My thoughts and discoveries on how Amazon now uses proprietary AC adaptors on their echo dots.

Posted on January 7, 2019
A month or 2 ago, I read that the new Amazon Echo Dot third generation model no longer was powered from micro USB, but now required a proprietary AC adaptor, I remember the old days when every device had its own AC adaptor,  those were frustrating times. I then got my own Amazon Dot third Gen model, and was annoyed. Then, three weeks ago I read some tweets where others were also annoyed, and questioned why Amazon made that change. I then realized, hey I have an iDevices switch and it can measure energy, so I decided to do some testing and find out.
When  idling, the Dot 3rd Gen model draws about 1.8 watts. I then played Beethoven’s 5th symphony at full volume and could only nudge the Dot up to 3 watts, even in the moments marked fortissimo .  If someone could double that some how, so the Dot drew  6 Watts, or even triple it to , 9 watts, that would still  fit in the generally accepted ceiling of 15 Watts on micro USB 3.1. Yes, even the Amazon Echo Dot third generation can run on micro USB, so it is not a technical limitation.
My thoughts are that people tried to power their new Dots from USB ports on their computers or old USB hubs, where they only got the traditional USB specification of 5.0 volts at 500 milliamps which only multiplies out to 2.50 watts. I’m guessing Amazon got lots of nasty calls when people tried to play music and had problems. They decided instead of trying to tell people that the Dot required 1 amp or throwing in a USB power adaptor they just went proprietary.
Ye it’s still annoying, but I also still enjoyed figuring it out.