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Is it safe to use my iPod mini charger on the Touch?

J

Jim01

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 4, 2008
35
0
I have a 4GB iPod Mini from way back when it came with an A/C Adapter to charge it. I recently upgraded to a 8GB iPod Touch (2nd Generation) and was wondering if it would be safe to charge it with the A/C adapter from my mini. I can't imagine why not, but better to ask first before frying my new toy :)
 
Nevermind, I guess the answer is no sense apparently Apple changed the charging voltage on the new iPod Touch. Sucks! I miss the days when Apple actually included realistic ways to charge you iPod with the iPod itself instead of charging you for accesories.

I remember I got my silver 4GB iPod Mini for Christmas and it came with the AC adapter charger. Less than a few months later I got my wife a 6GB iPod Mini, opened up the box, and no adapter included. I was pissed then, but at least we could both use the adapter I had. Now I can't even use that!

My wife is pregnant and ready to pop at any moment so I was looking forward to using my Touch for those few days in the hospital. Now it looks like I will be screwed if the batteries die, or I will have to take my laptop so I can plug that in and then use it's USB port to charge up, but at that point what's the point of having the Touch?

ugh! Is there any link to an official Apple statement about this? I can't find mention of this anywhere on their site.
 
No, it looks like of like that but you don't plug the USB cable into it. It is a separate cable that is a weird shape.

After googling I think it is a 6pin firewire connector on the end that plugs into the AC Adapter.
 
I know what you mean, Apple used to offer everything you needed with the products they sold. Dock, wall chargers, etc. Now they charge for them to maximize profit. They used to ship the remote with their computers, it now costs $20. They used to give you a dock with your iPhone, not anymore.

Whats next? Do you want a keyboard on your Macbook, thats an extra $50.
 
Jim01 said:
I have a 4GB iPod Mini from way back when it came with an A/C Adapter to charge it. I recently upgraded to a 8GB iPod Touch (2nd Generation) and was wondering if it would be safe to charge it with the A/C adapter from my mini. I can't imagine why not, but better to ask first before frying my new toy :)
Click to expand...

The 2nd Gen iPod Touch cannot be charged via firewire only USB. I'm not sure if that applies to the old firewire wall chargers though.
 
bildio said:
Is this the one you are referring to?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB051LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA4NA&mco=MTU5MjU

I've been using it to charge my 2g.
Click to expand...

There is also this more compact adapter:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB352LL/B?fnode=MTY1NDA4NA&mco=MTYzOTU2NA

I believe both adapters come with a USB-to-dock-connector cable, even though it's not listed anymore for the larger one. Note the difference in shipping times, which could become a factor if you're about to rush to the hospital.

There are also third-party charger available through, e.g., places like Walmart which might be easier to get to:
 
How does the iPod even know? I mean it is being plugged in by the same input and receiving power, so how does it know at the other end if it's USB or Firewire?

I guess I will just go ahead and try it when I get home. I just wanted to run it up the flagpole here before giving it a shot.
 
Jim01 said:
How does the iPod even know? I mean it is being plugged in by the same input and receiving power, so how does it know at the other end if it's USB or Firewire?

I guess I will just go ahead and try it when I get home. I just wanted to run it up the flagpole here before giving it a shot.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how it knows, but it does. When I tried connecting my 2G iPt to my computer via Firewire (just for kicks) it reported that it wasn't compatible. I think the same will happen when trying the A/C adapter (that is, it won't get fried, but it won't work either).
 
Jim01 said:
How does the iPod even know? I mean it is being plugged in by the same input and receiving power, so how does it know at the other end if it's USB or Firewire?
Click to expand...

Firewire 12v and USB 5v are on two different pins on the connector. When you connect a USB enabled device to the ipod the ipod senses 5v at the right pin and accepts it as a device that is able to charge the new touch. On the other hand if it doesn't sense 5v at that pin it assumes the device is trying to charge the ipod with Firewire 12v and pops up the warning saying it isn't compatible.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 16GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F138 Safari/525.20)

Jim01 said:
Nevermind, I guess the answer is no sense apparently Apple changed the charging voltage on the new iPod Touch. Sucks! I miss the days when Apple actually included realistic ways to charge you iPod with the iPod itself instead of charging you for accesories.

I remember I got my silver 4GB iPod Mini for Christmas and it came with the AC adapter charger. Less than a few months later I got my wife a 6GB iPod Mini, opened up the box, and no adapter included. I was pissed then, but at least we could both use the adapter I had. Now I can't even use that!

My wife is pregnant and ready to pop at any moment so I was looking forward to using my Touch for those few days in the hospital. Now it looks like I will be screwed if the batteries die, or I will have to take my laptop so I can plug that in and then use it's USB port to charge up, but at that point what's the point of having the Touch?

ugh! Is there any link to an official Apple statement about this? I can't find mention of this anywhere on their site.
Click to expand...

it tells you on the product info page that it will only charge via USB.
If you need to charge it away from your computer, just buy a USB charger (doesn't have to be an Apple one although obviously they work)
 
Indeed it didn't work. It gave me the "Cannot charge with this accesory" error.

So any USB charger should work? I thought I heard stuff about it having to be compatible with the 2g Touch and that those were just now coming out.
 
Jim01 said:
Indeed it didn't work. It gave me the "Cannot charge with this accesory" error.

So any USB charger should work? I thought I heard stuff about it having to be compatible with the 2g Touch and that those were just now coming out.
Click to expand...

Any USB charger will work fine - you just need one that has a USB socket in it so you can plug in the iPod cable. I've charged my iPod 2G from a standard USB charger, an iPhone charger and an in-car USB charger with no problems at all
 
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