Digital Power Unleashed

On Helping Raise Awareness for Universal Power

The responses to our thoughts on GSMA's recent news, and on bringing the world closer to a universal power standard, have been outstanding. Two recent examples are Gadgetell's post written by Heather Wood, and The Industry Standard's writeup, by Lincoln Spector. Thanks to them, and to the many others who are helping bring this issue to the forefront. 

In order to address some of the questions that have surfaced, I present my thoughts (originally pulished as a comment on the previously-mentioned Gadgetell post):

While the GSMA is standardizing both the power adapter connector and the cell phone device connector, Green Plug has taken an approach similar to what China mandated as law.

To sell a cell phone in China, that phone must get power from a power adapter that has a USB-A connector.  So phones can use whatever connector they want and still be able to interoperate with any standard USB power adapter.  All that needs to be device-specific is the power cord.

When you consider the vast number of device types, shapes and sizes (Bluetooth headsets, notebook PCs, digital picture frames, portable game controllers, etc.) we agree that it can take a while to standardize on the device connector.  That’s why Green Plug does not mandate a universal device connector, but does require the power adapter to use its innovative power adapter connector.

It’s innovative, because we license it free of charge and it accepts any standard USB-A plug. It also has extra power pins to enable it to power devices up to 180W each with a single power port - many times more power than USB provides for.

The Alliance for Universal Power Supplies will encourage the development of a universal device power connector. But, as you point out, that may take a while.  Getting the world to standardize on a reusable, convenient and interoperable power connector on the power adapter side, however, should not be difficult. That is why China took their approach, and Green Plug also focused on standardizing the power adapter side first.

Thank you again for helping make the world aware of how important it is to eliminate the unnecessary disposal of power adapters that are in perfect working condition, simply because they are incompatible with other products. This costs manufacturers money, consumers hate it, and it is bad for the environment.  

The change is simple.

Our thanks also go out to all of you, like MacsiumusNews,  The greeen frog from silicon valley,  and ZDNet's Heather Clancy who are helping to spread the word about I Want My Green Plug. Every vote counts.

Can You Feel the Tipping Point?

Have you ever wondered if you can actually feel the tipping point? That point in time when the momentum of a game-changing event has built up enough inertia to move a market?  Today, the GSMA at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona made an announcement that feels a lot like a tipping point.

Green Plug has long advocated the need for an open systems power interface to enable interoperability, reuse and to reduce  unnecessary parts like device-specific power adapters.  In a world with universal power, vendors save money, consumers have greater convenience,and harm to the environment is significantly reduced. 

Does anyone lose?  We don't think so.  In fact, the model that Green Plug advocates provides the platform for innovation in power monitoring and control applications.

What is significant about today's GSMA announcement is the fact that it validates the need for reusable, interchangeable power solutions for cell phones. This is relatively easy to do, since cell phones are all fixed 5V devices with little need to negotiate power requirements. But what about all those 6.5V, 9V, 12V, 14.4V, 16V, 19V, 21V and other notebook PCs, cordless phones, printers, game controllers, power tools, rechargeable toys, portable DVD players, digital picture frames, wireless routers, etc.?  How is a universal power source supposed to know how to dynamically negotiate the exact power requirements for each device connected to it?  That's where Green Plug's solution comes into play.  By default, Green Plug-enabled power adapters will power all the GSMA phones as well as just about any other electronic device.

China and Europe have validated that everyone wins when we have universal power.  Please help us send a strong message to consumer electronic manufacturers, and help make this a reality both in the US, and globally.

As always, we thank you.

Paul Panepinto is Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Green Plug. His will be a leading voice in this blog. You can email Paul, here.

Passionate About Universal Power? Yes, We Are

And it seems we're not alone. Thanks to Slashdot we've received over 2,000 new votes on I Want My Green Plug in under 24 hours, and hundreds of new supportive comments.  Some excellent points have been raised in the Slashdot comments, and we hope to address many of them, here, since due to a technical glitch we were unable to post on Slashdot.

On USB As a Universal Standard

USB is indeed a universal standard. It does not require voltage negotiation, since the voltage level is fixed at 5V. By default, Green Plug-enabled power hubs provide power to USB-powered devices. Green Plug also enables any load (electronic product) to safely accept power from any power source. 

E-Waste Can Be Drastically Reduced

Why is it that each electronic product must include a device-specific power adapter, resulting in billions of them being discarded as e-waste? It's because they all require unique voltages and have different maximum current levels. Ideally, homes and offices would have multi-port power hubs that dynamically adjust to the needs of electronic products connected to them. This would eliminate the need for product vendors to have to produce disposable, device-specific power adapters for each product shipped. 

Green Plug's Method 

There are several power adapters today that configure output voltage to the exact voltage needed by connected devices. Green Plug's method is unique in that the power negotiation is based upon digital communication. Not only can initial voltages be matched to connected devices, but smart power hubs can dynamically react to changing conditions. New monitoring and control applications are possible when there's two way communication between powered devices and their power sources. Green Plug's interactive communication model enables standby power shutoff and dynamic reconfiguration of output power based upon changing state of powered devices. 

Greentalk: Will It Become a Standard?

Someday, Green Plug's Greentalk protocol may become a standard. A non-profit industry consortium, the Alliance for Universal Power Supplies  has been set up to bring manufacturers and other stakeholders together to drive, develop and promote standards for the power supply and electronics products industry. Green Plug has only just begun working with major CE device manufacturers that all recognize that the existing one-to-one power model is broken. It costs manufacturers a lot of money to include power adapters in their products; consumers hate them (who doesn't have a drawer full?); and they are normally thrown away when they are in perfect working order. That's not sustainable and there is a better way. 

Our Progress

Green Plug is making terrific progress in its discussions with the most popular vendors. Decisions that affect hundreds of millions or billions of product units are not made quickly. Our first customer demonstrated an award-winning power adapter at CES, where we showcased several concept systems at CES that showed interoperable power. We've also begun working with influential organizations that see the potential for the new open systems power model. 

Licensing Process

Greentalk is licensed free of charge to qualified manufacturers of load devices (electronic products that consume power.) On the load device, Greentalk can run in an existing processor and in some cases can be implemented for no added cost. Even in devices that require hardware modifications to run Greentalk, the cost of implementing it in the load is a tiny fraction of the cost of an external power adapter. Even legacy devices can get power from a Green Plug-enabled power hub through a smart cable. If we could get beyond the chicken-and-egg scenario and imagine that smart power hubs are ubiquitous, product vendors could eliminate the cost of building, packaging and shipping external power adapters with their products. Everyone wins. 

What's Ahead

You can expect to see some announcements this year of major electronic product vendors incorporating the free Greentalk protocol into their products. We hope you will continue to support our mission by voting to encourage more manufacturers to adopt this technology. 

As always, we thank you for your ongoing support.

3,500 New Votes on Iwantmygreenplug.com over the 2/6-2/8 Weekend

We were delighted to see over 3,500 new votes on iwantmygreenplug.com and hundreds of new well-written supportive comments, thanks to a posting on Slashdot.  We tried to respond to the posting on Slashdot, but the page is filled with javascript errors and won't publish our comment.  Anyone know if there's a workaround for this problem?

There were approximately 4,500 votes on the iwantmygreenplug.com on Friday, February 6th and as of right now there are 8,061 votes.  For everyone who's voted thank you for your support!

Unfortunately our web server was not set-up to handle such a huge influx of traffic and we sincerely apologize to anyone who experienced a site that was slow to respond or otherwise couldn't vote on www.iwantmygreenplug.com We are moving the site to a server that can handle many more simultaneous connections and you will find that the site is much quicker to respond within a week.  Please do keep telling your friends and family to vote on www.iwantmygreenplug.com just ask them to be patient while we complete this server migration.

Here are my top 10 favorite comments from over the weekend (in no particuclar order). 

1. "This is not only green - it is also the only clever way. Manufacturers not supporting are demonstrating lack of both customer and environment focus...".

2. "That's a great idea indeed. Battery operated devices are supposed to help one with mobility. But the variety of their chargers and/or adapter bricks is just hindering it ! Good luck with your project !".

3. "Having a universal power adapter has been far too long in coming. Having a multitude of different power adapters is an expensive and wasteful for the end user. I am tired of having to carry a pile of power adapters every time I go on a trip. And there have been several times that I’ve had to spend $30+ for a missing/broken adapter simply because of it having a proprietary connector and/or power requirement."

4. "Ever try finding the adapter to rogue electronics at 3 in the morning?"

5. "I want this as a standard! I will not by another device until this is available. I have tossed hundreds of dollars into my junk basket due to dead power adapters and/or devices ruined by inadvertent mismatched power adapters."

6. "I have a closet full of chargers. Worse, they're the cheap, inefficient type. We need a universal, efficient power supply to help save electricitry and $$$. One plug (even if it's expensive) would be a great solution. Manufacturers wouldn't have to include it in their product, lowering the price of electronics."

7. "I dream of not worrying about which charger I bring with me when I travel."

8. "Just like the late Douglas Adams said in his writings entitled 'Little Dongly Things', there is no need to have so many adapters! It is *not* consumer friendly at all! Traveling and mobility, in essence what the majority of these devices are for, becomes infinitely more cumbersome, let alone even having an appropriate number of wall outlets to handle these plugs. And none of that even addresses the environmental impact of the existing design. Simply put, the current way of powering things is flawed. The older design is flawed. There needs to be a change. I believe GreenPlug represents that change (...and I also wish that last statement didn't sound so much like a political speech! [lol])"

9. "Consumers should not be held hostage by those that produce the equipment we all use. Choosing components with interchangeable parts has been and will be a criteria when deciding on technology purchases for me and my company."

10. "I'd like not to need to keep around a box of power supplies just in case."

You can see the rest at iwantmygreenplug.com/comments.php

Thanks again for all your votes and comments!