A Geek Goes Flying

Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter for DAC / Amp Connection Picked up a “used – like new” Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter , which is specifically recommended by, e.g., DragonFly (“[i]n our tests, Apple's Lightning-to-USB 3 Camera Adapter (with charging port) sounds better and is more reliable than Apple’s less expensive Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter, while also providing the ability to charge during playback”) and Schiit . Photos show, e.g., the DragonFly being used without external power, but mine won’t. In fact, basically nothing worked: Cannot Use Accessory AudioQuest DragonFly: This accessory requires too much power. Cannot Use Accessory SanDisk 3.2Gen1: This accessory requires too much power. The Schiit Fulla E, even when connected to a beefy USB-C power supply, just clicked in the headphones repeatedly, or every second would play a tone for a fraction of a second, click softly, go silent, and then repeat. Hooking up an external USB A to Lightning cable to provide po...

I have the AirPods Pro (first generation), and love ’em, especially with Comply Foam tips to keep them in my ears and enhance sound isolation (which helps with noise reduction). But keeping the replacement tips somewhere where I’d find them again - a challenge. So I picked up this UGREEN Square Earbud Case and a set of these Mini Pill Organizers to keep everything organized. It’s a tight fit but it works: AirPods Pro in UGREEN case with spare tips AirPods Pro in UGREEN case, showing pill organizer with spare tips I also have a pair of regular AirPods I got as vendor swag that I like well enough, and even moreso with these cheap silicon ear tips (without them, the AirPods will fall right out of my ears). Unfortunately, unlike the AirPods Pro, the AirPods won’t fit in their case with these tips on, so they have to be removed frequently. Which begs the question - where to keep them when they’re off? In another mini pill organizer, of course. I grabbed another one of the UGREEN cases ...

Hooked an iPhone 12 Pro up to an Anker PowerCore Fusion 10000 via an Anker USB-C to Lightning cable (through a Klein ET920 to measure performance). Started with the phone reporting 23% battery charge (the phone is about a year old and iOS reports the battery has degraded to 85% of its original capacity). The phone was kept on but unused, screen off, all radios (cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth) hot. The Anker charged the iPhone at about 18W (~9V ~2A) and after about 50 minutes, the phone is reporting 88% charge, charging has slowed to 5W (5V 1A) if not lower (I’m often seeing, e.g., 5.08V at 0.55A, about 2.8W), and 6 of the 8 “charge status” lights on the Anker remain illuminated. I can definitely live with those numbers. It took about another hour, and one more “dot” on the Anker, to bring the phone all the way up to 100% charge reported. The Klein logged 1343 mAh, and 9.925 Wh, of power transmission. The stock iPhone 12 Pro battery is a 10.78 Wh unit, probably closer to 9.2 Wh now. If 9....