Hardware 3DS charging cradle

[Nollog]

Old sockets don't have switches.
Back when climate change was a non-issue and nobody cared if their balls were left plugged in 24/7.
Now it's becoming a requirement as all the countries try to reduce emissions.

Having it plugged in for 24 hours won't deduct charge, but constantly for a year might.

 

[m3rox]

apart from standby power consumption there's always a possible fire risk, it only takes a second to flick the switch on/off especially at night.

Many countries (including the US) do not have switches for their electrical sockets. Normally (but not always) only countries of former British colonies do (such as Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong etc)

I heard that placing your 3DS on the cradle with the power on 24 hours a day will deduct it's battery life. True or false? I don't want only an hour's worth of gameplay

Strange thing, my room has a switch on the wall that turns on/off half of the outlets in my room.

 

[chris888222]

On common outlets I guess. Main sockets I'm not that sure.

For what I know when I visited the US, China and Germany, they didn't have switches on the sockets.

 

[spiritofcat]

apart from standby power consumption there's always a possible fire risk, it only takes a second to flick the switch on/off especially at night.

Many countries (including the US) do not have switches for their electrical sockets. Normally (but not always) only countries of former British colonies do (such as Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong etc)

I heard that placing your 3DS on the cradle with the power on 24 hours a day will deduct it's battery life. True or false? I don't want only an hour's worth of gameplay

FALSE
Lithium Ion batteries benefit from being charged up without being fully discharged first.

 

[Rydian]

Modern charging things will "trickle charge" after about 80-90% or so, as far as I know there's no harm.

 

[chris888222]

So that means if you leave your 3DS in the cradle with the power on everyday for 24 hours straight there will be no effects on battery life?

 

[ramboo]

add to your friend code mannie33 1032 1265 6287

 

[nintendoom]

What is the charging cradle for if the charger can be plugged into the 3DS directly?

to lessen scratches to the shiny 3DS's

 

[Zorua]

What is the charging cradle for if the charger can be plugged into the 3DS directly?

to lessen scratches to the shiny 3DS's

Well actually, the cradle causes a lot of scratches to the bottom.
The cradle is for easy of charging.
You don't need to manually plug the wire into your 3DS, you can just keep it on the cradle.

 

[nintendoom]

What is the charging cradle for if the charger can be plugged into the 3DS directly?

to lessen scratches to the shiny 3DS's

Well actually, the cradle causes a lot of scratches to the bottom.
The cradle is for easy of charging.
You don't need to manually plug the wire into your 3DS, you can just keep it on the cradle.

well, not on mine :|

 

[chris888222]

To me, the cradle = makes 3DS appear cooler = makes people jealous

haha, at the same time make it an easier charger.

 

[ccfreak2k]

a little lesson about chargers

The thing is that whenever a charging device is plugged into a wall socket with the power switch on, regardless of whether it is plugged into a device for charging or not - it WILL still use electricity......The electricity it uses is transformed into heat

A Charger/Transformer basically consists of 2 tightly wound coils of wire, isolated from each other, to create a step down of voltage by use of 'magnectic inductor principles'.

Spoiler

Now a Coil of wire that has a voltage running through it, will not only produce a magnectic field - it will also produce heat/light (those of us old enough may remember 'electric bar fires', these are basically one half of a transformer). Now modern day transformers/chargers are more efficient than the good old days - so the amount of heat it produces is very little - but it is still energy used.

When you are charging a device (3DS or whatever) you are putting a higher 'load' onto the transformer (on the other 'coils') which heats up the iron core even more than normal - & that is why transfomers can get 'warmer' after chargingThis is quite correct, except I have some points to add:

• All wall warts use electricity all the time, yes, but the question is how much. If I had to hazard a guess based on absolutely no evidence, I would say no more than what it takes to drive your average indicator LED. Not all of the electricity is lost to heat, though; some of it leaks out to ground.
• Transformers don't produce light on their own, except through electrical arcing which isn't normal.
• "one half of a transformer" is just a regular inductor, which would quickly saturate under DC current and would have current that lags voltage under AC.
• Most importantly, I can virtually guarantee you that the stock 3DS charger is a switched-mode power supply, and considering the wattages involved are so small, I doubt there's even a transformer in there. Most of the heavy lifting is done by the switching transistor, which consequently means most of the current loss is in there.

QUOTE(chris888222 @ Apr 30 2011, 07:23 PM) I heard that placing your 3DS on the cradle with the power on 24 hours a day will deduct it's battery life. True or false? I don't want only an hour's worth of gameplay

Laptops use Lithium-ion batteries, which I assume the 3DS uses, and they don't have this problem. Any problems arising from common use of Li-ion batteries have been ironed out of the technology long ago. If you're unsure, the 3DS manual which you no doubt forgot about probably has some "best practices" in it.