USB wall plugs' specs for magnetic/tailcap?

I’ve been digging around the threads trying to find info on this but have not pin pointed this specific discussion. I am however confident this generality has probably been discussed over & over regarding USB/Multiple Bay chargers given the current they probably need…

My questions are pretty basic.

Should there be any consideration given to the USB wall block being used in a magnetic tailcap charging situation?

Like most of you probably do, i have a gazillion different 5v USB blocks/adapters (whatever they called) sitting around the home. Some as low as 500mah from years ago to newer 3ah+ with fancy marketing names applied to them depending on manufacture… Turbo Charger, Adaptive Fast Charge, Qualcomm 3.0, Lighting Charge etc.

Fancy names aside, as far as i know, there is some sort of tech inside regulating things, bumping things up, bumping things down,etc. Whether that’s detrimental to charging cells still inside of a flashlight, is what i dont know. All i can do is assume it’s ok because the oems of the flashlights I’m using provide no information beyond the physical instruction of “plug/attach cable to light, unplug when little light is green or blue”. There’s nothing suggested about the wall block specs needed to successfully/safely get to that point of charged, and i know my phone’s go haywire on these 5v blocks/adapters if i try use anything other than one within certain specs.

Is it safe to assume that all these lights with magnetic or direct plug in micro usb features have their own safeguards in place to only accept a safe amount of current?

For example, if i was to use the newest fandangled 90w super duper turbo usb-Z charger… will the light regulate itself & only take what it needs? Or will it be going haywire like some phones will, minus the ability to alert you with a constant dock & undocked notification/sound.

Thanks for any insight.

They all just provide the power, the actual charge circuit is in your light (or phone). Adapters with low current will result in slower charging or will not charge at all depending on the charge circuit.

it will only draw the amount of current it needs, think about the mains in your house, it can supply maybe 100A at 240 (120 in some countries) VAC, it can run a 2Kw kettle or a small 15w night light, because each device will only draw what it needs :wink:
it comes down to the resistance of the load really, a High resistance is a small load and a Low resistance is a heavy load.

From what I’ve seen in the flashlights, the charging circuit is not ‘smart’ (as negotiating charge voltage/current). Most are 1 amp draw, some will state 2 amps (with the 21700 formats or the multi-cell arrangement).

There is a proprietary battery (example: Olight) with magnetic tail cap charging. This is because the + terminal is also passed to the bottom of the cell. Using a standard 18650 will not be charged but the flashlight will still work.

Basically, inboard charging is supposed to be muggle friendly. It stays conservative in charge capacity. Those 500 mA “wall warts” are the cheap type, and so are many others that state 1 amp but actually can’t deliver. I mark them as such (using a USB tester) and have safety doubts. Rarely use - it’s been seen they go up in smoke or have a melt down.

100Amp connection to the grid, do you have a some kind of greenhouse in your garage? :disguised_face:
The average (no, the standard) connection in NL is: 1*35A, or 3*25A (if your electrician applies for it).

When I bought my (1960s) house here in the US 4 years ago, it had an outdated 100 amp electric service panel that was updated to a modern 200 amp panel upon purchase. Granted, that’s at 120 volts but anywhere from 100 to 250 amps is pretty standard for residences here.

Henk4U2 oversight. I think the mains in Netherland is 3 phase ~400 volts which gives ~230 volts to neutral. Power delivery at 35 amps = 24 kVA (230V x 35A x 3Phase)

Here, in this part of Canada, all grid connections are 2 x 120 volts / 200 amps. Some older homes may have a 100 amp panel, but the mains are standardized to 200. This is the equivalent of 2 phases, thus 2 x 200 amps x 120 volts = 48 kVA.

Not quite, it is (was) part of my job to know how much electricity (and gas) to source.
Standard E-connection was (230V x 35A x 1 Ph) = 8 kVA and my wife was thinking of induction cooking
So a (230V x 25A x 3 Ph) = 17 kVA connection was installed from the street to the kitchen (in the back).
When that was done my wife decided she preferred keeping on to cooking on natural gas.

The average demand of electricity for a consumer in NL is about 2,765 kWh/a.
So the (max) power time is: 2,765 kWh / 8 kVA (x 0.85) = 400 hour/a.
Bear in mind that most houses in NL are heated with natural gas (followed by district heating, and heat pumps).

Thanks for the detailed info. Never went to NL but did some electrical in Brussels.

I know that much of Europe uses natural gas for heating, thus the demand is much lower than America / Canada. But I find that strange that only one side of the line is fed to each individual home. I suppose the power utility deals with load balancing then. At my brother’s place, I had to ballpark the loads and wire the panel in consequence. I assumed that the 3 phase line was pumped to your house also, but after re-reading your initial post, I can infer that the 3 line is 25 Amps.

On a side note, 8 kVA mains, is about what we use for the hot water heater. Our stoves are wired for 9.6 kVA. I think our electrical costs are low enough to warrant such energy hogs.

Older houses are connected to 1 phase, all the way to the street (sidewalk). Newer houses are connected to 3 phases, but the utility company connects only 1 phase to the fuse box in what we call the meter cupboard. That is done like a Viennese Waltz (1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3). My house number is 2, next neighbour on the same phase is #8, and then #14, and so on. There are some 600 *) houses connected to an end loop in the 400V part of the grid. That takes care of most of the the balancing. And if it does not, people come looking for “greenhouses” in garages, shed, attics, etc. to see what’s the cause of the off-balance.

EDIT: *) in a typical low rise residential area without flatbuildings.

Wow! the Electric Cooker socket in my kitchen is rated at 35A LOL :smiley:

And I noticed that you take into account the power demand time.
This we never have to do as we have a very ‘beefy’ power grid and using almost all from hydro-electric generators. I believe the excess voltage is regulated at the turbine/generator. There was a time it was ‘dumped’ thru carbon piles, but that is now superseded. The power utility (it’s nationalized) tried wind farms, but the environmental and maintenance costs are higher than medium to large scale hydropower. There is no solar other than individual homes. Our only nuclear station is being dismantled.

There is a liability issue if the winter snowfall is reduced then the reservoir may not have enough for the summer demand. And that is a snowball effect as the temps get warmer, the demand increases with air conditioning (cooling). And with electric vehicles, the grid will have to be beefed up to the charging stations. No juice in a can, nations deal with what is available and at what cost.

Yeah, but my fusebox holds 8 fuses of 16A, and the connection to the grid is 3 x 25A.
There is something called concurrence. There is little to zero chance I use 8 x 16A simultaniously.
So I can manage with a 3 x 25A, or even 1 x 35A, connection to the grid.

Long time testing showed if you feed enough houses from one station, the average demand goes down to about 1 Amp per house! That is: most of the day. During half-time of a soccer match there will be a rush to the bathroom, to the fridge, throw something disgusting in the frying pan etc. :wink:

the Pre-meter fuse here is 64A it was much higher than this before, but about 5 years ago it got lowered for some reason? so even at 64A to the grid at 240VAC (single phase) is a normal amount here, there`s nothing special about our house other than it being small.

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the Pre-meter fuse here is 64A it was much higher than this before, but about 5 years ago it got lowered for some reason? so even at 64A to the grid at 240VAC (single phase) is a normal amount here, there`s nothing special about our house other than it being small.
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………………. I screwed up the quote……
You can’t always get what you want. …Gonna blow a 50 amp fuse. Apparently you don’t use those much anymore either. A year ago I was trying to do some research to understand that line. That was probably for the whole house back then. And maybe it wasn’t enough?

Unno, I just plug ’em into my laptop’s usb socket and forget it.

When it’s done, it’s done.

Thanks for the update SammysHP , Katherine Alicia & @Sidney Stratton .

I’m glad to hear that.
My main basic concern was to make sure I’m not inadvertantly degrading the performance or longevity of the cells by giving to little or too much during the charging cycle.

Anyhow, thanks for the quick responses folks.

“Too little” never hurts, and might even be beneficial, as it lets the charge soak in as fast as it’s pumped in. It just takes longer.

“Too much” is what hurts, and what heats up the cell trying to stuff it in faster than it can be absorbed.