3670 and USB charging?

[ultimate_ed]

Posting this for a friend (my boss, actually). I've done some searching through the forums, but I haven't been able to find an answer.

He's got an iPAQ 3670 and picked up somewhere that the unit can be charged through the USB connection. First off, is this true?

If so, will it charge through the USB cable that his device came with, or does he need something special. He wonders, becuase his cradle has both a USB cable and AC charger cable plugged in and he'd like to know if he really needs the charger cable plugged in when he's hooked up to a computer USB port.

Thanks,

[fyiguy]

UltimateEd,

There are many options available iConcepts at you local BestBuy(www.bestbuy.com),Seidio(www.seidioonline.com) I have a review of it here (http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=35), Gomadic (http://store.yahoo.com/gomadic-new/index.html) all make the synch/charge cables among many others.

The charge rate and screen on full bright almost negate each other, so when charging remember to turn the screen off.

Hope this helps!!

:D

[ultimate_ed]

Many thanks, I will pass that along to him.

The one other question related to this is this:

Can he use this to piggyback a recharge from a computer that doesn't have the iPAQ software/drivers installed on it? i.e. If he just plugs it in turned off into a USB port, will it automatically start drawing power from the port (assuming, of course, the computer was turned on)? I suspect it would, but didn't see a mention on the web pages.

Probably would not happen very often, but we're engineers so we think of weird scenarios like this.

Thanks,

[Sven Johannsen]

He wonders, becuase his cradle has both a USB cable and AC charger cable plugged in and he'd like to know if he really needs the charger cable plugged in when he's hooked up to a computer USB port,

For this part of the qustion, I would suspect that the power leads on the USB connector are not brought out to the iPAQ connector and so you will need the AC adapter plugged in with the cradle. Remember that a USB port does have a limited current capacity (<500ma). To verify what I believe, put the iPAQ in the cradle, and note that it is charging. It will show that on the power screen I'm sure. Then pull the AC adapter. Bet it shows not charging anymore.

[blazingwolf]

If you purchase a sync/charge cable from any of the companies mentioned before it will charge the Ipaq. I used to do this with my 3600 from computers where I worked. The cradle(as mentioned by Sven) will not charge the unit by itself.