accessorieschargingipad
Does Apple or anyone else sell iDevice cables that are several feet or several yards long? I'm making an iPad Kiosk and need to keep it powered.
I'd be even happier if someone could point me to a "smart" charger which knows when to stop charging and when to start again.
The iPad uses a 10W charger. The iPhone has a 5W charger. Most older computers only support the original USB spec of 2.5W USB port power support. Your iPad, when on, uses more than 2.5W, so it will not charge unless it's turned off, and when off it will charge at less than 1/4 the speed of the normal iPad charger. That can be up to 16 hours for a fully depleted iPad.
Newer Apple computers, and computers that support USB3.0, support higher USB power standards, but if your computer doesn't then you'll need to invest in a new charger for your iPad.
Note that the iPad will generally charge off other USB chargers from other manufacturers, but only at a slower rate than the original iPad charger, unless the charger you use is specified to charge the iPad. When the original iPad came out 10W USB chargers were not common.
Final Conclusion Given the sources and explanations below. I am officially going to do the following to optimize my battery life:
It turns out that the two methods I originally posited are largely moot. The only thing that really matters is temperature.
"Temperature was the most significant factor contributing to the cell degradation, with state-of-charge (SOC) and discharge pulse length of secondary importance." (Liaw et al.2)
Furthermore, it turns out that the decay can be accurately mathematically modeled:
(See Ramadass et al.1 for explanation of terms)
However, the dominant model is that of the Arrhenius formula, which generically predicts time-to-failure as a function of temperature.
The figure below shows the capacity at various cycle counts. Just look at the capacity on the x-axis. The top graph is at 25ºC, the bottom at 50ºC.
After 600 cycles, the cooler battery had ~2x the capacity
While I could still find no evidence on the behavior of Mac power circuitry, there was helpful information on the official Dell website. Two items specifically stood out.
Q. When docked or AC adapter is plugged into a wall outlet, am I using my battery charge?
A. No.
Q. Should I totally discharge, then recharge my Dell laptop battery occasionally to make it last longer?
A. No, discharging and charging does not increase the life of a Lithium Ion technology battery.
However It is important to note that Apple and Dell charging circuits may be different. Although, given that Dell does this, I assume apple does as well. On this assumption, unless someone can provide sources to claim otherwise, I will assume that the Apple charging circuitry is smart enough to know this.
I encourage anyone to continue exploring this question and challenge my assumptions. Please see the sources below if you're curious for a more detailed explanation.
Sources
1 Ramadass, P., Bala Haran, Ralph White, and Branko Popov. "Mathematical Modeling of the Capacity Fade of Li-ion Cells." Journal of Power Sources 123.2 (2003): 230-40. Web. http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/popov/drbnp/WebSite/Publications_PDFs/Web33.pdf.
2 Liaw, B., R. Jungst, G. Nagasubramanian, H. Case, and D. Doughty. "Modeling Capacity Fade in Lithium-ion Cells." Journal of Power Sources 140.1 (2005): 157-61. Web. http://electrochem.org/dl/ma/204/pdfs/0253.PDF.
[3] Ning, G. "Capacity Fade Study of Lithium-ion Batteries Cycled at High Discharge Rates." Journal of Power Sources 117.1-2 (2003): 160-69. Web. http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/popov/drbnp/website/Publications_PDFs/Web38.pdf.
[4] Ramadass, P., Bala Haran, Parthasarathy M. Gomadam, Ralph White, and Branko N. Popov. "Development of First Principles Capacity Fade Model for Li-Ion Cells." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 151.2 (2004): A196. Web. http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/popov/Publications/Premanand1.pdf
[5] Zhang, D., B. S. Haran, A. Durairajan, R. W. White, Y. Podrazhansky, and B. N. Popov. "Studies on Capacity Fade of Lithium-ion Batteries." Journal of Power Sources 91 (2000): 122-29. Web. http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/white/2000studiesoncapcaityfadeofzhangharandurairajanwhitepodrazhanshkypopov.pdf.
Best Answer
Yes.
Griffin makes a 10 ft USB dock cable and it is available in the Apple Store