Ipod Nano Power Adapter (6th Gen)

[jakerobins8]

So I just bought an iPod Nano 6th Gen and it didn't come with a wall adapter to charge,
I figured that I could probably get around having to buy a new general apple wall adapter that is like $40. I'm hoping that given the go ahead I would be able to utilize an old LG phone charger.
The only problem is that I don't know if it is "safe" to use with my nano. BTW, the nano is able to charge from my laptop usb port safely.

All of the following wall adapters have the USB port to 110 V


Apple Wall adapter, 5 V, 1 A, Max power draw = 5 W
LG Wall adapter, 5.1 V, 0.7 A, Max power draw= 3.6 W
Laptop USB port 5 V, 0.5 A, Max power draw = 2.5 W


In looking at this I can deduce that the power supplied by the LG adapter is more than enough when compared to the Laptop,

My questions are:

By overvolting it with 5.1 instead of 5, will that ruin the nano?

Is there such thing as having too much power, aka if I had a 50 W adapter, would it still possibly work with my nano?

In the end, will the LG adapter work with my Nano,

Thanks for your forthcoming expertise,

Jake

 

[Sceadwian]

Shouldn't hurt the nano at all. USB specs allow for .1 volts of variation and it won't hurt the battery because there's a charge controller that actually handles that end of things.

 

[4pyros]

Is there such thing as having too much power, aka if I had a 50 W adapter, would it still possibly work with my nano?

More power is fine. Less is bad.

 

[Sceadwian]

That 4pyros is only true in the case of inteligent devices that now hot to charge themselves from simple power supplies.

 

[ChrisP58]

With power supplies like these, the output voltage feed to the device is the critical value. It is OK for the current (amps) or the power (watts) of the supply to be greater than what the target device needs.

Consider the typical AC wall socket. A 120V North American wall sockets will often have 15 amps (1800W) of current (power) available. The load you plug into it will draw just the current, or power, that it needs. Whether it is a 1500 watt hair dryer, or a 1/2 watt night light, it will work OK. As long as the voltage is correct.

Now, if the current or power available is less than what is needed, you may trip a breaker, blow a fuse, or cause some other undesirable event.

 

[4pyros]

That 4pyros is only true in the case of inteligent devices that now hot to charge themselves from simple power supplies.

Yes only for stuff with charge controllers built in.

 

[jakerobins8]

With power supplies like these, the output voltage feed to the device is the critical value.

So what your saying is that a 5.1 V adapter would be insane to use for something with 5 V needed, as is my case

 

[4pyros]

So what your saying is that a 5.1 V adapter would be insane to use for something with 5 V needed, as is my case

No thats not what he said.

5.1 volts is close enough to 5 volts to work.

 

[ChrisP58]

Most electronic devices can handle a range of input voltage. The USB standard calls for 5V ± 5%, so anything between 4.75V and 5.25V will be OK.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Unfortunately, Apple has built in some propritaryness in their adapters and even though the LG adapter is rated at 0.7A, it may only be able to charge at 1 amp. It's basically a guess, since there is no way of telling. How Apple requests say more than 1 Amp is propreitary. USB charging ports may support it, but even the data and the chip are not readily available.

Motorola has done the same with their phones through the use of resistors on the data lines. To get the higher charing currents, you need the Motorola charging cable. It's not necessarily based on the current available by the charging port, but the actual cable to tell the phone that it wants a higher current to charge.

Some of the wierdness is described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus

In another example disk drives may need a special "Y" USB cable with TWO USB connectors that go to the laptop and 1 that goes to the drive. It then takes 0.5 A from each port on the host side.

Hubs on the other hand may not be able to supply the required power at any price. Many might limit the port draw to 0.1 Amp.

Now, I have used a USB isolator to be able to supply the larger current from a 0.1 A Hub with success and also unsuccessfully.

In my unsuccessful attempt, I was charging a Motorola Backflip and had it tethered to the Laptop. Power drain is such that the battery will die faster than the phone can be charged.

In a successful attempt, the Isolator was able to power a USB modem.

5.1 Volts is fine for a 5 V system, but I would not go higher. That is actually +20%.

A datasheet for a 7404 which is a typical TTL part says the recommended operating voltage is 4.5 to 5.5 Volts with an absolute maximum voltage of 7V. Much of current technology has inputs that are TTL compatible which means that they respond to the logic levels of the TTL system of high and low. Protection for TTL compatible devices as inputs might consist of only a resistor that limits the current.

 

[Sceadwian]

4pyros, we're talkign about Jake's specific situation here. Every apple product has a charge controller, even the cheap Chinese nockoff stuff nowdays has charge controllers, or at least protection IC's that can act as charge controllers.

 

[kinarfi]

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/ipod-nano-charging-problem.119452/#post982260
Here's a post I put up earlier and it probably applies to most Ipods.

 

[Menticol]

As I said on another post, changing the iPod charging current is quite easy

With the iPod and other Apple devices you can select the charging mode just playing with the Data+ and Data- lines and some resistors

See

https://vimeo.com/13835359