How USB Charging Works, or How to Avoid Blowing Up Your Smartphone. The tech world has finally coalesced around a charging standard, after years of proprietary adapters and ugly wall wart power supplies. Well, sort of Were already seeing some fragmentation in terms of the new USB C connector, which could eventually replace USB, as well as what is thankfully turning out to be a short lived obsession Samsung had with larger USB micro B connectors for its Galaxy line. But aside from that, and with the obvious exception of Apples Lightning connector, micro USB has destroyed the industrys penchant for custom ports. Ten to 1. 5 years ago, you always had to make sure you had the correct power supply for each of your gadgets. Usually, that power supply wasnt even labeled. Today, you can charge your phone at your friends house, plug your tablet into any computer, and display photos from a digital camera directly on your TV, all thanks to a standardized connector. In its place, though, theres a new problem USB power. Not all USB chargers, connectors, and cables are born equal. Youve probably noticed that some wall chargers are stronger than others. Driver Usb2 0 Serial Season 1Sometimes, one USB socket on a laptop is seemingly more powerful than the other. On some desktop PCs, even when theyre turned off, you can charge your smartphone via a USB socket. It turns out theres a method to all this madness but first we have to explain how USB power actually works. New specifications. There are now four USB specifications USB 1. USB C connector. Well point out where they significantly differ, but for the most part, well focus on USB 3. In a USB network, there is one host and one device. In almost every case, your PC is the host, and your smartphone, tablet, or camera is the device. Power always flows from the host to the device, although data can flow in both directions, such as when you copy files back and forth between your computer and your phone. Okay, now the numbers. A regular USB 1. 0 or 2. USB cable has four wires. The inside pins carry data D and D, and the outside pins provide a 5 volt power supply. USB 3. 0 ports add an additional row of five pins, so USB 3. In terms of actual current milliamps or m. A, there are three kinds of USB port dictated by the current specs a standard downstream port, a charging downstream port, and a dedicated charging port. The first two can be found on your computer and should be labeled as such, and the third kind applies to dumb wall chargers. In the USB 1. 0 and 2. A 0. 5. A with USB 3. A 0. 9. A. The charging downstream and dedicated charging ports provide up to 1,5. A 1. 5. A.  USB 3. Gbps in whats called Super. Speed mode, bringing it roughly equivalent with first generation Thunderbolt. It also supports power draw of 1. A and 3. A over the 5. V bus. USB C is a different connector entirely. Its universal you can put it in either way and it will work, unlike with USB, and like Apples Lightning connector. USB C is also capable of twice the theoretical throughput of USB 3. Apple joined USB C with USB 3. Mac. Book and new Mac. Book Pros. Were also seeing USB C on phones in earnest now current popular models include the Samsung Galaxy S8, the Google Pixel, and the One. Plus 3. T.  But there can also be older style USB ports that support the 3. The USB spec also allows for a sleep and charge port, which is where the USB ports on a powered down computer remain active. You may have noticed this on your desktop PC, where theres always some power flowing through the motherboard, but some laptops are also capable of sleep and charge. Driver Usb2 0 Serial Season' title='Driver Usb2 0 Serial Season' />Now, this is what the spec dictates. But there are plenty of USB chargers that dont conform to these specs mostly of the wall wart variety. Apples i. Pad charger, for example, provides 2. A at 5. V Amazons Kindle Fire charger outputs 1. A and many car chargers can output anything from 1. A to 2. 1. A. Can I blow up my USB device There is a huge variance, then, between normal USB ports rated at 5. A, and dedicated charging ports, which range all the way up to 3,0. A. This leads to an important question If you take a phone which came with a 9. A wall charger, and plug it into a 2,1. A i. Pad charger, as an example, will it blow upIn short, no You can plug any USB device into any USB cable and into any USB port, and nothing will explode  and in fact, using a more powerful charger should speed up battery charging. We now do this all the time with our mobile devices here at Extreme. Usage Statistics for communitygaze. Summary Period May 2016 Search String Generated 08Oct2017 0208 PDT. Folks, Here are the downloads for the FUNcube Dongle Pro. These programs and documentation are appropriate for the Pro model only. Current documentation. Kilauea Mount Etna Mount Yasur Mount Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira Piton de la Fournaise Erta Ale. Tech, and weve never had a problem. The longer answer is that the age of your device plays an important role, dictating both how fast it can be charged, and whether it can be charged using a wall charger at all. Magix Video Easy Terratec on this page. Way back in 2. 00. Blog/BE-0325-650x489.JPG' alt='Driver Usb2 0 Serial Season Three' title='Driver Usb2 0 Serial Season Three' />New specifications. There are now four USB specifications USB 1. USBC connector. Well point out where they. Crowdfund innovations in tech and design before they go mainstream, and buy hundreds of unique products shipping now from Indiegogos Marketplace. Shop a wide variety of USB Display Adapters from StarTech, EVGA, Coboc more. Newegg offers the best prices, fast shipping and toprated customer serviceUSB Implementers Forum released the Battery Charging Specification, which standardized faster ways of charging USB devices, either by pumping more amps through your PCs USB ports, or by using a wall charger. Shortly thereafter, USB devices that implemented this spec started to arrive. If you have a modern USB device, you should be able to plug into a high amperage USB port and enjoy faster charging. If you have an older product, however, it probably wont work with USB ports that employ the Battery Charging Specification. It might only work with old school, original 5. A USB 1. 0 and 2. PC ports. In some much older cases, USB devices can only be charged by computers with specific drivers installed, but this is now going back more than a decade. Quick charging and other notes. Many new phones offer some kind of quick charge capability often with variable names, the most common being Qualcomms Quick Charge that works with Snapdragon powered phones. The standard evolved quickly, and sits at version 4 at the time of this writing. For quick charging to work, usually youll need to use either the power adapter that came with the phone, or an appropriately labeled third party adapter. Otherwise it will still take several hours to juice up. There are a few other things to be aware of. While PCs can have two kinds of USB port standard downstream or charging downstream OEMs havent always labeled them as such. As a result, you might have a device that charges from one port on your laptop, but not from the other. This is a trait of older computers, as there doesnt seem to be a reason why standard downstream ports would be used, when high amperage charging ports are available. Most vendors now put a small lightning icon above the proper charging port on laptops, and in some cases, those ports can even stay on when the lid is closed. In a similar vein, some external devices 3. USB port can provide. Thats why they include a two USB port Y cable, or an external AC power adapter. Otherwise, USB has certainly made charging our gadgets and peripherals much easier than it ever has been. And with USB C, things will get even simpler, because youll never again have to curse out loud after plugging it in the wrong way. Now read 2. 5 best Android tips to make your phone more useful. Check out our Extreme. Tech Explains series for more in depth coverage of todays hottest tech topics. Sebastian Anthony wrote the original version of this article. It has since been updated several times with new information. Top image credit Jamie Lendino.