THE MYSTERY BEHIND FAST CHARGING
Hey fellow steemites and welcome to another blog post actually the first of its kind.
Well like i said in the first blog post i made i would be looking at how some electronics gadgets work and also this series would also feature a DIY sessions which will help you to design small mini projects. Like i always say the best place to learn is in the field.
LETS GET STARTED
FAST CHARGING
Well in this blog post i will be looking at the fast chargers that people claim can charge a phones battery from zero to a 100% in a matter of minutes, faster than your average generic phone chargers.
Now the thing is this well is kinda true actually fast charging works by charging phone batteries from 0% - 50% and then trickle charging it the rest of the way. This technology was first introduced by Qualcomm as a solution to the power problem of the basic phone user.
Principal
Now the basic requirements for the fast charging process include :
- The adequate wall adapter and gauge cords
- Necessary electronics in the phone for fast charging (such as a Qualcomm chip)
The thing here is that basic wall adapters have an average power rating of about of about 5W or less (maybe 7W if you are lucky). And typical fast charging adapters come at ratings of 12-20W (WOW!).
Now as we all know more power leads to increased battery heating and some of you, just like me, have found out the hard way that using a fast charger with a non enabled phone can lead to battery damage fast why? Because of the large amount of power forced through the battery. Another thing is one might still ask "But batteries come with certain internal circuitry to prevent over charge?" and that is true but this battery protection circuits are not made so as to prevent large wattage and some are damaged due to the large amount of heat generated from the large power feed to it.
Also another well less talked about factor is the "C- rating" of the battery and this is basically the amount of current you can draw over a certain period of time to achieve the battery's specified capacity. Now there are two specified C-ratings and that is that for charge and discharge
To support fast charging ,the battery needs to have a large discharge C-rating. This rating is usually indicated on Li-ion batteries as 0.1C or more.
Batteries that posses this large discharge C-rating are more expensive and also posses other things like a large surface area etc.
Also its is worth knowing that many phone companies have different design approach for fast charging technology but all use the same basic principal shown above .
So next time when you complain about your cheap charger charging slowly you know why it is so.
Till next time don't forget to upvote and comment below . Let's get your opinion on fast charging in the comments below.
STAY CREATIVE AND I WILL SEE YOU NEXT TIME
References
Images from google search engine
Cover image from Qualcomm.com
Gif gotten from ebay.com
More materials on fast charging could be found on digitaltrends.com