Hacker News Reader

Comment by shifty3 | Hacker News Reader

I was in Ikea yesterday and we bought two nightstand lamps with integrated chargers. Did not even realize that yesterday was the first day they were on sale... (in Germany).

Unfortunately, they do not work reliably with my Nexus 4. After putting the phone on the charger it does start charging, but cuts off after a couple of seconds and the charger starts flashing its LED (which is supposed to indicate an error). The phone did not charge at all last night on the charger. I don't know if this is an issue with my Nexus 4, which is already bit beat up, or if there is some kind of incompatibility...

Anybody have any experience with these kind of wireless chargers? Are there compatibility issues?

View on HN

I don't know if you're aware or not, but the charging location on the Nexus 4 is a little off-center, so if you centered it, that might be causing issues.

> Nexus 4: One inch (25mm) below the center of the phone

https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/6073618?hl=en

Thanks for this, I'll have to try it on the charging pad when I get home. We've always had trouble making sure our phones get on the right spot on the pad, which has a 1-2 second delay before lighting up to say "Charging!"

Thanks for tip! Did not help, unfortunately. It seems to connect only for a couple of seconds and then stops charging. After moving the phone a bit it will "reconnect", but again only for a short time. Alas, I do not have access to another phone with wireless charging capability to check where the problem is.

Same here. I bought the desk lamp (needed a new one as well as the option to charge my N4). I have exactly the same problem as you do. It starts to charge, but after a few seconds the dim light on the lamp starts to blink and the phone stops charging.

I have tried to position the phone in various ways, but the result is always the same. Question now is: is the N4 flawed or is the Ikea QI flawed?

I had this same problem with an HTC 8X and a cheap off-brand charger I got from Amazon.

What was weird about it was that it would only repro on certain outlets - if I plugged it in on the other side of the room, it would work just fine. It also didn't repro with any other phones.

I would guess there was something else on the original circuit that was dirtying the power enough that the charger couldn't use it on certain phones - but I never did find the root cause.

FWIW, I have a Nexus 4 and saw basically the same symptoms with two different models of Qi chargers. The same chargers worked perfectly with other people's phones.

My guess is that either there's a serious design flaw in the Nexus 4's inductive charging, or it just has a very high defect rate.

I'm looking forward to when electronics are not "technology" and are just another material used in products. But for that to happen, the electronics have to be absolutely foolproof. Is a furniture manufacturer equipped to offer tech support?

Do you require tech support for your power strip? It has electronics in it.

To be foolproof, the device's function must be very simple, like that of a power strip or an electric kettle. (A microwave is already too complex for that.)

I suspect a wireless charger's function is simple enough to become foolproof. Wired chargers are mostly foolproof already.

Admittedly I am not familiar with all types of wireless charging technology, but I worked on some prototypes of such a little under 10 years ago (powering blenders and 1 kW cooking devices wirelessly through a countertop), and they were hopelessly complex and full of software. Perhaps my experience is now outdated, but it left me with strong doubts about any prospects for foolproof-ness.

My old Nexus 4 has been lunching itself recently. The degradation past the 2 year mark has been pretty shocking, and this is one of the many symptoms of its old age I've experienced, sadly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com