General Question

Strauss's avatar

Can these devices be daisy-chained?

Asked by Strauss (23618points) May 7th, 2015

Recently, my household has acquired several of these USB-type chargers, different makes/models, but similar specs (Input:DC 5v 500mA, Output:DC 5v 1000MA) If I were to daisy-chain two or three of these devices in this configuration (compatible wall-plug to charger a, charger a to charger b, charger b to compatible device), would the chargers and device all eventually charge, or only charger a, or only last device in the chaig?

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7 Answers

Inara27's avatar

None of them would charge – each device loses energy since no device is 100% efficient. A charger with input of 5VDC 500mA and output of 5VDC 1000mA cannot work. It puts out more power than it takes in.

dabbler's avatar

The short answer, Don’t Do That!

Not sure what you mean by ‘daisy-chain’ but:
In series you will end up with the wrong voltages and that can damage you gizmos.
In parallel they will fight each other and probably the one with highest rated current capacity will win, unless you add some current-balancing circuitry when connecting them all.

RocketGuy's avatar

I have daisy-chained a phone to a USB charger to a wall charger. So the last item charges first, using battery power from the second to last. When the last item is full, the second to last will start to charge. I can imagine the same will happen if you daisy chain a bunch of USB chargers. Items will charge one after another using battery power from the adjacent item. Totally inefficient and causes battery wear on each item! Better to charge them one by one.

dabbler's avatar

how are you folks daisy-chaining these things? It’s not like they are made to connect to more than one thing at a time.

RocketGuy's avatar

Some have microUSB input and USB output, so if you have a microUSB to USB cable you can daisy chain them.

whitenoise's avatar

You likely can…

jaytkay's avatar

@dabbler They have an input and an output,

Micro-USB power input like on most phones (except iPhones) and USB output, the big one like on most computers.

So the chain is wall output to Unit1 input.
Unit1 output to Unit2 input.
Unit2 output to Unit3 output.

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