I have a mobile phone like device I need to occasionally re charge in the
car. I have tried charging it with a "charge any phone" universal car
charger I already have and although it does charge it does so very slowly.
Does anyone have experience with one of these things that will charge more
quickly? I have thought that an inverter and the mains charger might solve
the problem, and Aldi have them on offer next week.
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...11-05-13-12-24
I would rather have a dedicated in car charger that can live permanently in
the car though, then it is more likely to be there when I need it.

Mike

MuddyMike wrote:
I have a mobile phone like device I need to occasionally re charge in the
car. I have tried charging it with a "charge any phone" universal car
charger I already have and although it does charge it does so very slowly.
Does anyone have experience with one of these things that will charge more
quickly? I have thought that an inverter and the mains charger might solve
the problem, and Aldi have them on offer next week.
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...11-05-13-12-24
I would rather have a dedicated in car charger that can live permanently in
the car though, then it is more likely to be there when I need it.

I've got a few "mobile phone like devices" which I often need to charge
while I'm away from the mains. Most makers have a dedicated car charger
available, while for the HP iPaq PDA, there is a setting in the power
menu which lets me select whether I want a fast or slow charge from USB.
The maker's unit will charge it in a hour or so, while USB takes a
couple of hours at least.

The main problem with charging from USB is the current limiting which is
set down in the standard. 500mA is standard, while some sockets can
provide 1000mA if the connected device sends the right handshake. The HP
charger provides 2 Amps, all at 5 Volts.
--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On 13-05-2011 12:52, MuddyMike wrote:
I have a mobile phone like device I need to occasionally re charge in the
car. I have tried charging it with a "charge any phone" universal car
charger I already have and although it does charge it does so very slowly.
Does anyone have experience with one of these things that will charge more
quickly? I have thought that an inverter and the mains charger might solve
the problem, and Aldi have them on offer next week.
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...11-05-13-12-24
I would rather have a dedicated in car charger that can live permanently in
the car though, then it is more likely to be there when I need it.

Mike


Just get yourself a car2USB adapter and connect your device using it's
USB cable. The benefit of this is that it is a simple and neat solution
that sits flush with the dashboard and will allow all sorts of devices
to be charged using their USB cable. No need for a number of dedicated
chargers

I use one of these which can be had from Amazon etc.

http://www.cygnett.com/products/conn...power_mini.htm

I think it can deliver up to 1 or 2 amps.

On May 13, 12:52*pm, "MuddyMike" wrote:
I have a mobile phone like device I need to occasionally re charge in the
car. I have tried charging it with a "charge any phone" universal car
charger I already have and although it does charge it does so very slowly..
Does anyone have experience with one of these things that will charge more
quickly? I have thought that an inverter and the mains charger might solve
the problem, and Aldi have them on offer next week.http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...8.htm?WT.mc_id...
I would rather have a dedicated in car charger that can live permanently in
the car though, then it is more likely to be there when I need it.

Mike

I've not used this brand but have used an inverter and mains charger
in my car with no ill effects and it does seem to charge quicker than
using USB (as John says below - it's all down to the current that is
supplied standard USB 500mA but the mains charger supplies double
this).

"Rob" wrote in message
...
On 13-05-2011 12:52, MuddyMike wrote:
I have a mobile phone like device I need to occasionally re charge in the
car. I have tried charging it with a "charge any phone" universal car
charger I already have and although it does charge it does so very
slowly.
Does anyone have experience with one of these things that will charge
more
quickly? I have thought that an inverter and the mains charger might
solve
the problem, and Aldi have them on offer next week.
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...11-05-13-12-24
I would rather have a dedicated in car charger that can live permanently
in
the car though, then it is more likely to be there when I need it.

Mike


Just get yourself a car2USB adapter and connect your device using it's USB
cable. The benefit of this is that it is a simple and neat solution that
sits flush with the dashboard and will allow all sorts of devices to be
charged using their USB cable. No need for a number of dedicated chargers


I have tried a car usb adapter, and even tried a different lead bought for
the purpose but this device does not charge from the USB lead at all, not
even when connected to the PC, Only from its dedicated mains charger, or as
I have said very slowly from the universal phone charger.

Mike

On May 13, 12:52*pm, "MuddyMike" wrote:
I have a mobile phone like device I need to occasionally re charge in the
car. I have tried charging it with a "charge any phone" universal car
charger I already have and although it does charge it does so very slowly..
Does anyone have experience with one of these things that will charge more
quickly? I have thought that an inverter and the mains charger might solve
the problem, and Aldi have them on offer next week.http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...8.htm?WT.mc_id...
I would rather have a dedicated in car charger that can live permanently in
the car though, then it is more likely to be there when I need it.

Mike

Some cars have the power socket permanently powered, whether the car
engine is running or not. Others cut power to the socket.

If your car is the former type, be careful to unplug your inverter -
they can still suck a fair bit of juice with nothing plugged into them.

In article ,
"MuddyMike" writes:

I have tried a car usb adapter, and even tried a different lead bought for
the purpose but this device does not charge from the USB lead at all, not
even when connected to the PC, Only from its dedicated mains charger, or as
I have said very slowly from the universal phone charger.

What's the output rating of the dedicated mains charger?
Does it connect to the device's USB port, or a dedicated connector?

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In message
on Fri, 13 May 2011 12:43:04 -0700 (PDT)
wrote:

On May 13, 12:52Â*pm, "MuddyMike" wrote:
I have a mobile phone like device I need to occasionally re charge in the
car. I have tried charging it with a "charge any phone" universal car
charger I already have and although it does charge it does so very slowly.
Does anyone have experience with one of these things that will charge more
quickly? I have thought that an inverter and the mains charger might solve
the problem, and Aldi have them on offer next week.http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...8.htm?WT.mc_id...
I would rather have a dedicated in car charger that can live permanently in
the car though, then it is more likely to be there when I need it.

Mike

Some cars have the power socket permanently powered, whether the car
engine is running or not. Others cut power to the socket.

If your car is the former type, be careful to unplug your inverter -
they can still suck a fair bit of juice with nothing plugged into them.

Some cars - Ford, I think - have three sockets for the auxiliary fuse.

Depending on which pair you plug the fuse into determines whether the socket is
controlled by the igition switch or not.

Take a look at the manual.

--

Terry

MuddyMike wrote:

I have tried a car usb adapter, and even tried a different lead bought for
the purpose but this device does not charge from the USB lead at all, not
even when connected to the PC, Only from its dedicated mains charger, or as
I have said very slowly from the universal phone charger.

Some devices are intelligent about what they'll charge from:

* Dell laptops have a 3rd wire in the power lead that runs to an ID chip
in the PSU. No ID, no charge.

* Nokia phones will refuse to charge from an unlimited current supply.
There needs to be something like a 10R resistor in the feed-lead to get
them to charge from those poundshop univsersal USB charger leads.

* Toshiba laptops seem to be able to sense the connected PSU somehow
(not sure how as they're standard LiteON ones) - I couldn't use a
slightly lower rated (say 3.5A) Toshiba one in place of my normal (say
4A) Toshiba one.

etc.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

Scott M wrote:

Some devices are intelligent about what they'll charge from:

Dell laptops have a 3rd wire in the power lead that runs to an ID chip
in the PSU. No ID, no charge.

Not quite that drastic, they'll limit themselves to drawing a smaller
amount of current, which can lead to reduced cpu/graphics/charging
performance, but they will run (e.g. from certain HP power supplies).

etc.

A lot of devices that charge from microUSB (the new "universal" phone
charging standard) detect a 0-200ohm resistance between the data pins as
indicating a dedicated charging port with higher power available.

"MuddyMike" wrote in message
...

I have a mobile phone like device I need to occasionally re charge in the
car. I have tried charging it with a "charge any phone" universal car
charger I already have and although it does charge it does so very slowly.
Does anyone have experience with one of these things that will charge more
quickly? I have thought that an inverter and the mains charger might solve
the problem, and Aldi have them on offer next week.
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...11-05-13-12-24
I would rather have a dedicated in car charger that can live permanently in
the car though, then it is more likely to be there when I need it.

Mike

I run a 500w inverter *all* day while working in my van. It runs a laptop
and 3 chargers easily.
Straight from the usual car type cigarette lighter socket.
Silverline make it and it's available most good stores or FleaBay

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"MuddyMike" writes:

I have tried a car usb adapter, and even tried a different lead bought
for
the purpose but this device does not charge from the USB lead at all, not
even when connected to the PC, Only from its dedicated mains charger, or
as
I have said very slowly from the universal phone charger.

What's the output rating of the dedicated mains charger?
The mains charger is rated 5v -1600mA

Does it connect to the device's USB port, or a dedicated connector?
To the same mini USB as the lead to the PC.

Mike