Much more there than I thought there would be !

For me it's the cheap option as linked by Itsallaguess.

Another tuppence worth.

How will you feel when next year* you start induction charging?

* Possibly the year after? After that???

I'm not sure what the issue is with the possibility of future charging options.

We're talking about a double socket that costs the price of a pint, looks neat in a situation located above a kitchen work-top, and offers two USB sockets which are likely to provide a great deal of helpful charging options for the near-term. Oh, and they are swapped out in around 10 minutes.....

No-one is getting a mortgage to buy these things, and there's usually no great disruption at all in swapping socket-fronts around.

If another tenner needs spending in four years for the next ubiquitous charging solution, I'll install one of those instead....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Exactly that...we don't change devices often. The tablet is very new, so OH's mobile. My mobile won't be changed for a while and the kindle ain't going anywhere either. If I need to change it again in a couple of years or so it'll be because there's some exciting new tech that I, er, need, and hang the extra few quid.

[quelquod]

I have 1 double socket/double USB 3A fitting in the kitchen and we usually plug out iPhones there to charge where they're handy to keep an eye on. Makes it say to keep them well topped up. Oddly although the older iPad 3 charges fine from it, my wife's new iPad Pro usually (but not always) acknowledges the connection but refuses to charge an prefers its own charger. I expect we'll still be using USB charging for many years yet and the socket only cost a few quid from Screwfix so I'm happy with it.

[Itsallaguess]

I have 1 double socket/double USB 3A fitting in the kitchen and we usually plug out iPhones there to charge where they're handy to keep an eye on. Makes it say to keep them well topped up.

Oddly although the older iPad 3 charges fine from it, my wife's new iPad Pro usually (but not always) acknowledges the connection but refuses to charge an prefers its own charger.

Don't underestimate the importance of the cables in USB charging, especially when it comes to the sensitive bits of kit like iPads.

We've had a few devices that either wouldn't charge, or wouldn't charge at the 2A rate, when using some of the often longer and cheaper USB cables. Given this issue, along with the fact that we didn't want huge lengths of trailing cables on the worktop anyway, we invested in a couple of the shorter, good quality USB-to-micro-USB cables, and they've been consistently better for charging the fussier bits of kit.

These are the short 500mm charging cables we got -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00S2WQDKO

I should add that the charging problems were seen when using the 240V socket with USB outlets and also the higher-current wall-warts, so the problem wasn't related to the LAP sockets themselves.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[csearle]

We've had a few devices that either wouldn't charge, or wouldn't charge at the 2A rate, when using some of the often longer and cheaper USB cables.

Why do you think that might be Its? C.
[Edit]That makes it sound like I don't believe you, let me re-phrase: Why do you think that is?

[Itsallaguess]

We've had a few devices that either wouldn't charge, or wouldn't charge at the 2A rate, when using some of the often longer and cheaper USB cables.

Why do you think that might be Its?

Hi Chris,

Simply poor quality cables in terms of CSA, I think, and when that's combined with relatively long lengths of perhaps 600mm or over, I think the volt-drop starts to confuse some of the more sensitive devices, and they either don't recognise that they're being charged, or don't charge at their full capacity.

I've done enough testing of various cables to know there's definitely something related with the above in the testing patterns I've seen in the past, so I'm always concious to make sure I use good quality cables that are only as long as they need to be. Certainly many of the ones I've tested from the cheaper end of the market (think pound-shop quality...) consistently gave me issues with some of the more sensitive devices in our house.

It may also be something to do with connector-quality on these cheaper cables as well, but I'd tend to think it's more to do with it being a volt-drop issues on the thinner and longer wires.

I always try to bring the potential cable issue to light when anyone has charging problems, especially where tablets won't charge at their full capacity. People automatically start looking towards an issue with the charging plug or the tablet, but quite often it'll be the cable-choice itself.

There's also the problem of people automatically thinking that one USB charging wall-wart is the same as any other, and to be fair it's very difficult to see some of the mA charging capacities on many of these types of plugs (I've needed a large magnifying glass on many an occasion, give the minute print on some charging-plugs...), but it's a very important factor nowadays when people are using years-old wall-warts that just deliver 500mA charge-rates, and they wonder why the latest iPad that's looking for a 2A-and-over capacity supply to charge itself in a decent time....Remembering to at least always use the supplied charging plug (if there is one...) is an important starting point.

I realise this is a USB-charging thread, but related to the above has also been connection issues I've experienced with external hard-drives. I own a Western Digital portable drive that refuses to work reliably with anything other than the very short and bulky (in terms of it looking like a good-quality CSA one...) USB cable that came with the hard-drive itself. Trying to use anything else much longer than the one supplied consistently gave me issues with seeing the data on the drive, and going back to the supplied cable always worked....

Long post, so apologies, but these issues are frustrating when people experience them, and it's important to fully understand where the issues might lie, as it's not obvious if we're not aware....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Watis]

I second the cable issue.

My TomTom came with a cable that sometimes silently lost the power connection in the car. The device would then run on its internal battery until that went flat.

And I was never able to get a data connection between the TomTom and PC with that cable. A new quality cable solved both issues.

What is so ironic about this is that, when you connect the TomTom to the PC you are exhorted to use only the cable supplied by TomTom!

Watis

[Devjon]

I have retro fitted several sockets with LAP replacements from Screwfix, the last couple I purchased were 3.1 Amp shared between the two sockets.

It is really convenient to have them at various places around the house and they are so adaptable as the USB socket is universal and the various Iphone / iPad / Android / micro /mini usb leads all have the same size USB plug on the end opposite the equipment.

There are several brands of Mobile phone that already use induction charging for convenience, but these only work over a couple of cm at the best, Induction charging and the inverse square law don't play well together.

With regard to leads, these can indeed make quite a difference to charge times. I have one of these which sits between the wall socket and device cable:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Muker-J7-Multi ... B01DIPF350

It was a real eye opener to work my way through my drawer of random leads and see how the charge rate varied while charging the same device.