Uk And Us Power Adapter


Anyhow, back to topic, at the bottom ofpandorawiki.org it quotes:
QUOTE
Power:
Lithium-polymer battery, ~4000mAH.
Up to 10 hours battery life under reasonable load. Up to 100 hours playing MP3s. [22]
Can charge through AC adapter or USB.


Theres also a couple of renders showing DC in, eg:
pandora_3.jpg
 
I'd really like some confirmation on this from a source that actually is in the know. I very much do not want to have to charge a 4000mAh battery through a USB socket.

EDIT: The Pandora wiki has the answer. Right at the bottom it says: "Can charge through AC adpater or USB". Phew!

I don't see myself using that USB option though. Like, not ever.
 
I would only if I had the charger in my room and I had a USB cord at my computer to charge it with and I would not be using it any time soon. Otherwise, I will do what Karel Jansens would do.
 
Odd that I never noticed the "DC in" jack on that render. I usually have a good eye for little details like that. The fact that on none of the spec sheets says anything about the polarity, voltage, or amperage of said jack led me to believe that there wasn't one at all.

Sorry for the misinformation.
 
Karel Jansens said:
I don't see myself using that USB option though. Like, not ever.
I'll be using the USB charger while at work, so that I can play music and receive VoIP calls and have to not worry about battery life, or fumble with a power socket tucked away somewhere.
 
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yeh that looks more like I would have thought. tho plug thing would seem annoying when doing international travel <_<
so, would they just use a generic transformer, or have a specific one with "Pandora" on it and have to make one for every plug type for different voltages?
 
Just thought I'd chip in and say that a few of my devices that I have purchased recently have got a cool transformery bit (I forget what it's called.. the block thing :p), where you can slide off a piece of plastic that has the prongs on and slide on the proper one, nothing else is needed and it means that I use the exact same adapter wherever I go. It also saves money for the manufacturers as it means everything they ship is completely identical across the world.
My blackberry has a charge cable like this (and coincidently is used to charge through the mini-USB port on the phone, so I could just use this for the Pandora if I get one), along with a couple of other devices.
 
USB charging is the easiest and most cost effective way. You can find wall adapters(and car) that exceed the 500mA for faster charging. There is no country specific plug and doesn't require a computer a computer to charge either. Heck you could get one of those emergency AA USB cellphone chargers just in case. Whats wrong with the ubiquitous USB port?
 
Kings said:
Whats wrong with the ubiquitous USB port?
Nothing aside from speed. At 500mA, you're looking at eight hours to fully charge a 4000mAH battery under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions don't exist, so you're probably looking at closer to nine.

That's fine for me. I'll most likely plug it in every night while I sleep. I could see it being a serious PITA for some people though. Those people will benefit greatly from a dedicated power adapter that can quickly serve up the juice.
 
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Chip said:
Kings said:
Whats wrong with the ubiquitous USB port?
Nothing aside from speed. At 500mA, you're looking at eight hours to fully charge a 4000mAH battery under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions don't exist, so you're probably looking at closer to nine.

That's fine for me. I'll most likely plug it in every night while I sleep. I could see it being a serious PITA for some people though. Those people will benefit greatly from a dedicated power adapter that can quickly serve up the juice.


You can still use a charger that is higher than 500mA...

EDIT: I have a 1A USB charger for my camcorder, and it works fine.
 
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yeah, It depends on haw many SAFE amps that it can take. It can take less when charging, but sometimes less is bad because it cannot optimally charge. My PSP charges at 2 amps, but when on USB naturally takes 4 times longer...
ONLY good as a spare in my opinion.
 
Chip said:
Kings said:
Whats wrong with the ubiquitous USB port?
Nothing aside from speed. At 500mA, you're looking at eight hours to fully charge a 4000mAH battery under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions don't exist, so you're probably looking at closer to nine.


To be slightly pedantic, its 500mA at 5V, where the battery would be 3.7 nominal (3.4-4.2V), so the charging time would be around 6.5 hours if it's coming off a DC/DC converter. Still takes a while though.
 
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theoddbot said:
Chip said:
Kings said:
Whats wrong with the ubiquitous USB port?
Nothing aside from speed. At 500mA, you're looking at eight hours to fully charge a 4000mAH battery under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions don't exist, so you're probably looking at closer to nine.


To be slightly pedantic, its 500mA at 5V, where the battery would be 3.7 nominal (3.4-4.2V), so the charging time would be around 6.5 hours if it's coming off a DC/DC converter. Still takes a while though.


Which is why I hope the external charger is dual voltage and higher rated (faster to charge).
but it is a plus to have the usb charging option as a back up.

I also reckon the dev team have not picked the external charger yet, since it's
likely to be the final stage of packaging decisions - but dual voltage please!
 
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Dual voltage I don't care about. If I'm going anywhere with 110V, I have a very small 240V->110V convertor, because it's easier to carry that and my normal set of adaptors than a power adaptor for each voltage for every gadget and a different plug for them all... If you only have one or two gadgets, then yes, it's a pain. If you have more than that, you're looking at a "kit" of adaptors anyway.

I have adaptors for everything in every voltage from all the major countries (if not directly, then by daisy-chaining adaptors of different types, e.g. 2-pin US 110V -> 3-pin UK 240V + 3-pin UK 240V -> mobile phone) . They all fit into the pocket of a laptop case. I'm pretty sure that I could charge all of my gadgets from just about anything given that lot (even from the car lighter, a laptop, a bare 12V battery etc.) and they have saved my life any number of times... the connection may not be optimal but I've charged my phone, satnav device and Palm when I've broken down with nothing more than the pocket of that bag and a careful thought of what could take what voltage.

USB-charging, I would never personally use. It's slow, it's low-power, it's inconvenient. If I want to charge USB I have to have a computer or a USB charger with a USB cable, so all I've done is add to the number of adaptors/standards I need to support. I don't think I've ever charged a device through USB. Nor would I want to charge a high-power device over USB for hours at a time. It's nice that it does it from a developer point of view but then most developers will be running off AC anyway, I should think. The only time you'll use USB charging is on-the-move (not in a car, but actually walking about) with one of those "emergency" chargers or the ones that run your iPod for several extra hours. I don't see USB charging getting much use even then because it'll be hard to find someone who wants that sort of battery power on the move and is prepared to carry it around with them.

Charge times for such a system should really be as low as possible. There's nothing worse than having to leave things charging overnight just to get a decent use out of them the next day. And I'd want the full 10 hours of play time as specified, because that would mean that it would be about a week between charges for me.

If it *must* be done then it should be a dual 110v/220v power supply - it's not that hard to source cheap ones for any voltage/pin you want. That should also have, as someone mentioned, the little plastic clip-on style plugs, so you can "clip on" an American plug, or a UK one, or a European one etc. at will. Whether it comes with any adaptors over and above the one for the territory it's sold in, I don't care. If I need to take it abroad and I'm *that* worried about carrying extra stuff around, I'll pay for the clip-on adaptor. More likely, I'll just use my already-purchased cheap multi-voltage thing with a suitable bit on the end.
 
ID10T said:
Which is why I hope the external charger is dual voltage and higher rated (faster to charge).
I believe that non-universal AC adapters (tuned to one AC voltage only) are these days more expensive and harder to get than the universal ones.

I also hope the developers go for the "5 volt DC Nokia type" charger. That way you wouldn't even have to bother about USB charging: Everyone in the whole world has a Nokia charger lying 'round the house.
 
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What part of you can charge using USB from a wall socket is incomprehensible. You can get over the 500mA spec by NOT using a computer to charge the Pandora. I don't know about all of you, but I have tons of USB cables and not many AC adapters that work with everything anywhere.

Why ship the Pandora with 5 different AC cords just so everyone is happy?
Why make the Pandora dual voltage when a local AC to USB adapter will work just fine?

Its not that hard, cellphones that charge off USB have been around for a while.

EDIT: The OMAP3530 is a high performance cellphone SoC anyways.
 
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