AZ Nomad wrote:
On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:54:16 -0500, The Daring Dufas wrote:
Believe it or not, the manufacturers have actually gotten together
to set a standard for chargers before the government does it for
them, that is everyone except Apple. It looks like it will be the
micro USB. It's something that needed to be done years ago.

It's only been possible with the advent of inexpensive dc-dc converters. It
used to be that if a device needed 3v or 9v for example, you had to have an ac
adapter that supplied 3v or 9v. You couldn't feed it the 5v from a usb and then
convert to the required internal voltage.

DC to DC converters have been around for many years and I think
it's more of a miniaturization problem than a cost concern. The
technology of putting it all on one SMD chip with a few outboard
components is a more recent development. I do board level repairs
on a lot of electronic gear and I've seen the converters get a
lot smaller as the years have gone by. The darn things used to be
the size of my palm.

TDD