Nook tablet car charger

[mikeford]

We are a mobile equiped family, and just added a Nook 16 GB tablet, so I would like to find a compact high quality dual USB charger for the car, but my initial searches are showing the NT uses a funky cable arrangement so it doesn't charge with a PC or a typical universal charger. I figure this is not a long term situation, sooner or later a proper charger will show up, but searching so far is worthless as nobody admits their generic charger they sell as Nook Tablet Charger actually doesn't work with a Nook or takes 7 hours to charge at half rate.

Nook support forums don't have current posts on chargers, just early complaints.

Is there some new rapid charge standard for USB?

 

[WelshBloke]

USB charging is limited to 500ma if its not from a power source. Its to protect PCs from getting their powered USB ports burned out.

To get a fully powered charge chargers are supposed to short out a couple of pins.

Short answer, decent quality car chargers should provide about 1000ma charge. I dont know if thats enough for the Nook but I've not seen any that supply more than 1A per socket.

 

[heymrdj]

We are a mobile equiped family, and just added a Nook 16 GB tablet, so I would like to find a compact high quality dual USB charger for the car, but my initial searches are showing the NT uses a funky cable arrangement so it doesn't charge with a PC or a typical universal charger. I figure this is not a long term situation, sooner or later a proper charger will show up, but searching so far is worthless as nobody admits their generic charger they sell as Nook Tablet Charger actually doesn't work with a Nook or takes 7 hours to charge at half rate.

Nook support forums don't have current posts on chargers, just early complaints.

Is there some new rapid charge standard for USB?

Sadly this is true. Owning a Nook myself I can tell you that it will not charge via PC or universal charger. You need to use an official charger to get full rate. It's like the Transformer propritary 40pin connector. 15v charges from the power adapter, 5v charges from USB so that it can take 10 or more hours to charge from a PC.

You'll probably need to get a multi-12v adapter deal for you to use the offical nook adapter with.

 

[gorcorps]

The reason some chargers don't work isn't just because of USB limitations... the Nook Color (and I believe Tablet from the sounds of it) uses something that is nearly identical to micro usb but it's NOT the same (it's a little longer). What that means is only cables designed for the Nook Tablet will charge at the full rate, regardless of it's wall, car, or PC powered. Standard micro usb cables will work for data, but don't charge at the proper rate.

In short... get something labeled specifically for the NT. There is no generic micro-usb charger or cable that'll work.

 

[mikeford]

Thanks, more searching since my post supports the worst, the only reliable chargers for the Nook Tablet are those sold by Barnes and Noble. Don't trust anything else even if it says it works with the Nook Tablet, all of them I've seen appear to make that claim from USB compatibility, which is false.

Kind of annoys me as I recall specially asking the Nook guy at B&N if it would charge via PC USB.

*** NOTE *** The Nook Tablet only charges while ON, so it could be power is flowing from the PC USB, but barely enough to run the Nook so the battery charge doesn't change. There are some special USB ports on some PCs and chargers that support 2.1 amps, but I haven't seen a report from anybody using one with a Nook Tablet.

 

[wirednuts]

you have to realize too that tablets dont run on 5v, let alone consume 500ma. my tf101 generic charger puts out 15v@1.2a so in order to get that from a car you would have to have a step up converter circuit.

thats not to say its impossible. i think its a little weird that they didnt make tablets run off 12v... but to get around it i hate to say it but i think the easiest solution is an ac-dc converter and use your OEM charger. that sucks too though, because then youre going from dc to ac and back to dc just to charge a stupid tablet.

surely there is probably a way to cut the cord, and splice in your own 15v power (made from a custom step up circuit charger) but i dont know what type of sensing these tablets use to determine what is trying to charge them... if theyre too smart you might find it a massive headache to make work. or maybe its just a matter of shorting out a couple data pins still... who knows.

edit- apparently, at least with the tf101, its an easy mod- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13167403/IMG_20110809_092133.jpg

definitely going to have to try this!