> I thought so too - there's no intelligence built into the cable AFAIK,
> and I can't see any components in it, so it must be paralleling the
> power lines.

Just found that USB Lava Lamp I have (got it from colleagues, I would not
buy those :-)) So there is a 5V1W bulb in there, nothing else... That's
200mA, plus when it's cold it could be even bigger. There is no interface
asking more power than 100mA, just using the power lines. Isn't it violating
the specs? I can't find anything about powering dumb devices like this on
the USB specs? Should I look that harder? :-)

Tamas




On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 5:36 PM, Dr Skip <drskip@gmail.com> wrote:

> I thought so too - there's no intelligence built into the cable AFAIK,
> and I can't see any components in it, so it must be paralleling the
> power lines.
>
> I noticed there is one of these power ports on a used Dell laptop I
> have. Any idea where to get a cable or connector (hopefully cheaply).
> That Dell is the worst in terms of power out on usb too. I even tried a
> drive that wouldn't spin up on a powered hub (external wall wart) and it
> went for a while and then went away a few hours later while writing to
> it. So much for portable drives?
>
>
> Tamas Rudnai wrote:
> > is
> >
> >
> > I thought these kind of devices use the secondary USB plug as a power
> > connector - like a USB lamp or other dumb gadgets without actually
> > interfacing with the USB Host. Not sure if that is on the specs and what
> > current can a dumb device withdraw like this?
> >
> > Tamas
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Olin Lathrop <olin_piclist@embedinc.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> --
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-- 
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