If you’ve ever wanted to know how much power your USB port is getting, or how much energy has been stored or discharged from a USB device, you’ll need a USB power meter. This AT34 MakerHawk USB 3.0 Tester does just that, with a colour LED display and many useful functions.
This isn’t the first USB power meter I’ve gotten. My first one from Satechi is for USB Type-C ports. I was, at that time, more interested to test the power delivery on a variety of USB Type-C cables and chargers. The MakerHawk USB 3.0 Tester in this review is designed for USB Type-A. Comparatively, the MakerHawk USB 3.0 Tester has several more features than the Satechi USB Type-C one.
This model AT34 of the MakerHawk USB 3.0 Tester features a 0.96-inch colour display with high brightness and wide viewing angles. The display can be used to show state of charge, voltage, current, capacity, energy, power, equivalent impedance, temperature and other indications.
This tester supports voltage measurement from 3.7 V to 30 V, and current from 0 A to 4 A. This is above the maximum used in any standard USB power delivery.
A really nice feature is that the AT34 has power-off data storage, which is important for storing capacity and energy data when you want to continue measurement after power is cut off, or moving the tester from one device to another. This means, for example, you can have this tester measure the energy discharged from a larger power bank as it tops up the power from one mobile device or another mobile device.
There are many things you can use the AT34 tester for. One example is to see how well a USB charger can maintain its output voltage between no-load to on-load conditions.
The AT34 supports QC2.0, QC3.0, Android DCP, Samsung quick charging, and a variety of Apple charging protocols. This means you can quickly tell what mode is being used when charging your mobile device. Since it has a propwer USB 3.0 interface, you can also use the AT34 to test USB 3.0 connected devices operating in USB 3.0 mode.
Another convenient feature is that the AT34 can flip the display image upside-down, for easier reading in case the positioning of your USB port causes the display to be wrongly oriented.
This AT34 MakerHawk USB 3.0 Tester is available from Amazon at just S$19 with S$6.64 shipping (affiliate link). It’s a very convenient tool to help tell you what power you’re getting on your USB connection.
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