The European Commission supports industry’s commitment to provide a common charger for mobile telephones. Commission welcomes new EU standards for common mobile phone charger: European Standardisation Bodies CEN-CENELEC and ETSI have now made available the harmonised standards. The industry commits to provide chargers compatibility on the basis of the Micro-USB connector. The technical number for this micro-USB charging standard is EN 62684.
The European Commission expects the first common chargers and mobile phones compatible with the new standards to reach the European market in the first months of 2011. Sony-Ericsson, Nokia, Apple and all the others will now have about a year until the 1st of January 2012 to make sure that the majority of all phones will support the new standard.
Technical requirements: Output Voltage Range: 5V +/-0.25V from no load to maximum output current measured at the Micro-B plug of the captive cable or on Standard-A receptacle in case of detachable cable. Output Current Range at 5V +/-0.25V voltage range is 500 mA to 1500 mA (maximum 1.5A load at voltages below 4.75V). Output Voltage Ripple 80 mVp-p.
EPS shall short the D+ and D- lines with a resistance not greater than 200 ohms (per USB Battery Charging Specification).
The charger converts 90V-264VAC at 50-60Hz into 5VDC, 500-1500mA. The galvanic isolation required for user safety also isolates the charger output from earth ground, although there still exists capacitive coupling between the primary and secondary through the transformer. Output of the power adapter shall meet LPS, SELV, non-hazardous energy requirements. Maximum Current under Single Fault Condition shall not exceed 3A. The power adapter shall meet Class II requirements with max leakage current not exceeding 90 micro-Amps.
The power output to the mobile phone is isolated “floating” type. It should be noted that the common-mode noise exists independent of a well-regulated DC output, as the positive and negative DC output lines, the USB cable, and the Mobile Terminal are all pushed “up” and “down” together.
This is nothing new, just now well documented what happens. This same happens with practically any today’s mobile phone charged based on switch mode power supply technology. Mobile phones need to be designed so that they can live with it.
There is one Technical requirement that sounds quite hard at first but makes sense for end user point of view: The charger shall not be damaged as a result of any electrical overload, over-temperature condition or any short circuit condition.
The common charger will make life easier for consumers, reduce waste and benefit businesses. Please note that earlier there has already been a voluntary agreement on cell phone chargers in EU using the same connector and China implements standard USB charger for all mobile phones.
According to Prosessori news
http://www.prosessori.fi/uutiset/uutinen2.asp?id=57112
there will be another charging connector that will stay in use.
Nokia will be using 2 mm charging connector on at least it’s cheapest phones. By the way the 2 mm barrel type charging connector is standardized in IEC 62637 (soon to be ratified to EN 62637).
One charger for all, what for ?
• Users will enjoy an easier life with their mobiles
• The number of chargers will be reduced
• There will be a positive environmental impact
http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-charger-for-all/128181040582829?v=app_4949752878
http://www.onechargerforall.eu
http://twitter.com/1charger4all
A sample of the new common mobile phone charger for Europe has been ceremonially handed over to European industry commissioner Antonio Tajani, ahead of a continent-wide roll-out this year (director-general of tech trade body DigitalEurope).
The universal charger is intended largely as an environmentally-friendly move, as it will over time make it unnecessary to ship a charger with each new handset. As well as being green, this should also cut down on manufacturers’ shipping costs as they will be able to deliver devices in smaller boxes.
Mobile phone manufacturers that signed the agreement, such as Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, have almost all implemented micro-USB ports in their devices. Apple, which has built up a lucrative industry around its proprietary dock connector, has not.
Source:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/communication-breakdown-10000030/common-charger-ready-but-apple-stays-mum-on-adapter-10021666/
California imposes energy-efficiency standards on battery chargers
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-energy-vampires-20120113,0,6391528.story
The California Energy Commission votes to approve efficiency standards designed to cut energy use by ‘vampire’ charging systems that waste as much as 60% of the electricity they consume.
California’s cellphones, tablet computers, power tools and hundreds of other portable electronic devices will be required to have energy-stingy battery chargers beginning next year.
For example, consumers might pay an additional 40 cents for an electric toothbrush with an efficient battery charger, but would save $1.19 in electricity costs over the lifetime of the product, according to a commission staff report. An upgraded battery charger would boost the price of a laptop computer by 50 cents but would save $19 in power costs.
The standards are part of a more than three-decade drive in California to make appliances and buildings more efficient to cut energy use, reduce pollution and save money.
Noise wars: Projected capacitance strikes back against internal noise
http://www.edn.com/article/520565-Noise_wars_Projected_capacitance_strikes_back_against_internal_noise.php
Charger and display noise affects touchscreens, but there are ways to tackle this problem.
Charger noise physically couples into the sensor through the battery charger during the presence of touch. Its effects include degraded accuracy or linearity of touch, false or phantom touches, or even an unresponsive or erratic touchscreen. The culprit is typically an aftermarket, low-cost charger.
Two common battery chargers are the ringing-choke converter and the flyback converter.
The ringing-choke converter has neither a microcontroller nor a capacitor, yielding a lack of PWM control, a lower-cost transformer, fewer diodes, and lower-capacitance polarized-input capacitors. These eliminations equate to cost savings for the manufacturer but a noisy system for the customer. Some ringing-choke-converter chargers are on the verge of becoming broadband noise generators because they emit as much as 40V p-p noise ranging from 1 to almost 100 kHz.
To address this phenomenon, many OEMs banded together to create EN (European Norm) specifications that govern the maximum noise levels a charger should emit at any frequency. EN 62684-2010 and EN 301489-34v1.1.1 govern these noise levels