I'm sure I'm not the only one that can't make sense of this, but why is it that flashlights and rechargeable batteries come with such extremely short charging cables? Every time I need to charge a flashlight or battery I need to put them on something so they can reach the wall outlet.
Is there a reason why flashlights come with extremely short charging cables?
- Thread starter busseguy
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Shorter is better to minimize electrical resistance of the cable and thus minimize power loss as a function of I²R
I think the reason is more along the lines of "makes it easier to carry around with you".
Maybe they think people charge their lights with power banks. I haven't yet, but none of the lights I carry have charging ports so that made it difficult in my defense.
Maybe they think people charge their lights with power banks. I haven't yet, but none of the lights I carry have charging ports so that made it difficult in my defense.
3_gun
Enlightened
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My guess is the cables are so common the cable with the light is as short as possible to keep cost down since it most likely won't be needed. I just about have a micro/c cable in every bag/case/car & many jacket pockets. Many of the ones with lights are still unused in the box they came in
PhotonWrangler
Flashaholic
I've received some charging cables with flashlights that are just comically short. I suppose one could argue that the thin gauge of wire they used made it almost mandatory to keep the length as short as possible to minimize IxR loss.
Short cables can have smaller diameter wire in them and take up less space in shipping and weigh less. Most short cables I've seen don't work for my phone using fast charging as they cannot handle the power. What I would like is a 5-6 foot high current cable and they are pretty expensive and you have to order them. After struggling using dollar tree cables which can handle decent current. I had my charger on an extension cord on the floor but finally used a short extension cord tie wrapped to the table support now so a single 3 foot cable will reach.
Dave_H
Flashlight Enthusiast
Some lights (and USB battery packs for that matter) I suspect use linear charging (at least for single-cell) so not too much overhead dropping from 5v to 4.2v. Of course going the other way from cell to USB requires a boost converter. Putting a lot of cable drop especially at higher current could eat that up. Short cable with low drop is the answer. Slight inconvenience but how often does one really need a 3-6 foot cable for charging?
That said, most 5v ac wallplug adapters I've seen are usually set a bit on the high side i.e. up to 5.2v to compensate for cable drop. But some off-spec ones a friend got were at low as 4.7v (which is why they were cheap...).
Dave
That said, most 5v ac wallplug adapters I've seen are usually set a bit on the high side i.e. up to 5.2v to compensate for cable drop. But some off-spec ones a friend got were at low as 4.7v (which is why they were cheap...).
Dave
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I don't think it's nearly as complicated as this thread is making it out to be. Less cable=cheaper. If you're a company advertising "FREE CHARGING CABLE INCLUDED" would you rather it cost you 10 cents or 25 cents?
The cable that came with my Surefire Fury Intellibeam. At a price of over $200 you'd imagine SF could spare those 15 extra cents.
I agree. I've seen USB wall adapters all over the place from barely 5vdc to almost 5.3v. one issue is fast charging in that normal charging is about 5W or 10W (5V 1A, 5V 2A) but fast charging goes 9V 12V and 20V perhaps more and the low end fast charging is 18W either 9V 2A or 12V 1.5A and 5V 3A is 15W and cables not thick enough cannot supply the power levels needed especially longer cables only rated for 1A. Some USB chargers I've found are overrated in that if they are rated at 2A they only do about 1.5A to perhaps 1.8A. In the future there will be a push for faster and faster charging as we already have 65W and even 100W charging via USB C PD I've heard 200W may be also a reality not sure though about that but these higher rates beyond about 18W will tax even good quality regular cables rated for 2A.
Even though they are going to higher voltage input 100W is 20V at 10A... about 5 times what normal cables are rated out for current and 8 times for power. Most of my Dollar Tree ($1.25 Tree now) cables work fine with my 18W charger even though rated 5V 2.1A but use one of their 2.1A 5V Male to Female extension cable and fast charging is a hit/miss situation. I only have a single short cable that works fast charging the rest came with power banks and things rated at
1A output.
I tried keeping it 'simple', but simple doesn't sell here
Stuff made in China if they can save a penny they will as they crank out millions of those short cables in factories and sell them that is why Chinese stuff is often very fragile and cheap in quality. I bet those cables cost less than a nickle each to make instead of 6-7 cents.I tried keeping it 'simple', but simple doesn't sell here
