EC parades common phone charger Been a long time coming, but yesterday the European Commission got its mitts on the first sample of a universal phone charger for member countries. Commissioners were so excited that they ran a press conference, with TV cameras and all, in Brussels to show off the beast. The brouhaha was a bit overdone - we are after all …
aren't quite as straightforward, for example I own 2 laptops, one has a tiny 40watt charger, and one has a bulky 150watt charger.
A standard charger would have to be at the higher power to even turn on that one, nevermind charge it. So bye, bye to the tiny low powered jobbies! The different connectors are needed to prevent you from plugging in an unsuitable charger, so even with different power outputs it would be harder to standardise those.
The number of different types could probably be reduced quite a bit though.
As I recall, whilst the EU were busy congratulating themselves on being the EU (happens a lot), the PRC simply told mobile phone manufacturers that if they wanted to sell phones in China, they had to have a common charger.
Endof.
Mysteriously, the mobile phone companies, who for *years* have dicked us around with a plethora of chargers (even nokia could decide on a common connection. I have 3 of their sodding chargers) suddenly discovered that with the threat of losing the biggest market in the world, they *could* come up with something.
Watch now, as phones come "charger optional", but at the same price as they used to be "charger included".
My wife's HTC Desire has a micro USB but my Hero has a miniature USB though the socket is an odd shape. It will take standard leads but the HTC supplied lead won't fit any other miniature USB socket due to the non-standard profile. So I threw the lead way and used a stadard.
Kindle uses micro USB so there is wider standardisation - but how do we stop the chargers coming - I have 7 that will take a USB lead at the charger end
Yes, most of the time. I'm currently using a Blackberry charger with a Kindle. Works fine.
Only gotcha is that the charger must provide enough current - Blackberry's seem very fussy in this regard, I have one USB car charger that won't work with a Blackberry, but works fine with my satnav.
The press release says that companies can supply an adapter rather than having to put a micro USB port on the casing, so whats the odds Apple simply suppy a micro USB to Apple Dock connector cable to do the connection, and no doubt charge a fortune for a replacment.
Not sure ho w this really make a huge difference to the world
Eight quid at my local Tesco got me a generic mobe charger with enough plaugs to fit all the various phones in our house form ancient Nokias to Crackberries.
It comes with a 12V and 240v power supply - both of which have a full sized USB outlet which you can use to charge up everything else.
(and it's the fastest thing to charge from as all the laptops and PC's here have shite USB power outputs.)
I've been there and bought a couple of those over the years (one uk plug, one eu) and found that all but the connector I use regular gets lost. Sounds like a non issue untill you have a friend over who wantes to charge their phone and you're like "no problem, my universal charger should have a connector for that"..... then when you can't find the set of fiddly connectors you're like... "oh, maybe not"
So however it's happened (china likely helping) a big WIN that there is now 1 charger type which should work with everything. Plus if you're stuck then with the right cable you can always charge from your pc !
Pint, cos it's a wednesday and I'm REALLY looking forward to the weekend !
> and it's the fastest thing to charge from as all the laptops and PC's here have shite USB power outputs
That's not the fault of the laptops and PCs, it's the fault of the standard.
A device charging from a real USB port is only allowed to draw 500mA. A dedicated charger can provide more than that, but it signals this capability to the device under charge by *shorting together* the USB data lines (well, it has to show a resistance under 200 ohms or something like that)
That means it's impossible for a USB port to be simultaneously used for data and for high-current charging.
Apparently this standard upset a certain vendor of overpriced network equipment who spent a long time and no doubt lobbying money trying to block the whole idea of common DC power connector and voltage standards.
Bet that had nothing to do with wanting to carry on milking Power over Ethernet technology, I mean of course 100m of Ethernet cable is the best way to get power to the phone on your desk, not some nice common power connector that could be supplied on every desk by a monitor or some other device that doesn't cost $50 per port....
As a technician my universal plug comprises two wires with bared ends - the damn monster plugs they use in the UK are far too big to carry around. Malaysia, Singapore and HongKong also use the UK monsters - as do some Singaporean owned hotels in their region.
Chinese outlets offer combo sockets - they even accept the weird Australian ones.
Don't forget plugs and sockets don't indicate the voltage - better to check the lamp/bulb ratings for that.
basically took the Australian standard and turned it up-side-down (I used to like claiming it was because China was in the Northern Hemisphere and so up-side-down itself compared to Aus.).
The Australian configuration has the advantage that a two-prong plug (no earth pin) can only be inserted one way, which since Australia wires the neutral pin back to earth at the box (extra safety), is a very good thing.
As for the inversion: the Australian plug was designed back when plugs were all bakalite and the leads came strait out perpendicular to the wall. In this case, having the earth pin on the bottom made sense as a drooping plug would disconnect this pin last. When flat-to-the-wall plugs were thought up, the lead had to be bought out at an odd angle, so as not to clash with the position of the earth pin.
When China started to switch from the 2-pin US plugs to 3-pin Australian plugs, they had the benefit of being further forwardln time and put the earth pin on top, with flat-to-wall plugs with the lead coming out the bottom the standard (a pulling-out-from-the-wall plug like this needs the earth pin opposite the lead so it will dis-connect last) .
I have never encountered a better-thought-out mains plug than the Aust. one, other than the slight modernisation from China. So careful who you call "weird" :-D
Also, China uses 240V@50HZ so using an Australian-like plug makes more sense. Silly visiting USians just don't understand why their radios blow up and their electric clocks run fast.
must be like US 2-pin plugs which are also polarised to ensure the line always follows through to the equipment.
China seems to have an eclectic mix of plugs/sockets now, at least in the newer buildings, as they accept US/Euro/Australian connectors. Pity they don't have a world standard.
"Don't forget plugs and sockets don't indicate the voltage - better to check the lamp/bulb ratings for that."
It's irrelevant. The small phone chargers are invariably 100-240V so that they'll work anywhere.
The current crop of UK phone chargers are slightly larger than their US counterparts but I think you'd be hard pushed to call them too large to carry around.
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