4 ms·

It's off-topic, but I've been trying to figure it out for a while: I have a two-port "Gear4" USB charger with swappable plugs, so it's great for travelling. How

It's off-topic, but I've been trying to figure it out for a while: I have a two-port "Gear4" USB charger with swappable plugs, so it's great for travelling. However, my new work BlackBerry won't accept a charge from it, complaining about it being too low powered - however, the Gear4 charger says it's 2A, the BB charger is 750mA. Does anyone know what's the deal?

rhizome 14y ago
Given that the company now appears to deal mostly in iPhone cases with zero USB chargers listed on their site, their technical claims and/or QC may be suspect.
UnoriginalGuy 14y ago
Everyone has decided it is a good idea to use non-standard USB chargers to deliver better than USB power to devices. So as a result the Asus charger won't charge an iPad above USB specs, and the reverse is also true. You might have been caught by this same problem.
macleodan 14y ago
They probably aren't up to their ratings. Also, the USB cable may be too high resistance, causing a voltage drop.
rogerbinns 14y ago
The charger has to signal that it is capable of providing more than the standard current. There are two ways this can be done - one is via the USB standard, and the other is the Apple way. Needless to say most chargers go the Apple way, so you should generally look for chargers that claim to not be compatible with Apple. Here is an example story of trying to find one: https://plus.google.com/117091380454742934025/posts/5suTrJrpbHF https://plus.google.com/117091380454742934025/posts/5suTrJrp... In some cases the chargers and devices have gone a third way. This is very typical for tablets as they need a lot more current in order to charge within a reasonable time frame. At that point many manufacturers have made up their own way of signalling the ability.
philh 14y ago
On a similar note: I have a second generation iPod nano. Years ago I took a spare cable for it and cut the data wires, hoping to be able to plug it into a computer to charge while still being able to play music. (I saw this tip somewhere online.) It worked with my brother's iPod classic (maybe 5th gen?), but not my nano; later I saw something on Adafruit about how the iPhone needed specific voltages on the data pins to charge, and I figured that was what was going on. But recently, I got a battery pack, which can output to microUSB, iPod, or some other things. It works with my iPod, the same one I had years ago. But the cables it came with have swappable ends, I think 2.something mm jacks. At any rate they only have two points of connection. Here's what it looks like: http://i.imgur.com/8TliS.jpeg http://i.imgur.com/8TliS.jpeg So, how does this work? As far as I can tell, this should be exactly the same situation as a standard USB-iPod charger with its data cables cut, but it's not behaving the same. It's possible I'm getting some details wrong, but can anyone shed some light on this?
- joenathan 14y ago
  The data pins may be shorted or bridged on your battery packs' cable.

rhizome 14y ago

Given that the company now appears to deal mostly in iPhone cases with zero USB chargers listed on their site, their technical claims and/or QC may be suspect.

UnoriginalGuy 14y ago

Everyone has decided it is a good idea to use non-standard USB chargers to deliver better than USB power to devices. So as a result the Asus charger won't charge an iPad above USB specs, and the reverse is also true. You might have been caught by this same problem.

macleodan 14y ago

They probably aren't up to their ratings. Also, the USB cable may be too high resistance, causing a voltage drop.

rogerbinns 14y ago

The charger has to signal that it is capable of providing more than the standard current. There are two ways this can be done - one is via the USB standard, and the other is the Apple way. Needless to say most chargers go the Apple way, so you should generally look for chargers that claim to not be compatible with Apple. Here is an example story of trying to find one: https://plus.google.com/117091380454742934025/posts/5suTrJrpbHF https://plus.google.com/117091380454742934025/posts/5suTrJrp... In some cases the chargers and devices have gone a third way. This is very typical for tablets as they need a lot more current in order to charge within a reasonable time frame. At that point many manufacturers have made up their own way of signalling the ability.

philh 14y ago

On a similar note: I have a second generation iPod nano. Years ago I took a spare cable for it and cut the data wires, hoping to be able to plug it into a computer to charge while still being able to play music. (I saw this tip somewhere online.) It worked with my brother's iPod classic (maybe 5th gen?), but not my nano; later I saw something on Adafruit about how the iPhone needed specific voltages on the data pins to charge, and I figured that was what was going on. But recently, I got a battery pack, which can output to microUSB, iPod, or some other things. It works with my iPod, the same one I had years ago. But the cables it came with have swappable ends, I think 2.something mm jacks. At any rate they only have two points of connection. Here's what it looks like: http://i.imgur.com/8TliS.jpeg http://i.imgur.com/8TliS.jpeg So, how does this work? As far as I can tell, this should be exactly the same situation as a standard USB-iPod charger with its data cables cut, but it's not behaving the same. It's possible I'm getting some details wrong, but can anyone shed some light on this?

joenathan 14y ago
The data pins may be shorted or bridged on your battery packs' cable.