Charging the Nooks - What are You Using?

[BillChunn]

Ok, I understand that they will last for several hours but eventually they will have to be recharged. It would be nice if multiple Nooks could be recharged at the same time.

Has anybody tried the ChargePod from CallPod? It says it will handle six devices at the same time but it appears you have to purchase the adapter cables from them.

Is there a charging station that uses the existing cables? When attempting to charge 4 Nooks off of a PC, it would only do a couple at a time and we have nine.

Next questions. How do you tell the device is charging and has fully completed the charge cycle? At the moment, I have two Nooks on separate MicroUSB chargers that I hijacked from old phones. One has a green light on and the other has a yellow light on. Both are displaying the "sleep" screen and are at about 30% charge. Are they still charging? Are there any settings that are specific to charging?

Yeah... I'm the new guy that volunteered to handle the electronic scoring stuff....

BC

[jcwren]

If you have AC available, I just plug all 12 chargers into a 6-outlet strip that I've plugged 6 3-wide outlet adapters into. I don't have a picture handy, but I can post one tonight. If you're charging off a USB port, I haven't tried that.

They're charged when the light turns green. We've run into a couple where we've had to disconnect the battery for a couple hours to get the thing to start sensing the charge level correctly. If you have one that never goes to green after performing the procedure, it's probably got a bad battery. They're pretty easy to disassemble to disconnect the battery. Takes a T7 Torx, IIRC. There's a couple guides on the net and YouTube about how to do it.

What I can tell you is this: Do NOT leave them plugged in all the time. Use them, and then charge them for a few hours the day before the next match. We always turn ours off afterwards, as even when they're asleep, they still periodically wake up to check the network and such. So basically, our get used for 6 to 8 hours, turned off (long press of the power key, then tap 'yes' to turn off), left on a charger the night before a match, then used for the match. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[ctay]

I have 4 of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0052RM8T2/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Keeps everything clean and close - stack the Nooks on top of each other plugged into this and you are good to go.

One note on jcwren's warning - I think he meant to say don't leave them plugged in all the time if the power gets turned off. There is some type of power leak through the charger that will drain the Nook if they are plugged in with the A/C power off. If the power is on you can leave them plugged in with no adverse effects.

[Graham Smith]

There are all kinds of USB multi-port chargers around. I have a couple of these:

http://www.kensington.com/kensington/us/us/p/1416/K38035US/4-port-usb-charger-for-mobile-devices.aspx

[wgnoyes]

..

One note on jcwren's warning - I think he meant to say don't leave them plugged in all the time if the power gets turned off. There is some type of power leak through the charger that will drain the Nook if they are plugged in with the A/C power off. If the power is on you can leave them plugged in with no adverse effects.

Actually from his documentation, he means both. Yes, if you leave the nook plugged into the usb charger when the AC power is off, the battery gets drained. Go figure. But he also absolutely means don't leave them plugged in all the time. The way Chris explains it, heat is an ever-constant enemy of batteries and their ability to recharge, and if you leave them plugged in charging all the time, you WILL reduce the life expectancy of the battery and therefore the nook.

Edited April 6, 2013 by wgnoyes