Hardware Is it safe using an USB cable for charging?

JoostinOnline · Nov 6, 2012

Like Pleng said, some wall adapters output more than 5v. My phone one outs around 10 volts.

RodrigoDavy · Nov 6, 2012

Pleng said:
Uh, no it wont. USB outputs 5volts so if anything it should charge slightly FASTER

You're ignoring the fact that a PC usb port has a maximum current output which is lower than the 3ds charger. But charging with a decent usb charger does make the 3ds charge faster.

Pleng · Nov 6, 2012

good point. hadn't considered that

pwsincd · Nov 6, 2012

Voltage from a pc usb port isnt set bang on 5v and can fluctuate from around 4.75 and 5.25 (usb2) and usb3 can be as low as 4.45V . The current available to draw from a usb2 port will max out at 500mA and almost double on a usb3 port . The process of charging lithium batteries uses VL (voltage limiting) as opposed to CL for nickel batteries. The current available will to a degree increase or decrease the charge time hence longer charge times with usb ports compared to mains outlets.
Charging voltage is critical , will cause over heating if to great , wont do a thing if to low , so the wire you use is perfectly fine , just watch where you plug it

andrew weeks · Nov 5, 2015

It's been 3 years now. Have you seen any damage or loss in battery life?. I am thinking about buying one for my New3DS along with a power bank.

RodrigoDavy · Nov 5, 2015

andrew weeks said:
It's been 3 years now. Have you seen any damage or loss in battery life?. I am thinking about buying one for my New3DS along with a power bank.

Not from my part

sweis12 · Nov 6, 2015

andrew weeks said:
It's been 3 years now. Have you seen any damage or loss in battery life?. I am thinking about buying one for my New3DS along with a power bank.

I purchased one about a week ago (starts dancing). I personally haven't seen any issues, but I don't know.

Agent4834 · Nov 9, 2015

There is no issue what so ever using a USB charger for any Nintendo hand held system. I have been using USB and even custom made USB cables with all of the Nintendo systems over the years.

The 3DS has a micro power regulator in it to make sure there is no damage to the charging circuits. So even if your USB output it a little more, or less. its not the end of the world. Also this is only a change port. there is no data connection from the USB cable to the system at all. there should be nothing wrong with using it.

CalebW · Nov 9, 2015

Amps is more important than voltage.

Agent4834 · Nov 9, 2015

CalebW said:
Amps is more important than voltage.

That is True, but the system will only pull as many amps as it needs. If you charger puts out more it is not a big deal. That mini transformer is paired with a micro capacitor, so if the amperage is too low, it will also correct the issue.

When these things are designed they have to be able to be charged on power systems no where near as reliable as the ones in Japan or other developed nations. So charging at .5A on USB 2 (normal cell phone chargers) or the recommend .9A on USB 3 (the new blue USB ports on PCs) or even at 2.5A (like a tablet charger) will not cause any permanent damage. The system might get a little warm. but that is only natural when bleeding off a little extra power

The Real Jdbye · Nov 9, 2015

Agent4834 said:
That is True, but the system will only pull as many amps as it needs. If you charger puts out more it is not a big deal. That mini transformer is paired with a micro capacitor, so if the amperage is too low, it will also correct the issue.

When these things are designed they have to be able to be charged on power systems no where near as reliable as the ones in Japan or other developed nations. So charging at .5A on USB 2 (normal cell phone chargers) or the recommend .9A on USB 3 (the new blue USB ports on PCs) or even at 2.5A (like a tablet charger) will not cause any permanent damage. The system might get a little warm. but that is only natural when bleeding off a little extra power

It most likely won't charge at 2.5A, as the system will only draw the power it needs. If it really did charge at 2.5A it would decrease battery life as the battery is not designed to be charged that fast.

Muffins · Nov 9, 2015

I have a USB 3DS charge cable.
And I plug it into a wall charger designed for a phone.

I guess I'm living dangerously, but I've never had any problems with it.

That setup lets me store the USB cable in the 3DS' case along with a little under thirty games and two extra styli.

DjoeN · Nov 9, 2015

I alwys use an USB cable to charge my O3DS and N3DS never had a problem, and i use an USB power adaptor that gives 2.4A

console · Nov 9, 2015

I had 2 x USB cable for 3DS XL or New 3DS XL, 2 x USB dual cable for DS Lite/3DS XL, and 1 x USB cable for old DS (no Lite), 1 x USB cable for DS Lite.

I had no problems with all my Nintendo systems when use USB cable so far. I prefer USB charge to plug in computer's USB port to feed power to my DS/3DS XL system. I don't play my Nintendo system everyday, just sometimes or rarely. I use computer often than my Nintendo system.

I'm tired of use AC adapter to search for wall to plug in it. USB is always winner for future technology. You can't go wrong with USB cable for your Nintendo system.

It is safe to use USB cable for your Nintendo system! No need to worry about it.

gallymimu · Nov 9, 2015

Actual electrical engineer piping in here.

I use a USB cable and a standard 2A USB charger. it works fine, it's very fast. (you should use a charger with a current rating equal to or higher than that of the normal 3ds charger)

It shouldn't cause any problems. All devices with Li-Ion batteries have a charge controller that regulates the voltage down to 3.7-4.2. It is initially current controlled and the voltage will vary with the state of charge, once it reaches 4.2ish volts it will switch to a trickle/float type charge until the current drops below a threshold at which point the charging will stop.

If the input voltage gets too high the most likely thing to happen is a catastrophic failure of the charge controller. Likely for even the most marginal charge controller the input voltage max is probably on the order of 6V or higher. It is extremely likely that nintendo is using a charge controller that was often used, or originally intended for a 5V source.

There should be no impact on battery life. It should be unlikely to overheat (on the off chance that the charge controller is a linear regulator instead of a switching regulator then the additional power dissipation would be an equivalent percentage difference as between the 5V and 4.6V of a normal 3DS charger or about 10%).

--edit--

Looking at the teardown for the 3DS XL the 3DS does appear to have a switching PMIC power controller (as expected), my thoughts above still stand.

----

Now for the part where everyone tells me I am wrong and don't know what I am talking about

Wizardkoer · May 12, 2016

gallymimu said:
Actual electrical engineer piping in here.

I use a USB cable and a standard 2A USB charger. it works fine, it's very fast. (you should use a charger with a current rating equal to or higher than that of the normal 3ds charger)

It shouldn't cause any problems. All devices with Li-Ion batteries have a charge controller that regulates the voltage down to 3.7-4.2. It is initially current controlled and the voltage will vary with the state of charge, once it reaches 4.2ish volts it will switch to a trickle/float type charge until the current drops below a threshold at which point the charging will stop.

If the input voltage gets too high the most likely thing to happen is a catastrophic failure of the charge controller. Likely for even the most marginal charge controller the input voltage max is probably on the order of 6V or higher. It is extremely likely that nintendo is using a charge controller that was often used, or originally intended for a 5V source.

There should be no impact on battery life. It should be unlikely to overheat (on the off chance that the charge controller is a linear regulator instead of a switching regulator then the additional power dissipation would be an equivalent percentage difference as between the 5V and 4.6V of a normal 3DS charger or about 10%).

--edit--

Looking at the teardown for the 3DS XL the 3DS does appear to have a switching PMIC power controller (as expected), my thoughts above still stand.

----

Now for the part where everyone tells me I am wrong and don't know what I am talking about

Very detailed answer, but nonetheless easy to understand and makes sense. I personally use a 5v phone wall charger and a 2600mAH power bank which works perfect

Pippin666 · May 14, 2016

Walker D said:
I have one of these too, but never used it..

I don't know how well it regulates the voltage so, who knows how healthy for the battery it is..
Let's see if someone with more knowledge in electronics (or some experience with this cable) can say something about it

The voltage is regulated by the psu of the computer or whatever other electronics device such as TVs with usb ports.

Pip'

cybrian · May 16, 2016

gallymimu said:
Actual electrical engineer piping in here.

I use a USB cable and a standard 2A USB charger. it works fine, it's very fast. (you should use a charger with a current rating equal to or higher than that of the normal 3ds charger)

It shouldn't cause any problems. All devices with Li-Ion batteries have a charge controller that regulates the voltage down to 3.7-4.2. It is initially current controlled and the voltage will vary with the state of charge, once it reaches 4.2ish volts it will switch to a trickle/float type charge until the current drops below a threshold at which point the charging will stop.

If the input voltage gets too high the most likely thing to happen is a catastrophic failure of the charge controller. Likely for even the most marginal charge controller the input voltage max is probably on the order of 6V or higher. It is extremely likely that nintendo is using a charge controller that was often used, or originally intended for a 5V source.

There should be no impact on battery life. It should be unlikely to overheat (on the off chance that the charge controller is a linear regulator instead of a switching regulator then the additional power dissipation would be an equivalent percentage difference as between the 5V and 4.6V of a normal 3DS charger or about 10%).

--edit--

Looking at the teardown for the 3DS XL the 3DS does appear to have a switching PMIC power controller (as expected), my thoughts above still stand.

----

Now for the part where everyone tells me I am wrong and don't know what I am talking about

Glad someone who knows what they're talking about is commenting here.

Just for the record, no USB wall charger that's anywhere near spec will output MORE than 5 volts. The spec for USB, and for its wall chargers, is ALWAYS 5 volts. The current (amperage) varies, but the voltage is ALWAYS 5 volts.

And as far as the current goes, a power source is rated for how much current something can "draw" from it. That is, the power source isn't "forcing" a higher current and cannot fry something that's rated for less than the power source's current rating. In fact, you never want to use a power source rated for less than the device states — you will probably break something or start a fire.

All models of 3DS and New 3DS (as well as DS and DS Lite) are certainly capable of charging at 5 volts, and a cell phone charger would be more than adequate. The fact that it's rated for 4.6 volts officially isn't an issue because (and ONLY because) its integrated voltage regulators can handle a much wider range than "just" 4.6 volts. What WOULDN'T be adequate would be, for example, a bluetooth headset charger that outputs less than 500 mA — you'll probably damage or burn something, because the required current isn't high enough. Or someone mentioned their speakers' AC adapter outputs 9 volts which would also certainly burn a 3DS. But I can guarantee that such an adapter wouldn't be within USB spec, and should not have a USB port on it in the first place.

The 3DS's charging circuit is well-designed, and minor flaws and issues regarding charging voltage won't make a difference. Don't screw around with the power you provide to just any charging circuit, though. A poorly designed lithium ion battery charger can certainly cause a big, big fire.

3DSPoet · May 16, 2016

Wow...this thread died and then lit back up!

I have 2 multi-use adapters I bought from a place called Movie Trading Company. It's one USB cable with 4 heads on the other end (DS, 3DS, GBA, and PSP). I've been using them for months with no ill-effects.

The one in my bedroom is hooked to a converter box that came with my Galaxy s4 Phone, the other is hooked into another cell phone converter box (probably the one that came with my ZMAX, but I can't remember)

Jayro · May 16, 2016

I bought the Energizer brand of USB charger for DS Lite and DSi/3DS. (Its a dual head cable) I haven't noticed anything wrong with using it on my 2DS.

Hardware Is it safe using an USB cable for charging?

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