I feel like I’m writing about one of those old Ronco products – “It slices, it dices, and it jump-starts your car! Now how much would you pay?” The Detech Solar-Powered Battery and 4-port USB hub does have a lot of functions, but all of them are related and useful. Inside this handy little device is a lithium battery than can be recharged by USB, AC power, or by the built-in solar panel. You can use the Detech as a simple USB 2.0 hub with your computer, or you can use it to charge up your devices when they need a power boost while you’re away from a power source. It can supply 5V, 300mAh to 450mAh, so it’s great for recharging a phone, MP3, player, or other small USB-chargeable device. Oh, and it has a flashlight, too. I can only find it at eBay now; it’s $19.88 and ships for free from China.
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So you have to unplug a bunch of stuff before you can take it with you? If you need the solar, that means it will be away from your desk a long time. Maybe you would need another hub, then?
I did mention that it recharges by solar, USB, or AC power. I would imagine you would recharge it with solar only when you have no other source of power, and you’d probably not be wasting your laptop’s battery with a bunch of peripherals plugged in under those circumstances.
Sounds like a great idea. Definitely worth a try for less than $20. Not sure if the battery would last, i suppose it depends on what it’s being used for.
@John: you are probably right, but I think a person using this would be someone on the go, a traveller who is keen on convergent devices (or in this case, convergent accessory). I can totally imagine using this in a hotel room, and when I’m walking out the door for some sightseeing, I’ll unplug my laptop, put it in the hotel safe, take the hub, my phone and camera for some touristy R&R.
I like the idea, but I suspect it might take weeks to charge by solar alone. The solar might be a valid way of making sure the charge doesn’t diminish with time, but as the main charging source I just don’t think it will have the ooommph!
The charging output of this device, especially under solar, is going to be pretty limited. Most newer smartphones, tablets, etc. are going to require higher output and more capacity. In other words, it’ll charge devices, but slowly and at best it could supply an iPhone with about 30% total charge from its battery.
It’s better than nothing, and it doesn’t cost all that much, but the question is whether or not its worthy of making into the tight confines of a “road warriors” equipment kit.
I think the idea of the solar panel is that it can keep the internal battery charged up instead of it slowly trickling power to charge up a phone. You could just leave it in a window or attached to the outside of your pack so that it charges up the battery or keeps it topped off so it’s ready to charge your device.
I bought a different model, same features though… I wanted to use it for my google nexus 7 Android tablet… I purchased a usb otg cable, and a usb y cable, and a Dtech solar powered usb hub. I got this product so my tablet won’t have to provide power to the usb devices. seems to get the job done well… holds a charge for 5 hours… it takes forever to receive anything from China… but I haven’t seen this in stores in the USA. oh… and btw… its a horrible phone charger… the battery dies while it charges lmao.