battery charger mAh

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ubernoob

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#110994 22-Oct-2012 15:25

I'm hoping someone here can help.
I have a 1305mAh mobile phone battery and have a 500mAh car charger.
Does this mean the car charger won't charge the phone, or it will, but just take nearly 3 x the time for the wall charger

Thanks

RunningMan

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#704654 22-Oct-2012 15:42

It is likely the charger is 500mA not 500mAh. With the phone not drawing current from the battery it would take about 3 hours to charge from fully flat. With the phone using power, it may take a bit longer.

ubernoob

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#704655 22-Oct-2012 15:47

Thanks RunningMan.

RunningMan

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#704660 22-Oct-2012 15:54

No worries. The 500mA of the charger is the maximum current it can deliver.

The 1300mAh capacity of a battery is the current it can deliver for a certain time. It is often measured over 10 or 20 hours, so 1300mAh would deliver 130mA for 10 hours or 65mA for 20 hours.

As a rough guide when charging a battery you need to put in a bit more than it's actual capacity, so in this case 500mA (charger current) x 3 hours (duration) = 1500mAh.

ubernoob

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#704775 22-Oct-2012 20:32

Thanks for the explanation. I looked up the difference between mAh and mA upon your earlier reply.
Your explanation is much clearer, always good to learn something new