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Any high-current (1.5A or more say) *folding-plug* USA power supplies?

I use my old Motorola mini-USB supplies and love 'em but would like something with more juice than the ~800mA they put out. Any suggestions? I can occasionally find a folding-plug power supply but then the max current is never specified
TIA,
Richard

Closest I know of is Boxwave's VersaCharger Pro which supplies 1 Amp, which I've found sufficient for charging my Tytn II.

3waygeek said:
Closest I know of is Boxwave's VersaCharger Pro which supplies 1 Amp, which I've found sufficient for charging my Tytn II.
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Yeah, that one is interesting - a little bulkier than I'd prefer. I have to do some testing, but I recently discovered my ~800mA Moto charger won't charge my APC USB battery when it's completely discharged. I've not noticed any issues with my Hermes or Kaiser, but I don't let them get to 0% and I usually can wait overnight when they're really low.
It was a pretty unhappy discovery that my current supply wouldn't charge that battery! Luckily I had my laptop along and it *would* charge from the USB port - which can probably supply 1A or more.
I'd like to get a nice 1.5-2A supply and at least *know* that I wasn't hitting a current limitation
Richard

rsolomon said:
I'd like to get a nice 1.5-2A supply and at least *know* that I wasn't hitting a current limitation
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I saw this Griffin Powerblock Universal at my local Staples, and the box said 5V @ 1A:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powerblockuniversal
That's a lot more the desired form-factor, but still shy of what I wanted.
I may snag one anyway just to see.
Richard

rsolomon said:
It was a pretty unhappy discovery that my current supply wouldn't charge that battery! Luckily I had my laptop along and it *would* charge from the USB port - which can probably supply 1A or more.
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Actually, most, if not all, computer USB ports are limited to 500 mA -- to get 1A you need a powered hub.

3waygeek said:
Actually, most, if not all, computer USB ports are limited to 500 mA -- to get 1A you need a powered hub.
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I'm not convinced of that. Yes, the spec is max 500mA and I've sometimes seen some machines pop up and complain about overcurrent on a port, but many other times not. I'm also not 100% convinced that all my laptop's USB ports are directly off the chipset - so there may effectively be a powered hub involved here. I guess I'll have to carve up a USB cable and put a current meter in there to answer the question one way or another - don't hold your breath on that one
Richard

A couple of things:
As far as USB port power goes, I've read up about this (forget why), but the USB spec DOES say that each USB port needs to supply at least 500mA... But in practice motherboard manufacturers tie the power lines of multiple ports together, so if a motherboard has 4 ports, the power bus will be connected to all of them, and it will supply at least 500mA x4, or 2000mA (2 Amps) total. There is generally no individual regulation of this however, so if you only have one device plugged in, it has the full 2 amps to draw from. Often other devices like mice or keyboards use so little power that there is plenty left for other peripherals to use well over 500mA even when all the ports are in use. This is actually a problem, as many product manufacturers get "lazy" and design products that actually NEED more than 500mA, especially things like bus powered hard drives, because those work on most systems (but frustratingly, not all).
As far as power supplies, i got curious, and here's what i found:
The exact power supply that comes with the tilt is about $8US from mouser in the US:
http://www.mouser.com/search/Produc...irtualkey55210000virtualkey552-PSA-A05A-050-R
it's mouser part number: 552-PSA-A05A-050-R
Sadly it doesn't fold and it also only provides 1A, so, here's some more stuff:
This part is similar but just has a USB port on it, so if you already have the data cable with you, the AC adapter won't take up much more space:
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/US/DKSUS.dll?Detail?name=T1003-ND
Now i'm really not having any luck finding exactly what you need, but if you're a bit handy you can wire a mini USB port onto another 5v power supply with more current output. I can't tell you which wires go where but if you have a multimeter and a soldering gun you should be able to figure it out:
here's a USB mini cable with wires coming off one end if you don't want to cut up a cable you already have: http://www.digikey.com/scripts/US/DKSUS.dll?Detail?name=WM17104-ND
And any good regulated or switching 5v power supply should be good. Here's one with 2A output, and it's described as "flip out", so i imagine the connector, um, flips out, but it's not a stock part so you'd have to call them, and i don't know if it's regulated or switching (either is good, i think), so you should ask: http://www.digikey.com/scripts/US/DKSUS.dll?Detail?name=T321-P5P-ND
an in stock, non-flip out one is here:
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/US/DKSUS.dll?Detail?name=T450-P5P-ND
If you custom wire one, test it on a less important device, just to make sure that it really will be okay, and don't sue me if it breaks something. Plus, i don't know how the kaiser feels about charging at more than 1A, since the stock power supply only provides that much current.
Also, another kind of plug is the "multi-plug" power supply, with removable plugs to allow for plugs from different countries to clip on, so rather than flipping out the plug, you could just unclip it, if you don't mind having 2 pieces. Here's one of those at 1.2A and $13US: http://www.digikey.com/scripts/US/DKSUS.dll?Detail?name=T946-P5P-ND
or 3.2A at $18US:
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/US/DKSUS.dll?Detail?name=T377-P5P-ND
But you might want to call HTC and talk to an engineer (they're hard to get a hold of, but i've been able to do it at other companies if you keep asking) and make sure that higher charging currents are okay.
And i really only checked mouser and digikey for these things, so it's possible that other suppliers might have something different, though they are two of the largest suppliers of this kind of thing in the US, so i'd be surprised.
You could even call CUI direct and speak to someone there, they're nice people and they might be able to make you a custom one for not too much (i doubt they'd do that for one unit, but if they already make something close they might!).
If you can't get what you need easily, try harder! Hehe.
-Taylor

Car Charger (Aftermarket or OEM?)

New pocketPC user. Got the Tilt a couple of days ago. First post, so forgive me. Very PC literate - still learning on the pocketPCs. Testing out ROMs now, thanks to all of you.
When I bought my case (Krusell), I just added on an aftermarket car charger (Fosmon). But I've been reading some of the posts about blown USB ports and a few other issues that seem like they could be power related. As a noob, did a ton of searching on the forum and can't find where anyone has given any opinions about aftermarket chargers. Part of me says stick to HTC or even AT&T brand because they are made for the unit (although an actual HTC is a pain in the ass to find and get shipped to me in Florida for an upcoming trip). Another part says they're all probably made in two factories in China and all I'm doing is paying more than twice as much for the same unit. Just don't want to risk having a problem on my new baby.
Any opinions?

I've been quite happy with my VersaCharger Pro from Boxwave -- works as a wall or car charger, and can put out the 1000 mA the Tilt needs.

Guilf said:
they're all probably made in two factories in China and all I'm doing is paying more than twice as much for the same unit.
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Bingo! I've used Audiovox(HTC), Motorola and Blackberry home chargers, Motorola and no-name car chargers, my work laptop and my home desktop and all have charged my Tilt with no problem at all.

I'm interested in this particular topic too !
It's actually quite hard to get the specs (current in A and voltage in V) for official car chargers ! (and quite hard for many chargers).
The official wall charger gives 1 A and 5 V.
It would seem that you don't find that many mini usb chargers providing 1A.
You can find some on ebay but then most would provide... 5.5 V... could that arm the Kaiser ? I wonder, if anyone's got an idea.
Going for a lower current would mean the charging would be much slower.
Some extra notes about USB car chargers. Usually they will only provide 500mA and you won't have them work well with a regular sync cable (usb <-> mini usb) except if you mod them by welding two pins in the mini usb part (look for more information on the hermes section of this forum).

Today I had someone tell me that the best option for a car is actually an inverter with a home charger plugged into it. They said that Li-Ion and other rechargeables aren't meant to be charged via DC and that's why they sometimes (albeit rarely) brick via car charging. However, an inverter will prevent that. Sounds like BS to me, but I am not knowledgeable at all. Thoughts on this?

Guilf said:
Today I had someone tell me that the best option for a car is actually an inverter with a home charger plugged into it. They said that Li-Ion and other rechargeables aren't meant to be charged via DC and that's why they sometimes (albeit rarely) brick via car charging. However, an inverter will prevent that. Sounds like BS to me, but I am not knowledgeable at all. Thoughts on this?
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I flag BS! The charging circuits for the li-ion batteries are not built into the charger itself. Its built into the device. The purpose of the plug-in chargers is to provide enough current/regulated power to run the device and charger it.

Power adaptors

Anyone seen where to buy extra power adapters? Be nice to have one with a longer cable. Stock one is very short.
Wish it was USB charged....
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/acer-iconia-tab-a500-forum/13840-chargers.html
Found another forum discussing the lame power cable.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App

I couldn't stand it anymore so I snipped my wire and added another 4 ft.

I have been trying to get an additional PSU and car charger for my Acer. Went to Frys, tried almost EVERYTHING they have on those Universal PSU and NONE of them work in the pin connector for the Acer. What gives!
Try to get a free tip for my Energizer Xpal and also result in zero search. Any fellows have a pointer to where in getting the right tip? Thx

So far the ONLY one that I have found that works is the Enercell 12 / 1.5 with the 'G' tip, but it's like $30 at RadioShack. The tip itself is a little long and if it wiggles it will stop/start charging off and on.
I'm working with a few people to find some at decent price for us.

anyone measured the dimensions of the charging tip at all? If worse comes to worse we could always buy a generic 12v 1.5a AC adapter from ebay and buy the tip separately to solder on.
The USB port wont be able to charge the tablet fast enough and the battery will still drain. I've found that this happens on my Xperia X10 mobile phone. I have to disable 3G data in order get it to start charging.

julz said:
anyone measured the dimensions of the charging tip at all? If worse comes to worse we could always buy a generic 12v 1.5a AC adapter from ebay and buy the tip separately to solder on.
The USB port wont be able to charge the tablet fast enough and the battery will still drain. I've found that this happens on my Xperia X10 mobile phone. I have to disable 3G data in order get it to start charging.
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The 'g' tip for the Encercell is 1.1mm x 3.0mm
Hope that helps

thanks for hte dimensions... unfortunately they don't sell that brand over here in Australia. I'm also reluctant to pay ~$30 for a charger.
I wonder if one of the round tips on this USB charger would fit:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/10-in-1-usb-powered-charging-cable-for-ipod-psp-cell-phones-34674
It may still charge if the device is switched off completely.

atomicwedgie said:
I couldn't stand it anymore so I snipped my wire and added another 4 ft.
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Yeah nice one, I was thinking of doing the very same thing as it should not cause any problems.
So did it go ok, what did you use for the extra wire?
________________________________________________________________________
ZTE Blade - Rooted OC 729mh - CM7 RC2 V/nice
Advent Vega - Rooted OC 1.4gh - Corvous5 rom gorgeous smooth and qqqick
Iconia A500 - Rooted - HComb Sweet

I can confirm the Radio Shack Enercell (12vdc, 1.5a) with the 'G' tip works. Picked one up today for $29 (get the tip for free) and its currently charging the Acer as I type this.
Tip: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3807935
Plug: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3807944&numProdsPerPage=60

MJ-12 said:
Yeah nice one, I was thinking of doing the very same thing as it should not cause any problems.
So did it go ok, what did you use for the extra wire?
)
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No charging difference at all except I don't have to have my face mashed up against the wall while it charges.
I used a piece of wire from an old 1amp charger I had. The extra piece doesn't even get slighty warm. 1.5 amps isn't all that much juice. I did solder the connetions too.

huh and it is only $10 for a new one.
http://us-store.acer.com/product.aspx?pn=LC.ADT0A.024

atomicwedgie said:
huh and it is only $10 for a new one.
http://us-store.acer.com/product.aspx?pn=LC.ADT0A.024
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Even at $10 it is grossly overpriced
Acer needs to offer a PS with a six foot cable that is not crazy thin like the stock PS.

rushless said:
Even at $10 it is grossly overpriced
Acer needs to offer a PS with a six foot cable that is not crazy thin like the stock PS.
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True story

Did a quick google on my powersupply PSA18R-120P.
Came up with http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/284284/PHIHONG/PSA18R-120P.html
or
http://www.phihongusa.com/html/pr_psa18r-120p.html
"The PSA18R-120P is priced at $10.23 per unit at OEM quantities"
Assuming they bought off the shelf:
DC Output Connector
2.1x5.5mm Center Positive Standard
For us australians: Going to see if I can visit Jaycar and will report back in with what I find.

Wal-Mart Car Charger
The Wal-Mart Car charger for portable DVD players works perfect.
a quick look at the wall power supply says that it it needs 12V at 1.5 amps with center of tip positive.
The Wal-Mart car charger puts out 2000ma (2amps), and has a tip that works.. It works PERFECT and it only costs 15 bux.
usb charging is out.. usb is only 5V at 500 ma (.5 amp).. not sure why everybody complains about wanting USB to charge their tablet. Even if they did add it, it would take so terribly long to charge it, you would get mad. With the proper charger and voltage, it only takes about 2-3 hours to fully charge the thing...
Good luck!

mikldom said:
The Wal-Mart Car charger for portable DVD players works perfect.
a quick look at the wall power supply says that it it needs 12V at 1.5 amps with center of tip positive.
The Wal-Mart car charger puts out 2000ma (2amps), and has a tip that works.. It works PERFECT and it only costs 15 bux.
usb charging is out.. usb is only 5V at 500 ma (.5 amp).. not sure why everybody complains about wanting USB to charge their tablet. Even if they did add it, it would take so terribly long to charge it, you would get mad. With the proper charger and voltage, it only takes about 2-3 hours to fully charge the thing...
Good luck!
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This has been a topic of discussions for a LONG time hopefully you'll know.... Couldn't there be a potential issue with charging at 2 amps when it calls for 1.5?? I was told you could use less but not ore without causing damage to the battery?
I have a 'demo' on the way from overseas to try that I should get Wednesday. I will let you know ASAP.
This is a big issue with me as I prefer a charger at home and the office and I'd like something that I can charge on my desk 'without my face mashed up against the wall' (as atomicwedgie so perfectly put it)

it2steve said:
This has been a topic of discussions for a LONG time hopefully you'll know.... Couldn't there be a potential issue with charging at 2 amps when it calls for 1.5?? I was told you could use less but not ore without causing damage to the battery?
I have a 'demo' on the way from overseas to try that I should get Wednesday. I will let you know ASAP.
This is a big issue with me as I prefer a charger at home and the office and I'd like something that I can charge on my desk 'without my face mashed up against the wall' (as atomicwedgie so perfectly put it)
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The Amp rating on wall chargers is what the charger is CAPABLE of outputting, not what it is always outputting. As long as there is current limiting built into the charging circuit (which is a must), then the charging circuit in the A500 won't pull any more amperage than it needs to charge. Don't worry about buying a higher amperage charger than is needed, but do worry about buying one that is lower as it can overload the charger.

silic0re said:
The Amp rating on wall chargers is what the charger is CAPABLE of outputting, not what it is always outputting. As long as there is current limiting built into the charging circuit (which is a must), then the charging circuit in the A500 won't pull any more amperage than it needs to charge. Don't worry about buying a higher amperage charger than is needed, but do worry about buying one that is lower as it can overload the charger.
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Absolutely correct.

silic0re said:
The Amp rating on wall chargers is what the charger is CAPABLE of outputting, not what it is always outputting. As long as there is current limiting built into the charging circuit (which is a must), then the charging circuit in the A500 won't pull any more amperage than it needs to charge. Don't worry about buying a higher amperage charger than is needed, but do worry about buying one that is lower as it can overload the charger.
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Yes... pulling too much amperage is a very bad thing.

Wireless charging

Has anyone looked at the following product for wireless charging (ala Powermat)?
It doesn't look like it outputs a lot of power, but for overnight / sitting on the work desk type of charging, it may be adequate.
www dot seeedstudio dot com/depot/wireless-power-supply-p-701.html
Would be interesting to see if it could be nicely integrated into a phone cover.
I think I will order one to play with even though I am not a developer or a hacker or anything like that!

I've seen charging coils like that hacked into existing devices. There are also, on the horizon, self contained batteries that have the inductive charging built in - upgrade any device to wireless charging! (any device with enough volume to justify making such a battery, anyway)

This definitely could work quiet well for that sort of application. I think it is a bit larger than you would hope but if you put a usb connector on the end I think it would work really well.

Yap, but there are limitations.
Loss of energy
Less efficiency
Low amp ratings
Interference
Bulky.
Goods are
Wireless
No need of conectors that opens to external world( for devices with built in coils)
No connector problems like damaged port,loose contacts etc.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using xda premium

giritrobbins said:
This definitely could work quiet well for that sort of application. I think it is a bit larger than you would hope but if you put a usb connector on the end I think it would work really well.
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That is the $64 problem! Trying to get USB connectors without the need to butcher an existing USB cable. Ideally, I would like to have a double ended USB connector - a male microUSB to plug into the phone, and a female micro or mini USB on the other end - to allow a USB cable connection between the phone or external charger. I know that I could buy from Digikey a male micro USB connector, and a female connector. But these connectors do not come with casings, so any use of them probably wouldn't look pretty without many hours of thought and effort.
I am assuming (without having this charger in my hands with the specifications) that I would probably need to have one or more diodes in-line with the receiver wires to stop external source current entering the receiver and possibly damaging it.
I haven't read up on Li-Ion cell phone batteries and how to keep them efficient. So I don't know whether these batteries can live long term on low current charging, or whether they would need higher current (as from manufacturer provided chargers) to provide efficient long term output.

Induction charging is being used in several applications already, like WII remotes and such. The problem is, as stated above ^^^^ I'm not really sure how lithium ion batteries stand up so such charging, (almost trickle). I know that the batteries used in Wii remotes are Nickel Hydride though.

DMPinBC said:
That is the $64 problem! Trying to get USB connectors without the need to butcher an existing USB cable. Ideally, I would like to have a double ended USB connector - a male microUSB to plug into the phone, and a female micro or mini USB on the other end - to allow a USB cable connection between the phone or external charger. I know that I could buy from Digikey a male micro USB connector, and a female connector. But these connectors do not come with casings, so any use of them probably wouldn't look pretty without many hours of thought and effort.
I am assuming (without having this charger in my hands with the specifications) that I would probably need to have one or more diodes in-line with the receiver wires to stop external source current entering the receiver and possibly damaging it.
I haven't read up on Li-Ion cell phone batteries and how to keep them efficient. So I don't know whether these batteries can live long term on low current charging, or whether they would need higher current (as from manufacturer provided chargers) to provide efficient long term output.
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I have heard rumours of the device killing batteries. It would be interesting to see how much of the power actually gets to the unit. The wireless power supply you linked in your OP shows a rating of 300-400 mA. That means the average battery would take 3-4 hours to charge from dead if all that power was indeed making it's way to the battery. Not really a trickle charge is all that power makes it to the battery.

All lithium ion battery assemblies have built in circuitry to prevent overcharging, overheating, and possible explosion/fire. The charge circuitry will turn off when fully charged and there's no penalty for topping off a LIon battery without discharging. Hacking a USB cable isn't all that complicated although may not be pretty depending on how well it's soldered together. There will always be a lump in the middle of the cable where the connections are made but you could use sleeving to hide it.

I tried an OEM non branded wireless charger, and after 6 hours of charging, my iphone's battery only increased around 20%...

Anyone tested this on Desire HD?

Anyone know if this will work/has tested on a Samsung Vibrant? Thanks.

I think this technology is still young, probably in 2/3 years it will be improved in its energy losses...

gebedias said:
I think this technology is still young, probably in 2/3 years it will be improved in its energy losses...
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I don't think time is going to make it more efficient. I think the trend in industry right now (specifically the WPC) is to define a standard, places where you would use wireless power are places where there is plenty of power.
There are a bunch of different companies that make wireless power solutions. I think that the best would be to hack together a QI compliant receiver to the USB port on your phone and then use any QI compliant mat for the transmitter.

Power on phone without battery

Anyone been able to turn on this phone and run it without a battery with permanent power?

Short answer: not possible.
Longer answer: You would need a pretty hefty engineering brain to figure this out, as the circuitry of the daughter board detects and adjusts the mainboards voltages and such, based on the battery output. When battery output is 0, meaning dead/removed battery, the daughter board doesn't supply voltages to the mainboard.
Now, you could replace the battery with a supercapacitor, but you'd need to have a pretty big one to output the current of a fully charged battery of the 6P - something around the 10kf mark, which IIRC from my university days, is roughly the size of 2 D-cell batteries or so. You'd then need to wire this all in, and even if you made it neat and 3D printed a new back, you went from a slim phone to a small brick. You'd also still need to provide current to charge the super capacitor, which doesn't use normal voltages like the charger and daughterboard can output, so you'd need to add in a voltage regulator board, wire that to the daughterboard, let the DB send current to the mainboard, and since this all outputs a lot of heat, now you run into a serious heating / cooling problem. Add a fan, a larger super capacitor to power said fan, and well, you now have something that looks like a bomb lol.
To touch further on the heat problem - my dash camera has a 10kf SC in it that I wired in instead of the crappy NiCad battery it came with. It was hot enough to keep the snow melted through the windshield on its own with 12v 1a current - roughly 20% of the current the wall charger of the 6p provides. It didn't keep the whole windshield free, rather, a spot large enough to let the camera do its thing without issue.

Thanks Wiltron for your reply. Doesn't seem worth it for me to go through that much trouble to be honest, besides, having something in your car that looks like a bomb these days will get me more attention than I want. I do have to say that I'm able to power the phone with just the charger connected, but up to a certain point, when the cpu spikes while booting it runs short of power and shuts off. Same thing when I'm fully booted into android, I disconnect the battery and it will stay running up to the point where I start some app or even just turn the phone on its side and the phone just goes dark. I'm thinking that the daughterboard does provide power to the motherboard without a battery, but just not enough. Do you think a heftier charger might overload the circuitry of the phone?

cbgreen said:
Do you think a heftier charger might overload the circuitry of the phone?
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It can provide as much current as normal operations permit, however just make sure the cable and charger are official and supported, like Benson certified cables and a decent quality car charger like Anker.
Don't go crazy with the 50amp 120v brick chargers for cars, but don't grab the cheap ass gas station 0.5a 5v 4 for $10 special either
Tronsmart has good ones - I use one personally that has the certified USB C cable built into it.. minimal issues other than the thing does get hot