Evaluate this electrical plan.

Factual Questions
1

I have a charger for my phone which consists of two parts: A wall-wart style object which plugs into an outlet, and on the other side has a standard A-type USB port, and a seemingly standard USB A to mini-B connector that connects the wall-wart to the phone.

I also have a nice GPS watch, that charges with (and syncs my workouts to) a computer using a USB port. It does not come with a wall charger, but does come with an A to A USB “extension cord”.

If I wanted to charge my GPS watch directly from the wall, could I use the wall-wart from the phone and the extension cord form the watch to construct a wall charger for my watch, or would that be a Very Bad Idea? As I understand it the voltage on a USB port is always always always going to be 5 volts, although the current a device can draw from a wall outlet can be larger, but given the 5 volts that’s determined by the resistance of the device, right? So I should be all good?

Also, I am going to Europe in a week, and would like to charge things there. The notation on the wall-wart (INPUT: 100-240V ~200mA 50-60Hz ; OUTPUT: 5V 1A) leads me to believe that it will handle European voltages just fine and output the standard USB 5V. If I have a mechanical adapter for European outlets, can I use the three components to construct a European wall charger for my watch just as easily as I can this side of the pond?

2

I think you’re good to go on all fronts. But if the watch blows up don’t blame me.

3

Everything sounds good to me.

4

Haven’t tried it in Europe, but I have done the wall to charger thing for my Garmin GPS watch without any problem in the US.

5

For just charging purposes, you should be fine.

6

Off the record, and absolutely not as someone who deals with, among other things, charging issues on portable consumer devices for a living, I don’t think you’ll have any problems.

(wow…that’s a crappy sentence!)

-D/a