理论上，权力似乎是一个简单的概念。你将手机插入充电器，电力流过它进入手机。您将充电器插入笔记本电脑，您的电池充满。不幸的是，这种看似简单的概念实际上可以在实践中非常复杂，USB-C增加了问题。
没有合适的工具，你永远不会真正知道这些端口发生了什么。许多设备（例如监视器）可以从USB-C端口汲取电源。但是，当您的笔记本电脑正在为您的内部显示器和外部供电时，您的电池寿命将如何影响？那个你刚买的新充电器怎么样？它可以像股票充电器那样快速充电你的笔记本电脑吗？
这Satechi USB-C功率计is an inexpensive tool designed to help you answer these questions. We decided to put it to the test, and see if we could answer a few questions for ourselves while we were at it.
First Look
这Satechi USB-C功率计is a compact little device that is designed to be operated in-line with your USB-C devices. This means that you plug the meter itself into your USB-C port, then your charger plugs into the back of it. On the face of the device, there is a compact OLED display that provides some information about the current that is passing through it. It’s pretty simple in terms of functionality, but we were still surprised at just how useful the output wound up being.
设计
当您手中首先握住此功率计时，您将注意到标准USB闪存驱动器的相似之处。它从USB-C端口稍微逐渐逐渐变细，这使得比典型的USB外围设备大一点，但仍然相当紧凑。我们喜欢尺寸，因为它允许仪表在USB端口中舒适地坐下。请记住，两侧都会有压力。当我们安装在我们的MacBook中时，它的厚度允许它在地面上休息而不是浮动在空中，由USB端口支持。这减少了USB-C端口的应变，因此我们不必担心损坏我们的计算机。
这plastic case is fairly rigid, and built to the same standard as any USB drive. It feels solid in the hand, and we don’t see ourselves breaking it from daily use. That being said, we don’t recommend you abuse it in any way. But it’s not the enclosure that caught our attention the most, it’s what was inside. The black OLED display contains bright blue LEDs that are extremely clear and easy to see, but aren’t hard on the eyes at all. We constantly caught ourselves glancing over from the laptop screen to check the charging rate and power consumption.
One of the nice things about USB-C is that it’s reversible. Although there are USB 3.0 power meters available, if your USB ports are oriented the wrong way you’ll have the screen facing the ground, negating the usefulness of the meter. But this is not the case with USB-C, since you can always flip it over.
Measurement
这re are three measurements on the face of the meter and one indicator. It measures voltage, amperage, and amp-hours. Generally, people think of power in terms of watts. In reality, watts are determined by multiplying the voltage by the current. Voltage shows the potential electrical charge, while amperage is more of a measure of the volume of electrical flow. 1 amp of current at 120V is ten times more powerful than 1 amp at 12V. This is easy to see with a wattage measurement, as 120W is clearly 10 times larger than 12 watts.
但从测量角度来看，通过这种方式测量电流更有意义。这是因为MAH或Milliamp Hours的总功耗显示。毫安是AMP的1/1000，电池容量始终根据MAH测量。例如，让我们说，你有一个拥有3000 mah的手机。如果它以1A的速度充电，则会很容易判断电池将在3小时内收费。
这对于确定电池组的实际容量也很好。例如，让您购买A *** 20,000 MAH电池组。这并不一定意味着你将获得20,000 MAH。如果电池组被评定为12V并且您为19V设备充电，则转换将存在一些损失。使用此仪表，您可以确定提供给笔记本电脑的可用电流是否有多少可用电流，并对电池的有用程度进行适当的估计。
兼容性
One of the biggest flaws with USB 3.0 power meters was that they did not support data pass through. This meant that you could only use the meter on a cellphone, or other simple charger. If you tried to transfer data through it, it simply wouldn’t work. Obviously, this is not idea with USB-C since you have so many devices on the same hub, many of which are heavy data users. That is why we were happy to learn that this device is fully compliant with the USB-C standard, so you can connect anything you want to it without any compatibility issues.
发现
When we first got this meter, we thought that it would be something that we’d use for a little bit, then lose interest. After all, once you know how your batteries behave, you won’t need to know again for the future, right?
What we found was quite the opposite. We found several scenarios where the meter was incredibly handy to have. One example was measuring charge when using ourUSB-C docking station. This dock allowed us to plug in some external hard drives, a monitor, and our laptop charger all into one USB-C port. But while these devices are in use, the power that we intended to use to charge our computer is being diverted to run our peripherals. With everything hooked up, our laptop was only charging at about 75% of its normal rate.
Another thing we found was that some USB-C cables have more loss than others. The cable we got with our Pixel phone is one of the best of the bunch, with a volt drop of only 0.1V. Meanwhile, some cheap cables we got online have volt drops of 0.5V each.
我们还了解了所有外围设备的电量。在几张短短几天只有几个小时后，我们意识到我们在不使用时拔掉外部硬盘驱动器是有益的。
Disadvantages
这个功率计有两个小问题。首先，仪表仅在应用电源时打开。如果将官方Apple MacBook充电器插入仪表而不将其连接到您的计算机，则不会发生任何反应。将其插入笔记本电脑后，随着电源开始流动，屏幕打开。
但并非所有充电者都行动。有些设备连接时有些将提供电源。这意味着当未插入笔记本电脑时，可以启动此设备。在不充电的情况下留下充电器并不是一个好主意，因此我们只建议您在将设备连接到两端时才建议使用它。
另一个问题是,屏幕不旋转。When it’s on the left side of your computer, the text is upright. But on the right side, text appears to be upside down. This is something we hope to see fixed in future versions.
最后的判决
虽然我们起初没想到很多，但我们惊喜地发现USB-C电力计是如何有用的。这种廉价的设备为我们提供了一个窗口，进入我们的技术如何工作，允许我们智能地确定使用我们的设备的最佳方式。
Now, theSatechi USB-C功率计isn’t going to be for everyone. If you’re only using a single USB-C device and never plan on straying from the manufacturer stock chargers, the use is a little more limited. But if you ever have multiple devices on one port, or want to see if you can make your devices charge faster, this is a great buy.
如果您正在寻找更多方法来利用您的USB-C端口，我们强烈推荐拾取一个USB-C docking station. This allows you to take the seemingly spartan connectivity of your new laptop and open up the ability to connect a plethora of devices. Of course, these hubs should definitely be used in conjunction with this power meter, so you’ll be able to prevent your battery from draining too quickly.
