Why won't the iPhone charge in the car?

gebbel

I have a Dension Gateway 100 iPod adapter in the car that charged an iPod touch 3rd gen while playing it. The unit won't however charge the 4S I have just bought.

Just wondering if anyone could tell me if there is a solution, or even a reason?

Many thanks again.

coylemj

The more modern iPhones won't take a charge from devices that do not have the 'Works with iPhone' logo. Ditto the iPods, needs the 'Made for iPod' logo.

My own theory is that Apple got sick of refusing warranty claims for devices that got fried by poor quality chargers so they decided to licence the manufacturers and in the more recent models there is a mechanism to detect if the connected accessory is licensed by Apple. If not the device will refuse to accept a charge.

greglo23

The older iPods used to charge by firewire and Apple changed to usb. They gave all the accessory manufacturers years of notice of the change but lots took no notice and carried on as normal which leaves us in the present situation. To remedy this i bought one of these http://www.scosche.com/consumer-tech/product/1667. It changes the voltage from the firewire pin to the usb pin.

coylemj

I don't think it's a firewire vs. USB issue. I have a Monster FM transmitter which I keep in the car,


it worked 100% with my 2nd gen iTouch , played the music over the radio and kept the iTouch charged up but while it accepts the audio signal from my 4th gen iTouch and plays the music over the radio, the newer iTouch will not accept a charge from it.

kjl

They flipped around 2 pins on the charger with the introduction of the iPhone 3gs, you can buy an adapter on ebay to get it to work.

kjl

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TS696LL/A

or if you don't mind waiting a little

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/iPod-iPhone-3GS-4-Charge-Adapter-Converter-12V-5V-/250777395724?pt=Other_MP3_Player_Accessories&hash=item3a637f620c#ht_2914wt_1022

gebbel

Thanks for the replies. The adapter looks ideal but as I have a dock in the car, I'm thinking the phone won't sit in it with the size of it?

keith_d99

gebbel wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. The adapter looks ideal but as I have a dock in the car, I'm thinking the phone won't sit in it with the size of it?

Have the exact same cradle gebbel - would also be interested in a tidy solution (doubt it can be done). I have just lived with not charging it since i changed from ipod to iphone (3 years)

gebbel

I have emailed Dension directly and am waiting for a reply. Will let you know if they offer a solution. The funny thing is the first time I put the 4S into the dock, it charged it fine....but after I switched off the engine and radio going to the shop....it would not charge after.

kjl

There is a way you can do it, but it involves cutting the cable and soldering in two resistors.

You will need
-A multimeter
-Soldering Iron
-Solder
-Shrink wrap tubing
-A 33k and a 47k resistor

1. Cut the cable coming out from your dash and fray apart the inner cables.
2. Using the multimeter find the ground and the +5V
3. Solder the 33k to the 5v and the 47k to the ground.
4. Solder the other cables back together
5. Use individual shrink tubing to wrap each cable back together
6. Use larger shrink tube to make seal the individual tubes together.

Any electronics guy worth his salt could do it no bother.

gebbel

Thanks for that....but the job is beyond my abilities and I don't know anybody who could do it.

Who might do this for me?

coylemj

kjl wrote: »

They flipped around 2 pins on the charger with the introduction of the iPhone 3gs, you can buy an adapter on ebay to get it to work.

So how come my first generation iPod Nano (2005) charges in my Revo iBlik radio (Made for iPod) as does my 4th generation iTouch when they are before and after that change?

greglo23

The reason some devices work is that some manufacturers actually listened to Apple and built their products with usb charging as the standard.

coylemj

greglo23 wrote: »

The reason some devices work is that some manufacturers actually listened to Apple and built their products with usb charging as the standard.

I don't get it. If they flipped around two pins on the Apple device at a certain point then surely there will be two categories of accessory - pre and post the change such that the older accessory will only charge older device and v.v. but newer accessories will not charge older devices?