Product review: Gt-coupe USB Type C Cable to Type A braided cable

Gt-coupe is a thick braided cable - it feels and looks well made. It is 40 inches long and easily plugged into a phone with a silicone skin on. My tests show that it a USB 3.1 compliant cable. As a fully complaint cable Gt-coupe cable delivers a maximum 1.5A. This also means that it is not capable of supporting rapid charging for Nexus 6p.



What is 3.1 compliant cable? USB 3.1 spec specifies that the termination resistor that advertises the maximum available current should be set at 22K which advertises 1.5A of current. Benson Leung has a series of excellent reviews of Type C cables. Benson works for Google's Pixel group and has pointed out that many type-C cables violate the USB 3.1 specification that states that the termination resistor that advertises the maximum available current has been set incorrectly at 10K which advertises 3A of current rather than the correct value of 22K which advertises 1.5A of current. This cable follows the spec.



Can this cable charge up Nexus 6p while the phone is being used for navigation? Yes! At the start of the trip using Google maps to navigate the battery was at 39%, after one hour of navigation the phone was at 66%. Not only did it keep up with Google maps but it upcharged the phone at a very decent rate.



Below are the details of the tests with Gt-coupe cable. For comparison I also did the tests with a non-compliant cable. A non-compliant cables may not safe to use with all devices (such as the Chromebook Pixel and the Apple Macbook that draw more current than a phone). However with a QUALITY self-limiting charger that is rated for higher current Nexus 6p will safely charge faster with a non-USB 3.1 compliant cable.



All test were done keeping all conditions the same: same level of charge for the phone, same apps running, keeping the screen on so I can see the results.



Using a car charger on a port rated 2.5A

Nexus 6p battery is at 27%-28%, at this level it will use rapid charging if possible (i.e. up to 2.5A)

** Gt-coupe Type C to Type A cable (3.1 compliant) ------- 1410 mA (not rapid charging)

** Another Type C to Type A cable (non 3.1 compliant) -- 2570 mA (rapid charging)



Attached are images from my tests that show the results with both cables.



I received this cable from Gt-coupe for testing and review. Bottom line: Gt-coupe cable is USB 3.1 compliant and behaves the same as a USB 3.1 compliant cable provided by Google in Nexus 6p package.



You can find "Gt-coupe USB Type C Cable" on Amazon via this link





AshopZones review ★★★★★

Intel to supercharge NUC mini-PC with Skull Canyon edition

Intel has made strides in helping to reinvent the PC with its Next Unit of Computing (NUC) systems, which are one of a number of tiny Windows computers that are shaped like the Mac Mini. The small size obviously limits the ultimate performance of these mini-PCs, as there's only so much room (and ability to dissipate heat) for components.

As a result, these pint-sized PCs are perceived to be for a budget buyer, or someone who values their tiny footprint over specs. Intel has been trying to change that perception, having introduced a NUC with a beefy Core i7 Broadwell CPU nearly a year ago. Now it's looking to go a step further with a forthcoming model that it hopes will appeal even more to the performance crowd.

The new NUC is being called "Skull Canyon" as a combination of "Skulltrail," Intel's one-time gaming platform, and "Rock Canyon," the code name of the NUC platform. The company confirmed its plans for the gamer-friendly NUC at CES, though it didn't formally announce any details.
The key specs for Skull Canyon are the inclusion of a quad-core Skylake processor and the built-in Thunderbolt 3 port. The new CPU offers support for speedy DDR4 RAM and features improved Iris Pro integrated graphics. However, they will only suffice for the most casual of gamer, and that's where the Thunderbolt 3 port comes in.

In the past, attempts to attach graphics cards via an external adapter have not proven to be popular, in part because interfaces haven't offered the bandwidth necessary to harness the power of the top desktop cards. But Thunderbolt 3 offers up to 40Gbps of data throughput (in comparison, USB 3.0 provides up to 5Gbps), which is leading to a renewed push to make external graphics support a viable option.

Already, Razer has announced Core, its Thunderbolt 3-equipped enclosure that can handle nearly any single graphics card AMD or Nvidia has made. While it's designed to accompany the company's Blade Stealth Ultrabook, it certainly could be an option for someone using a Skull Canyon NUC. Other external graphics solutions could also be in the works, perhaps even from Intel itself.

Adding more power to the NUC platform, however, starts to eat away at one of its selling points. The Skull Canyon version will be larger in other to provide more room to dissipate heat from the Skylake processor, and an external graphics solution would add another brick to your living room. Intel will have to negotiate the point where the NUC becomes too much trouble for a power user, who might just spring for one of the bigger Steam Machines with a built-in discrete graphics card instead. Since there's no specific price or release date attached to the Skull Canyon NUC yet, the chip giant has a bit of time to figure that balance out.

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 3162 Cheap 11.6-Inch Mini-Laptop

The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 3162 is a new contender on the ultra-cheap mini-notebook market. Regularly priced at $200, Dell’s 3162 offers the same main specs as its competitors like the HP Stream 11 or Acer Cloudbook 11. These Windows 10-based 11.6-inch laptops feature the common 1366×768 display resolution, the Intel Celeron N3050 basic dual-core processor described in this review, 2GB of main memory, and 32GB of eMMC-based storage. With these components, you can comfortably do only the lightest PC tasks, with only a few programs and browser tabs opened simultaneously.

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 3162 RedJust like the HP Stream series, the Inspiron 11 3000 3162 provides colorful design choices. This light 2.7 pound notebook with a 0.8-inch profile comes in blue, red, or white color. The base of the laptop carries a decently spacious keyboard with isle-style keys and a single-piece trackpad. The body is made of plastics.

The laptop has 2 x 2-Watt stereo speakers, a 0.9-megapixel webcam with 720p HD video support, Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless, a USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 port, HDMI external display jack, combo audio jack, a multi-format media card reader, and Bluetooth 4.0.

Although the battery capacity of 32 WHr isn’t great, Dell claims the 3162 has a long battery life of “up to 9.5 hours”. That’s quite possible, given the notebook has a small screen and low power components.

Just like the HP Stream series, the Inspiron 11 3000 3162 provides colorful design choices. This light 2.7 pound notebook with a 0.8-inch profile comes in blue, red, or white color. The base of the laptop carries a decently spacious keyboard with isle-style keys and a single-piece trackpad. The body is made of plastics.
The laptop has 2 x 2-Watt stereo speakers, a 0.9-megapixel webcam with 720p HD video support, Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless, a USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 port, HDMI external display jack, combo audio jack, a multi-format media card reader, and Bluetooth 4.0.
Although the battery capacity of 32 WHr isn’t great, Dell claims the 3162 has a long battery life of “up to 9.5 hours”. That’s quite possible, given the notebook has a small screen and low power components.

- See more at: http://laptoping.com/specs/product/dell-inspiron-11-3000-3162/#sthash.O530DGqB.dpuf

Just like the HP Stream series, the Inspiron 11 3000 3162 provides colorful design choices. This light 2.7 pound notebook with a 0.8-inch profile comes in blue, red, or white color. The base of the laptop carries a decently spacious keyboard with isle-style keys and a single-piece trackpad. The body is made of plastics.
The laptop has 2 x 2-Watt stereo speakers, a 0.9-megapixel webcam with 720p HD video support, Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless, a USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 port, HDMI external display jack, combo audio jack, a multi-format media card reader, and Bluetooth 4.0.
Although the battery capacity of 32 WHr isn’t great, Dell claims the 3162 has a long battery life of “up to 9.5 hours”. That’s quite possible, given the notebook has a small screen and low power components.

- See more at: http://laptoping.com/specs/product/dell-inspiron-11-3000-3162/#sthash.O530DGqB.dpuf

Product review: Rantopad MXX Gaming Mechanical Keyboard 87 Keys, Blue Switches with White Backlight, Pure Aluminum Top Cover Blue Rantopad MXX Gaming Mechanical Keyboard 87 Keys, with White Backligh

This keyboard could have been great if the manual was in English and if manufacturer did not choose form over function in a couple of default settings. Over time I figured out how to change the visual effects I found annoying, I hope this will help someone else as there is no English manual that tells you how to do it. The seller did provide some instructions in the Amazon description but it took some experimenting to get the keyboard to work as I wanted.



I am a through back - I love the feedback of the mechanical keyboards and before I switched to this keyboard I was using a very old DELL keyboard that I loved above all other keyboards I have tried prior to this one.



So here is what I like about this keyboard as well as what I don't like.



I LIKE:



1. Excellent mechanical feedback, as good as my old DELL. I can type fast, my touch is very light, yet this key boards picks up every character I type and gives me a loud click feedback and a mechanical feedback to my finger.



2. I like to work with dimmed lights and my old keyboard did not have backlighted keys. This is the main reason I switched to using this keyboard. It took some work to get the lighting effects to work the way I wanted but once that was done I really like it.



3. The bottom of the keyboard has rubberized keys and they form great tracking with my wood desk. It does not move at all.



4. It has a standard layout of keys (and I mean all special keys not just letters). The only thing it does not have that my old DELL has is the numeric keypad on the right. However, this makes the keyboard smaller and it fits better on the keyboard tray of my computer desk.



I DON'T LIKE:



1. By default the back-light effect is not steady on, instead it shows waves of light that light a small section of a keyboard at a time. I found this lighting effect to be annoying and often I had to sit and wait until the side of the keyboard I needed lights up. Sure, have this funky lighting effect for whoever likes it, but it would have been better to make the steady light be the default. Below I give the steps on how to change the default.



2. The company logo is bright and blinking. I find it very distracting when I look at the screen. I was able to slightly dim it via available control but I was never able to fully turn it off. I solved this problem by taping over the logo with a black electrical tape. I show what this looks like in the video.



3. The manual is entirely in Chinese. The only information on how change back-light modes is in the Amazon description. I have tested this keyboard on both Windows and Linux and the function key combinations work on both.



FN+F1'Calculator

FN+F2'Sound Off

FN+F3'VOL Down

FN+F4'VOL Up

FN+F5'My Computer

FN+F6'Media Play/Stop

FN+F7'Previous

FN+F8'Next

FN+F9'Normal mode/Game Mode (Indicator Light G will light up) Disable WiN & Alt'Tab

FN+L' Adjust"MXX"LOGO Light [*my comment* can change brightness but not turn it off]

FN + F10'Opt Default lighting Mode/User Defined Mode

FN + '/''Adjust the speed of dynamic light effect [*my comment* can change how fast effects move but this does not stop flashing]

FN + F11'Backlit Turn Down [*my comment* can change brightness but this does not make it steady on]

FN + F12'Backlit Turn Up [*my comment* can change brightness but this does not make it steady on]

Fn+F10 twice into user defined mode

Fn+delete to edit.



HOW TO CHANGE FLICKERING BACK LIGHT TO STEADY BACK LIGHT

----------------------

I found a way to change flickering back light into steady back light.



Fn+F10 into default mode then Fn+page up/down to select one of the six modes. I just kept hitting FN-page up until the entire keyboard lit up. The key is to do Fn+F10 and then immediately after if FN+page up/down.

----------------------



Initially I thought only half of each key had backlight, for example on numeric keys I could see the upper part of the key (the special characters) not the numbers. The same was true for the period, comma, and forward slash. However, I was able to resolve this issue by increasing the amount of backlight and now I can see both parts of each key.



The keyboard comes with a braided USB to USB cable. It is a heavy duty cable and I like that it is nylon braided and long (70"). In video I show this keyboard on top of my dell keyboard for size reference. It is 14" long and 5" wide.



Overall, this keyboard was good enough for me to change from a keyboard I used for many years, but it is not perfect as I outlined above. I was able to cover up the logo and changing the default for lighting effects.



This keyboard is provided by Rantopad for testing and review. I hope the tip on changing defaults will save someone time.



YOu can find "Rantopad Mechanical Keyboard" on Amazon via this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★☆

HP launches rugged Chromebook 11 G4 Education Edition laptop from $199

Something of a curiosity when they launched, Chromebooks have eventually settled in as the leading computer for schools, recently outpacing Apple and Microsoft's efforts to keep the market under wraps. HP is tapping into that trend with its latest laptop running Google's Chrome OS, which is designed to deal with the rough-and-tumble conditions of the classroom.

Dubbed the Chromebook 11 G4 Education Edition, the notebook is most notable for its fully rugged construction, meeting the MIL-STD testing standards for durability. For instance, it can withstand drops of 70 centimeters (or roughly 28 inches), according to the company, thanks to co-molded rubber edges. It also features a spill-resistant keyboard to deal with clumsy children with drinks nearby.

Underneath the "bubble wrap" protecting it from schoolkids' not-so-gentle handling, the G4 Education Edition shares the basic spec philosophy of other Chromebooks: not much for not much money. According to SlashGear, you get an Intel Celeron N2840 processor, and it can be outfitted with up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage. The 11.6-inch display has a resolution of 1,366x768 and includes a 180-degree hinge that allows the screen to lay flat for easier collaboration between students.

HP says the G4 Education Edition will be available starting this month at a typical school-budget-friendly Chromebook starting price of $199, but it doesn't yet appear on the company's website.

Product review: Vinsic 20000mAh Smart Dual USB Port Slim Power Bank, External Battery Charger

When I shop for external batteries I always seek out those that have smart charging chip. This means it can charger any device at its optimal charge - Apple devices require 2A, most Android devices require 1A (note that the new Nexus phones do rapid charging at 2.4A when the phone battery is low).



To test if in fact this claim is supported I used a current meter and a resistor with 2A and 1A settings. As advertised both ports were able to deliver the rate advertised by the resister. 0.96A/5.13V delivered with 1A resistor, and 1.85A/5.06V delivered on 2A resistor (it is normal to see some loss due to inefficiencies such as heat loss). Attached are images showing the tests.



The battery has a large capacity (20,000mAh) and is fairly large: 6 3/8" x 3 1/4" x 1". It weighs 1 pound and 0.3 oz. It has two ports. Another feature I like is the digital display showing how much capacity the battery has remaining. The display comes on automatically when I charge, or I can see it at any time by pressing an icon next the display. This is external battery does not allow charge through (i.e. it cannot charge while being charged). I have been using this battery for just over 2 weeks as I write this review. It holds the charge quite well (very little loss when disconnected) and the rating to appears to be accurate.



I received this power bank for evaluation and review. It is a good one!



YOu can find "Vinsic 20000mAh Power Bank" on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: Ambient Weather WS-8600 Weather Station

We have been using weather stations for many years, for the last year we have been using Oregon Scientific weather station. Oregon Scientific is a pretty well known brand, so I thought it would be useful to compare Ambient and Oregon Scientific.



The most noticeable difference is the display. Oregon scientific has a black and white LED display, it runs on batteries and the display gets dimmer as the batteries get weak. Ambient weather station home base unit runs plugged into AC. It has a bright digital display with a large choice of colors: red, green, blue, yellow and each color has different shades (for example, blue is dark blue or cyan). The visibility of the display is terrific, however if you are keeping the weather station in the bedroom it does generate quite a bit of light in the room. I came up with a solution for this by making it a "night hood" (you can see in my video) it is a square piece of felt which with glued edges that I put on it during the night. I remove it every morning and keept it under the weather station as a dolly.



The display has a lot of information, the display is easy to see, and most significantly the temperature is accurate as I used several different thermometers and the old weather station to cross-check the results.



The weather station is 4 1/8" tall, 5.5" wide, 2.25" front to back. The base is heavy, so the weather station is well balanced.



The setting of all functions was very easy. Each function has a dedicated button on the back. I thought the set up was easier than Oregon Scientific.



The outdoor unit runs on two AA batteries (which are not included). The location of the outdoor unit is critical to the accuracy.



FINDING A GOOD LOCATION:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) The outdoor unit should be in the shade

(2) The outdoor unit should be somewhat protected from the rain

(3) Should be placed on the surface that does not get warm (for example glass or metal are bad choices, wood is a good choice)



I have been placing my weather station sensors under the deck. This is close enough to the main unit to provide strong signal and meets all of the recommendations listed above. I would estimate the distance between the two units to be 20 feet. The signal has to go through one wall.



I received Ambient weather station with the request for testing and review, as well as the request to provide feedback on the manual. I thought the manual was very good overall, very detailed. I provided some minor feedback on clarifying some diagrams and the seller makes the latest version of the manual available on line.



You can find "Ambient Weather Station" on Amazon via this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★