Couple of questions about charge pads.

[BYapes]

 I have a couple of questions regarding those charge pads that recharge cellphone batteries wirelessly:
- Do you have to take the cover (the decorative cover you may or may not have) off of the phone before you put it on the pad?
-Is it even worth it, and if so, what would be the best bet out there?
 Thanks in advance
 BYapes
Brian Y.
Seed Chronicles

[Morganite]

I've sort of got doubts about the whole thing, since (for the ones I've seen) you've still got to have a receiver that plugs into the phone, and if one's going to screw around with that, might as well stick to the regular charger and save $XX. Unless the receiver is low-profile enough to leave it on, but I doubt that.

-Morgan.

[Sweno]

Inductive charging can be cool, but it can also be expensive.

AFAIK it comes in two flavors:

1) battery replacement:

you replace the standard battery with a different one that has the inductive loop and associated technology.

Pros: the battery is designed to take the charge that can be output by the charging station, some of these have magnets built in to aid in getting the coils lined up.

Cons: They either add a bulge to the device, or you start to sacrifice battery space.

2) Case:

The case contains a coil and the needed electronics, which you plug into the phone's standard charging outlet.

Pro: can be used on phones where the battery is not easily accessible/user replaceable.

Cons: depending on build quality you might not be providing the full voltage that is expected to charge the device, so charging may take longer than normal. It's also a case, so if you don't like them, or like another case better, your out of luck.

Please remember, you are dealing with large amounts of oscillating magnetic fields.

I don't trust any device where such an environment is not planned for, so if it's a manufacture supported option (palm pre is the only one I know of), great! if not, I'm not going to trust my gear to it.

And as Moganni said, you have to remember to put it on the pad. And bring the pad with you if you go on a trip.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Wiregeek]

so far we've been happy as clams with the wiimotes sitting on 'em.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Black Aeronaut]

Things like Wii-motes I can see you wanting to use an induction pad to charge them. It's simple, easy to use, and very neat looking (not to mention 'clean' looking as well). But for an iPod/iPhone or an iPad... if I had a place for it then I'd just use a dock.

Cell phones are a little iffy. If it's not a super smart phone like an Android or an iPhone, then chances are good it doesn't have the option of a dock. Even so, cell phones are such indispensable tools these days that you never want to be more than a few feet from yours. They have supplanted land-lines, serve as time pieces, work decently as ad-hoc cameras, and some even get email (unless you're in Japan, then an email address is just part of the package along with a bunch of other cool goodies).

With that in mind, the only logical place for a charging station would be at your bedside.

Now, I am not certain at all how these things work, but it strikes me as somewhat unhealthy to keep a magnetic field generator that close to where you sleep... unless my concerns are unfounded?

[robkelk]

Now, I am not certain at all how these things work, but it strikes me as somewhat unhealthy to keep a magnetic field generator that close to where you sleep... unless my concerns are unfounded?

The electrical wires running through your walls generate more magnetic fields than your cellphone does. (That's part of why the phenomenon is called electromagnetism, not electricity.) Do they give you any problems?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

I was referring to the induction pad itself.

[Sofaspud]

They work by induction charging.  There's a good layman's explanation of it here: http://www.explainthatstu...m/inductionchargers.html
The key thing to take away from this is, unless that other half of the transformer is present -- the bit in your cellphone -- then no current flows.  And your head does not a transformer make.  Unless maybe you have a lot of braces or fillings.  And put the base station in your mouth when you sleep.
(Probably not even then, though.)
Further trivia of interest: the field effect dies off very sharply outside of the actual inductive area (which is measured in centimeters, single digits), so even when your phone IS charging, it won't affect you.  It wouldn't even make a compass twitch.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Wiregeek]

but, but, but magnets!
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Black Aeronaut]

Thanks much! (^_^)

[robkelk]

but, but, but magnets!

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... at=1,42363]Here you go...

(Hey, it's a local business. Anything to help keep them in business, right?)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Wiregeek]

"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Black Aeronaut]

but, but, but magnets!

Here you go...

(Hey, it's a local business. Anything to help keep them in business, right?)

Unfortunately, China has all the rights to actually manufacture neodymium magnets.  You can thank the Bush Administration for that one.  While Clinton may have allowed China to buy the original manufacturers, Bush permitted them to take that operation off US soil and into China.