[mvanderlinden]

Car charger

Monster Mobile Ultra-Low Profile Vehicle Charger for BlackBerry Pearl, Curve and 8800 and Motorola RAZR, KRZR, RIZR, SLVR and Q: Cell Phones & Service

I've always loved the high quality of Monster Cable's products and use several of their cables for my home theater setup and they offer the only low-profile car charger out there; hard to pass up at $8.00 with free shipping through Amazon.com.

The compatibility list on the prduct description reads it fits Pearl, Curve, 8800 and Motorola RAZR, Q, etc. Do all these devices have mini USB ports for charging like the 8300? Want to make sure the compatibility list is accurate before ordering.

Just double-checking. Thanks in advance.

[anon(153966)]

...nope, not tried it. But, I don't see why it wouldn't work fine.

[Solachica]

I had a razr before my BB and the razr charger has the same mini usb head as the Curve.
Don't see why it woun't work.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mvanderlinden]

Sweet, thanks for the replies guys.

[vinmontRD]

I'd make sure you have an option to return it, though, if it doesn't work for you.

I haven't done sufficient homework yet to check on voltage levels, etc, but... the T-Mobile MDA connects to it's charger via mini-USB, as does the Curve. The Blackberry charger will work with any of my blackberry's as well as my MDA, however the MDA charger is apparently not sufficient for the Blackberry's... I only mention this as an example: although USB is a "standard", the implementation apparently isn't 100% consistent.

[tmag2005]

I think all car chargers have run from the 12v socket and should all work. But as someone advised, might be worth checking you can return it.

[vinmontRD]

Just looked at the fine print on one of my BB chargers (wall charger with large USB socket - accepts standard USB cable that also plugs into BB). Output is 5 .0 volts at 0.5 amp.

Checked another model BB charger - same output.

From what I've been reading, the USB 2.0 standard specifies 0.5A output. However many of the lithium ion battery packs require a 1A power source in order to charge in any reasonable time. Also seems that designing a charger to minimize overheating during the charge cycle adds to the complexity, requiring considerations such as:

Pre-charge/fast charge current
Pre-charge to fast charge voltage threshold
Charge termination current
Cell float voltage
Cell thermal safety limits
Safety timer limits


So...chargers, in order to charge quickly without blowing up your battery, have to be controlled by chips (such as the summit microelectronics SMB135) to monitor current and vary output constantly throughout the cycle. Also seems that, for deeply discharged batteries, the USB controller (normally required to intervene) has to be bypassed since it won't be responsive to a dead battery - so the charger needs to be able to initiate automatic charging in such a case until the battery level rises to the point where the USB controller can respond to it.

Sorry to have drifted off point a bit - but it's clear that there could be dramatic differences between one charger and another, depending - for example - on internal electronics. They might look the same, and even show the same volt/amps spec - but be totally different.

[mvanderlinden]

but it's clear that there could be dramatic differences between one charger and another, depending - for example - on internal electronics. They might look the same, and even show the same volt/amps spec - but be totally different.

Thanks for the insightful information. The charger was cheap enough that I'll likely keep it if for some reason doesn't work with the Curve since I have other devices that use mini USB.

The charger does seem to have some sort of smart chip since the LED on the adapter changes color according to the charge level; according to the product description, it's has 500mAh output. I'll let you guys know how it's working out as soon as I've put it through its paces.

[vinmontRD]

The charger does seem to have some sort of smart chip since the LED on the adapter changes color according to the charge level; according to the product description, it's has 500mAh output. I'll let you guys know how it's working out as soon as I've put it through its paces.

Good luck with it - looking forward to hearing how well it works...