Hello Again,
While at our local Target tonight I saw a charging station that looked interesting. It is one that doesn’t require you to plug your devices in, rather just set them on top of the charging pad. Had anyone here bought one? How does it work and does it work as advertised?
We have one of these for our Wii controlers, however that charger came with new batteries that have contacts on the outside of the controller. The one I reference above looks to be a universal charger, so I am assuming that you don’t replace your batteries, but somehow it charges your current ones. Any insight would be appreciated.
It’s simply another type of battery charging device. Instead of a direct coupling, it uses an electromagnetic field induced by a coil in the base and coupled to a coil in the device. These are particularly common in rechargeable toothbrushes where you want the electronics perfectly sealed from moisture. They are becoming more common in other devices now. The batteries are still regular rechargeable batteries that can eventually be replaced.
To be clear: those only work on devices designed for it. There must be extra parts in the device to receive the electro-magnetic waves and deliver them to the battery. You can’t just take a regular mobile device and expect one of these units to recharge it.
That’s the info I was looking for. I only had a few seconds to look at the box, and for some reason I got the impression that it was designed to charge any device. I should have taken a bit longer to read the package, but wife isn’t too interested in the electronics aisle. On the bright side :dubious: I got to spend a good 1/2 hour following her around the womens clothing section.:smack:
The technology is real. I’ve been asked to investigate it several times for phones…we haven’t implemented it natively due to cost.
It isn’t as efficient as a cable, but it’s real convenient. This means you can’t charge quickly, but if you’re just going to put the device on top of the charger for the night, it works great.
-D/a
I’ve only seen it once or twice but my mom has one. There is actually a small flat electronic thing that plugs into the phone that contains all the extra parts. Then you just lay the phone on the charging pad to charge it. The thing on the phone is small enough that it may not bother you to leave it on the phone all the time, which my mom does. She walks in, lays her phone on the charging pad and forgets it.
They have adapters for different phones and devices so it does work for many regular gadgets.