Guest gusco Posted July 2, 2011 Report Posted July 2, 2011 How long do peoples Vega's take to fully charge? Mine takes a good 5 hours from flat. s this about right? Is there a different charger I can buy that will speed up the process? Would a generic charger be ok, one that has a higher amps output? I'm sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find an answer by searching.
Guest Panayioti Posted July 2, 2011 Report Posted July 2, 2011 How long do peoples Vega's take to fully charge? Mine takes a good 5 hours from flat. s this about right? Is there a different charger I can buy that will speed up the process? Would a generic charger be ok, one that has a higher amps output? I'm sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find an answer by searching. Yeah, 5 hours sounds alright as from that you can use the vega for 5 hours+ sorry about the other questions though.
Guest Quipeace Posted July 2, 2011 Report Posted July 2, 2011 The battery is most likely a li-ion or li-po battery. these batteries can be safely charged at 1C, so a 2000mAh battery -could- be charged at 2A. According to another post the vega's battery capacity is 3300mAh, so it could be charged at 3.3A without doing much harm to the battery However, I don't think the vega's got a decent li-x charger inside, and heat can build up quickly inside. If you can live with the charging time I'd stick with 1A, and I personally wouldn't want to push it beyond 1.5 for a longer period of time, definitely not when the tablet is on. These batteries can misbehave badly when pushed a little too far.
Guest simonta Posted July 2, 2011 Report Posted July 2, 2011 The battery is most likely a li-ion or li-po battery. these batteries can be safely charged at 1C, so a 2000mAh battery -could- be charged at 2A. According to another post the vega's battery capacity is 3300mAh, so it could be charged at 3.3A without doing much harm to the battery However, I don't think the vega's got a decent li-x charger inside, and heat can build up quickly inside. If you can live with the charging time I'd stick with 1A, and I personally wouldn't want to push it beyond 1.5 for a longer period of time, definitely not when the tablet is on. These batteries can misbehave badly when pushed a little too far. Sorry Quipeace, a common misconception about power supplies. The rated current output of a charger has nothing to do with how fast a battery will charge. It is simply a measure of the total power capacity it can supply before spitz und sparken. You could stick a 50A 12V charger on the Vega. The battery wouldn't charge any faster. The Vega won't run any quicker. Of course, a lower rated supply might lead to slower charging, if indeed the supply doesn't just fail. Ohms law and W=VA are not just good ideas! A power supply will not, and cannot, push any more coulombs into a circuit than is demanded and the demand from the Vega does not vary according to the rated output of the supply of which it knows nothing! Devices pull power, they do not have power pushed into them. There is absolutely no advantage in using higher rated supplies except, perhaps, the quality of the DC output (lower noise, no brownouts etc) and depending on quality of components, expected life. (Ex electronics engineer)
Guest premieral Posted July 2, 2011 Report Posted July 2, 2011 Sorry Quipeace, a common misconception about power supplies. The rated current output of a charger has nothing to do with how fast a battery will charge. It is simply a measure of the total power capacity it can supply before spitz und sparken. You could stick a 50A 12V charger on the Vega. The battery wouldn't charge any faster. The Vega won't run any quicker. Of course, a lower rated supply might lead to slower charging, if indeed the supply doesn't just fail. Ohms law and W=VA are not just good ideas! A power supply will not, and cannot, push any more coulombs into a circuit than is demanded and the demand from the Vega does not vary according to the rated output of the supply of which it knows nothing! Devices pull power, they do not have power pushed into them. There is absolutely no advantage in using higher rated supplies except, perhaps, the quality of the DC output (lower noise, no brownouts etc) and depending on quality of components, expected life. (Ex electronics engineer) I think I understood about two maybe three words in that reply Simon :) (Current Thicko)
Guest Quipeace Posted July 3, 2011 Report Posted July 3, 2011 (edited) Sorry Quipeace, a common misconception about power supplies. The rated current output of a charger has nothing to do with how fast a battery will charge. It is simply a measure of the total power capacity it can supply before spitz und sparken. You could stick a 50A 12V charger on the Vega. The battery wouldn't charge any faster. The Vega won't run any quicker. Of course, a lower rated supply might lead to slower charging, if indeed the supply doesn't just fail. Ohms law and W=VA are not just good ideas! A power supply will not, and cannot, push any more coulombs into a circuit than is demanded and the demand from the Vega does not vary according to the rated output of the supply of which it knows nothing! Devices pull power, they do not have power pushed into them. There is absolutely no advantage in using higher rated supplies except, perhaps, the quality of the DC output (lower noise, no brownouts etc) and depending on quality of components, expected life. (Ex electronics engineer) I fly RC helicopters and planes, and go through at least ten lithuim batteries a week. So I do think I know a couple of things about charging batteries. Increasing the output of your charger does decrease charging times, and because I assume the charger in the vega is basic I don't think it does much more than slowly decrease it's output until the battery has reached 4.2v. Also, a battery doesn't "draw" power at all. Sadly, I don't know the English words for all the scientific awesomeness, but the redox reaction between the chemicals is 99/100 times bottlenecked by the amount of electrons supplied, since all chemicals are available except for e-. So, supplying twice as many electrons to the reaction halves the time it takes to charge the battery, in theory. (Student mechanical engineering) Edited July 3, 2011 by Quipeace
Guest dibbles Posted July 3, 2011 Report Posted July 3, 2011 (edited) Interesting, regarding the amperage of the battery charger and its effects on the charging time. I always assumed that you could use the biggest amperage charger you could find, as long as the voltage / polarity etc is correct, and the battery unit would still only draw what it requires rather than being "pushed" to the battery. (empty headed end user - slightly senile) EDIT: Premieral - when you write (Current Thicko) is that an "electrical term (current)...? :) Edited July 3, 2011 by dibbles
Guest premieral Posted July 3, 2011 Report Posted July 3, 2011 EDIT: Premieral - when you write (Current Thicko) is that an "electrical term (current)...? :rolleyes: Lol :)
Guest phil8715 Posted July 3, 2011 Report Posted July 3, 2011 (edited) The battery is most likely a li-ion or li-po battery. these batteries can be safely charged at 1C, so a 2000mAh battery -could- be charged at 2A. According to another post the vega's battery capacity is 3300mAh, so it could be charged at 3.3A without doing much harm to the battery However, I don't think the vega's got a decent li-x charger inside, and heat can build up quickly inside. If you can live with the charging time I'd stick with 1A, and I personally wouldn't want to push it beyond 1.5 for a longer period of time, definitely not when the tablet is on. These batteries can misbehave badly when pushed a little too far. When you quote "These batteries can misbehave badly when pushed to a little too far" Would that explain the battery drain while switched off? Edited July 3, 2011 by phil8715
Guest Quipeace Posted July 3, 2011 Report Posted July 3, 2011 When you quote "These batteries can misbehave badly when pushed to a little too far" Would that explain the battery drain while switched off? No not really, with misbehaving I meant bursting into flames and exploding... Plenty of video's on the web and one personal experience. Ideally you'd charge them in a special kind of fireproof bag.
Guest gusco Posted July 3, 2011 Report Posted July 3, 2011 I thought I'd ask the question about charging on here for a definitive answer. Despite all the replies I'm still non the wiser :) I guess I'm gonna have to learn patience and remember to plug in sooner before I go out. Can anyone recommend an in car charger that is suitable for the Vega, with a link if possible. Thanks for all the replies
Guest simonta Posted July 3, 2011 Report Posted July 3, 2011 (edited) I fly RC helicopters and planes, and go through at least ten lithuim batteries a week. So I do think I know a couple of things about charging batteries. Increasing the output of your charger does decrease charging times, and because I assume the charger in the vega is basic I don't think it does much more than slowly decrease it's output until the battery has reached 4.2v. Also, a battery doesn't "draw" power at all. Sadly, I don't know the English words for all the scientific awesomeness, but the redox reaction between the chemicals is 99/100 times bottlenecked by the amount of electrons supplied, since all chemicals are available except for e-. So, supplying twice as many electrons to the reaction halves the time it takes to charge the battery, in theory. (Student mechanical engineering) A battery certainly does draw power when it's charging. Current is simply the flow of electrons in a particular direction. However, I was referring to the Vega drawing current when the charger is plugged in. If you're really curious, simply get an ammeter and connect it in series with a charging battery wired into circuit. Now switch off or remove the charger. The flow will reverse. Now put it in series with the Vega. Imagine it's drawing 500mA from a 1A supply. Now stick a 1000A supply (still 12V though). What do you thing the ammeter will read? 500mA. V=IR. Simple. The only way to decrease charging time on the Vega is to increase the voltage and I would not recommend that. Damage to the charging circuit or the battery would result. You might get as high as about 16-18v but it's going to fail soon thereafter. I'm guessing that your RC charger is an intelligent charger which generally operates at constant current (by varying the impedance of the input side of the charger) until the battery is charged then constant voltage to prevent over-charging. I know this is Wiki but this page is correct. It explains the reverse current flow between discharge and recharge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery Perhaps a simpler way of explaining this is that you can only vary current by changing the voltage or resistance. Current is a function of volts and ohms. Nett nett is that you gain nothing by using a power supply with a higher rating other than perhaps quality of the current supplied and expected life. To answer Gusco's question directly. No! The power rating of a simple supply like that of the Vega is nothing more than the maximum amount of current it will supply before it pops the fuse or melts or bursts into flames. Of course, there is significant safety built in, but increasing the rating beyond the maximum required will not make your battery charge faster. Grab yourself a 15V charger and yes, it will charge faster but all bets off as to whether you fry your Vega instead. Edited July 3, 2011 by simonta
Guest warwound Posted July 4, 2011 Report Posted July 4, 2011 Well the San Francisco can be charged (via USB) from a computer or from a mains adaptor. Charging from a computer it draws less than 500mA as per USB specification. If you charge it from the mains adaptor then it draws ~700mA from the charger. The mains charger shorts the two USB data connections - the San Francisco detects this and charges the battery at the higher rate. Obviously when the same cable is plugged into a computer the data connections are not shorted. Many San Francisco users report that a low mA charge from a computer takes longer than a mains charge and also that a charge from a computer seems to more fully charge the battery - that is the battery lasts longer. So there must be some range of current that a battery will charge from and charging times will vary. Whether battery performance is worse when charged at higher currents is questionable. warwound.
Guest mxbob Posted July 4, 2011 Report Posted July 4, 2011 On a not entirely unrelated topic....... how long do you think the battery will last? i dont mean in terms of use you can get out of a vega from a single charge i mean how long will the vega battery last before it starts holding less and less charge? how many charges can we expect to get out of the battery? and i guess more importantly are we ever going to be able to replace batteries if we completly kill one? i seem to charge mine either every day or every other day (i watch a lot of vids on it) i can see it lasting that long with a chargign cycle like that
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now