BlackBerry® PlayBook™ Accessories

[woofhavenchuck]

Is there seriously not a car charger for the Playbook? The rapid charger uses a 12V interface, so you would think this would be a very basic accessory for RIM to make available.  Seriously, guys?

[ViciousFerret]

Hey woofhavenchuck,

The standard BlackBerry auto charger can be used to charge the BlackBerry PlayBook.  I personally charge it that way in my car.

[peter9477]

Available almost anywhere: Blackerry PlayBook AC & Auto Power Kit.  Part HS-PKUNPB-BK. 

Seriously.

[woofhavenchuck]

ok ViciousFerret (great handle, by the way), I can't get your solution to work with my PB. The standard car charger only produces 500 mA of power, which is not enough (the AC charger packed with the PB produces 1800 mA).

..and that causes me to wonder whether he Hip Street solution suggested by peter9477 is going to do any better. Sure looks identical to the 500 mA charger they make for the iPhone, only a different color. Does anyone know the specs on that unit? Anyone tried it?

[peter9477 · Accepted solution]

It's underpowered to be sure. There's a label on it saying the output specs are 5.1V and 2100mA, but there's no way it's really able to output that much, unless my hybrid car was somehow restricting the output on the 12V socket.

I used Battery Guru to get some data from it, and when charging from 30% remaining, it managed only just above 1.1A.

In comparison, the rapid charger can manage 2.4A and the bundled wall charger can do 1.9A at that point. (None of them are current-limited by the charging controller down at 30%.)

It does mean it's about 3x as fast as charging from a PC USB port, however. Should take somewhere around 4-5h to charge, by my quick calculations.

[woofhavenchuck]

That makes it a real, if not particularly rapid, charger. Let's hope RIM builds a rapid car charger some day or a DIY-type figures out the pinout on the rapid charger and makes one for running of the car battery. 'till then, it looks like this is what w ehave to work with. Thanks!

[peter9477]

Another plus (aside from the fact it actually works) is that it includes a couple of cables, one of which I believe is for the phone and the other for the PB (and they're not interchangeable, apparently), as well as the 12V plug and a regular two-prong wall plug. That makes the package effective as a complete travel kit, if you don't want to bring along, or forgot, your regular wall charger.

If I recall the wall charger isn't particular effective either, but last time I tried it I think I had the wrong cable so it wasn't working at all. I don't have actual numbers for it as a result.

[godot2011]

Why worry about a car charger? I gave up buying car chargers. Every time I bought a new phone etc. I needed another, device specific car charger. Get an inverter and use the standard AC charger shipped with the device - free! I have a 75W unit form Canadian Tire and another (100W made by Duracell from XS Cargo) for our second car. They are small and work in any car.

One suggestion if you decide to go this route, buy one with a flexible neck. The ones with rigid neck could be cumbersome, or even impossible to use in some cars.

[godot2011]

One other thought. I think the jury is still out about "fast chargers". They may reduce the usefull life on the battery.

[Xandrex]

Hello godot2011,

Fast chargers do not reduce the useful life of the battery. At least not for Lithium batteries or Lithium/Ion batteries.