I’m in the process of replacing my entire cable line up to be entirely USB-C & I am interested in perhaps getting something like volta spark cables. Has anyone tried these before?
I have tried a few. The ones with full connectivity had poor charging ability but the ones for charging only performed better. You should make sure to check the current they can handle before you buy.
I stopped using them on my phone but I still use them for my earbuds and a few other devices that I don’t need to charge quicker. I work around a lot of fine metal dust that would get into the charging plug, so that may be a consideration even if you don’t expect to be around metal particles(sand and dirt may have iron dust).
The Volta one’s a linked claims 100W charging ~ but I can’t find any reputable testers who’ve independently proven this. Is the slow charging speed the only reason for moving away from it?
The ferrous accumulation was an issue along with the charging.
I ended up only charging my phone wirelessly when I got a new phone.
I have a crappy no-name magnetic charger from Amazon for a couple of headsets. It’s really convenient.
From doing some research on this, I’ve come across this reddit thread. Is this something that worries you? And/or have you had any issues like described in the thread?
I guess it worries me now that I’ve seen it. I think I’ll keep using the connector though.
I only use the magnetic connectors for charging - I’m not sure if my headsets accept data in.
I haven’t had any issues. But I don’t have a strong emotional/financial attachment to the headsets, so I guess if one of them burned out I’d get over it pretty quickly.
I have used a few no-names and then some Volta ones. They are pretty good for charging and I’ve also used them for wireless mice or wired keyboards that traveled around a lot.
They work pretty well, I wouldn’t use them if I needed to transfer any data but I guess you could.
They will break if you dropped your phone directly onto a metal floor, but my phone was fine, so that’s nice.
They may also get little bits of magnetic debris attached to them, which will eventually stop them from connecting. You can brush that off with a toothbrush fairly easily. Might not happen if you aren’t working in a machine shop.
I bought a couple of these for my controller setup ages ago. All the USB C heads fell apart after taking them out a couple times.
Worked for the micro USB though…
Was it the new Spark ones or the Volta 2.0 ones?
Based on how long ago I bought them (and comments on the website) it must’ve been the original Voltas. They appear to be discontinued so maybe they realized the problem too.
In my experience the magnetic chargers are okay for low draw devices and not great for any type of data transfer.
Most of the magnetic cables I have around are used with legacy USB micro and lightning devices at this point. It’s nice not to have to keep track of multiple types of chargers for less commonly used devices. When I tried to use them with more USB I ended up losing a lot of tips because I would get frustrated at the lack of data transfer or slow speeds and take them off.
I actually rarely transfer data via USB-C ~ most of my usage is charging. But if the charging speed is slowed, that would be a dealbreaker for me.
