Mystery Chargers

Question for the group:

How risky is it to use a charger for your cell phone that "looks like" it would work?

I misplaced my regular charger and am now having to use the charger I put in the car, a bit of a pain in the butt. I found a mystery charger which is just a USB cord with an extension to charge "something" now unknown. It would fit into my cell phone.

How safe is it to assume it would work?

Assuming you're somewhat modern, a phone will say if the charger won't work. I have a Galaxy S5 and it pops up right away "Please use appropriate charger" or some such. I couldn't say what happens if you're using the original Nokia.

I can't imagine anything bad would happen. Worst case is it just won't charge.*

*Opinion of this moderator, not necessarily of DT, at your own risk, blah, blah, blah =p

are you near a major hotel....they often have an array of chargers.

Good luck.

Modern phone and charger... the micro USB connector for charging is pretty much a standard voltage/ampage.

Older phone... wouldn't risk it.

phone is about 5 yrs old ...

Quote: Face

*Opinion of this moderator, not necessarily of DT, at your own risk, blah, blah, blah =p

I've read about those exceptionally supergood wonderful Apple products (in the name of the Apple, the Woz, and the Holy Jobs) burst into exceptionally supergood wonderful flames when using an unauthorized charger.

It's a feature, not a bug :)

I inherited my iphone 4 (plain) without a charger. I picked up two for cheap (sacrilege!) and they work well 95% of the time. The one in the car sometimes will prompt the phone to say "the accessory may not be supported," but that happens with an original, exceptionally etc etc Apple charger I often borrow at the office. It happens more frequently with the original, too (So there!).

I've never once had any problem charging any USB phone, tablet or battery with any kind of USB charger, be they original OEM equipment or cheap-o transformers with cord and a USB plug. Be it in the car, a wall outlet or through a PCs USB port. To be sure some charge the device faster (wall outlet) and some hardly at all (USB port), but they all work.

Quote: odiousgambit

... I found a mystery charger which is just a USB cord with an extension to charge "something" now unknown. It would fit into my cell phone.

How safe is it to assume it would work?

If the mystery charger has a hard wired cord, I wouldn't trust it. However, if it has a USB jack that the cord is plugged into, you're good to go.

Note: more and more casino poker tables have USB power jacks. Bring your wire, or borrow theirs. Seen at G2E: many new slot machines have a USB charging jack.

Bottom line: they're more or less universal. If it's USB, and fits the device, go for it.

PS: About two years ago, my iPhone gave me the "can't charge with this device" type message. I was using the original cube and original wire. My spare cube gave me the same message so I assumed something in the wire broke. Got a dollar store replacement wire and had no problems since.

Yeah, the apple devices require more than just the ground wire and the +5V wire - they require specific voltages to appear on the two data lines, which tells the device how much current it can draw from the port. No voltages = unsupported device.