Car Charger

[bled82]

here is the car charger by B&N so match the specs and you should be good . http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/Car-Charging-Kit/e/9781616813895/?cds2Pid=35719

Matte plastic charger with LED indicator
Includes separate cables for NOOKcolor and NOOK Wi-Fi/NOOK 3G + Wi-Fi
Cable length: 5 ft.
Power supply: 2.1 amps; Input: 12V DC; Output: 5V DC, 2.1A
Includes USB car adaptor and instruction guide
Imported

 

[BeADroid]

I use a generic USB charger I bought for my D2, it works great, and was only $10.00.

Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

 

[RDI]

I work for a computer hardware distributor in Tampa, Fl. We have a USB High Power Car Charger that we sell to our Dealers. It is used for Running & Charging at the same time. So far, my dealers have used it for Apple Ipads and Samsung Galaxy Tablets. It is 2100ma. there are several XDA developers who use this High Power Car Charger, I will ask if any of them have tested it with the Color Nook.

Edit: I have been told that "it charged up pretty fast" in answer to my inquiry of XDA Developers who use our High Power USB Car Charger (2100mA) with the Color Nook.

Sent from my SPH-P100 using XDA Premium App

 

[mdleal]

http://www.buy.com/prod/chargeblock-car-adapter-for-ipad-ultra-small-usb-car-charger-fast/q/loc/101/220051690.html

 

[Buckybuck]

I have one of the Buy.com ChargeBlock Car Chargers. It works, albeit not as fast as the B&N wall wart. I haven't timed it precisely, or used it when the Nook is really low, but it seems to charge at a rate of around 20 percent increase an hour.

 

[Chasmodai]

This would be less annoying if two different BN stores hadn't told me that the car chargers were out of stock and that they had been directed not to order any more

At least I can maintain a charge with a relatively normal USB car charger and cable.

 

[mrmark93]

here is the car charger by B&N so match the specs and you should be good . http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/Car-Charging-Kit/e/9781616813895/?cds2Pid=35719

Matte plastic charger with LED indicator
Includes separate cables for NOOKcolor and NOOK Wi-Fi/NOOK 3G + Wi-Fi
Cable length: 5 ft.
Power supply: 2.1 amps; Input: 12V DC; Output: 5V DC, 2.1A
Includes USB car adaptor and instruction guide
Imported

Tech spec's are one thing; however there is some technology that is in the B & N chargers that has yet to be identified that 'detects' some unknown parameter before it will allow the Nook Color to use the 'higher rate' of charging available. I have an 5V 2.1A IPAD charging adapter and using the Nook Color USB cable, my NC does NOT charge at the high rate.

 

[AZImmortal]

Tech spec's are one thing; however there is some technology that is in the B & N chargers that has yet to be identified that 'detects' some unknown parameter before it will allow the Nook Color to use the 'higher rate' of charging available. I have an 5V 2.1A IPAD charging adapter and using the Nook Color USB cable, my NC does NOT charge at the high rate.

Which car charger do you have, and have you verified what charging mode you get when you plug the Nook Color in? Some car chargers don't internally short the data pins (which is stupid), so unless you use a USB cable that has the pins shorted (which the Nook Color cable does not have obviously), then you only charge in USB mode instead of AC mode. To verify the charging mode, you can download Battery Monitor Widget, which also reports the charging/discharging current. I plan to run some tests on my own car charger soon.

 

[mrmark93]

Which car charger do you have, and have you verified what charging mode you get when you plug the Nook Color in? Some car chargers don't internally short the data pins (which is stupid), so unless you use a USB cable that has the pins shorted (which the Nook Color cable does not have obviously), then you only charge in USB mode instead of AC mode. To verify the charging mode, you can download Battery Monitor Widget, which also reports the charging/discharging current. I plan to run some tests on my own car charger soon.

I have the Belkin I-Pad Micro-Charger. I used it connected to a bench power supply as well as using Battery Monitor Widget (set to update every 10 seconds instead of default 1 min.). It was obvious comparing the Belkin to the B&N wall charger; using Battery Monitor Widget, that the Belkin was providing enough power to run the NC at some times, but was mostly in slight discharge even though the B&N NC cable had Orange indication and the battery indicator in the tray on the screen was showing an arrow rising (indicating battery charge taking place). It functioned exactly like the $3.00 units I have from Harbor Freight Tools--although the Belkin unit was slightly more efficient on the supply use of current, the NC (Battery monitor widget) showed identical charge from both units.

I like the tiny nature of the Belkin charger and have other uses for it, and I bought an open package unit for $15-it works fine with the vehicle GPS and phone charging. It looks like it will break into pieces if I try to open the thing up, so I'm not sure if I want to destroy it for the purpose of learning (I'm an electronics tech, know the drill about 'magic smoke').

 

[AZImmortal]

I have the Belkin I-Pad Micro-Charger. I used it connected to a bench power supply as well as using Battery Monitor Widget (set to update every 10 seconds instead of default 1 min.). It was obvious comparing the Belkin to the B&N wall charger; using Battery Monitor Widget, that the Belkin was providing enough power to run the NC at some times, but was mostly in slight discharge even though the B&N NC cable had Orange indication and the battery indicator in the tray on the screen was showing an arrow rising (indicating battery charge taking place). It functioned exactly like the $3.00 units I have from Harbor Freight Tools--although the Belkin unit was slightly more efficient on the supply use of current, the NC (Battery monitor widget) showed identical charge from both units.

I like the tiny nature of the Belkin charger and have other uses for it, and I bought an open package unit for $15-it works fine with the vehicle GPS and phone charging. It looks like it will break into pieces if I try to open the thing up, so I'm not sure if I want to destroy it for the purpose of learning (I'm an electronics tech, know the drill about 'magic smoke').

Did you check to see if the Belkin was charging the NC in USB or AC mode? Battery Monitor Widget tells you the mode in the upper right of the same screen as the graph like this. If the Belkin was only charging in USB mode (meaning the charger's own internal data pins aren't shorted), then it might still be possible to get 2A out of it if you use a USB extension cable with the data pins shorted between the Belkin and the Nook Color cable (thereby enabling charging in AC mode).

 

[mrmark93]

Did you check to see if the Belkin was charging the NC in USB or AC mode? Battery Monitor Widget tells you the mode in the upper right of the same screen as the graph like this. If the Belkin was only charging in USB mode (meaning the charger's own internal data pins aren't shorted), then it might still be possible to get 2A out of it if you use a USB extension cable with the data pins shorted between the Belkin and the Nook Color cable (thereby enabling charging in AC mode).

So, your post pushed me over the edge. I knew I needed to just cut a cable apart, break open a few chargers and get the gear out and measure stuff--so after your push, I jumped

First thing to measure was the resistance across the data pins (the center two conductors on normal USB connectors) of the three chargers I have:

Stock B&N Nook COLOR wall charger: 0 Ohms
Belkin 12V I-Pad USB Vehicle Charger: 53 Ohms
Harbor Freight 12V USB Charger: 53 Ohms

I had read in the 'is the wall charger special' thread that shorting the data pins is what tells the NC that it is connected to a high-output charger-and indeed, shorting the data pins and THEN plugging the NC into the two 12V chargers makes the NC believe it is plugged into the NC wall charger (reports 'AC Plugged' in the battery widget).

My NC was almost fully charged so the current draw wasn't the full available from none of the three, but was easily able to get both the Belkin and Harbor freight to put out 'normal' of ~400mA; then unplug, short the pins, plug in and both chargers put out over 1000mA as needed by the NC--the same as the wall charger when plugged into that. I definitely got the feeling that the NC was controlling charge current level. The Belkin unit had no problem supplying the higher current, while the Harbor Freight unit (advertised for only 500mA) started to get hot and started to smell like burnt--probably would have a short life used this way, but never failed though.

I don't have the B&N 12V vehicle charger to test so I'm not 100% sure there are only the two modes as reported by Battery Widget (USB Plugged or AC Plugged).

Short version: Charger needs to have data pins shorted to get the NC to change to high rate charge mode.

I'll add more when I have discharged the NC.

 

[AZImmortal]

Awesome, glad I could inspire you to do great things. I'm eager to see what your findings are. My own brief test with an Ipad car charger wasn't as successful are yours seems to have been. I'll try to run a few more tests before I jump to any conclusions.

 

[Buckybuck]

Sorry for what is probably a stupid question, but when people talk about "shorting the data pins," what does this mean? I've seen instructions for modifying a USB extension cable that involves carefully stripping the insulation from the cable and then clipping the green and white wires--is that the same thing?

 

[FRSP]

I was given a "Kill-o-watt" meter at Christams, and curious about the nook charging I finally dug it out and plugged in a variety of chargers through it.

Two aftermarket cell chargers, one labeled 500ma and the other 750 ma, both registered in the vicinity of 3-4 watts input, regardless if I use the B&N cable or a generic one, and regardless if the screen is on or off. That could be 500ma USB spec at 5V plus charger losses, or it could be pulling a bit more than spec.

The B&N charger with its own cable pulls a bit over 12 watts input. That would be over 2 amps, but there's probably some loss in the charger.

But the B&N charger with a generic USB cable only pulls a bit over 3 watts - same as the generic chargers. So there seems to be an ID pin in the special cable.

The B&N charger with its own cable plugged into the nook, but a a convenient USB AF-AM extension cable inserted in between pulls around 8 watts - suggesting that charging is being limited by voltage drop in the cable's resistance.

Finally, my B&N connector is loose, such that if I don't support the cable, the light will go green even while charging. HOWEVER, the power draw does not change. This suggests to me that the colored light is driven by feedback from the nook on some of the extra pins, and is not some kind of current monitor circuit in the connector.

 

[AZImmortal]

Sorry for what is probably a stupid question, but when people talk about "shorting the data pins," what does this mean? I've seen instructions for modifying a USB extension cable that involves carefully stripping the insulation from the cable and then clipping the green and white wires--is that the same thing?

It's very similar except that you also need to connect the green and white wires together on the device end, so on a USB extension cable, that would be the female end. You just leave the green and white wires disconnected on the male end. Connecting the data pins tells USB devices that they're connected to a dedicated charging port and that it's ok to draw more current.

 

[mrmark93]

I forgot to come back and reports the results I got the other day...

Nothing majorly different happened when using the 3 chargers on my NC with a 30% available charge. I turned the NC on and using Beautiful Widgets flashlight (turns brightness up to full and displays 100% white on the screen--pretty much the biggest draw you'll ever get on your NC)... all three- the OE B&N wall charger, the Belkin I-Pad unit and Harbor Freight unit (both 12V units had data pins shorted) charged at ~1350mA. Charge rate dropped as NC began to charge--this is a normal relationship with a battery; as the battery charges, the rate of charge drops with a constant voltage. I'm not sure why I never drew the max 1800+ mA I was expecting, especially out of the B&N wall charger, I suspect the short male-female USB jumper cable that I cut into to make my measurements probably had a voltage drop with it and because of that, the maximum charge rate was reduced.

As an aside, because I never mentioned it, all my testing was done with the OE NC USB cable (there was no point to using a standard micro-USB cable as we all know there's extra pins on the micro- side of the NC cable). I had a 6" USB 'extension' cable that I cut the +DC wire and connected my multi-meter to measure the actual current on the USB cable. My power was supplied by a regulated DC bench supply set to 13.2V (normal vehicle voltage). I had taken both of the 12V chargers circuit boards out of their plastic housings so that I could experiment with shorting the data pins live (which had no effect- data pins must be shorted prior to plugging in the NC for it to set it's fast charge mode).

I pretty much satisfied my curiosity about the what the NC 'looks' for in a charger to set which charging mode it uses. I'm pretty dang sure that the Orange to Green led change on the OE NC cable is simply either a low current charge rate or a voltage sense to show full charge, not any kind of software in the NC controlling it--no direct evidence, just a slightly educated guess.

Sorry about the rambling, sometimes information is given without the background to explain how it was obtained or what it means exactly, leading to more conjecture.

 

[AZImmortal]

So I haven't been able to run more more tests on my own charger yet (and even if I could, Battery Monitor Widget [BMW] is going apesh!t on me, reporting charging/discharging in the thousands of amps), but I wanted to share a little bit of my own experiences as well as a clue into maybe unlocking the charging secrets of the Nook Color.

Back when BMW was working for me, I drained my Nook Color down to about 50% and I hooked it up to my 2.1A car charger with the OEM Nook Color cable. Without an extension with the data pins shorted, the Nook Color reported as "USB plugged", and with the extension, it reported as "AC plugged" (as expected). However, even though the Nook Color knew when the data pins were shorted, during the whole time that I was driving, the charging current as reported by BMW hovered near zero (+/- ~30mA) with either charging port, and by the time I was done driving (about an hour), the battery level pretty much didn't change (it might have even dropped a percent or two). This means that the charger was only supplying as much current as the Nook Color was draining, and considering most of this time was spent in standby, that's not good.

I just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab and I came across this thread regarding building a USB extension similar to what I suggested earlier but with additional resistors in order to signal to the Tab that it's not only connected to a dedicated charging port but that it's connected to a charger that can supply 2A. This charging scheme might be proprietary to the Tab, but it made me wonder if the Nook Color also has some kind of signaling of this sort going on, which would validate my own results, but mrmark93's results seem to suggest that simply shorting the pins will work. I plan to modify my USB extension with the extra resistors to see what happens, but if anyone else has done any testing, then I'd love to hear it.

 

[RASTAVIPER]

Can please someone post the typical power characteristics that a car charger can be considered as safe for use with nook??

Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

 

[tambourineman86]

This is what I use: http://cgi.ebay.com/100D-DC-AC-Powe...078?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aab92b786. Works great, and although it's a little bulky, it charges the nook at the accelerated speed. I used it for a trip from washington state to texas. The nook went the whole way charging, 2200 miles.

 

[mrmark93]

Can please someone post the typical power characteristics that a car charger can be considered as safe for use with nook??

Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

I guess there was too much up there to read.

Spec's for the NC are 2.1A. If the charger isn't designed for the Nook Color (ie: designed for iPad/iPad2) it probably (99%) won't charge at the high rate of the Barnes & Noble chargers. All USB chargers will charge the NC at the regular 500mA USB charging rate--which may or may not keep up with your NC if you are using it at the time it is plugged in. If the NC is powered completely off it will charge.