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[iamtv]

I want to get a second charger to keep at work.  Customer service says they don't sell them, but I can get one at Best Buy.  How do I know what kind of charger would work for it?

[Tuicemen]

Take your existing charger into Best Buy and have them match the specs.
The specs are located on the walwart.
 

[bURrITo]

I have tested the two following two adapters:

I personally like the iGo stuff because I can end up charging 4 devices at once. The bad thing is is that it becomes pricey for just a charger. The tips get pretty expensive. The link for A00 on Radio Shack's site is cheap for $5 bucks. You can probably find the actual charger cheaper online.

The Enercell stuff is Radio Shack only. I had that device for a long time. I went to a local store and they just started putting in the plugs until it fit. They didn't have the A00 iGo tip though I had to find that one on my own. I double checked the other plug. The Adaptaplug A @ 5v charges it just fine. The only difference between the online pic and mine is that mine has a yellow tip. Not a blue one.

iGo Charger - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4447505


Power Tip A00 - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3983157


Enercell AC Adapter - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3875402&clickid=prod_cs
Enercell Adaptaplug A - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3807936

[iamtv]

Thanks!  That helped me a lot!  Maybe I can assist a newbie someday!

[bURrITo]

No problem. Hope it works out for you!

 

[ffrase]

bURrITo,

All of the proposed replacement charges seem to have something in common, an output of 5V at 300mA.
The charger that came with my AirPad says 5V at 2000mA stamped on the wall-wart.

Based on these values, I would suspect that the replacements would take a REAALLY long time to charge the device.
Have you found that to be true in the charges you have personnally tested?

Thanks

[everydayflyer]

I tried to point this out several times  in other post but most seem to disreguard such.

I have tested battery useage (life / run time) watts consumed during useage at differrent task levels, charge / power useage at different states of charge and most seem to either not care or have no grasp .

Yes the supplied OEM charger is 5V and 2A (2000mA ) . The AP needs over 1.5A (1500 mA) at 5V power supply to operate / charge even when the battery is mostly full.

Most all cell phone, MP3 and other consumers device such as these  use a 5V 200 to 600 mA charger which is not  powerful enough for the AP.

[bURrITo]

I never really noticed how long it takes to charge. I do however know that I leave it charging overnight and from pretty much dead battery to full charge sometime within 7 hours. I'm sure it's less. Right now I don't have mine so I can't time it. I'm waiting for my replacement from X10. Once I get it back I will try to time it. I normally don't use it plugged in either. It may be true that using it while trying to charge it, it may not charge or then it may be really slow. From my experience though it will charge in the amount of time I need it too. I'm thinking 4-5 hours from a completely dead battery. I did however notice that I tend to get a more accurate battery meter charging using my chargers. For some reason when hitting 25% it seems to take much longer to drain than when having used the included charger. It might just be me. I'll test that too.

However if you just want to charge it, they work. I'm not sure if there are any aftermarket chargers that are to spec, but my goal was to just not to have to carry the plug around with me. I have one at work and one at home and that thus far does the trick for me.

[everydayflyer]

Well the math is simple. AP has a 4000 mAh (4Ah) Lipoly battery. It goes from full to  less than 20% in two hours of moderate use. 20% remaining is approx. 800 mAh  which means  3200 needs to be replaced. 3200 / 500 =6.4 hours which an overnight charge can handle.

I would never leave mine charging overnight as I know how dangerious Lipoly batteries can be especialy with aftermarket chargers and the chaep low quality charginging safety circuits in many consumer electronics devices.

I tried a 1A after market charger during my testing and the charger itself reached over 120 F which is way to hot IMO.

[PaulTran]

I wonder if I use 4 double AA battery become power source.  is it the safe way to do?  the voltage can be up to 6.7Volts and not sure how to rate current for AA batteries.  This could keep the pad running long time, but I haven't tested out yet.  Any idea will be appreciated.

[everydayflyer]

Not knowing how robust the charging system in the AP is and if it can handle over-voltage I would not exceed 5V . I put to together an external  battery supply / charger using a BEC (battery eliminator circuit) which is capable of taking 6-23V input and supplies 5V out put at up to 3 amps..  I use this with LiPoly 3cell 2.2Ah  batteries which I have many of which I use for radio controlled electric aircraft.

In board AP battery is nominal 4.2V X 4Ah =16.8 watt hours.
My 3S 2.2A ones are nominal  12.6X 2.2Ah=27.72 watt hours. Thing is I have many of these and with my charging setup it only takes me 20 min. to charge one.

AAs are less than 2Ah useable capacity so not really a great idea unless used with a BEC and if you have a bunch of rechargeable ones.

One of my battery test post.

http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=25135.msg141623#msg141623

Hint: Those figures were with a fully charged internal battery at 4.24V and external was only maintaining this charge level. As the voltage goes down more amps. are required to produce the same amount of watts.

[dave w]

I wonder if I use 4 double AA battery become power source.  is it the safe way to do?  the voltage can be up to 6.7Volts and not sure how to rate current for AA batteries.  This could keep the pad running long time, but I haven't tested out yet.  Any idea will be appreciated.

X10 claims the Airpad li-poly battery has a 4 amp-hour capacity. An AA alkaline is good for about 1 amp hour, so roughly 1/4 of the run time quoted by X10.  But if the Airpad internal battery is low, the AAs will be charging the internal battery at same time so even less.

[mike]

X10 claims the Airpad li-poly battery has a 4 amp-hour capacity. An AA alkaline is good for about 1 amp hour, so roughly 1/4 of the run time quoted by X10.

Dave, time to get with the '90's    

even nimi AA rechargables are all mostly 2600mah today - I have some 3200mah ones...
http://www.batteryjunction.com/aaponiba.html

akalines today are typically 2-2500mah....
http://www.buy.com/prod/duracell-procell-alkaline-general-purpose-battery-aa-alkaline-2100mah/211277924.html

[PaulTran]

The airpad power source is 5V.  If I use 6.7volt, will it be problem?
Thanks!

[dave w]

X10 claims the Airpad li-poly battery has a 4 amp-hour capacity. An AA alkaline is good for about 1 amp hour, so roughly 1/4 of the run time quoted by X10.

Dave, time to get with the '90's    

even nimi AA rechargables are all mostly 2600mah today - I have some 3200mah ones...
http://www.batteryjunction.com/aaponiba.html

akalines today are typically 2-2500mah....
http://www.buy.com/prod/duracell-procell-alkaline-general-purpose-battery-aa-alkaline-2100mah/211277924.html

Ho-ho-ho, Mike

 I'm stuck in the 80's. Just loved Bee Gees and Abba.  

Anywho, the original question said nothing about rechargables AA, so I was talking general purpose alkaline, not the thermo fusion cell example you posted. You won't find those babies at Wal Mart or Walgreens.  

http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/E91.pdf

The mAh is effected by how heavy the drain is. Check out the paragraph on capacity in this wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_battery#Capacity

My point was, it wouldn't be a good solution to use AA as a supplemental battery solution.