PrimeCables C05132 Charging Station Tear-Down: Organizational Power

By Daniel Sauvageau
published

Worth It?

Although I may not have enough mobile and slender USB-powered devices to permanently dedicate desk space to it, I can easily see why people with a few more than me might be interested in a solution like this one.

PrimeCable’s C05132 easily passed all of my tests. It performed well beyond its specifications after I relocated my test points and fixed my DIY load’s stability issue. The only thing I can fault it for is poor through-hole soldering quality uniformity. Its relatively low system efficiency, courtesy of a double-conversion design, may also be a negative mark for some.

If you have tons of devices that need charging and don’t mind 78-83% efficiency, then this and its iKits twin look like reasonable options.

Daniel Sauvageau
Daniel Sauvageau is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He’s known for his feature tear-downs of components and peripherals.
4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • andrewpong
    Could you look at anker 5 port chargers, especially those with PowerIQ and QuickCharge features?
    Reply
  • Daniel Sauvageau
    20905501 said:
    Could you look at anker 5 port chargers, especially those with PowerIQ and QuickCharge features?
    As far as I know at the moment, Power IQ appears to be Anker's trademark for using device identification chips, quite possibly the same CX1901/2901 and equivalents everyone else use.

    As for QuickCharge, PassMark sent me one of its USB-PD testers and I was told they MIGHT implement QuickCharge support in the future. Right now, I'm waiting to hear more about how likely that is to happen while I decide how I am going to use the tester in the future, which currently means pestering PassMark with bug reports and feature requests to enhance its versatility.

    I did receive three adapters with QC 3.0 support and a plain 5-ports adapter, two from Aukey, two from Anker courtesy from Roger. I could do tear-downs and test them as regular 5V adapters for now, then revisit them once I have something to emulate the protocol with. I could certainly start that batch from the 5-ports non-QC one and pit it against SilverStone's UC01.

    At the moment, I have two more cube-style generic adapters in the publication pipeline and I'm partly done putting together a third one about a house-brand unit. (Spoiler: that third one is disappointing for unusual reasons. Though the 'unusual' could simply be because I am breaking into a new form-factor category - at least for me - on that one.)
    Reply
  • andrewmtl
    This is awesome for the party, if you host a party that is around 10 ppl, then you will love this little device, by the way, I believe that also had 2-3 faster charging port!
    Reply
  • Daniel Sauvageau
    20938782 said:
    This is awesome for the party, if you host a party that is around 10 ppl, then you will love this little device, by the way, I believe that also had 2-3 faster charging port!
    As I pointed out in the tear-down, two ports have dedicated 2.4A (2.6-2.65A measured) output each and a second pair is sharing a single 2.4A e-fuse, each pair using a CH2311 charger ID chip. The rest all do 1.4A with various resistor ID schemes.

    For offices, parties and mobile devices/gadgetry hoarders where function and convenience far outweigh efficiency, this sort of device can become a necessity.
    Reply