Charging on the move Q's

[SimonR]

Hi,

The new GSA now has 300 miles on the clock, some touratech on the bike and oops more touratech stuff in the post,

Anyway, Im touring France, Italy and Spain in May and need help on charging things on the move.

I would like to be able to charge my Iphone 3g and my Sony camera battery on route and wondered how people do this. Ive finally found the accessory socket under the seat and understand I need to buy a DIN or DIM connector from BMW to convert it into a cigarette lighter. How then do I get it to be able to charge a Iphone and camera battery?

Any help and/or links to leads I need to buy would be much appreciated.
Simon

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

Nippy Norman (banner ad. at top of the page) sells an adaptor but you can get them easily/cheaply from Maplins / ebay.

Search for Hella plug/adaptor.

HTH
Andres

 

[ncpierce]

Have a look in Clas Ohlson on the top floor of the Whitgift Centre. They will have all the bits on the shelf that you will need.

 

[Brooner]

You may need a scosche passport to charge your phone with through the DIN socket.
I had to get one of these for my fiance as her new nano wouldnt charge through the ipod cable we had fitted when we bought a VW Golf, but Im not 100% sure what the situation is with the iphones.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TS696LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0MQ&mco=MzAyMDczNg

 

[Wapping]

An IGo is what you need. Trust me.

http://www.igo.com/

Charge two separate items at once, using the same simple charger.

I have had one for several years and charged, by simply using different tips:

Nokia
Samsung
Sony - Camera
Sony - Phone
Sony video camera
iPod
BlackBerry
A game thing of my daughter's and loads more.

I got fed up carting umpteen different transformers about.

I have used it in hotels, the car, on my bike, on a boat, on an aeroplane, in a shop, a restaurant and a taxi.

 

[Brooner]

Apple have changed the internals of the charging circuits and only 'proper' Apple chargers will charge their latest equipment.

My fiance had to return a car charger as it didnt charge her nano, despite the big "Made for iPod" log on the box.

As far as I am aware, the scosche passport is the only adaptor to rectify the charging issue.

However, if someone is more knowledgable than me, feel free to correct me.

 

[MattW]

Apple have changed the internals of the charging circuits and only 'proper' Apple chargers will charge their latest equipment.

My fiance had to return a car charger as it didnt charge her nano, despite the big "Made for iPod" log on the box.

As far as I am aware, the scosche passport is the only adaptor to rectify the charging issue.

However, if someone is more knowledgable than me, feel free to correct me.

Likewise.
Two different makes of third party charger wouldn't charge my nano or shuffle - had to buy genuine apple.

 

[SimonR]

Thanks v much everyone.

Ended up buying

http://www.nippynormans.com/prodinfo.asp?number=BAS-BA14&variation=&aitem=2&mitem=12

&

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TQ398ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5Ng&mco=MjI1MzM4Mw

Just hope this works.
Simon

 

[Brooner]

Likewise.
Two different makes of third party charger wouldn't charge my nano or shuffle - had to buy genuine apple.

Im PO'd with the situation as we got the VW dealer to fit the cable when we bought the car, and bought the iPod Nano after we got the car.
At no time were we told that the Nano wouldnt charge in the car and the VW website wasnt 100% clear in what wouldnt work.
Not totally got to the bottom of it all yet, need to get back in touch with the dealer, but Im sure VW will blame Apple and vice-versa while Im £25 out of pocket.

Rant over.....

 

[Doofus]

Not totally got to the bottom of it all yet, need to get back in touch with the dealer, but Im sure VW will blame Apple and vice-versa while Im £25 out of pocket.

For info, the problem is (as I understand it) the early i-products could be charged in two ways corresponding to the two ways they could be connected to computers. These are using 5v through USB or using 12v through firewire. The two ways use different pins on the connector and the i-product contains the circuitry to convert both to the voltage used inside the i-product.

Chargers might use either the 5v charging pins or the 12v charging pins. Unfortunatle Apple have removed the 12v charging option from the latest i-products to save money / space. This is why chargers that decided to use the 12v option (such as your VW!) now won't work. Some other older charges that chose to use the 5v charging option should still work.

However, as an extra confusion the new iphone also needs some extra voltage signals on the USB data pins which are not there on most basic aftermarket chargers. This means even some 5v USB based third party chargers won't work. I don't think this applied to the new nano (but might be wrong).

So in summary it is Apple's fault for removing one of the "standard" ways of charging their earlier products from later products.

Darren

 

[Pukmeister]

Thats the great thing about standards - there are so many to choose from.

 

[Brooner]

So in summary it is Apple's fault for removing one of the "standard" ways of charging their earlier products from later products.

That is what I found out when I started to look into the issue - ironically Apple invented the Firewire system and now they are throwing it out....

Apparently it takes forever to charge an old iPod on a USB connection due to the difference in voltage.

I didnt make myself clear when I said "get to the bottom" of the issue (it was very late / early when I wrote the post)
I meant I have yet to find out what VW intend to do, as I feel we were mis-sold a product. We told the dealer we were going to get an iPod after we got the car, so they had a chance to tell us there was going to be an issue.

 

[Brooner]

Thats the great thing about standards - there are so many to choose from.

Aint that the truth!