Charging iPad3 with 7w charger - is it possible?

[coolstuffs]

Hi,
I'm setting up a new installation in house and would like to have a wall-mounted iPad3 for controlling the smart house installation. They have a very nice USB charger socket in the same design as all the switcher and sockets... However the current that comes out is only 7w and i'm worried it might not be enough for charging the ipad. Any experience with this? I would really like to have this usb socket as it keeps then the same design of all other switches in the house but would like to make sure it will work as it is quite expensive...

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this!

Cheers!

The 7W charger will charge your Ipad but it will take much longer compared to the 10W charger. How long? you can refer to this link in determining the capacity rating of the Ipad battery. Just divide the capacity rating by number of current in milli-amperes provided by your 7 W charger and it should result to an approximate time needed to attain full charge condition. 1000 milli-ampere = 1 ampere.

One thing to take note also is to avoid overloading your charger by not operating your ipad while being charge by the 7W charger.

 

[janner43]

I have 3 Android tablets. I like the Google Nexus 7 a lot. It is light, has a nice screen, and has Jelly Bean. I find the apple system greatly superior, overall, but the Androids are improving. Both tabs OS are easy to work with, though I'd say Android requires more fiddling, but it is much more configurable. IMO, Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) is much better than ICS Android 4.0. The Google Nexus is a sweet little machine. Apple will have to respond to it or it will lose the 7-inch market to Google. I find the tablets apps are simply better on iOS as are the accessories. But Android does give you much greater flexibility. You can connect a usb hard drive, keyboard, or ps2 controller to it, for example.

Thanks for that

I believe you have confirmed what I was thinking, in that Apple hardware & iOS is of a better, more reliable & robust quality & that the Apps are superior.

Android has done well in a short period, but hasn't developed as reliably as many had hoped given its more open nature. While my tf101 has been great (apart from the first few iterations of ICS) the newer Asus tablets such as the tf700 Infinity are very expensive for what they are, within $75 of an Ultrabook. In the UK the new iPad 16gb is available for $300 less than I would have to pay for the only configuration of the tf700 available (64gb with dock)

As my one tech purchase these days, having gone fully "post PC" I like to update annually (for my birthday), but £399 is pretty much the limit I am prepared to pay, so it looks like a new Ipad will be on its way to me in a few short weeks

 

[snowman1235]

The 7W charger will charge your Ipad but it will take much longer compared to the 10W charger. How long? you can refer to this link in determining the capacity rating of the Ipad battery. Just divide the capacity rating by number of current in milli-amperes provided by your 7 W charger and it should result to an approximate time needed to attain full charge condition. 1000 milli-ampere = 1 ampere.

One thing to take note also is to avoid overloading your charger by not operating your ipad while being charge by the 7W charger.

Thanks coolstuffs! That is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for!

...Although I intended to use it also while plugged-in (it will be wall mounted), that is only to access the interface of the "smart house" installation. Otherwise, if I wanted to do anything process intensive, I would probably take it out of the wall-mount and use it unplugged.

Many thanks!

 

[coolstuffs]

Thanks coolstuffs! That is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for!

...Although I intended to use it also while plugged-in (it will be wall mounted), that is only to access the interface of the "smart house" installation. Otherwise, if I wanted to do anything process intensive, I would probably take it out of the wall-mount and use it unplugged.

Many thanks!

You're most welcome. We're all here to help each other.

 

[janner43]

Thanks coolstuffs! That is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for!

...Although I intended to use it also while plugged-in (it will be wall mounted), that is only to access the interface of the "smart house" installation. Otherwise, if I wanted to do anything process intensive, I would probably take it out of the wall-mount and use it unplugged.

Many thanks!

Given my posts above about the pinouts & specific requirements that a charger for the iPad needs to have, while it was the answer you wanted, it may or may not be correct.

Firstly if the charger just shorts out the data pins - a fairly common practise, it most certainly will not work.

Secondly it is probable that by overloading your charger by connecting it to a device (iPad) which requires a greater current draw than that which the charger is specified for & can handle, that you may not only shorten the life of the charger, but by leaving it permanently connected you will certainly shorten the battery life of your iPad while possibly creating a fire risk due to the potential of the charger to overheat.

 

[coolstuffs]

Charger ratings in relation to the thread question

I'd like to add the following information with regards to charger ratings in relation to the topic at hand:
The values that you can find printed on the body of the charger are values that are guaranteed by the manufacturer to work with the intended device. Values that can be found are wattage (abbreviated unit - W), voltage (abbreviated unit - V), sometimes current (given in amperes - A, or sometimes given in milliamperes - mA).

How do we interpret this? This means any device can be charge by the charger provided it will not draw more than the indicated amperes at the specified voltage or the device will not use up energy more than the indicated value at the specified voltage.

With regard to devices in particular the Ipad 3 it is generally not known how much current or energy it is drawing from the battery. But when the battery is fully discharged and it is charged by the charger, it is guaranteed by Apple that the current or energy provided by the charger is enough to restore the battery to full charged condition at the specified time and under no operation condition. Does this mean that the Ipad is drawing 2A while being charge? It is drawing that amount for a certain period of time only, usually at the initial condition of charging. Probably, at 50% battery charged condition the ipad is drawing only 1A or less compared to the initial condition of 2A. Current or energy drawn by the battery at full charged condition will approach a negligible value as charging time goes on. Operating the Ipad while being charged causes an overloading condition at the initial charging condition granting that the Ipad will really draw 2A. So IMO the Ipad can be operated while being charge without fear of overloading the charger when the battery charged condition is at 50% or more.

 

[janner43]

In principle, & in general terms, I don't disagree with anything that you have said in post #21 coolstuffs.

The difficulty we have here is with a non-standard charger, pretty much permanently connected creates a situation where there are two many unknowns for anyone to give the OP a definitive "yes" or "no". He really needs to get a more definitive response/information from his supplier, IMO.

The specific configuration of the usb socket connections in the charger are crucial for the charger to work at all...

 

[AQ_OC]

In principle, & in general terms, I don't disagree with anything that you have said in post #21 coolstuffs.

The difficulty we have here is with a non-standard charger, pretty much permanently connected creates a situation where there are two many unknowns for anyone to give the OP a definitive "yes" or "no". He really needs to get a more definitive response/information from his supplier, IMO.

The specific configuration of the usb socket connections in the charger are crucial for the charger to work at all...

I agree. He at least needs to get the ratings of the charger. What are those numbers? Finally, it is not that hard to test this ahead of time. Nothing like hands-on proof. There are charger that won't work the then iPad.

 

[coolstuffs]

In principle, & in general terms, I don't disagree with anything that you have said in post #21 coolstuffs.

The difficulty we have here is with a non-standard charger, pretty much permanently connected creates a situation where there are two many unknowns for anyone to give the OP a definitive "yes" or "no". He really needs to get a more definitive response/information from his supplier, IMO.

The specific configuration of the usb socket connections in the charger are crucial for the charger to work at all...

My post (post 21) actually is being provided as additonal info (explained IMO in a simple way so that anybody will understand using the technical jargons found in a typical charger) aside from what you have already pointed out. So I really did not disagree with what you have stated either. In fact, I enjoy reading all the responses to this thread. They're all very informative.

My response is only based on what information is provided by the person seeking help. The less info given the more general or none at all will be my response. Also the kind of info provided will either result in a correct and accurate response or not. In the good old days, we have the phrase "garbage in is garbage out". I'm not saying that the info found in this thread are garbage.