PRS-T1 Sony PRS T1 Charger

[delphin]

Originally Posted by marius_ultimus

. . . the battery icon still hasn't changed its state. does anybody have such an experience?

btw, i agree with you people - making sure that only a "sony authorised" charger complies with your device is quite evil. it's really counterproductive and should be prohibited, because it ruins the whole idea of unified usb charging.

As has been pointed out by several others already, your Sony will charge properly when connected to a charger meeting the current international worldwide standard for USB charging devices.

These standard chargers have the two data pins on the USB jack shorted together to tell the device that it's connected to a higher current charging device.

More than likely, the charger you tried that will not work was designed to work with Apple devices using an incompatible earlier arrangement which screws up its compatibility with your Sony and most other newer devices that check for a charger using the new and now-standard method.

If there is any 'evil' here it's Apple's for creating a proprietary USB charger design, instead of a standardized design, so they could rip people off on the 'official' Apple charger.

Some so-called 'universal' USB charging kits get around the above issues by providing special adapters or cables to match up with both Apple and other USB devices, but I find that it's much simpler (and less expensive) to just stay away from all of Apple's iCrap non-standard products.

Bottom line, most generic USB chargers designed for cell phones, tablets and other devices will work just fine with the Sony, while anything that is labeled as being "Apple" or "iPod" compatible WILL NOT WORK.

[Shopaholic]

Originally Posted by grumbles

Not True! The 505 and 300 will happily charge from the USB port, but you can not read while they are charging. Neither the 505 or 300 came with chargers--how do you think they were charged? They also took at least twice as long to charge from the USB port.

This was corrected back in post #16. Oct. 2, 2011. No need to rehash or attack thanks.

[geoffwood]

Originally Posted by delphin

As has been pointed out by several others already, your Sony will charge properly when connected to a charger meeting the current international worldwide standard for USB charging devices.

These standard chargers have the two data pins on the USB jack shorted together to tell the device that it's connected to a higher current charging device.

More than likely, the charger you tried that will not work was designed to work with Apple devices using an incompatible earlier arrangement which screws up its compatibility with your Sony and most other newer devices that check for a charger using the new and now-standard method.

If there is any 'evil' here it's Apple's for creating a proprietary USB charger design, instead of a standardized design, so they could rip people off on the 'official' Apple charger.

Some so-called 'universal' USB charging kits get around the above issues by providing special adapters or cables to match up with both Apple and other USB devices, but I find that it's much simpler (and less expensive) to just stay away from all of Apple's iCrap non-standard products.

Bottom line, most generic USB chargers designed for cell phones, tablets and other devices will work just fine with the Sony, while anything that is labeled as being "Apple" or "iPod" compatible WILL NOT WORK.

Just to counter this, and without all the vitriol, my Apple devices will happily charge from any USB charger you throw at them. The only devices that I own that are temperamental are my T1 and my Nokia N8 phone which is a royal PITA. Personally I travel too much to worry about which USB charger I grab, so the T1 and the N8 tend to stay at home and gather dust. Nothing like waking up and finding that your phone, which was plugged in all night, is at 50% charge

It may be the "evil" Apple that created the incompatibility issue, but when I plug a device into a charger that I know works and the device doesn't charge, I blame the device, not Apple. Most manufacturer's seem to be able to make their devices tolerant of this non-standard charger, if Nokia and Sony are going to stand on their high horse and point to a standards document, then good luck to them, but in the real world people will blame their devices.

[LuvReadin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You buy cheaply made stuff like that at it will break. Maybe it will break when you need it most and don't have access to another way to charge your reader. Really, buy something of good quality.

Well, each to their own opinion. This hasn't broken in several months, and takes anything I choose to plug into it. One of the reasons I chose to use one of these is because the USB connection on the Sony cable is an unusual one, and I didn't have any other cable with the same connection, thus I didn't want to take the risk of losing it. So I keep the Sony cable safely tucked away unless I need to use it for loading books.

[marius_ultimus]

Originally Posted by delphin

... These standard chargers have the two data pins on the USB jack shorted together to tell the device that it's connected to a higher current charging device.

More than likely, the charger you tried that will not work was designed to work with Apple devices using an incompatible earlier arrangement which screws up its compatibility with your Sony and most other newer devices that check for a charger using the new and now-standard method...

Thanks for the info, i checked both my USB wall adapters and they don't have the shortened pins. However, both are able to charge my Xperia X10 mini really fast, no matter what cable I use. When I plug in the PRS-T1 (with the same adapter and cable), the only thing it does is turning off the screensaver and I can't turn it on. It doesn't indicate charging, like it does when plugged into the computer USB (battery icon shows a flash, the LED is on).

The charger that I bought and have difficulty with is a generic USB 1A wall adapter from Sweex. It didn't say anything about Apple compatibility, it was just a USB adapter. I bought it recently because I wanted a charger with a higher current. I use the same microUSB cable for both data transfer and charging. Do you think that removing the data pins from the cable and leaving only the charging pins would help? (just an idea, thanks)

[pholy]

The charger that I bought and have difficulty with is a generic USB 1A wall adapter from Sweex. It didn't say anything about Apple compatibility, it was just a USB adapter. I bought it recently because I wanted a charger with a higher current. I use the same microUSB cable for both data transfer and charging. Do you think that removing the data pins from the cable and leaving only the charging pins would help? (just an idea, thanks)

NO, no, no! Not shortened or removed. Shorted, connected together! I have opened up a couple of USB chargers and found them to have no conneections at all to the data pins; they do not charge my T1. I bought a Sony charger (on sale, of course) and found that it's data pins are connected together. I haven't gotten around to re-opening the other chargers to connect the data pins; If I do, I will let you know how well it charges my T1.

[Teknikal]

I personally think having no data lines in the cable would actually work, blackberry chargers etc have no data lines and work fine and my swiss charger cables have no data lines and still charge my T1 from every USB plug even ones that won't work with the supplied T1 cable.

For the record I think Sony are as bad as Apple when it comes to trying to lock in with accessorys. My vita USB charger actually has grooves cut so no other USB device can be charged from it ironicly apart from that it seems identical to the official T1 charger.

[Cdesja5]

I'm using generic Mercury brand chargers both for the car and wall. So far have tried out 3 different usb cables with them and they all work. Got them at Winners and Marshalls for under $10...for other devices but they work with my new T1.

[sabredog]

I have a generic eBay purchased USB adapter of which I plugged a generic USB connector of the type used by both the PRS-650 and PRS-T1.

My PRS-T1 charged with no issues, immediately assuming that I wanted to read whilst it was charging.

[Tiki24]

With the information that there was no connection on the data pins and it worked, tested with a piece of Sellotape and an apple charger and could then charge my T1.

Many thanks was away from home and thought I was going to have to find a shop that stocked a charger.

[Tiki24]

Just an update although just covering the data pins did allow some charging as soon as it had enough charge it tried to connect to a pc so had to short (connected together with a piece of tin foil under the tape) the two data pins to fully charge.

Does any one know of any cables that come like that or will I have to modify one as I don't want to have to carry two chargers around.

[uboot]

I just made a small adapter that shortens the data pins that can be plugged between the charger and the T1.

[JSWolf]

I now have a micro-USB cable just slightly longer then a standard computer keyoard that will allow me to charge my 650 using any Apple USB plug. It came with something my wife bought to go with her iPhone and she doesn't need the USB cable so I get to use it.