Charging W/USB Can Cause Laptop Damage?

[Quoth The Raven]

Hey all...I'm new to the site & real glad I found my way here. Been vaping awhile. Picked up a sweet iTaste VV last night & it's time to charge it. I'm using the USB charging cord which came with it & am using my laptop to charge. As I'm about to plug the batt in,dude says"You can't smoke while charging that battery or it'll fry your board.."or some such. So I'm here asking the pros if there is any risk to my laptop from my using my stick while it's charging. Dude that told me that is one of those know-it-all types so yeah,any help here is greatly appreciated.

We're each of us only noobs once,right? Thanks guys. You rock.

 

[Bunnykiller]

charging from a laptop isnt too harmful for the computer since it draws about .3-.5 amps, but doing passthru mode may draw more than .5 amps and some of the traces on the computer board may not be able to handle that kind of current... I would advise not doing passthru while on the laptop... no sense in taking the chance that your laptop may have thin traces.... see what the manual for the laptop says about current capacity via the usb port..

 

[Quoth The Raven]

Alright then,good to know. Guy that sold it to me failed to mention that potential,only that it was great being able to use passthru mode,which I agreed with.. Awesome battery tho,I gotta say. I've got a Sony Vio,not sure if I even have the manual for it still but I'll look for it. Bummer. I was looking fwd to being able to read & vape while charging at night. Oh well..if it sounds to good to be true etc etc.

Thanks for taking the time to answer BunnyKiller,much appreciated.

 

[amoret]

If it is a fairly new laptop it may have a "charging" USB outlet - my Acer Aspire does.

You can also charge it with a wall wart and use pass through with that. I love my Innokin VV v3s, and what with their limited battery life, and my tablet, and my phone (and my husband's phone) I now have a multiport charger at my living room chair and one on my nightstand.

You can see one on the left on my end table below:


Or, for a clearer picture:



I like it because it has a cord of its own, so it's not limited by where the wall outlet is.

 

[Quoth The Raven]

Nice! Thank you Amoret,I'll see about finding one..sounds like a perfect solution to all this household's charging needs. Epic.

 

[amoret]

Amazon.com: Antec Quad Port USB Charging Station (UA4-25): MP3 Players & Accessories

 

[classwife]

Moved to New Members from Simple Solutions

 

[salemgold]

Hey all...I'm new to the site & real glad I found my way here. Been vaping awhile. Picked up a sweet iTaste VV last night & it's time to charge it. I'm using the USB charging cord which came with it & am using my laptop to charge. As I'm about to plug the batt in,dude says"You can't smoke while charging that battery or it'll fry your board.."or some such. So I'm here asking the pros if there is any risk to my laptop from my using my stick while it's charging. Dude that told me that is one of those know-it-all types so yeah,any help here is greatly appreciated.

We're each of us only noobs once,right? Thanks guys. You rock.

I would not risk it. Maybe things have changed in the last 4 years but, I have read stories of people actually frying their boards using a computer USB to charge batteries. I would get a wall wart or something like posted above before taking the risk .

You could pick something like this up at Walmart http://www.walmart.com/ip/iQ-Power-Dual-USB-AC-Power-Adapter/14690605

Good luck!

 

[captknots]

Probably not a huge deal, could burn out the port at say a higher wattage, or low resistance atty, but if u set it to say 6 watts or 3.3 volts, I can't see any harm as long as your build is 1.7+ it would only pull <2 amps extra which would at most max out the port, not burn it out

 

[BrushyHillGuide]

If it is a fairly new laptop it may have a "charging" USB outlet - my Acer Aspire does.

You can also charge it with a wall wart and use pass through with that. I love my Innokin VV v3s, and what with their limited battery life, and my tablet, and my phone (and my husband's phone) I now have a multiport charger at my living room chair and one on my nightstand.

You can see one on the left on my end table below:
View attachment 370076

Or, for a clearer picture:

View attachment 370077

I like it because it has a cord of its own, so it's not limited by where the wall outlet is.

That thing is really cool- I NEED one! Thanks for posting it!

 

[milescadre]

USB 2.0 has a max amperage of 1amp. However, I thought it generally was agreed you dont want to use it while charging anyways. Something to do with stressing the battery or what not.

I know you dont wanna charge a IPV2 while using it XD Fried that wall charger gooood...

 

[Racehorse]

I would never charge a device that costs less than my computer on a PC USB port.

Brushy, what brand of usb port charger is that? I like it!

 

[eratikmind]

Hmmm . . . I would never charge anything from my MacBook Pro. There are too many better alternatives.

 

[twgbonehead]

While I agree that good 2A USB chargers are a dime a dozen, and therefore would be preferred to using your laptop,

A USB port is REQUIRED to have power regulation by the USB spec. There are low-powered ports and high-powered ports, but the port is supposed to sense the actual load, and shut off the USB power if the load is excessive. If you wind up destroying your laptop by vaping on USB, then the laptop manufacturer has blatantly disregarded the USB requirements. Not to say it will work, but it REALLY isn't supposed to do any damage.

I have both charged and vaped pass-thru on my VAIO laptop without any problems. (I was a bit surprised to find that it had high-power USB ports; many laptops do not). My desktop won't drive the pass-thru (it shuts off the power and pops up a "A device has malfunctioned and has been disabled" message).

 

[mightymen]

keep in mind there's always an amount of risk in everything we do.

In an emergency I would throw caution to the wind and wouldn't hesitate using the USB port but for a few dollars I could pickup a wall charger and have peace of mind that my computer is safe and secure.

 

[skoony]

i use all three of my laptops charging pass-through set ups.
it shouldn't be a problem at all as the battery should divert the power from charging the battery to heating the coil as necessary.
your laptop usb power is regulated and should not deliver more power to anything hooked up to above its spec.

i would say say any computer 6 years or newer should be perfectly fine.anything older i would be leery of.

regards
mike