Wireless charging mat for IPads and IPad pros/tablets

[Niptuck MD]

So as I am reminiscing watching a Udemy course on break at work, my battery on my iPad Pro was getting low. Despite its impressive overall battery capacity, heavy tablet users still have an annoying hindrance in charging utilziing lightning connectors. I was wondering if there were any pitfalls or usages of mimicking the Qi wireless system seen on iphones, galaxies etc and transfer that to tablets? Wireless charging mats etc for tablets essentially is what I mean...

 

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[Deleted50669]

So as I am reminiscing watching a Udemy course on break at work, my battery on my iPad Pro was getting low. Despite its impressive overall battery capacity, heavy tablet users still have an annoying hindrance in charging utilziing lightning connectors. I was wondering if there were any pitfalls or usages of mimicking the Qi wireless system seen on iphones, galaxies etc and transfer that to tablets? Wireless charging mats etc for tablets essentially is what I mean...

May be patent-prohibitive, but if not, could be good demand. Though you have to wonder why Apple hasn’t jumped on it already.

 

[Niptuck MD]

Not quite sure; samsung hasn’t either. I know the “Qi” technology is patented but hasn’t really quite caught on yet? IMHO.... people are still inclined to find a charger and a plug point.... it just seems in 2017 and almost 2018 that this would be slowly changing... by 2020 wired charging should be obsolete right?

 

[Deleted50669]

I don’t think wired charging is going anywhere in the near future. How do you supply energy to a wireless charger? A wired charger. Unless they make is battery operable, which idk why they would.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[Longinus]

Not quite sure; samsung hasn’t either. I know the “Qi” technology is patented but hasn’t really quite caught on yet? IMHO.... people are still inclined to find a charger and a plug point.... it just seems in 2017 and almost 2018 that this would be slowly changing... by 2020 wired charging should be obsolete right?

Because the technology is not on point at all. It's way slower and needs more energy for charging. Even for charging a mobile phone, it gets pretty warm and it takes much longer than charging with cable.

Speed charging? Forget it.

Imagine how much extra energy will be needed for charging a laptop.

 

[TKDTyler]

There is a lot of reasons:

1. Cost and space of additional hardware. Apple products are already jammed packed on both their PCB's as well as their housing. Adding extra wireless coils on both sides + the additional cost of the IC most likely does not outweigh the potential use for their customers

2. Ipads tend to be used and moved around quite a bit. In terms of user friendliness (of which Apple values as a top priority), it most likely does not match with their data in how their customers use their products. How often are you going to use and keep your ipad in 1 spot? Additionally, the size of the charging mat will be vastly bigger than those of the watch and phone.

3. Typical iPad chargers push ~10Watts of power (5V @ 2.1); wireless charging is already much less efficient than wired charging which given off in the form of heat. Heat is already hard to dissipate in that small of a space. In order to draw the maximum power from the coils, they must be placed directly on top of eachother. Shift in alignment will decrease the amount of maximum power available.

4. iPads still currently have Aluminum backing, and wireless power does not transfer well through metallic objects. They could go the same route they did with the iPhone 8/X and make it full glass, but again, the costs and manufacturing difficulties associated with it is probably too great.

Theoretically, you could get the 10 Watts for a full speed charge, but there is going to be a lot of tradeoffs that they don't see as a good business strategy.

As a business, there is just a lot more con's than pro's when it comes to wireless charging of an iPad. With scale comes a whole slew of issues. From a usability standpoint, it doesn't really make much sense either.



Fun fact:
There is a company that has already created WiFi Charging. That is, transferring power through RF frequencies. I think they can produce something like 200 Watts @ 5 meters with 10% efficiency. It would be terrible to pay for 2000W of power for 200W of usable energy, but it is an innovative concept nevertheless...

 

[Scot]

There is a lot of reasons:

1. Cost and space of additional hardware. Apple products are already jammed packed on both their PCB's as well as their housing. Adding extra wireless coils on both sides + the additional cost of the IC most likely does not outweigh the potential use for their customers

2. Ipads tend to be used and moved around quite a bit. In terms of user friendliness (of which Apple values as a top priority), it most likely does not match with their data in how their customers use their products. How often are you going to use and keep your ipad in 1 spot? Additionally, the size of the charging mat will be vastly bigger than those of the watch and phone.

3. Typical iPad chargers push ~10Watts of power (5V @ 2.1); wireless charging is already much less efficient than wired charging which given off in the form of heat. Heat is already hard to dissipate in that small of a space. In order to draw the maximum power from the coils, they must be placed directly on top of eachother. Shift in alignment will decrease the amount of maximum power available.

4. iPads still currently have Aluminum backing, and wireless power does not transfer well through metallic objects. They could go the same route they did with the iPhone 8/X and make it full glass, but again, the costs and manufacturing difficulties associated with it is probably too great.

Theoretically, you could get the 10 Watts for a full speed charge, but there is going to be a lot of tradeoffs that they don't see as a good business strategy.

As a business, there is just a lot more con's than pro's when it comes to wireless charging of an iPad. With scale comes a whole slew of issues. From a usability standpoint, it doesn't really make much sense either.



Fun fact:
There is a company that has already created WiFi Charging. That is, transferring power through RF frequencies. I think they can produce something like 200 Watts @ 5 meters with 10% efficiency. It would be terrible to pay for 2000W of power for 200W of usable energy, but it is an innovative concept nevertheless...

Tesla developed this over a hundred years ago. But the same thing, it’s super inefficient.

Would be an interesting Tech if someone could optimize it.

 

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[TKDTyler]

Tesla developed this over a hundred years ago. But the same thing, it’s super inefficient.

Would be an interesting Tech if someone could optimize it.

I'm convinced Tesla was from the future; the man's is understanding of electronic nature is unreal

I'm not sure there's much way of optimizing wireless power unless it is in the form of inductive coupling (current use) or some sort of RF Laser that can track a fixed point as it moves.

In wireless power, the transmitted power follows the inverse square law and is indirectly proportional to the distance^2. So unless we figure out a way to focus the energy to single point, we are stuck with those damn cables.