Accessory Check: Energizer Induction Charging System
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 12:01am by Will
The nice people over a PDP sent me a cool accessory to review, and it’s something that is actually very useful for those who want to save some cash. This induction charging system for your Wii Remotes, keep your stuff charged and ready to go for your all night gaming sessions. What’s pretty interesting is there is nothing you have to plug the remote into, you just place it on a dock. To find out the secret of the charger
The secret of the charger from what I got from the designer of the product is that it runs on Induction technology. Which basically means at the docks core, it operates via a system of two coils of copper wiring. The transmitting coil, technically termed the “primary winding” is located in the base station of the charger, and the receiving coil, or “secondary winding” is located in the battery pack. The magic happens when current is applied to the primary winding, which causes it to develop an electromagnetic field. Chips in the base station then alternate the polarity of the electromagnetic field, shifting its north and south poles back and forth thousands of times a second. When the receiving coil (secondary winding) is placed within this electromagnetic field, the alternating polarity creates electrical current in the copper coil, which is used to recharge the batteries.
Basically it means that the ions transfer from the coil into the battery pack charging it up, pretty tricky stuff. However, during the process it produces a bit of heat, which I thought was a problem. After consulting the designer I learned that there is also a fail safe in the device that causes it to regulate the temperature at 55 degrees Celsius. Assuring me that it would never get as hot as the bottom of a laptop.
Overall the product does what it says and it’s actually pretty cool that you could just drop your remote in the dock once your done playing with it. Although I would not suggest doing that, since that would make the rechargeable battery die faster. [You are suppose to have a rechargeable run out of power before you charge it again.] It’s a good product and at the price point of 49.99 it might be a little more costly then some rechargeable battery systems, but it saves you the time of taking them out of the Wii Remote (especially if you have the remote in a jacket) and placing them in the charger separately.
Pros:
Takes any type of Wii-Remote (Sheathed, WiiMotion Plus, and Probably Third Party)
Saves cash on batteries, and after a few recharges on multiple Wii-Remotes you can count in the saving.
It charges faster than some rechargeable batteries I had in the past fastest charge time was four hours.
The dock easily lets you know when something is charging (orange LED) or is ready for use (green LED)
The dock can be placed either flat or in a standing position.
Cons:
Comes with two battery packs (so if you have more remotes you have to get another set)
The battery pack is hot to the touch after removing it from the charge dock.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:19 am
looks nice. might pick one of these up when they hit the market cause I hate taking my wiimote out of the jacket every time i need to change batteries
July 1st, 2009 at 12:30 am
I’m glad there’s a system like this on the market. Replacing batteries for my various gadgets can be pretty annoying.
That being said my Wiimotes seem to do a pretty good job staying charged. I only have to replace the Wiimote batteries every couple months or so. Compare that to the Xbox 360 where I have to recharge the controller weekly. It’s not that I’m playing my Xbox 360 more either, my Wii is my primary gaming console at the moment… but the 360 controllers can’t hold a charge for whatever reason.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:47 am
If this is released in the UK I’ll be getting one, hell, even if it isn’t I’ll import one, I could see motion plus being another annoyance, having to take it off to charge the wiimote, then misplace it and not be able to find it.. ect…
Also i’d say Energizer was a company I’d trust not to blow up my wiimote like certain other charging stations..
I’m also pretty impressed about the induction charging. a technology I’ve expected mobile phones to use for a while now but it never caught on, removing the need to use a fiddly cable, we already have bluetooth to transfer files to the PC or Mac wirelessly, so why not charge without a cable too.
I believe there was a time when this tech was going to be used in a table, so charging anything would just be a matter of placing it on the table and leaving it there, nothing to plug in, no cables to look messy.
But yeah, one sold here for sure!
July 1st, 2009 at 7:21 am
I had a Radio Shack brand charger at one point that worked really well, but the battery pack swelled up and wouldn’t allow the back cover to close. That’s when I switched to the Nyko charger. I like the Nyko because you can plug it in to a regular power adapter. The Radio Shack charger had to plug in to the Wii’s USB port, which I already have maxed out with my WiiSpeak and my GHWT mic.
I might pick this thing up for my other two remotes, though!
July 1st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Price?
July 1st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Ooops… I just saw you did mention $49.99!
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:33 am
I have rechargable Duracell double-a’s. Much more useful than packs.
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:21 am
I use the Nyko recharger and I never let the Wiimotes run out of charge.
Never had a problem with it as he Wiimote ALWAYS goes on the charger when I am done playing wih it so I always has a consistent charge. The battery life hasn’t been a problem (I have had it for two years) and will no doubt last as long as I need it.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:32 am
I personally prefer using individual rechargeable AA batteries because they are more versatile, but am impressed with the tech and the convenience in the design of this product. Nice to hear that it works well too.
July 4th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
is this on the market yet? this looks awesome
July 5th, 2009 at 4:09 am
you can get it off their website by searching pdp in google, or amazon. It’s been out since June.