[Dan R.]

I have an unusual question. My cousin is in Congo with doctors without borders, and fried his Palm's charger. Below is his question, with the relevant specs:

dan, i have an emergency technical question.

I pooched my palm pilot charger with the local 230 volt 50 hz supply.

the palm charger puts out 5.2 volts at 500mamps (0.5) amp.

as per the sticker on the back, the palm Tungsten T5 can accept up to 1 amp input

my digital camera charger puts out 4.7 volts at 0.6 amp. can I splice the wires from this to the male end of the palm charger to charge my palm pilot, or should I wait for my brother to send me a replacement charger?

I would suspect he'd be ok, because it does not exceed the maximum amps. The only concern would be the lower voltage, but that would just make the battery charge slower, wouldn't it?

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well...depends on how long he makes do with that...he could DRASTICALLY reduce the battery life if he uses it long term...but i would say...as long as he splices it correctly...and only uses it when absolutely neccessary...for only as long as neccessary (until the new one shows up)....it should be ok as a temporary fix...i wouldn't do that then say "nah..i don't need a new plug...just don't send it i'll use the frankenstein"...but if it were VERY temporary...it shouldn't be TERRIBLY bad

[dsenette]

well...depends on how long he makes do with that...he could DRASTICALLY reduce the battery life if he uses it long term...but i would say...as long as he splices it correctly...and only uses it when absolutely neccessary...for only as long as neccessary (until the new one shows up)....it should be ok as a temporary fix...i wouldn't do that then say "nah..i don't need a new plug...just don't send it i'll use the frankenstein"...but if it were VERY temporary...it shouldn't be TERRIBLY bad

[Dan R.]

What's the basis of your caution? What I read at batteryuniversity was only that HIGH charge voltage can diminish battery life, but low voltage charging I assume then would just be slower?

[dsenette]

What's the basis of your caution?

an overwhelming desire to avoid breaking expensive things while suffering from a severe lack of funds....if he's got the cash to not worry about toasting the palm's battery and/or possibly the palm (not assured that it would happen..and probably wouldn't happen...but why take the chance when you can just get the proper equipment?)...i said it COULD cause problems...i'm all for modification and mashing things together to get stuff to work...but when the original equipment is available (or at least replaceable)..i prefer to go that route