Mobile Phone Chargers

Dinomania · 22 Sep 2010 at 18:20

Just wondering (as I feel I ought to know this, but don't), if anyone knows how they actually work?

Are they:

a) Charging units, either trickling or streaming current to the phone for charging - i.e. are they smart, and do they push current?

b) Plain adaptors, making a voltage and maximum current available for the circuitry within the phone, which will itself regulate how much juice it pulls?

My thinking on this is because the micro USB connection seems to be getting more commonplace, and my Blackberry and Pulse use the same connection for charging/data, I should be able to use my charger/adaptor for both.

Well, I already have, and it seems to be OK.

The charger is the BB one, rated 5V and max 750mA - the Pulse spare is 5V and max 500mA - my thinking being that attaching the BB to the Pulse charger/adaptor might end up either burning out the plug unit (by drawing too much current) or doing something odd to the phone (which not getting the current it wants, might muddle voltage levels)....

...that correct? Is it all safe?

BullBoyShoes · 23 Sep 2010 at 12:52

(b). The phone circuitry needs intelligence to effectively charge the battery, e.g. voltage current temperature etc. The wall wart is just giving a source from which the charger can use.

Were you not the person who did electronic engineering or do I have you mixed up with someone else?

Redmelo · 23 Sep 2010 at 13:36

As far as I know any micro USB charger is fine for any phone, but don’t quote me on this.
At work I use a single HTC charger for any phone that uses micro USB (RIM, Nokia, SE, Samsung etc) and have not run into any problems yet.

If in doubt you could always charge via USB instead of a wall socket, since this should the safest, then again it can take much longer to charge your device fully.

By the way, it is thanks to the EU that micro USB is becoming somewhat mandatory – I’m curious to see if Apple will ever join in too.

Wicksta · 23 Sep 2010 at 14:18

Redmelo said:
By the way, it is thanks to the EU that micro USB is becoming somewhat mandatory – I’m curious to see if Apple will ever join in too.

I doubt they'd want to while people are dumb enough to spend £15 on a cable instead of 50p.

Redmelo · 23 Sep 2010 at 17:15

Hm.. it turns out that Apple also signed the agreement.

As of yet, the agreement is undertaken by such names as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Research in Motion who make the BlackBerry (which most BlackBerry devices already have this port - did RIM see this coming?), Samsung, and even Apple which make the iPhone. What is surprising about the last company is that this may cause the end and death of the almighty Dock connector.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/micro-usb-to-be-universal-eu-phone-charger/1964

Would be nice to know what excuse they have for not having implemented it yet.

kylew · 23 Sep 2010 at 17:25

Wicksta said:
I doubt they'd want to while people are dumb enough to spend £15 on a cable instead of 50p.

I've bought cheap apple iPod/iPhone USB cables from eBay that are just as good as the originals.

Dinomania · 23 Sep 2010 at 23:49

BullBoyShoes said:
Were you not the person who did electronic engineering or do I have you mixed up with someone else?

I was - while I may understand the technology being used, having not worked in the mobile industry, I can't be sure what mobile manufacturers tend to use - although I did suspect b) was the case.

Just started a PGCE in science/physics though, looking forward to making the whole breadth of science my business, as opposed to just one tiny anal-retentive section

Thank goodness for standards! RIM may well have taken the leading role in the standards discussion, or just chosen to implement it as soon as it looked like it was likely instead of waiting on an agreement.