Avoid Kaito products!

[alkwky]

Just an FYI for everyone out there. I recently added a Kaito KA500 Voyager radio to my equipment. It advertises a USB charger for cell phones and the such. I tried that function with my cell phone and mp3 player (sansa), and my devices either act like they're not plugged in, or they'll react for a moment and then stop, never showing the charging icon. My sansa even shows LESS battery power when plugged in, and sometimes shut off due to 'low battery,' but when I unplug it, it's back to the 50% it had before.

I contacted their customer "support" and this is the email exchange (read from the bottom up):

Wow, what high-class support there. Your radio doesn't charge my devices, my devices dont even register that they're connected to anything, and your solution is to use the AC adapters that came with the devices. My POINT is if there was a 'dire' (do you not have a spellchecker?) situation, your product would do NOTHING to help me.

This will be the last product I buy from your company, and I will post reviews everywhere I can find to discourage others from making my mistake.

--- On Thu, 11/5/09, Eddy LP <edlpz@kaitousa.com wrote:

From: Eddy LP <edlpz@kaitousa.com
Subject: Re: ka500 voyager question/problem
To: "EDIT@yahoo.com
Cc: kaitosales@earthlink.net
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2009, 2:12 PM
It's an emergency radio only not substitution for charging your devices.
It's a good workout if you want to use the radio to charge these items but I would suggest to use the charging devices that came with your MP3 and phone until you find yourself in dyer need for the radio. Unless you want to crank the radio for six to eight hours to charge them daily???

ED, LOPEZ
HISONIC, INTERNATIONAL
5185 CLIFFWOOD DR.
MONTCLAIR, CA 91763

PH#909-628-6088
FAX#909-628-7999

----- Original Message -----
From: "EDIT@yahoo.com
To: <kaitosales@earthlink.net
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:04 PM
Subject: Re: ka500 voyager question/problem

Nice to know, now what do you suggest I do to get my devices to actually charge?

--- On Thu, 11/5/09, kaitosales@earthlink.net
<kaitosales@earthlink.net

wrote:

From: kaitosales@earthlink.net
<kaitosales@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: ka500 voyager question/problem
To: "EDIT@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2009, 2:03 PM

Only when cranked...

ED, LOPEZ
HISONIC, INTERNATIONAL
5185 CLIFFWOOD DR.
MONTCLAIR, CA 91763

PH#909-628-6088
FAX#909-628-7999

----- Original Message ----- From: "EDIT@yahoo.com
To: "Kaito Sales" <kaitosales@earthlink.net
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: ka500 voyager question/problem


I set the switch to "out" as the instructions state to do. I tried it both ways just to make sure, and neither option worked. Is the radio supposed to charge
automatically when a device is plugged in, or only when the crank is being turned? When I would start to turn the crank the phone would respond as I said before, but only for a split second, then it goes back to normal, even with continuous cranking.

--- On Thu, 11/5/09, Kaito Sales <kaitosales@earthlink.net
wrote:

From: Kaito Sales <kaitosales@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: ka500 voyager
question/problem
To: "EDIT@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2009, 1:05
PM

Sorry for our late response.

There's a 2-position switch to select "in" or "out", which position was it at when you tried to charge your devices.

Lee
www.kaitousa.com | kaitosales@earthlink.net
| 909-628-6088 x206
----- Original Message ----- From: "EDIT"
<EDIT@yahoo.com
To: <kaito@earthlink.net;
<kaitosales@earthlink.net
Cc: "EDIT@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 10:15
AM
Subject: ka500 voyager question/problem

Hello, I emailed about two weeks ago and have not received a response. I have a question regarding the USB
charging feature of the ka500 radio. I have two devices that I wish to charge with the radio: a sony ericsson z750a cell phone,
and a sandisk sansa 3270 mp3 player. Both have a usb cable that I can charge them from my computer with.

I of course make sure to set the switch by the usb port correctly. However, neither of my devices will charge. The phone will briefly display the "Phone
ready to be used with computer" message when I turn the charging crank, but it does not charge while turning or not.

The mp3 player is very strange. When I plug it in and crank, it's battery icon actually drops. Once it even turned red and turned itself off, and as soon as
I unhooked it from the radio, it correctly displayed 50% power. I also found that if I have the player off and plug it in, it says "battery too low" and shuts back off, but
if I have it on and then plug it in, it behaves as I first said.

The charging abilities of this radio is one of the main reasons I chose it over other brands, but if it will not function, I am considering returning it. I
hope that this email gets a response, unlike my previous one.

Thank you.

I love smart ass customer service that doesn't actually answer a question... besides the usb function the radio seems to work fine, so I imagine I wont bother with the hassle of returning it. I didn't buy it direct from them anyway, so they wouldn't even know I returned it.

Anyone recommend a similar device with a USB charging port that actually works? I want usb so I can use the cables that came with my devices, instead of having to buy multiple tips that will only be used for the radio, be useless if I change phones/devices, and would do no good for guests/family/friends etc needing a charge.

[Jerry D Young]

I feel responsible for you buying the radio. PM me what you paid for it, plus shipping and an address and I'll send you a check to buy it from you so you can get something else.

[bruss01]

Ok, I'm not going to defend the level of customer support you received, that was simply inadequate no excuses there.

But I'd like to make a comment about the device. Not from specific knowledge about that particular device, but about generators and charging in general.

Ever have a bicycle with one of those generator powered headlamps? Notice how the light would be dim when pedaling slow, and get gradually brighter the faster you pedal? That is because the voltage the generator produces depends on how fast it is being turned. Low rpm=low voltage=low light. Hi rpm=hi volts=hi light. Anyway, when you put the charging line into your device (cell phone for instance) that line is now connected to the battery. The battery is always trying to push electricity out of itself in a certain direction, and when it has pushed all it has to give in that direction, it is dead, Jim. To charge it, you have to push electricity back into it, the REVERSE direction that the electricity went out of it while being used. Follow me so far?

Now, your crank generator is basically a long wire, wrapped up in a bunch of coils, influenced by a magnet, and when you turn the crank, either the wire coils or the magnet move, which causes an electric current to flow in the wire coils in a certain direction. The idea of charging is to create electricity with the generator and store that electricity in the device you want charged. But the situation is not like pouring water from one pitcher into another. It is more like trying to get a small creek to flow up hill by hitting it in reverse with a strong enough fire hose. See, if your cell phone battery is at 50% (let's say that it's producing 12 volts) and you connect it to the charger WITHOUT turning the crank, unless there is some circuitry involved to specifically prevent this, what will happen is that your cell phone is now pushing 12 volts into the generator (that long coil of wire) so the cell phone is running down pretty fast, as fast as the resistance in the wire coil will allow. So, you start cranking slowly and at a certain rate of speed (rpm) the generator is producing 3 volts. Which means, 3 volts in one direction, meeting 12 volts going the other direction, now your cell phone is only discharging at a rate of 9 volts, better but still getting you nowhere fast. So you crank harder, lets say you crank fast enough to equal the 12 volts. Now is the phone charging? No, it is still not charging because 12 volts in minus 12 volts out equals dead zero. You have to crank even faster and get up to 14 or 16 volts so that now electricity is finally flowing into the battery of your cell phone. And now you have to keep that up for the hour or two that it takes to fully charge your cell phone battery. WHEW! THAT GETS TIRING PRETTY FAST!

If you only need enough juice to send a quick text message, you don't need a full charge. Or if you rig up a bicycle or a windmill or watermill or some kind of mechanical device to do all that cranking for you, then you have a viable option. But to hand-charge these devices fully via hand crank? IMHO that is an infeasible approach, and I think even the manufacturer will admit this, stating that "sure, if you can crank for 5 minutes to get enough juice for a 10 second text message to go out relaying the coordinates you need to be rescued from, our device works in that kind of emergency". I don't believe they intend for it to be used in a practical prolonged "emergency" of the kind we think of here, such as grid down, day-to-day survival type situations. Don't count on having an hour's talk time from one of these devices from hand-cranking. Both your arms would fall off IMHO first.

[ghost_vendetta]

Guess I'll be in the same boat..

[cwillis]

I feel responsible for you buying the radio. PM me what you paid for it, plus shipping and an address and I'll send you a check to buy it from you so you can get something else.

wow, Jerry, you certainly are a great guy. taking responsilbility like that over the net.

good on you.

[TammyC]

alkwky,

I'm sorry about the bad experience with Kaito. But you did save me some$ because it's on my wish list at Amazon. Hopefully you can get some type of refund from them. Thank you for the review.

bruss01,

Thanks for the explanation of the crank device. I'd never understood how it worked before.

Tammy

[Cracker]

Bruss01, excellent description, gave some points that I'd never considered. Thanks!

[alkwky]

I feel responsible for you buying the radio. PM me what you paid for it, plus shipping and an address and I'll send you a check to buy it from you so you can get something else.

Wow. I certainly appreciate and was not expecting that, but it's not necessary at all. Like I said, everything else on the radio works fine, including charging it's internal battery from the crank, so it will suit all my needs besides device charging. I do wish it could charge them from the solar panels, which is probably the sort of thing I'll look into eventually for my devices.

Bruss... thank you for that. What happened with my mp3 player makes a lot more sense now. Apparently the radio doesn't have any circuitry in place to prevent it from sapping power from the things it's supposed to recharge.

[the watash]

If you want to really rattle them go to "thesqueakywheel.com" It has always worked for me, best 5 bucks you'll ever spend.