alternate source of fast charger?

What you're looking for on the charger is something that's rated at 1.9A or better. Most made for the ipad are 2A. The only alternative I've made use of is a Belkin one they sell at Wallyworld for $20 bucks, (same type deal as you but I still had the cable and was still on the road). With the stock cable I get a full charge in about three hours and with a regular cable I get a full charge overnight. If I had to do it over I might have pushed my schedule a little harder and looked for a B&N so I would have ended up with a "spare" cable out of the deal.

mr72 said:

So I left my NC wall charger and cable in my hotel room in South Korea last weekend, and of course I am back home in TX with no way to charge besides normal microUSB, which takes forever.

Is there any source other than B&N for a high-speed (high current) charger and cable? The B&N one is like $25, which is not too bad, but I still would rather find an alternative if possible.

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Bummer! I travel to S. Korea regularly in Jan/Feb and in early Aug. Team development programs with Samsung at their Cheonan S1 Training Center. Where do you travel to in S. Korea?

Where as finding an adequate charger seems easy enough, its the cable that's the problem. Has to be an official B&N cable for fast charging. A standard microUSB will charge very slowly. I've yet to find an aftermarket equivalent.

Has anyone checked out a touchpad charger? It looks like it's just a standard micro usb charge that puts out 2A. It seemed to charge my nook reasonably fast but I didn't let it get above 95% since I wasn't sure if it would hurt the battery. I'll have to do a better test to see how long it takes to charge

bitnerd said:

Has anyone checked out a touchpad charger? It looks like it's just a standard micro usb charge that puts out 2A. It seemed to charge my nook reasonably fast but I didn't let it get above 95% since I wasn't sure if it would hurt the battery. I'll have to do a better test to see how long it takes to charge

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Here are the results of a very quick test that I just performed:

Nook Color running Mirage CM7 latest version (5/18)
Overclocked to 1100Mhz and interactiveX governer
Screen at 100% brightness
Battery Monitor Widget main graph screen displayed entire time
Logging set for every 60 seconds
Test lasted about 5min for each combination
Battery at about 70%

Nook charger & cable
- average reading of +892mA
- mV increased 3844mV to 4053mV

Touchpad cable & charger
- average reading of -335mA
- mV increased 3847mV to 3901mV

Touchpad cable & Nook charger
- average reading of -407mA
- mV increased 3847mV to 3888mV

Nook cable & Touchpad charger
- average reading of +1211mA
- mV increased 3826mV to 4081mV

So it looks like the Nook cable is the key. As long as you have a charger that puts out around 2 amps or so and the Nook cable, the Nook will fast charge. It actually charged faster on the HP charger (2.0A output vs 1.9A for the Nook charger).

I also tried a cheap data cable I had and it stated "USB charging" and the results were similar to using the HP cable but a bit lower on the mA readings.

I plan to run the test again using a high Amp car charger but I think the results will be pretty much the same.

The best combination for a super fast charge is the HP Touchpad wall charger and the Nook cable

Just call B&N, talk nice. They will either give you a new set, or set you up with an order. They gave one to me, 2 day ship too...

My cable broke last weekend. I went to a BN store, and they sell the cable without the charger for $15.

Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk 2

I don't know about the fast charger, but the charger for a samsung cell phone (not a smart phone just a normal phone) phone will charge the nook. I've accidentally plugged it in and it worked. I've not used it for extended periods so can't speak to its long term ability to work.

joelgrice said:

[...] So it looks like the Nook cable is the key. As long as you have a charger that puts out around 2 amps or so and the Nook cable, the Nook will fast charge. It actually charged faster on the HP charger (2.0A output vs 1.9A for the Nook charger).

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I've noticed that my NT on B&N firmware 1.4 will charge on a non-B&N charger, but that the charging status shown in settings always says "not charging". My NC on CM7.2 simply indicates it's charging. I don't know if the B&N status really matters or not, but it is finicky about the wall adapter. If/when you re-test, could you please note the battery status?

Meanwhile, I did some testing with a PowerGen 12v adapter. I was able to get the NT showing "charging (AC)" while using the 1A plug on the adapter with the B&N cable. Reading the little booklet that comes with it indicates that "some devices" can pull more than 1A off this plug, including the "HP touchpad, Kindle Fire". While charging, I did get the erratic screen issue while plugged in. With the B&N charger, the same cable didn't cause this behavior on the NT. Not sure what that means, but you basically can't use it while it charges with the adapter. The 2A plug, described as "for the iPad" shows "not charging" (but not discharging). Using a generic microUSB cable also yields "not charging".

I also tested a EZOPower 7800 mAh supplemental battery. I was able to get a NT showing "charging (AC)" while using the "S" plug, described as compatible with the Samsung P1000 (Galaxy Tab) with the B&N cable. The "I" (iPad) plug did not work. The battery itself does charge off any 1A USB source, and will charge external devices at full 2.1A power as it charges. This means you should be able to let this battery power your NC, while the EZOPower battery charges more slowly from a normal 1A USB 12 VDC or AC adapter. Once the NT is fully charged at full rate, the EZOPower battery will itself charge. There were no screen issues with this combination, and I could use the device as it charged (with the usual cautions about the fragile B&N cable, of course.)

I don't know if the distinction between "not charging" and "charging (AC)" actually means anything, but the B&N firmware seems to care, while CM doesn't.

The reason why people notice they need a stock NC cable to 'fast charge' is that While it appears at first glance to be a standard microUSB plug.... it is not. Go ahead, try and plug it into your cell phone (no, it wont hurt your phone). The NC 'microUSB' plug actually has many more pins than the standard 5 (Something up near 20 as I recall). There are the normal 5 upfront, then the rest as further back. When you plug it in to charge, one of the rear pins connects and can supply the 1.9A max charge current. That 1.9A pin is directly connected to the Power Mgmt chip and is the only way to get high current charge.

The <explicitvie delted) whole story

There are three pieces to this puzzle.
1) a high power 2amp / 2000ma USB charger
2) shorting the correct pins in the cable to let the device know it is connected to a high power charger
3) extra long 12 ping next gen micro usb cable.

Some details...

Not all 1.9 / 2amp chargers are actually 2 amps
Some are 2 x 1amp
Some are mis-represented
etc.
I have tried many...
Some are frauds
Some are designed by idiots.
Few actually work
Yes, this is a Ipad spec.

Shorting the data pins (2 to 3) is required.
Go on eBay and look up pwr+ usb filter.
This little USB type a male to female adapter
does just that
shorts the data pins

finally the cable...
There is a new type of micro USB 12 pin connector on the cable.
The other big side is standard 4 pin.
The micro connector is longer than a standard micro USB.
The are some overseas import cables that work.
A standard USB cable WILL NOT WORK.

PS:
using a standard charger and cable will work but takes 4x longer.
Charging while on will run the battery down.

Pretty much stay with genuine OEM parts.
Especially the cable.
Unless you are tech savvy.
Google 12 pin USB
You can source a good 2amp power supply.
You can use OEM Ipad chargers.
HP makes a good 2A charger. PN 157-10157
12V - Scosche big black 4" long job 2 port 2.1a + 1a
However you must short the data pins with the pwr+!

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