Thoughts On The Nokia CA-100 USB Charger
Several weeks ago, I alerted you guys to the deal of a Nokia USB charger for $6, shipped, via DealExtreme. I sent off for mine and received it roughly a week and a half later, which isn’t bad, considering the price. Although mine turned out to be fake, Mark over at TheNokiaBlog.com got his hands on a real one and has put some thoughts together.
I’ve not actually had a reason/chance to use mine extensively yet, but it’s got a permanent place in my gadget bag. I know that it works, though it’s very touchy and will easily give you the odd ‘not charging’ message. Mark has been using his continuously, as he doesn’t have broadband setup in his new apartment yet, but he’s also covered quite a few other uses that I’m sure I’ll be using mine for eventually.
Definitely head over to TheNokiaBlog.com to check out his full review, and you can purchase the legit version from WirelessGround for $40, or you can take your chances with the DealExtreme version for $6.
I got one and its great.. am a oollege kid and have my laptop at all times.. very useful to charge my n80.. bout time i get a n96..
I got the one you recommended. Works well so far. Worth all $6.
Nice theme on the phone in the picture… May I enquire what might be the name of that theme?? And where I might be able to acquire it?
Also very nice charger apparently, I´ll buy one as soon as I see it somewhere. (Using a lot of laptop)
[...] Thoughts On The Nokia CA-100 USB Charger [...]
The CA-100 USB charger works better than my Swiss travel product charger cable. With cigarette lighter broken in my previous car, I charged my phone through the USB-connector of the car radio while navigating. The CA-100 USB where as the Swiss travel product charger cable only worked intermittently.
Both devices do a bit of voltage stepping (5V->5.7 V) to adjust charging voltage to proper levels. The CA-100 seems to provide a more constant voltage.
Also troubles with the odd not charging message could on occasion to be caused by a too low usb-voltage setting of the connecting USB-port (adjust BIOS in PC i.e.).
Yeah, the “Not charging” message will be more noticeable the lower charge is in the battery when you connect it.
The thing is, you’ll never get enough out of USB for a full charge from empty no matter what electrickery you put into the cable – the laws of physics won’t allow you to magically increase it. A dual headed USB cable so you can power from 2 USB ports simultaneously is the only other way you could do it, but I’ve never seen this for a Nokia phone just for a couple of my 2.5″ USB hard drives.
thanks to nokia we can also charge our bluetooth headsets. they did something right the first time.
Im also very happy with mine … Well, it takes quite a litte longer than via AC/DC …
You can buy it directly from Nokia’s online store for around £9.00 in UK. I bought mine a little over six months ago and it has been a life saver more than a dozen times.
I am sure you would be able to do the same at Nokia’s other international online stores.
“The thing is, you’ll never get enough out of USB for a full charge from empty no matter what electrickery you put into the cable – the laws of physics won’t allow you to magically increase it.”
Google “charge pump”…
This charger is utter crap for my N95. Even when the phone has more than 1/2 charge or even nearly full charge, it still says “not charging”. I can only get it to charge maybe 1 out of 20 times. It is so frustrating!
Maybe I have a dud?
I also have one of these fake CA-100 USB chargers and the voltage output is the same as what is going into it, about 5V. 5V is fine when your battery has some charge and this fake will tickle charge your phone. However when your Nokia battery is low then this fake doesn’t have enough power to do a full charge hence the cellphone shows ‘not charging’ when you plug it in.
I suspect the fake CA-100 do not have the proper step up voltage circuitry to up the voltage to 5.7V (required for full out charging of flat/low batteries).
I don’t have a genuine CA-100 at hand to test its output but a genuine Nokia wall charger outputs about 6.2V
Genuine and fake CA-100 are hard to tell apart, though the fakes may have loser plugs.
Generally,I use the Q-USB to charge my Nokia 7370 instead of the bulky original charger or the CA-100.
It works really very great.I like it very much.
And the price is very reasonable.
Most of you know that the Nokia7370 battery is really easy to run out of power.
Everyday if I dialled a lot of phones,it will be short power quickly,so I have to take this along with me,because it is lightweight,very easy to carry,just about 5g/pcs.and I hang it on my phones,very fashionable and convenient.
If you like it,I can tell you where you can buy it.
I tell you our company’s contact MSN,because I can’t login in my own MSN in the office.
Company MSN:sales12_szfeifan@hotmail.com
Private MSN:Doreena_Hu@hotmail.com