Home » Kickstarter: Helix – A clever charger or just a hoax?

Kickstarter: Helix – A clever charger or just a hoax?

So, as we often do, we got an email from somebody who has just started a new Kickstarter project.

Hello

I am starting a Kickstarter Project named Helix,would be lovely if you could take a look and maybe if interested,write about it.
Helix is a charging cable that use Level Shift Technology that convert the input of the voltage to an output voltage that is higher than the input voltage, thus increasing the charging speed. Thanks to the chip implanted.
Check Out more with the link below 🙂

Regards
Tomi- Helix Team

So we checked the video out, but something didn’t feel right.

Normally, to be able to charge something faster, you need more than just cleverness. You also actually need more power.

Let me rephrase. If you want to charge your phone faster, yes a higher voltage would be good, but charging is all about current. In fact the word current translates to rate of flow of charge. Voltage encourages charge to flow, but it is the current that actually fills in.

Normally, most chargers are current limited. A computer’s USB 2.0 port is limited to 500mA. Many chargers give you something between 1A to 2.1A. As such, when this is connected to a device, it will only put in this amount of current. If you shifted the voltage, more power or energy cannot be produced. It has to come at a cost, and that cost in this case will be current (or charge). Ohm’s Law and all that.

Anyway, I thought I’d check. So I emailed Tomi.

Hi Tomi,

Are you telling me that a USB port that is designed to give you 10W of power (5V/2A) is somehow giving you more because you shifted the voltage?

Best,

Sami

Tomi took a little while to get back, but he did reply.

Hi Sami,

We totally understand that there are tons of scam and products that claim to have fascinating functions, however , please give me a chance to explain our product.

What makes our Helix charging cable special is that the chip implanted is capable for 2 functions. First, the chip detect the maximum voltage input that the phone’s battery can take , then using Level Shift Technology pushing the voltage to a maximum level of 9v if the input is sufficient,otherwise If the input isn’t sufficient for the it to push to ideal level of 9v , it will stabilize the incoming voltage and thus providing a stable charging. Since the chip require to deal with a huge amount of voltage , heat are meant to be and thus as an consideration , we have used aluminium for the chip plating to provide a better cooling effect.

Although it is quite similar to what we have now as quickcharge, but since the quickcharge right now is dependent on the USB port on the specialize plug. What we are offering is actually a charging method that does not require that specialize plug, let’s say maybe a charging USB port at the airport, a computer and places that does not provide a full socket for you, charging can still be fast like a quickcharge.

Lastly, you might have already watched our testing video, as mentioned above, we understand your worries , but rest assured that we didn’t make any adjustment just for the quick result.

Feel free to contact me if I can provide any further help.

Best,

Tomi – Helix Team

To which I said:

Hi Tomi,

Thanks. I understand the voltage shifting, and have no concerns there.

My concerns come from the current limitation of USB ports. Can you comment on that aspect too?

Best regards,

Sami

And then Tomi came back saying:

Hi Sami,

It has nothing to do with the limitation of USB port as we are not trying to extract more voltage or current from the USB port , since what we are doing is that we push the V to 5 ~ 9w while lowering the current .
like mentioned above , it’s actually similar to the quickcharge just that we put the trick into the cable instead of plug. Does this answer your question?

Cheers

Tomi

At this stage I stopped responding.

Is it just me, or is Tomi really pulling our leg?

On the upside, the Kickstarter only has 5 days left and has only achieved about 5% of its target goal.

What is the most interesting or most clever Kickstarter you have ever seen? Have you seen any that seemed like scams?

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