If my Cube Orange is on its own solid power supply and I plug a power-hungry Android (TriplTek) tablet into the USB port, will the Cube try to source power to the tablet as if to charge it? Or is it an unpowered port?
It can receive power from the USB port, but it will only use it if the voltage is higher than both of the primary power inputs. With USB that is unlikely as it usually has a hard enough time maintaining 5.0V at the device end. If you are feeding it 5.3V as is recommended you won’t have an issue.
It should not try to charge your tablet in any scenario though.
Make sure your tablet’s USB port can be configured as a USB “Host” rather than “Device” to get the communication working. I rarely use android tablets to host USB stuff so I can’t offer any specifics on how to do that.
Thanks for the info. The next stage would be for me to figure out how I can send power to the tablet while still connected to the Cube via the single USB connector. As is, the communication works well – I didn’t have to do anything special.
Ah that’s good.
As for sending it power, that isn’t too hard.
You can open up a usb cable and pull out the red and black wires and connect them to a good 5V power supply that is beefy enough for the tablet, 2-3A should do. Just leave them disconnected on the cube end of the cable.
Your tablet may or may not support a faster USB charging protocol, but that would get a bit more complicated to work with.
Great - thanks! I’m not concerned about charging protocol; I just want to keep the tablet from running down while connected to the Cube. And I have a nearby Mauch power supply that should do the job.