which Car 12v charger charges as fast as home charger?

[Firon]

You need a charger that will pump out 1A.

[mycophiles]

I work at an electronics store that sells a lot of chargers for all types of electronics. People come in and say " will this work for ** ".

Here's the rundown of what you need to know if your going to get another charger etc:

The charger that comes with the phone is DC Power 5volts and 1Amp.
Those are our guidelines when we are looking at in a new charger.
Note: If you can't find a charger that is exactly 5 volts here's what you need to know. Most manufacturers don't even test out thier products. (case in point it's general knowledge that the boards of phones run on 6volts) But, like I was saying a lot of manufacturers won't even test the variable Voltages that the phone can run on. Sometimes with electronics a device that is rated to run/charge on 5 volts will work anywhere from 4.5 to 5.5 volts. So if you find a charger that is 4.5 volts or 5.5 volts it will probobly work. (disclaimer: When your looking at volts and amps the thing that will "burn your board" is the volts. You can't put 12volts to a 5volt device. It will burn your board. I'm just talking about rating here. It's best to get a 5volt device because that's what the manufacturer says. It's ok to go under (might not work) but go over at your own risk.)

Ok, so you have a 5volt device. What about Amps. Will 800milliamps work or what about 1200milliamps (1.2amps)? Lets look at what Amperage is first. Amperage is the amount of Potential electricity that is available. (to explain we'd get into some physics so just take it at that) Your phone draws 1amp of electricity. So back to the question will a 5v 1200milliamp power supply (power converter, transformer) work? Yes. The phone will only draw the 1amp (1000 milliamps) of power from the converter. So will a 800milliamp (.8 amp) converter work. The answer is maybe maybe not. You can try. It's not going to burn your phone up (as long as the converter is 5v) but it might not turn on.

Ok, so what's this about "good power converters" and "bad power converters". When were talking about phones or computers this isn't a concern. (some sound recording people need very good power converters but not you guys) People say, "get a good power supply" and what they technically mean is get a power supply with a lot of Amperage. When you have a device that pulls a lot of amps (what this does) is it allows you to attatch more devices (in series) to the converter because it allows more amps through it. If your just powering your phone a regular old power supply will work.


OK, So what about charging your phone in your car? Well, the battery in your car is putting out DC power. So all you need to do is have a plug to plug into your cigerette lighter (continue reading). Be aware though that this is still 12volts coming out of that adapter. You need to bring that 12volts down to 5volts. There are adapters out there that do this directly from the cigerette lighter. Your best bet is finding one online but you can also shop around and you might find one at an electronics store. Many people, because of convienence use a DC to AC adapter and then plug in thier charger into that adapter. Of course this works but its a bit unnecessary. Your going from DC to AC then back to DC again. I wouldn't do this as a long term fix.

OK, one more thing. What about the plug. "I found a 5v 1amp dc adapter but the plug on the end doesn't fit." Can you fix this? This is kinda a grey area for me because I've never personally seen an adapter like we have on our power cables that is solderable. Most power adapters have a positive and ground on them and if you get the right kind you can solder them on and it looks brand new. I'll have to look into this. EDIT: There are power supply's that have transferable tips. They are more expensive but they usually come with variable volt options so you can use them on more than one device.

[Fuzzy Wuzzy]

I use my TomTom charger with my Mogul, the home charger is 1amp/hour while the TomTom charger is 2amp/hour.

I use a 850mA ( Which is .85 of an amp ) charger that came with my Holux M1000 GPS unit. It seems to work just fine for me.

[BigDinCA]

While I don't work at an electronics store, I do have a degree in the subject. There are some basic properties you should know about concerning the connector to your phone, and any phone that uses a USB connector (mini, micro, A or B). The USB standard, which is what the HTC ExtUSB connector is based on, limits the voltage on the connector to a maximum of 5.25VDC. Current is a maximum of 1.5A. Understand that electricity is like waterflow, basically. Voltage is the same as the pressure in the pipes and current is the same as the amount of flow. Too much of either will burn up your electronic components.


The wall-charger that came with your phone outputs 5VDC @ 1A. Any car charger that has the miniUSB connector will output the same voltage, but the current is what determines the amount of time it takes to charge the battery. I use a standard USB-miniUSB cable and plug it into a USB adapter that I bought at Autozone. If your kids have car chargers for their NintendoDS or PSP you probably already have one of these. They have standard USB connectors on the end instead of a cord with a connector on the end. These devices automatically drop the output voltage to 5VDC to adhere to the USB standard.

I have a Mogul and my wife has the Touch. She used to have a RAZR and the charger has the same miniUSB connector. The Moto charger works fine, but only supplies 550mA (.55A) so the charge time is a little longer. The cable I use doesn't pull quite a full amp, but I am in my car for long periods of time so a slower charge still gets me charged in full for the day. I prefer a slower charge anyway, to extend the battery of the Li-ion battery. I also use the Moto chargers at home because I've bought 4 of their BT headsets over the years and, again, they have the SAME CONNECTOR. Also, a lot of the iPod car chargers are basically standard USB cables and cigarette lighter adapters.

Pay attention to the current output of the charger you use and basically the more current it puts out, the faster charge time. Again, the maximum current that a USB connector will push is 1.5A, but your phone is rated take 1A only.

BTW, a "good power supply" is one that provides clean DC voltage without letting AC ripple or noise intrude on the voltage line. Also, you don't connect devices to a power supply in series; devices are plugged into a power supply in a parallel configuration. If it's in series, that means each device's current draw would have to pass through the device before it and inevitably all devices would be technically plugged into the very first device. If you did that, the first device would basically be passing ALL of the current that the other devices use.

[mycophiles]

sorry for my mistakes. I really do know the diff. bet series and parallel.

the info about the usb cables is good stuff thogh. good to know.

[dkincaid]

The other thing you could do is get an DC -> AC inverter and just charge with your regular charger. Might be a little clunky, but it certainly will work faster! I have one of these in my truck and it comes in handy quite a bit.

[coodaddy1]

I'll tell ya what I did. I went to game stop and bought their psp car charger for 10 bucks. It terminates with a usb port, so anything with a usb-type cable will plug in and charge. It charges the Mogul in a little over an hour, so it's output is close to the ac wall charger. I also charge my zune, my wife's zen, the sons' psp and daughters' DS with it. I highly recommend it.

Coodaddy

[rhannahs19]

Originally Posted by muyoso

Then again, that means you have to shop at radio shack, YUCK.

i work at radioshack, and its pretty tight... most of the people who work t here know what they are doing... a lot better than a best buy or a circuit city

[cuse94]

I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night and what I did is buy a car adapter with two usb slots. That way I can use any ole usb cable to charge my Mogul and still have a spare slot to charge up something else.