What is Digg?70 Comments
- endtwist, on 10/12/2007, -2/+28Now...what happens if you plug the headphone jack from the charger into your mp3 player, and plug the mp3 player into the charger? :D
- sirmalloc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21You destroy the universe, of course.
- aresef, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18What's with all the great ideas popping up on Digg today? Fartless beans, solar-powered AC, and now this.
- tzmguitarist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15It's a trickle charger. It only charges for 1 minute every 3-5 minutes when the volume is maxed. Considering your cell phone can take up to 2 hours to fully charge at a normal rate that means with this device it would take nearly 10 hours to recharge the same cell with the unit switched off.
- Quactaur, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15As far as i've experienced with these, it also tends to destroy batteries. I trickle charged my Li-on mobile battery with something similar and the phone never displays the correct power reading anymore. I'd steer clear, you'd probably need to keep something plugged in the whole flight to get enough power to use it anyway!
- indiefan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13i wonder if this really provides enough power to keep an ipod video running.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I use a small solar panel to recharge my devices, stuck in the window with suction cups. I've only been asked to remove it twice, both on short domestic flights. When you explain that its a battery charger, most attendants are okay with it.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Gasp....that would be.....endless power! Endtwist you've done it!
- noliberalbull, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10It doesnt trickle charge the player, it trickle charges itself, then fully charges your item for 1 minute. I wouldnt think that would cause a problem with power readings
- LaughingMan11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Pure genius!
In all seriousness... laws of thermodynamics are probably still standing in your way of creating a perpetual motion machine... - heydigital, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Sweet! Now is there one that can charge USB devices with a AA/9v battery that is not a do-it yourself Altoids tin?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I'll hold out for fusion power.
"Stewardess, I need another spoon of water." - Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I'd also want it to make a low-volume slurping sound during recharging as it parasitically sucks sweet, sweet power directly from the plane.
- sirmalloc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It would be much more convenient to just use a battery to USB adapter than wait for this thing to charge your devices at 1/5 speed. Although, I have a feeling the homemade Altoids tin chargers might look just a *little* too suspicious going through the xray machine.
- gbresnahan2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8I imagine the battery/electrical system in the airplane was designed to support far more than the scenario of every single person listening to their headphones at the maximum volume, therefore the plane should be fine.
- mhockey14221, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6if people want to talk on the phone next to me on an international flight, ill take my tray table and break it over their heads.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8It's on their list of supported devices. I'll traveling to Europe and Central Asia this summer, hmm maybe I should get this.
- vikingcoder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The same thing that happens when you plug a solar panel into a spotlight that is pointed at the solar panel.
- rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11Here's an idea. TURN OFF YOUR PHONE DURING THE FLIGHT. Then you'll have enough juice when you land.
- JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Belkin makes an external battery pack designed for the iPod. I believe it takes 4 AA batteries (ok to use rechargeables). You're only limited by the number of AA's you can haul around with you.
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=148969 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Airlines are frowning on carryon batteries. Not sure why, this just started happening. But I had a bundle of 24 AA NiMh that I was carrying with some film heading to a shoot and they wouldn't let me on with them.
- ryanmetcalf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I would really sure hope so. Does it come with Samuel Jackson too?
"Mommy, there's a black man in my iPod charger." - u8myfoood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2OR u can use it to get back at someone, plug the headfone jack into someone else's device, and DRAIN their battery while charging yours, just to spite them...
- tomokatsu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3FYI, several airlines do offer internet access... for example see here: http://www.jal.co.jp/en/inflight/internet/ its a service by boeing
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Gear4 makes it - I bought one for my last trip to Europe, and it was amazing.
http://www.gear4.com/product_detail.php?products_id=108 - deepsub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"It's a trickle charger."
I doubt it... it's probably a simple half- or full-wave rectifier. 4 standard diodes, 1 capacitor, a 5 volt Zener diode and USB/headphone connections would be all it takes.
Trickle chargers require a DC source and more components than a simple rectifier. - morcheeba, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2At 12 ounces, this thing is hefty! I'd prefer to take 14 AA batteries -- it would weigh less. http://data.energizer.com/
I wonder how long the cable is, too. If it's more than 2 inches, it obviously wasn't designed for a plane seat.
I don't know how much power an airplane headphone jack provides. I looked at some generic headphone-amplifier-chip data sheets and the TDA7469 tops out at 20mW per channel. The NCP2809 is 135 mW. The max a USB connection can provide is 5v * 0.5A = 2500mW. So, even if your plane provided 135mW*2, you found a really noisy channel, and everything was 100% efficient, the duty cycle would be more like 1 minute on, 10 minutes off. If you weren't so lucky and got the 20mW output, it would be 1 minute on, 60 minutes off. - arikalish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I haven't seen that on a plane in more than 5 years. I'm willing to say most (b/c someone will prove me wrong if I say all) new planes have standard mini jacks or that moronic split jack setup (that's easily taken care of with a $5 adapter from Radio Shack).
- noneloud, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2To be realistic: your battery would slowly die like normal. This charger only trickle charges.
- theoallardyce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So this is basically a headphone charger, its just marketing bull talking about planes that just happen to have headphone sockets. Really you would be better off with one of those hand crank chargers.
- alittlemelty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Pretty informative, but the comments are where the real truths lie:
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RE: what if...
By abhaxus on 6/15/2006 3:10:05 PM , Rating: 5
i think we have discovered how the snakes got loose on the plane though... - GoatHerderEd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This will ruin your batteries I think. Its always better to do complete charge and discharge cycles. If you don’t, your batteries may get a memory and think the battery is fully charged when the USB thing stops its 1 min cycle. Then the battery will think "i must be dead" when it starts a cycle again. Just my 2 cents.
- Mejogid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Where did you hear that?? Whoever told you was wrong.
- KJay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hand crank power your tunes? It sounds like something the MPAA would institute for revenge.
- Philbert, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Interesting idea but the last few planes I've been on didn't have a real headphone jack, it was more like two holes where the sound came out, you would pretty much plug in these hollow tubes that the sound would travel thru to your ears. It seemed awfully cheap of the airlines. Ironically one of them also had electrical outlets for the windows seat.
- kc7gr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow... So the excuses for music that spew out of that jack can actually have a useful purpose?
Amazing... - xtremdav45, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Connexion by Boeing currently is installed on planes for about 11 airlines. It costs $10 an hour, or $26.95 for 24 hours of service. The connection is provided to the passengers via wifi.
http://www.connexionbyboeing.com - Petrarch1603, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1can the usb be used to shock reptiles in the event of snakes?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1wow badass... i kinda like the in flight stations though... =(
- willbb123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i recently took a school trip to Rome... and in the layover in Paris a friend and I literally RAN off the plane and found the first power outlets we could and just plugged our ipods in and sat there and made sure no one unplugged it. Alot of people hated us, we should of sold time!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1totally agree. and its not exactly a trickle charge, it more like a trickle and burst. the cycling has to be brutal on the battery. it's like slowly filling a cup with water, and then dumping it out all at once.
There are SO many better solutions. - heydigital, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That Gear4 device looks nice, too bad it is sold UK only. This has 4 AAA batteries in it that charge the USB device? The website was not clear. Any availability of this in the US?
- redneckblues, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well, lithium batteries can explode. Don't know about NiMh.
- phoenix11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I actually have seen this type of setup, but not in a long while. The sound travels through two rubber tubes to the earpads of the airline-supplied headphones. It must have sounded terrible, but since I never actually used one, I couldn't tell you.
I always suspected airlines used these contraptions keep people from stealing their music/movie services with standard headphones. Maybe they were RIAA/MPAA mandated at one time. :-)
This "pneumatic" style of headset seems to have been phased out in air travel starting in 1979, according to http://www.waea.org/ife.htm. It seems to still have some use in the medical field, for example, when using an MRI machine or other equipment that makes standard headphones unacceptable. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you print your boarding pass online with continental & other companies, they'll usually give you a coupon for a free pair of airline-headphones.
- benliong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Correct link of Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_flight_111
- brandizzle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well if the person can't fit into one seat then they're supposed to buy two.
The last flight I went on somebody actually did that to me. Their headset jack was broken so they took mine. Damn them. Except I wasn't asleep, just sitting sideways in my seat with my back to them (I was in the middle of like four people, and it SUCKED).
Anyway why bother with the charger? You can just wait till you get where you're going. The movies and games they offer in-flight aren't bad at all. Even the food is usually pretty good.
My iPod lasted 8 hours on the last plane ride I took. While that was only like half the flight, I just slept for the rest. Phones really should be shut off on airplanes and anything else would be too big to charge using this. - ryanmetcalf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1That is obnoxious, its not (yet) posted on the list of "don't bring it on" things. If that were the case, I would have refused to leave them behind unless they had it posted.
- breezy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4What would happen if i used a splitter and plugged the headphone jack into my ipod and then plugged the USB cord into the bottom of the ipod to charge it? Would I be able to extend the life of my ipod?
edit: Beaten by endtwist :( - Adrnshw6, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1You can always use solar power to charge your peripherals as well.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7d34/ -
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