A US firm’s new programmable dongle, VFLEX, offers a custom solution to power older devices like retro consoles and external drives through USB-C, requiring user setup for safe operation.
A small programmable dongle from the US firm Werewolf is aiming to make it easier to power older gadgets through USB-C, including retro consoles, external hard drives and monitors that still depend on barrel-jack connectors. The device, called VFLEX, acts as a voltage negotiator: it uses USB-C Power Delivery to request the output needed for a particular piece of equipment, then feeds that power through the correct barrel connector, which is sold separately. According to Smartworld, the unit costs about €8, while the matching connector is priced at roughly $4.
The setup is not entirely plug-and-play. Before it is used with a device, VFLEX must first be connected to a smartphone over USB-C and configured through Werewolf’s app. That app lets users save profiles for different devices, scan a charger to see which voltages it supports and choose the right combination with a tap. The dongle stores its settings in non-volatile memory, so they remain available between uses. But the system still relies on the user choosing the correct voltage, and the margin for error is small: supplying the wrong power to vintage hardware can damage it quickly.
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