Transcript generated from the video audio for accessibility.

[0:00] ice ray from the Lovey RV and boat. So today I'm looking at it a really interesting gadget

[0:06] called the V Flex from a company called We're Wolf. So they contacted me about a month ago

[0:13] and asked if I'd like to test out their product. They didn't ask for a video where anything,

[0:18] just maybe give it a test and let them know how I like it but I thought it was an interesting

[0:23] enough thing for our viewers and boaters to do a video about. Basically what it does is

[0:29] it takes usbc and you're able to change the voltage to run say 12 volt devices. There

[0:37] are all sorts of different voltages but you know for our visa and boats we've a lot of us run

[0:41] on 12 volt systems. So it would be really handy to have something like that because a lot of

[0:47] devices that we use may have barrel connectors like a cylinder connector here and it can

[0:53] take the usbc that we can plug into portable power stations and things like that and it's

[0:59] able to take the normally five volts and we'll build a run 12 volt on a barrel connector.

[1:04] There's a little video about it there, a little device. So they did send me out a selection

[1:13] of their accessories and the device itself. Fair disclaimer, they didn't charge me for the

[1:20] product although I did have to pay some shipping at the border around 40 something dollars to get

[1:26] it across into Canada. But anyway there from the USA it looks like they have a shop in Green Bay

[1:35] Wisconsin here, Tundra Labs. So let's get a look at the stuff in real life. So here's the stuff

[1:45] they sent out. It starts with your main kit and has three of the flex devices in there on one

[1:52] side and then on the other side is an assortment of barrel connectors all kinds of different sizes.

[1:59] I can adapt to run different devices I have. Also a fairly long usbc magnetic coiled cord. It's

[2:10] kind of a neat thing and then there's a dual usbc charger ultra slim 70 watt and also a magnetic

[2:22] charger usbc power bank 5000 milliamp hours so you can charge that up and use it as a battery or

[2:34] you can put if the phone is capable of magnetic charging you can use it to charge up your phone

[2:40] and then I asked for this this is a kind of their DIY cord so it plugs into the V flex and then you have

[2:47] two kind of a snap plugs there, Wagonut type connector so you can put any type of wiring in it.

[2:57] It's going to be handy when I test cameras I do a lot of work for testing the rear view cameras

[3:03] and they have very tiny wires to kind of connect and test so we'll be able to set this thing up for

[3:09] 12 volts and be convenient to just plug it into a power station I'll be able to test the cameras

[3:16] and there was one other thing I got they have a really cool thing I didn't even know they had

[3:22] these. If you plug it into a usb and it gives you the voltage and current and wattage

[3:29] through this little device just sticks in line. Anyway I've opened up their app in Chrome and I'll show

[3:38] you how we can program the voltage so it starts off these are five volt like in standard usb c voltage

[3:47] but we'll build to plug it into my computer then I'll show you on the screen here how I can adjust

[3:52] that voltage there we go so I've plugged it into a usb c input on my computer

[3:59] connects and pops up showing it's set for five volts I can look at this little screen and it says

[4:05] 5.08 volts 0.08 amps I guess this draws a little bit just for the LED there and the LED shows blue

[4:15] so now we can go into the computer program here if I want to modify it

[4:21] so like that say I want to set it for 12 volts go to 12 and save now she should be set for 12 volts

[4:35] okay so I'll pop this out and connect it to that little power station and we'll see if we have 12 volts

[4:42] so I plugged it into the ubc usb c connector on the power station and it's showing green that means

[4:51] it's it's okay with that power station for converting the voltage if it was red or flashing or

[4:58] something there'd be an alert but it's all the green is good and you can see it says 12.1 volts

[5:06] cool now if I wanted to know the voltages that's supported by this outlet on this power station

[5:15] I'm able to run a scan using their software this is a newer update to their system

[5:20] just show you how to do that so the c connector says usb c 100 watts is its capability

[5:32] so we'll plug this back in to the computer here and that pops 12 volts now if I go into here and go to

[5:45] I think it's configure inventory add new device oh so you can go through and save different devices here

[5:59] and I do a takes a little database of what devices you own and stuff that's cool

[6:05] we can configure select power source create new power source no that's not what I'm looking for

[6:16] settings tools okay tools here it's like an update the firmware or the power supply scan

[6:23] use v flex to connect power delivery object data for a power source so we're going to scan

[6:31] go into scan mode place v flex into scan mode press enter to prepare the v flex for power supply

[6:39] scanning so enter scan mode waiting for disconnect okay so now it says connect v flex to power source

[6:55] I'm just going to plug this into here make sure it's connected now reconnect it into my computer

[7:05] just like so let's see is that okay so now the cool part it's found all the the voltages I can use

[7:18] so five volts at three amps nine volts at three amps 12 volts at three amps 15 volts at three amps

[7:25] or 20 volts at three amps so I could set all those voltages to run different devices

[7:31] so it's shown variable power supply pps for power station 3.3 volts to 21 volts

[7:40] equals five amps cool so I can go through all my different power stations and devices I use

[7:49] and kind of catalog what runs what and save it in a database neat just to check for firmware here

[8:00] this firmware is up to date so next I try to save it for 15 volts and you can see 15.1 volts

[8:10] so let's maybe try an unsupported voltage and see what happens

[8:14] okay so I've saved 30 volts this power station can't handle 30 volts before you can see okay it's

[8:25] flashing red and then it just defaults to five volts let's go through a typical use case for a

[8:31] device like this so I have this fan that is in the RV and boat for cooling and really likes this

[8:37] this little baby anyway it has a connector that's a cylinder shaped versus USB here so I have it

[8:45] wired in to the boat but somebody might want to use it with a power station so you could set this

[8:51] for 12 volts this is a 12 volt fan and set the little thing for 12 volts then it would convert from

[8:58] five volts to 12 volts and run your fan so I just have it plugged into this power station we'll just turn

[9:03] the fan on and turn it up a bit there we go and then on my little recording device I can see 12.1

[9:16] volts 0.45 amps and she powers the fan let's give it a try with this little power box here works fine

[9:37] so another use case for this is a lot of people might have the ones that convert AC to DC so you

[9:43] plug them into a normal wall outlet so say you're out dry camping you'd have to turn on your inverter

[9:51] and waste a lot of power it's very inefficient to run a little device off of a wall socket with

[9:57] this thing you could convert it and run it off of a USB which would be DC to DC a lot of RVs

[10:05] having little plugs on the walls that have USB connectors or small power station so in the end you

[10:11] could save a lot of energy while you're boondocking with something like that there's another use case

[10:19] for you this nice large sound bar say I wanted to plug it into my phone to play some music

[10:26] I could utilize this little device to change the voltage up to this thing takes 22 volts

[10:36] I looked at the back of the power plug here and it was 22 volts 1.8 amps so this power station said

[10:44] it can be 20 volts and up to 5 amps so it should work so I plugged that in I went into the app and set

[10:51] the the V flex for 20 volts and got my phone plugged in so let's place the music here here we go

[11:02] it's only drawing about two and a half watts at that volume so easily does it

[11:44] so that saves power because this would have to take the 120 volt AC and there's a transformer in here

[11:52] that converts it to a DC power so when you plug this in also this little box has a battery and has

[12:00] to convert into AC power run its inverter so there's a lot of power loss in that process just

[12:08] to run this when it's much more efficient to run it out of the USB-C because it is already it

[12:15] converts from the battery voltage in there to the 20 to 5 volt the 20 volt and then goes out and

[12:23] it remains DC power during the whole process much more efficient so saves you power when you're

[12:30] dry camping it's a closer look at the end piece here you can see it's keyed so these can only go in one

[12:38] way to maintain the polarity I noticed they're all center is positive and outside is negative

[12:47] which is pretty common for these barrel connectors but if you'd have to really check and make sure

[12:53] your device isn't a negative center and positive out or you could cause some problems I'm sure you could

[13:00] use the little DIY cable to set up something or contact the company and see if they have other

[13:07] cables and accessories there's a bunch of different ones they just sort of sent me their

[13:12] their basic kit so going forward you're going to see this device probably used in some of my videos

[13:18] when I'm doing repairs and tests and I'll you know looking at reviews of power stations I'll be able to

[13:24] kind of check out their USB-C ports see what they're capable of outputting and the meantime if you have

[13:32] any questions about it head over to their website I'll leave a link and check out the user manual

[13:38] here and have a bunch of different sections here about the product stuff you need to know there's

[13:47] a lot to do with the USB-C cables every cable is not made the same there's different wattages you

[13:55] can put through the different USB-C cables they're also a small business so they're ready to

[14:03] answer their emails for you if you have any questions about the product until next time

[14:08] Ray from Love You RV and Boat thanks for watching cheers guys