Charge Your Phone And Other Devices - Without Wires!

Too Many Wires Mean Too Many Receptacles!

    I've written quite a few articles about charging your electronic devices while on the road. Typically, it's because of the annoyance of carrying lots of different charge cables around. Less is more. Well, most of the time. What if I told you there was a way to charge your devices without cables at all. No, I'm not talking about Nikola Tesla's broadcast power technology, but merely old-fashioned magnetic induction. I know it has a high tech sounding name, but it's a pretty simple process. Lots of new cell phones already have it built in. The ones that do not can be retrofitted to be able to use it. Mostly. Read on!

A Simple Diagram?

What exactly is inductive charging anyway? Well simply put, it's a couple of electro-magnets on either device. When brought close together and energized with current, the transfer of energy begins and power flows from the transmitter base into the device's receiver, recharging your battery. In practice, it's a whole lot simpler. If you have a phone that has the technology in it, you just place the phone on a pad or dock and it charges. Look Ma, no cables! When this was first introduced to the cell phone world there were a couple of competing versions. Mercifully, one got chosen and we have a standard version now. It's called "Qi." In case you are wondering, that's the Chinese word for "energy flow." Makes sense, huh? There aren't too many devices out there that have it built in, but they do exist and will likely grow numerous as adoption rates among manufacturers increases. Well, what about now?

Typical Standalone Receiver

If you have a device that uses Mini-USB or Micro-USB or even USB-C there are products that will act as receivers for devices that don't already have them built in. My latest phone didn't have Qi charging at all, but since it was chargeable via USB-C I was able to find a thin pad style device that fits on the back of the phone and plugs into the charging port on the bottom. All of this fits inside the add-on phone case and doesn't affect anything at all. Well, you do need to disconnect the receiver if you want to connect your phone to a computer using USB. Bluetooth and WiFi connections are unaffected. Best of all? They were $1.76 Each! That's right, under two bucks!

Now for the catch. Yup, there is one. You cannot charge rapidly with them. They max out at around 5 Volts at 1 amp. That's not very high, but will charge a cellphone overnight. If you just charge at night on your bedstand, this is easy. Put your phone on the charger and when you wake up it's full. Like magic. If you want to get charged quickly, especially with the new Power Delivery or Quick Charge protocols, you'll still need to plug in a cable. I'll wager that, in time, higher power versions will be available and even rapid charging will be available wirelessly soon enough.

Who knows, maybe Nikola Tesla had the right idea? Broadcast power with no wires, never charge up your RV when traveling, unlimited boondocking power reserves. All by using the earth as a conductor. Way cool...not sure if there would be any side effects..but it's still a cool idea! Now, what can you do with all the extra USB chargers?

Be Seeing You...Down The Road,

Rich "The Wanderman"
www.thewanderman.com