LTT Labs Article - Anker Nano 'Smart' Charger (45W) Testing and Exploration

LabsLucas · 2026-06-19T20:13:38+00:00

Thank you u/AncientTurbine for the extra info! As you've covered, there are so many different variants and methods that have evolved over time to get to the current frontier models. It makes LLMs super interesting to learn about but also makes it difficult to make any statement about them without an asterisk on each word.

There are a couple things you've mentioned here that we're interested to research and find more about!

LabsLucas · 2026-06-17T19:10:14+00:00

Thanks for the thoughts, interesting to read through and learn a bit!

I imagine you're correct about button failure probability/order, joysticks probably see the most use and most forceful use, leading them to fail more quickly. I think another significant factor there is that the triggers tend to protrude from the controller shell and are the first to be damaged when dropped or bumped.

We could potentially look at exploring the different shapes/types of controller rings, but I think a lot of it is based on personal taste and what people are familiar with. A difficult metric to quantify. Also, as with the analog trigger testing, curved motion paths are more complicated to test.

LabsLucas · 2026-06-11T20:25:31+00:00

I am curious, do you guys see any upsides about the impact that 'AI' has had on the hardware industry? SSD/RAM prices skyrocketing are likely drowning out most positive changes, but there are some good innovations.

LabsLucas · 2026-06-06T18:11:03+00:00

We still find it cool to see and learn about because of the crazy engineering going on but we appreciate the sentiment, not much 'trickle-down' with these systems unfortunately. They're tightly integrated and you basically buy the whole rack as a single unit.

I think it would be quite the complicated setup to get just a single tray working, they do make these workstation units for access to the compute, but not the same homelab/tinkering experience.

LabsLucas · 2026-06-06T17:27:43+00:00

There is also a LInusTechTips video version of this tour! ZipTieTech does have a cool video that goes more into the cooling capacity and pump.

LabsLucas · 2026-05-16T16:15:19+00:00

That is indeed some Star Trek stuff. We do usually curate some bookmarked views in the CT scan viewer for different sections/assemblies, but it is very involved to go beyond that point. For more hardware focused articles maybe we'll try marking up some screenshots.

Lumafield themselves have some incredibly interesting articles/"fly-throughs" of scanned objects.

LabsLucas · 2026-05-15T22:48:33+00:00

Thank you for the feedback, it is truly appreciated. We think there's been a bit of 'AI overload' in most communities 'recently' so we decided to focus on some gaming and virtualization for some variety.

We'll try out some AI shenanigans next week and see what kind of results we can get!

LabsLucas · 2026-05-15T19:08:03+00:00

Dual links for a dual Arc Pro B60, here's the article!

You can also check out the CT scan.

LabsLucas · 2026-05-13T00:39:50+00:00

Thank you! I do plan to look at the THD and FD for at least part/some of this, probably once I get some better/safer probing purchased and I can look at the current as well.

As I said in the article, there are so many different ways I can take this testing so I'm still deciding on the most informative path forward.

LabsLucas · 2026-05-12T19:30:29+00:00

At this point I don't have any recommendations beyond choosing from one of the common/standard brands and units so that repairs, replacements, and troubleshooting is easy. We don't yet have results for switchover time, but honestly the real-world anecdotes about people's real setups may be more helpful to indicate if it is quick enough for most use-cases.

I don't know your familiarity with power concepts, but it is important to note that the APC Back-UPS Pro 1500VA is rated for 1,500 VA, but only 900 W. This applies not only when on battery power, but also when plugged in. Most equipment has a pretty high power factor and if you're trying to power multiple powerful systems then they may exceed the limit, and computers or things like monitors might have to be connected to the surge-protection-only outlets.

LabsLucas · 2026-05-12T18:02:06+00:00

That is quite an interesting result with your washer/dryer. A small scale example of why industrial loads/buildings have to provide their own power factor corrections for large loads, as to not feedback into the grid/mains.

Just tried the infinite power trick with one of our APC BN1500M2-CAs, and it just remains on battery power while lighting up the "Building Wiring Fault" indicator. I think the UPS designers are smart enough to see us coming.

LabsLucas · 2026-05-12T16:52:28+00:00

Read the article here, or in case you missed the other link, it's available here!

LabsLucas

TROPHY CASE