Wireless Charging

[TromboneAl]

With wireless charging, you can charge your phone or tablet by placing it on a wireless charger.

You might think "How lazy are we getting that we can't just plug the device in?"

I found with my Nexus 7 that wireless charging makes a huge difference. I have a stand next to my chair in the living room, and when I put the tablet in the stand, it charges up. IOW, whenever I put it down.

The result is that because I use it only at home, the device essentially has an unlimited battery.

So, when I got my new Samsung 10" tablet, the first thing I bought for it was this:


You stick it on the back of the tablet and plug it into the charging port.

I modified the stand a bit because I didn't want to make a new one. But it works great:

IOW, you wouldn't think that wireless charging is that much of an improvement, but it makes life simpler.

 

[pb4uski]

We have gone to wireless charging on our phones... best thing since sliced bread! We have a wireless charge on each bedside stand and just place our phone on the charging pad when we go to bed.

 

[Clone]

The connector on my previous phone was getting flaky, most likely due to the number of cycles involved with putting the phone on the charger. I see the wireless charging as a nice enhancement.

 

[davebarnes]

I charge wirelessly all the time using Apple Pay.
Spend that dough.

 

[Ronstar]

I started charging wirelessly about a month ago. I can't believe it charges through the Otter case.

 

[Texas Proud]

On my daughters old tablet the USB port broke... we looked into the cost of replacing it, but decided to go with wireless charging.... better and cheaper...

The biggest problem was she would forget to place the tablet on the charger

 

[SheitlQueen]

I have one that came with my car. Open a door, drop in the phone, and it charges. No more wires. I love it.

 

[Cobra9777]

My OnePlus 3T has a rapid charging system that requires the use of the cable and charger that came with the phone. It will charge from near 0% to 100% in about 30-40 minutes. More commonly, I can get a whole day's charge from ~50% to 100% in about 10-15 minutes. I much prefer fast charging over wireless.

 

[W2R]

How cool! I didn't know that these wireless chargers were even available. I need to get out more. Just joking.

Off to Amazon to explore the possibilities. Actually I probably don't need one, but who knows.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

We did the early adopter of wireless charging back in the 2008'ish time frame when you could "add it" to your phone. I don't remember exactly *how* it was rigged up with our phones, but after the novelty wore off, we stopped using them. I don't tend to use my phone too much, anyway, so it's only plugged in at night.

 

[ERD50]

While I was happy that the mobile phone industry moved to standard USB charging (mandated by Europe to avoid people throwing away chargers every time they got a new mobile) , I always found plugging a tiny connector in/out every time (and trying it the wrong way what seemed like more than half the time) to be mildly annoying, versus simply dropping the phone into a model-specific charger 'cradle' with contacts that automatically connected.

I wish there was an 'in-between'. Couldn't they standardize on a couple of recessed contacts at the bottom of the device, a standard distance apart and a standard distance from the back of the device, so that you could just drop any device into a standardized 'cradle'? A slight taper, or maybe one alignment recess for a pin on the cradle to engage would help with alignment if needed.

Then you wouldn't need the wireless thing attached to every device, and the after-market ones I've seen take up the USB slot anyhow.

-ERD50

 

[GrayHare]

Now if I could only recharge my EV this way as I drive down the highway.

 

[Beldar]

Of course, for us radio aficionados, this is just another emitter (RF interference) that raises the noise floor. Between the LED light bulbs, solar panel inverters, wall-warts, pot growers sodium bulbs, etc, I have an S-6 background that I have yet to suppress.

What that means to those of you who are not into the hobby, is that it becomes rather difficult to listen to low power broadcasters both domestically and in foreign countries if the background noise is screaming mad. Same with conversing with weak signal ham radio operators. It's a never ending battle, regardless of FCC requirements

Some enlightenment here, FWIW...

https://www.lbagroup.com/blog/rf-interference-meet-wireless-power-transfer/

_B

 

[braumeister]

Of course, for us radio aficionados, this is just another emitter (RF interference) that raises the noise floor.

Let's just be glad we're not living 100 years ago. It's still a lot quieter than those old spark gap transmitters!

 

[mpeirce]

My DS bought this charger

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0753Z4PGC

for me last Christmas. It props up the phone at an angle so I can view it next to my iMac. I had a plug in version before and it was always fiddly to get the plug in right and the wireless allows me to just plunk it down in the cradle. A nice incremental improvement.

Of my recent rental cars had a Qi pad built into it and I could just place the phone on the charing tray and top off the battery. Nice.

 

[Dawg52]

I'll stick with my the old plug in. Works fine for me and don't have to go spend money on something I really don't need.

 

[pb4uski]

How cool! I didn't know that these wireless chargers were even available. I need to get out more. Just joking.

Off to Amazon to explore the possibilities. Actually I probably don't need one, but who knows.

We use these:

CHOETECH Wireless Charger, Qi Certified T511 Wireless Charging Pad with Anti-Slip Rubber Base for Apple iPhone X, iPhone 8 / 8 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S9 / S9+, Note 8 / S8 / S8 Plus, S7 / S7 Edge and Qi-Enabled Devices

Android Qi Wireless Charging Receiver Ultra Slim Micro USB Universal Wireless Charger Receiving Patch Module for HTC ONE X9, E9, Vivo X1 and mobile phones/Narrow Interface DOWN/Type B

I cannot recommend the round Choetech charger... it did not connect well with our phones and the light to show that it was connected was too dim to be useful... but the square one above has worked well for us.

 

[Katsmeow]

I got a wireless charger for my iPhone X. It works OK but is less useful than I thought it might be. In fact, right now I am not using it. I had the wireless stand next to my bed. It was nice to just lay the phone on it.

But, the reason I am not using it now is that I often come to bed and read for awhile on my phone. I plug the charger into the phone and charge it while I'm reading then go to sleep. With the wireless charger you really can't do that. You can't use the phone as a practical matter while charging (to some extent you can if you just want to watch something on the phone but not really reading and stuff like that). But, I use my phone quite often while it is charging.

 

[TromboneAl]

Couldn't they standardize on a couple of recessed contacts at the bottom of the device, a standard distance apart and a standard distance from the back of the device, so that you could just drop any device into a standardized 'cradle'?-ERD50

Absolutely, that would be a better solution. That's how our cordless phones work, and it's just as good--no, better--than cordless charging.

Humans are idiots when it comes to standardization.

Thanks for reminding me that we've come a long way with standardized USB charging. We discussed the annoyance of different charger standards on this forum years ago.

 

[mpeirce]

Thanks for reminding me that we've come a long way with standardized USB charging.

I'm pleased that Apple went with the Qi standard rather than rolling their own. It's not perfect, but it's already showing up in cars and other places (e.g. Ikea furniture).

I really like my upright Qi charger and the only time I plug in my iPhone is in the car. I'm sure my next car will have Qi pads for charging, but it's going to be a few years before I upgrade the car.