Hi


Imagine this scenario:

You have a Tablet that requires a 5v 2A AC Adapter, for charging,
and you only have your cellphone's AC Adapter with you.
The cellphone's AC Adapter is 5v, but 1A.

Is it OK to connect a 1A AC Adapter to a device that requires 2A for charging?


There are 2 options that I can think of, regarding this situation..
1) It is OK, and the AC Adapter will simply give its maximum current - 1A, which means that the tablet will need twice the time in order to charge.
2) It is not OK, since the AC Adapter might "burn", or in the better case, it might notice more than 1A is taken, and then shut itself down..


Which of the 2 is going to happen?


Thank you all

 

Yes you can charge it, but it will take twice as long more likely.
Best to use the higher charger.

 

Typically, devices using USB type chargers use the extra two wires to signal the current available. If they don’t recognize the expected charger, they will pull the USB port default, which is 500mA. So the answer might be that it will take four times longer to charge.

Bob

 

Interesting.
Thank you very much.

BTW, how frequent is the situation that I described in #2?
(#2 = the Tablet will pull 2A, and the AC Adapter will either get ruinted, or shut itself down, until "normal" current is pulled from it - meaning less than 1A, which is what it knows and can give)

 

Interesting.
Thank you very much.

BTW, how frequent is the situation that I described in #2?
(#2 = the Tablet will pull 2A, and the AC Adapter will either get ruinted, or shut itself down, until "normal" current is pulled from it - meaning less than 1A, which is what it knows and can give)

It should never happen..
The tablet can see that the charger is not capable of full/fast charge and goes into "slow charge" mode..

 

If it's an Iphone charger, they have resistors inside across the data +/- pins to set the output current.