Marketplace
It's back, baby! Don't use the cigarette lighter in your car to feed your smoking habit - use it to feed your phone/tablet some electrons!
USB Car Charger (2 Amps) - $3.41 (C&C) @ Dick Smith
380
Related Stores
closed Comments
These charge at 2 Amps - I would imagine the Coles ones would charge at a much slower rate.
I wish mine was that long.
Vj vj grow up
Priceless :)
It's not the size that matters, it's how you plug it in. ;)
I was thinking, huh, so which way is up?
If you don't know, you're doing it wrong !!!
Or right, if you know what I mean (I don't know what I mean).
I've bought a couple car chargers for my Ford Focus and none I have tried fit! Crazy, should be standardised size. Going to resist buying a third only to be disappointed lol!
They are standardised sizes because they're all meant to fit into a car cigarette lighter which are a standard size.
Yeah you would think so! Apparently not for Ford (at least mine).
Does this have 1 or 2 USB ports?
One
Sold out in SA it seems, anyone have a free delivery code! Or something cheap with free delivery…
get your bike out and ride across the border…
Get your monkey
Colonnades has some
Only store in Melbourne that seems to have any stock is Northland which is too far.
Northland which is too far.
No it's not…
For me it is…
Daily limit for voting negative on comments is currently capped
Has anyone actually tested these to see if they can provide 2 Amps with stable voltage? I bought a 2.1Amp one from BigW last week and when I put a load on it voltage dropped away after about 500mA.
How do you test them? I bought one from Big W that is supposedly 2Amp but it struggled to charge my phone.
You can buy cheapy inline current meters from eBay and charge a phone from flat that you know supports 2Amp charging. I just use a cut up USB cable and put appropriate load resistors to get to the current I want to test and then measure voltage using a multimeter although this is probably not easy for the average Joe. If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone there is also an app called "Galaxy Charging Current" that will tell you what current it is charging at.
For everyone else with an Android there's Ampere: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gombosdev.…
For anyone wanting to test the performance of anything that delivers USB power .. get one of these, they are very handy for a couple of bucks:
www.ebay.com.au/itm/141364209342
It will show you both the voltage and amps. It can help with testing the device delivering the USB power and USB cables also. Some USB cables are very shoddy.
There is also this USB car charger that outputs 3.1A, and has a display showing the voltage and amps..
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/361330152565
I have bought the above car charger, and expect delivery sometime soon. happy to report back on its performance if anyone is interested.Yep, the first link is one of the "cheapy inline current meters" I was talking about although the one I had was about 0.5v out.
@turbodude:
Measurement accuracy you may not get (although i haven't found it to be as far as 0.5v out myself), but for assessing the performance of devices/cables, I have found it very handy.
Oh nice…Those cheapo testers might come in handy when trying to find any problems with USB cables. :)
Please report back on the performance of that car charger. Wouldn't mind having one of those in my car(3.1A on each, 6.2A draw altogether!). The extra Amps that can be delivered by them might come in handy, not sure what draws that much Amps, but you never know which device you will get in future that draws that kind of amperage.
Paid $26 or so for my last one which had 4 USB outlets, three of them that does 1A and one that does 2.1A; but I gave that one to my mum so she could use that.
@Zachary:
I highly doubt it would give 3.1A on each port. Would be more like 3.1A total I'd imagine. Unless you have 2 cig lighter ports in the car..!
I will test it and report back.@noz: Oh, I thought it be able to output 3.1A on each outlet if both were used at the same time, so you could power something that required Amps between 3.1 and 6.2….
If not, why not? Is 3.1A too much draw on car battery for long periods of time or is it just design limitation?
Well I do have two of those cig lighter ports, but one of them has the cig lighter plug(I don't smoke so this plug top is completely useless to me….) and the other is a spare that just has a flippy lid covering it…
Cool, hope to hear back from you.
3.1A is nothing for a car battery.
Most cars have a 10amp fuse (that's your limitation)
[Noz] is probably surprised at a cheap charger being able to pull 6 + amps. I am. I also wouldn't trust it either as it will probably melt, short out your phone and / or cause a fire.
was it a good cable? Poor wires and really long can all drop voltage/current.
yeah I checked it with a Fluke multimeter at the inline meter.
What was the voltage? Before and after you added a load…
Still probably won't go near it, but curious. haha
Only showing stock at Mandurah store for those in Perth
this one is also good for charging your phone. The spec is 1A on DSE site. http://www.dicksmith.com.au/mobile-phone-accessories/force-m…
I have it and it works well even when the phone is used for navigation.
Thanks ddhytz, got one as it has coiled cable included, great for using phone GPS in the car.
The one in OP was sold out in my locals so I just grabbed this one instead. Cheers, needed a phone charger, the one I use is dodgy and only gives a low current.
I got one last week, believe it was similar price. I used yesterday on my phone for GPS without problem.
Thx op grabbed a cpl for my boss & foreman, couldn't get them today due to dead phones.. perfect timing!
Found some at Dicksmith Leichhardt Marketplace
Would these be powerful enough for an ipad? I currently have a USB car charger but it only charges the phones, not an ipad. Think it may be 1A though, hmm.
2A would suit tablets yep
Lol at the normal price of $27.98.
Are these any better than the $2 Coles ones?