Many people confuse the charger with the power adapter. In fact, there are great differences between the two, but we often confuse them in our daily life. We often call the adapter charger, such as mobile phone charger and notebook charger, because we often understand that the mobile phone charger is to charge the mobile phone, Notebook chargers charge notebooks. In fact, both mobile phone chargers and notebook chargers only provide constant voltage power supply for power receiving products. To be accurate, they should be called adapters. Below, the author shares some differences to teach you how to distinguish chargers and adapters.
In the concept of consumer, we not only call mobile phone charger or notebook charger charger charger, but also call all accessories that provide power to electronic products charger. Strictly speaking, such a name is incomplete, and even wrong in industry terms
In fact, in English, the charger and the power adapter are clearly distinguished from each other. In short, the charger is the device for charging the battery, and the power adapter is the device for supplying power to electronic products. The charger provides the current and voltage to charge the battery and controls the function current and voltage. When the battery voltage is insufficient, the charger output is in the constant current state. When the battery voltage rises, the output will enter the constant voltage state. When the battery voltage rises again, the charger will enter the protection state. The adapter is a conversion of the voltage provided by other electrical appliances, which is generally the output of a constant voltage source. From the above simple description, it is not difficult to see that the function of the adapter is simpler than that of the charger. In summary, the charger provides constant current and constant voltage DC power to the battery, and the power adapter provides constant voltage DC power to electronic products. The above is to explain the two in a more easy to understand way.
So how do we distinguish between charger and Adapter?
1. Analyze from the power supply equipment
From the analysis of power supply equipment, if the adapter directly supplies power to electronic products, if it charges the battery, it may be the charger. Why is it possible here? Because for those with low requirements, or low requirements for battery life or battery charging capacity, such as Ni MH batteries in toys, some are charged with adapters, Or, for example, the charging of mobile phones and notebooks is also an adapter. Here we need to explain in particular, because the mobile phones or notebooks have internal charging management circuits, they only need to use the adapter to supply power. In fact, their charging is the nature of the adapter plus charging management circuit to form a charger to charge the battery. Because they use direct power supply and battery power supply to supply power to electronic products, they can directly use the constant voltage DC of the adapter to supply power to the products when there is no need to charge. When the battery needs to be charged, the constant voltage DC of the adapter can charge the current and voltage of the battery through the charging management circuit, and control the function current and voltage. When the battery voltage is insufficient, the charger output is in the constant current state. When the battery voltage rises, the output will enter the constant voltage state. When the battery voltage rises again, the charger will enter the protection state.
2. Analyze from the indicator light
We can tell from the working indicator of the charger and adapter that the indicator of the charger is generally in the charging state, and the color of the indicator after full charge is different, that is, the indicator of the charger can turn, and the indicator of the adapter cannot turn. The indicator light of the adapter is only a display of the working state, but with the concept of energy conservation and environmental protection, more and more adapters gradually cancel the indicator light, which can not only reduce the standby power consumption, but also reduce the unnecessary power loss.
3. Analyze from the nameplate
We can get information from the nameplate of the charger and adapter. The name of the power adapter or power supply will be indicated on the nameplate of the regular power adapter, or it will be indicated with the English adapter. The regular battery charger nameplate will also indicate the charger or, for example, lithium battery charger, nickel hydrogen battery charger, lithium iron phosphate battery charger, lead-acid battery charger, etc., or indicate it in English charger. Why does the author always deliberately use regular as the prefix of charger and Adapter? Because many charger and adapter nameplates in the industry are not standardized on the logo.
4. Analyze from the instructions or specifications
How do we identify the charger and Adapter? As consumers, we can't use a single point listed above, but need to integrate several points to identify, or sometimes we need to see the instructions provided by the product, or the specifications provided by the charger and adapter manufacturers
