When wireless charging began to make its impact on consumer electronics, mobile phone charging soon emerged as the dominant application. Since mobile phones are designed to be thin with a large screen, the coil and cover needed to achieve wireless power transfer were also designed as thin as possible, with the unwanted effect of a drastically lowered power transfer effect. Many people were disappointed when they tried wireless charging for the first time, and quickly went back to wire charging. New mobile phones are to a larger extent designed to allow a higher wireless charging effect, but still the effect is lower than by wire charging using a USB cable.
The HYRE products are designed from scratch for wireless power transfer and are compatible with the international Qi standard (pronounced “chi”) for wireless power transfer. Wireless charging occurs when power is induced, or generated, by two metal coils; one in the charger and the other in the unit being charged. When current flows in one coil, a magnetic field is generated which induces current in the other coil. One can look at such induction as a transformer that is cut in two. In practice, it’s a little more complicated and we describe our technology in a separate article HERE.
When we started developing the HYRE products, we quickly decided to develop coil, power circuit board and the code itself ourselves, to optimize the charging effect. Existing wireless chargers were adapted to the limited effect used for mobile charging and off-the-shelf components simply would not give us the effect we wanted. Our technology is optimized to achieve as high power transfer effect as possible. This is why our coil and ferrite shielding are a little thicker than the elements used in mobile phones. When the technology used in mobile phones eventually follows, our products can still deliver quicker wireless charging also to mobile phones. We can already deliver up to 15 watts and have measured a total power transfer effectiveness of 90%, actually comparable to what is achieved by wire charging.
What also limits the effect achieved by today’s wireless charging solutions, is the relative positioning of the coils. If the mobile phone is inaccurately placed on the charging plate, the charging is severely limited or in the worst case stopped. We use magnets to position the coils perfectly relative to each other and by doing so we achieve optimal charging effect.
Some power banks have solar panels directly mounted on the shell. We have chosen to use a foldable, external solar panel to charge our power bank wirelessly. Our solar panel may, in ideal conditions, deliver up to 12 watts directly to the battery. Should the solar panel be limited by the size of the power bank, the maximum achievable effect be about 2 watts, and this is insufficient as a charging alternative to be used outdoors.
When we report the charging speed by use of the solar panel to “about 2.5 hours from 50% to 100% charge”, it is because this is how we expect the solar panel to be used. We recommend fully charging the battery before going outdoors and then using the solar panel to top up the battery while on the move.
Do you have any more questions? Ask us on Facebook, Instagram or by email to are@alteredpower.no or anders@alteredpower.no. We are more than happy to answer!
