I bought a Moto G from Motorola, and it doesn't come with a CHARGER!

[Danny D'Amico]

OOps. Six amps of current (not power!).

The power would be 6A x 5V = 30 Watts!

[Danny D'Amico]

Hi Jeff, I read that article with interest:

One the one hand, you don't want government to stifle innovation with enforced standards; but on the other hand, are the non-conforming Apple chargers really innovative?

I suspect the "think different" part of the Apple non-standard chargers is merely an attempt to force unsuspecting users to buy specific hardware.

[Leviatan]

Danny D'Amico, pensando en voz alta, dice:

Enjoy!

[Bert]

In the bad old days, Motorola played games with their phones and chargers (jumpers and/or resistors in the phone-end of the USB cable) such that the phones would only charge from Motorola chargers or accurate clones. They wouldn't charge from a PC USB port unless Motorola drivers were installed.

These days, I'm pretty sure any charger with an adequate current capacity will work.

[James Grady]

Which is as much as 1.5 Amps!

So, it /does/ matter.

A lot!

Most usb chargers can't deliver anywhere near that current.

Some can, of course. So, it matters a LOT to get those that can!

[SC Tom]

You obviously missed the last part of the sentence. Let me quote it for you: "as long as it meets the minimum requirements of the device". If you're going to take one line out of context, at least be accurate about it :-)

Even if a device calls for 1.5A, it will still be charged by a .5A output. It'll just take a lot longer to do so, and would probably need to be turned off in order to complete the charge cycle. I have an Asus tablet that "requires" a 2.1A charger, but will still charge to completion with my .7A phone charger, if I turn it off and leave it plugged in overnight. I have done that a few times when I inadvertently forgot to pack the tablet charger.

[SC Tom]

There are a couple of games that when I run them on my Asus Memo Smart10, the charger mostly "breaks even", or the battery will still slightly discharge while on the charger. It's a 2.1A charger (came with the tablet), but still won't keep up. One that comes to mind first is "Real Racing". My guess is between the processing power required, the graphics, and the constant wifi connection, it's more than the poor battery can handle :-( If I disable the wifi (airplane mode), it'll do OK, but when off charger, it's still a drain on the battery. I usually reserve playing that game when near an outlet :-)

I haven't played the game while in the car, but I have a USB car charger that works fine when using the GPS travel program. It has a dual output of

1A and 2.1A. I got it from Amazon a while back for my old Creative Labs MP3 player, but it works great for my phone and tablet now.

I don't recall what it cost them, but it wasn't as expensive as it is now :-( I see there's a new daul-2.1A one available.

[SC Tom]

I find it strange that the power points in my Escape are fused at 15A, and my lighter is on a 40A fuse! I kinda would have thought it would be the opposite.

[Daring Dufas: Hypocrite TeaBil]

duh .. use the usb ;

[Anssi Saari]

Well yes, but remember the original purpose of that socket. It takes considerable power to heat a coil to the bright orange glow to light a cigarette. And these days people like to plug in mini-fridges and whatnot, also inverters to run their mains voltage stuff in cars so probably the limits on power output have gone up if anything.

Quick googling says typically the fuse for the lighter is 10-20 A, so from the typical 14-ish volts (while engine is running) that's 140-280 watts.

[Rodney Pont]

Don't forget that the lighter is a short when you first press it in and the resistance rises as it heats up so it will take a large initial current which drops as it heats.

At 12v 30W is 2.5A and they wouldn't have any problem supplying that Danny. I'd expect them to be able to supply 8 amps depending on the quality of the plug and you can buy sockets rated at 20A.

[trader4]

Also, the device in question is a Motorola Android cell phone. I just checked the charger that came with my new Android cell phone. It's 1.0A. The battery was almost dead last night, was giving me the final warning before shutting down. I put it on the 1.0A charger without it being turned on and it was up to full charge in about an hour. With the phone turned on, I haven't timed it, but I'd say it's less than 2 hours to charge. So, I agree with your assessment. The device in question is a cell phone and the cell phone probably doesn't even use .5A when it's just sitting there. The batteries are only

2500mah or so, as I recall. If it pulled .5A continously the battery would only last 5 hours, mine lasts a day.

Since he doesn't have a charger, if it were me, I'd buy one that's equal to the max that Mot specs, just so that it will charge faster. They only cost a few bucks anyway. Even better you can find kits for $10, maybe less that give you an AC charger, car charger, cable, etc.

[Jeff Liebermann]

Ever seen a cancer stick lighter octopus connector? Something like this: In order for that to work, you would need 3ea 15amp fuses, one in each plug, and a 45A fuse in the cancer stick lighter plug. If you reverse the situation, plugging two devices into the octopus connector will blow the 15a fuse.