OTG Charger/Adapter Recommendations

[ClintRo]

Looks like it is... Went up a percent in about 5 minutes. Not bad It is not charging fast, but I watched it go up to 79% before unhooking.

Hooked up a USB keyboard, bluetooth mouse, External 3.0 HDD and HDMI to TV.

Sent this message from my inch TV... LOL

The Choetech dock above.

 

[bill-e]

So this one by Anker has the same charging capacity as mine, 60w and includes ethernet which mine didn't so will end up being about the same price and Anker is high quality stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Adapte...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU6510995

 

[Brew Swayne]

Thanks Clint, I appreciate you taking the time to do that.

I really like Anker products and they were actually the first hubs I looked at when I started shopping for them. But on all of their listings they state that Samsung phone/tablet stock adapters aren't compatible. I'm not 100% sure what that means, but I'm guessing the adapters Sammy provides with its devices aren't compatible...maybe they don't put out enough power? That might even be the problem I'm having with my current hub.

I'm thinking that if I had a newer Macbook USB C power cable/adapter that it might work. But I'm not trying to spend that kind of money on this. I think I'll start with the same one you're currently using and go from there.

 

[ClintRo]

I used it with my pixel 3 charger.

 

[Brew Swayne]

I used it with my pixel 3 charger.

Oh, so you didn't use the Sammy charger from the pic?

 

[ClintRo]

First one yes... Second one no.... Sorry. Lol

 

[Brew Swayne]

First one yes... Second one no.... Sorry. Lol

Lol. No worries. The Sammy charger did provide enough juice to power the hub and charge the tablet, or that only worked with your Pixel 3 adapter?

 

[ClintRo]

Sammy said it was charging but I didn't watch it and see. Should be fine they both charge about the same off dex

 

[Brew Swayne]

Progress being made on the hub front. I ordered 2 different hubs to test out and the first one arrived today. The other is expected to show up tomorrow.

https://amazon.com/gp/product/B07H2...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU6513267

Early results are promising. First thing I checked was pass through charging and it is definitely charging the tablet, though I noticed a HUGE difference when using a regular adapter compared to a fast charging adapter (both Samsung). Normal adapter showed like 8 hrs to fully charge the tablet from 50%, the fast charge adapter was showing about 2 hrs.

I've test all ports and they all work. Only downside I've noticed so far with this hub is since it has a headphone jack, it overrides the tablet's speakers. So unless I've got headphones or speakers connected to the headphone jack on the hub or if I'm connected to a bt speaker, I've got no sound when the hub is plugged in. It's a minor nuisance and not a deal breaker.

The other hub that's showing up tomorrow has no headphone jack, so I wouldn't have to worry about that at all. Downside to that one is it only has 2 USB ports instead of 3. Personally, I think I'd prefer to have the 3rd USB port and deal with the audio issue on the rare occasion it pops up.

I also ordered a pair of right angle adapters. I noticed with the first hub I ordered that the cable seemed a bit on the short side and that the hub wasn't able to lay flat on a table top. I didn't like the idea of it basically pulling down at the connection point on the tablet.

https://amazon.com/gp/product/B078Y...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU6513267

Both have a nice snug fit in the charging port on the tablet and the female end also has a nice snug fit with the hub's plug in.

Side note: I checked out that GSam Battery Monitor app that Clint showed in one of his previous screenshots. I like it simply for the fact that it calculates remaining charging time, but it's got some really cool other features as well.

I'll report back in the next day or two about how well the second hub I ordered works out.

 

[Brew Swayne]

My 2nd hub arrived yesterday. It was the same Choetech that Clint is using. Using the Sammy fast charge adapter, a basic Sammy adapter, and even an iPad adapter, it was still draining my Tab S4 battery rather than charging it....which I thought was weird. Seemed well built overall though and all of the various ports worked. I preferred the size and layout of this hub over the other one I got (Omars featured in my previous post), but since charging doesn't want to work, I'm going to send it back and stick with the Omars.

 

[ClintRo]

That is so strange... I had it charging with my setup. Maybe your HDD pulls more power than the one I had running. That Omars one does look nice.

It does bug me that in the stock picture they have the SD card facing the wrong way...LOL (OCD Much??)

 

[Brew Swayne]

Haha....I noticed that too when I first came across it on Amazon and I almost didn't order it specifically for that reason. That photo literally caused internal rage to flare up.

It's possible that I got a defective unit on the Choetech hub, but after trying and returning several hubs already, I was just glad to have found one that works the way I need it to and didn't want to bother exchanging the Choetech for a new one to try.

Now that I've been using the Omars hub for a few days now, I have noticed that there is still some battery drain on my tab if I've got multiple things plugged into the hub. It can handle an SD card or a thumb drive just fine, but if I plug my phone in to charge and also have a thumb drive or SD card in, there isn't enough juice left over to charge the tablet. I suppose that's to be expected if I'm only using the stock Sammy adapter. Thinking about buying a more powerful adapter....maybe something in the 40W range? I'm just wondering if that would be too much power when I only have a single port in use. Definitely don't want to fry the battery on this tablet.