Quote:
Originally Posted by elcreative
And all of these had a different mode to the 505... and you are correct that they all charge via USB but the 505 came with a specific barrel connector port for charging and the USB for data transfer... at the time other things were also released with separate charging/data transfer sockets but the USB then became pretty much universal with decent power offered...  |
I am not making any claim as to how well the 505 charges via a computer's USB port, I have never used one, but the fact is that despite what is being said to the contrary, both the 505's formal specification and its manual state that it does charge via a computer's USB port.
The fact that a device has separate provision for a dedicated non USB charger connection, as well, has no direct bearing on whether it will USB charge or not, it has been relatively common for devices to have ports for both USB and non USB charging on the same device, albeit becoming less common now (my own phone, for example, provides for both charging methods).
Generally, regardless of what people claim, my usual reaction is that there is some other problem if a device specified as capable of USB charging is not charging.
That includes the possibility of a failed USB charge controller in the device (or its associated software), the computer's USB port has a problem or does not contend correctly with the device's charge controller, a USB hub is being used (especially if non powered), the battery has an internal problem, or the battery has become completely discharged (at least to the minimum level allowed by the devices charge controller, modern devices protect the battery against complete discharge) and the user has not allowed enough charge time for the battery to recover to a level the device will allow itself to power up on again (this may be a very long time with older PC's that have USB ports with limited mAh current capacity (it may be as low as 100mAh in older PCs and which will be many times lower than the charge rate the device is capable of).
As I started out with, it may be that all 505s have a particular design problem of their own but it is incorrect to claim that they are not specified to support USB charging or that the provision of a separate dedicated DC charge port means they will not USB charge.