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Tag: USB

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Review: Xenyx 302USB

71dvr0Ij1GL._AA1000_On a recent trip, we needed to reassess our recording priorities for an episode of the Android Buffet podcast. The podcast records every week, and we didn’t want to miss an episode.

With the increasing costs of baggage for air travel, it makes it hard to bring a large amount of equipment. That is where this little item comes into play.

The Xenyx 302USB is a USB powered mixer that is four inches by five inches, and fits in the palm of your hand. Not only is it USB powered, but it provides a USB audio interface to a computer.

This makes for a useful way to merge in sources, as Android Buffet is recorded live-to-tape….or mostly unedited. It makes it easier to merge in a microphone and a few sources on the fly, as there aren’t many of them.

Surpisingly, the Xenyx 302USB provides phantom power, which we have yet to test.

There were some complaints about hiss, but we didn’t experience any large amount of it. In the end, this item satisfies a simple need.. There are very few products this small that offer basic mixing at this level.

And for a list price of fifty dollars, it is certainly an addition to your portable recording arsenal. At home, you may want something better.

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Published on December 23, 2012
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Give the Gift of Emergency Power This Holiday Season

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Last month, Hurricane Sandy hit hard in the New York area, in many places that hadn’t seen devastation of that level in half a century. Many people lost power and internet for days. Many people lost more than that…and our sympathies go out to them.

But, while we fortunately came out of it without any serious issues, it as given us a lot of time to think about emergency preparedness. The need to prepare for the unexpected.

One of the coolest devices we saw being used during this was the BioLite CampStove. This is a small portable camp stove that, when stowed, is the size of a water bottle. It uses twigs and other simple fuel, and can not only cook, but provide USB charging. The company took to the streets during the power outages to offer power and a warm drink. The list price is roughly $130 direct, and the money is partially used to fund a larger version used in third-world countries.

Most people will need to handle an outage of hours or a perhaps a day or two. A long extended outage does happen, but in most areas is not as common. In the case of New York, individuals were heading to areas that had power in search of a charge. Corporations sent in portable charging stations, people crowded around generators, and more.

Now, for individuals on the go in urban areas, carrying a camp stove is not a viable option. Solar is a possibility, but charging by solar takes hours. We haven’t had much luck in solar charging, but we haven’t tried lately. There have been a lot of developments in this area. We may try again.

Crank chargers seem like a lot of fun, and are great for portable radios and lights, but powering a cell phone is a bit hard. In testing, fifteen minutes of cranking got a few percent points of power back into a smartphone, but the crank broke off right after that, so future testing will not be possible.

That leads us to the most useful of emergency power measures….the battery. Buying extra batteries for devices works. But every time you get a new cell phone or other specialty device, you end up needing to buy new batteries. Devices that use standardized batteries, such as AA and AAA, are easier to keep batteries on hand for. But, with the increasing number of devices that use USB charging, you can get a battery with USB output, that will work with a variety of devices.

Buying batteries is not a problem. The issue is being prepared. In many cases, you can prepare for an emergency…bad weather, etc. may cause you to check your equipment. But many things will happen unexpectedly.  It is a good idea to keep good care of these items.

Next, we’ll be discussing UPS power…

Published on November 23, 2012
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Product Review: Charging High Amp USB devices

When we first started with the Motorola Droid, we discovered early on that despite it using a USB based charger, not every USB AC adapter would charge it. The Droid wants 0.85A and not every charger puts that out. The Nook Color we own is even worse, at 1.9A and a special USB cable with extra pins to carry the charge.

At home and on the go, we most often will bring more than one device, and were looking for a single device that had everything. We’d previously recommended the Belkin Travel USB surge protector, but it only supported .5A on each USB port…not enough for the demands of modern hardware. It is still a good design, but needs to be updated. The competive items we found have the same delivery problem.

Finally, we found an item that offers travel portability and delivers the 2A power needs for our devices. It is the IPAD-2USB High Power Slim AC Wall Plug, offering two USB ports with the charge levels we need.

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The power plug rotates and folds flat into the unit, making it perfect for travel and will allow it to be flush with a wall in the event you want to permanently mount it behind a piece of furniture. If you pair it with a small travel surge protector and/or a short extension cord, it will be usable in a variety of narrow or limited situations. It supports 220V, so it can be paired with a plug adapter to make it truly international.

Not everything is overly complicated. Sometimes, you just want something that works as advertised. This does everything we need it to.

Published on May 22, 2011
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Good Gear

We troll the tech websites looking for things we find interesting or potentially useful. Here are a few selections…

  • Crunchgear turned us on to this car cigarette lighter with 4 USB connections.Most things can charge via USB nowadays…Cell phones, music players, etc. If you have four devices you want to charge and still have your cigarette lighter free for other things, this is certainly useful. The cost is $22.99 as of this post from USBFever.com with 2.99 per order S&H.

  • This tiny keyboard with a retractable USB cable was also revealed to us on Crunchgear. Cost is $25 from Brando.com.hk. It would certainly work better as a wireless keyboard, but something like this is useful to have in one’s arsenal of tools. We keep a toolbox with a spare mouse, screwdrivers, misc. little computer and data cables, etc for when we are off repairing something.
  • Ion, the company known for cheap analog to digital converters including Record Players, is releasing a $100 slide and negative scanner called Slides 2 PC. for those of us wanting to get rid of boxes of analog media, items like this that make it simple are worth the investment. Scan your media, archive it, and dispose of the slides. You can even make a DVD. If you don’t want to do it yourself, there are plenty of organizations that will do it for you, even your local Costco.
  • This tiny USB powered LCD monitor is useful, although we’ll wait till it is much much cheaper.

For more looks at the stuff we find interesting to consider as part of your hardware arsenal, keep reading…

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Published on October 13, 2008
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