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Ipod Touch won't charge with Griffin wall adapter

coledog

coledog

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 14, 2006
622
1
Roanoke, VA
Short and sweet:
I bought a Griffin wall charger to use with my Touch.
It charges "intermittently", it mostly shows the "plugged in" battery icon and after plugging and unplugging it bunch it will finally show the "lightning bolt" charging icon.
I tried switching to the usb cable that came with the ipod and there wasn't a change.

Anyone else having this kind of issue? Is there a fix??
I read on another thread as a rumor/joke about "charger DRM"...possible?
 
Is it actually charging? Cuz I have a Griffin wall adapter as well (very small, rectangular, white, quite light?) and I just plug it in, I see the "battery filling up" screen, and after a night it is fully charged and good for several days.
 
It only charges when the bolt is showing. The "plugged in" icon doesn't even keep it at the current level.
 
Sounds likely that the charger is bad. Have you tried it with another ipod? Or with a different cable?

It shouldn't make a bit of difference, but if you reverse the way it's plugged into the wall, maybe it would work ( if you have it plugged in with the bottom down, flip it around so the bottom is facing up ).
 
I haven't tried this current charger with another ipod, but i will this weekend.

I'll also try reversing the plug just for giggles cause it sounds like a reasonable idea.

Already tried switching cables.
 
The outlet perhaps? Cuz I thought my Griffin charger was sucking it up until I realized that the plug in my dorm room I was plugging it into simply didn't work.
 
coledog said:
The outlet works fine and the house has all new wiring
Click to expand...

The latest gen of hardware from Apple ( 3g nano, 6g iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone ) all have a higher draw than previous models. If the USB charger can't provide the higher amperage on demand then these models will not charge correctly. It's the same reason they won't charge in USB 1.x sockets.

I've had some trouble with USB ports/chargers that worked fine with my 5g ipod.
 
Snowmoon is right, or it's what seems to be correct. The new chargers deliver up to 1 amp of current, most USB chargers out there can only deliver 250 to 500 mA. I have 6 forms of USB chargers, and only one works with my iPhone, the one that came with it. All of the other chargers can't deliver 1A of current at 5V. Perhaps the Griffin wall charger is just barely at the threshold for being able to deliver the current that is needed by your ipod Touch.

I don't think there is a charger DRM, although I also heard mummerings about it. One of my other USB chargers is recognized by the iPhone, it just won't charge it.

BTW, all of my chargers charged my 5G ipod.
 
Tonight I'll look at the output and report back...big bummer if it isn't enough.
Apple stuff is so much more expensive...
 
unless i am mistaken the airport express is only 1.1 usb and it charges my ipod touch perfectly. i have used it and dvd players and anything with a usb in connection to charge my ipod and they have all worked.
 
coledog said:
anyone have link to a high output USb charger?

Btw, the one I have is the 500 mah.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you're asking for here. A 2.0 USB outlet on your computer should connect directly to your iPod and give you 500mA charging power. Most wall chargers would give about the same amount. The one I use ( http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Power-...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207584607&sr=1-28 ) has 400mA rating and charges all my iPods just fine, including the touch. And the price can't be beat, <$5.
 
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leodavinci0 said:
Snowmoon is right, or it's what seems to be correct. The new chargers deliver up to 1 amp of current, most USB chargers out there can only deliver 250 to 500 mA. I have 6 forms of USB chargers, and only one works with my iPhone, the one that came with it. All of the other chargers can't deliver 1A of current at 5V. Perhaps the Griffin wall charger is just barely at the threshold for being able to deliver the current that is needed by your ipod Touch.

I don't think there is a charger DRM, although I also heard mummerings about it. One of my other USB chargers is recognized by the iPhone, it just won't charge it.

BTW, all of my chargers charged my 5G ipod.
Click to expand...


So, are you saying that the wall brick that came with my 4th gen iPod will not work properly with my Touch? I was hoping to be able to keep that at work (can't connect Touch to work computer -- long story) for "juicing up" during the day if I need to.
 
Seems like nobody has asked the obvious question:

Have you contacted Griffin Technology's support about this?

Assuming this is the griffin Powerblock, their own website shows the touch as compatible.

I think you just got a bad unit...
 
skybolt said:
So, are you saying that the wall brick that came with my 4th gen iPod will not work properly with my Touch? I was hoping to be able to keep that at work (can't connect Touch to work computer -- long story) for "juicing up" during the day if I need to.
Click to expand...

I don't know about the Touch, but I have found the iphone to be very picky. I'm assuming it is the fact that the other USB chargers I have can not deliver 1 amp of current at 5 volts, which is the rating of the iphone charger (the highest of all of my chargers by far). One fellow up above claims his Touch is charged by a 400 mA charger, so perhaps the iphone is different, or something else is going on. I'd like to know for sure though since my Energizer USB charger can deliver 500 mA and won't work.
 
I have already bougth two tird party wall chargers and they don't work with my Ipod Touch...:mad:
The output specs are the following:

1. DC 5.25V, 500mA.

2. DC 5V, 1000mA

I've tested both with a PDA and they work!

Any idea why it doesn't work with my Itouch? :confused:
 
agargar said:
I have already bougth two tird party wall chargers and they don't work with my Ipod Touch...:mad:
The output specs are the following:

1. DC 5.25V, 500mA.

2. DC 5V, 1000mA

I've tested both with a PDA and they work!

Any idea why it doesn't work with my Itouch? :confused:
Click to expand...

The fact that a charger with 1 amp output can't charge it is disturbing. It kind of makes me start believing in the theory that's been going around about the iPhone and iTouch having "charging DRM" in a sense, to prevent theft.

The only other thing I can think of is that the rectifier circuit of the chargers that don't work is not smoothing the AC current down enough to DC (because they're cheap), and that the iPhone and iTouch require very smooth DC current.
 
leodavinci0 said:
The fact that a charger with 1 amp output can't charge it is disturbing. It kind of makes me start believing in the theory that's been going around about the iPhone and iTouch having "charging DRM" in a sense, to prevent theft.

The only other thing I can think of is that the rectifier circuit of the chargers that don't work is not smoothing the AC current down enough to DC (because they're cheap), and that the iPhone and iTouch require very smooth DC current.
Click to expand...



Yesterday I was measuring the output of my two third part chargers and of an original apple one.
I have no osciloscope, only a voltimeter/amperimeter.
Here the results:

1.: 5.25V (stable) 500ma (stable)
2.: 5.02V (stable) Very instable current output, oscilating from 0 to about 200mA, perhaps more.

At the begining I thougt:

1. doesn't work due to the low current output.
2. doen't work due to the instable current output.

But then I measured the original one:

Apple: 5.10V (stable) and very instable current output!!! At least as instable as 2. :confused:

I was confused! Then I measured the outputs on the D- and D+ pins (data pins).
1. and 2. was both 0V on both pins, but the apple one showed 2.73V and 2.05V respectively (no significant current) :eek:.

That makes me think, that the apple charger implements a kind of handshaking with the ipod, in order to put him in the charge mode... Don't know...
I've read that in the USB 2.0 standard, if a device needs more than 100mA, it requires it from the host (negotiation). If the host allow him, it will drop the current. Perhaps the itouch waits until it gets this authoritation and otherwise won't charge...

It would be interesting to measure an third party charger that works with the Itouch and check what they provide on the D- and D+.
 
agargar said:
Yesterday I was measuring the output of my two third part chargers and of an original apple one.
I have no osciloscope, only a voltimeter/amperimeter.
Here the results:

1.: 5.25V (stable) 500ma (stable)
2.: 5.02V (stable) Very instable current output, oscilating from 0 to about 200mA, perhaps more.

At the begining I thougt:

1. doesn't work due to the low current output.
2. doen't work due to the instable current output.

But then I measured the original one:

Apple: 5.10V (stable) and very instable current output!!! At least as instable as 2. :confused:

I was confused! Then I measured the outputs on the D- and D+ pins (data pins).
1. and 2. was both 0V on both pins, but the apple one showed 2.73V and 2.05V respectively (no significant current) :eek:.

That makes me think, that the apple charger implements a kind of handshaking with the ipod, in order to put him in the charge mode... Don't know...
I've read that in the USB 2.0 standard, if a device needs more than 100mA, it requires it from the host (negotiation). If the host allow him, it will drop the current. Perhaps the itouch waits until it gets this authoritation and otherwise won't charge...

It would be interesting to measure an third party charger that works with the Itouch and check what they provide on the D- and D+.
Click to expand...

Ok, it would seem you figured it out, excellent job, hopefully those wondering what the hell is up find this post.

I have an Energizer USB charger, rated at 500 mA, and a travel charger, unknown rating, which is supposedly able to work with the iPhone. The Energizer charger is not recognized by the iPhone, but the travel charger is recognized, neither however will charge it (the iphone indicates charging with the travel charger, but will just sit there and deplete). The travel charger has 2.3 and 3 VDC on D- and D+, but the Energizer charger has a very low AC output on each instead.

It would seem that for whatever reason, the iphone and itouch require a certain voltage on the data lines. At least that's what the evidence we have suggests.
 
Hi,
the information I found in touchmods (where they show how to use 6 AA batteries to charge the Ipod), confirms it.

When connected to a charger (i.e. there is no respond to the connection protocol), the Ipod just checks that about 2.4V are present at the data pins (the ones on the middle of the four USB pins) for going into charging mode. Both of my chargers had those pins floating.
So that I opened my 1. charger, put a 82 Kohm resistor between the 5V pin and the middle ones and a 66 Kohm resistor from there to the ground connection and It works now :D

Althought it only provides 500mA, it charged my Ipod faster than my computer.
 
agargar said:
Hi,
the information I found in touchmods (where they show how to use 6 AA batteries to charge the Ipod), confirms it.

When connected to a charger (i.e. there is no respond to the connection protocol), the Ipod just checks that about 2.4V are present at the data pins (the ones on the middle of the four USB pins) for going into charging mode. Both of my chargers had those pins floating.
So that I opened my 1. charger, put a 82 Kohm resistor between the 5V pin and the middle ones and a 66 Kohm resistor from there to the ground connection and It works now :D

Althought it only provides 500mA, it charged my Ipod faster than my computer.
Click to expand...

Thanks again Agargar, I'll try it this evening. This solution is going to be a big help.
 
It works!!! Although I electrocuted myself in the process. For those who try this, you can't just divide the voltage in half with, for example, two 10K resistors. I used a 10K between the positive supply and the data lines, and a 6.8K between the data lines and ground.
 
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