iPod Touch 3rd gen. not charging on external device

Question

Level 1

1 points

iPod Touch 3rd gen. not charging on external device

I have had numerous iPods in the past few years (I think it's been four). About 3 or 4 years ago i bought an iHome and it charged all of my iPods, even my 1st gen. iPod touch. Today in the mail I got the 3rd gen. touch, and it doesn't charge on my iHome. How come this is? Will there ever be external charging/playing devices that will allow for me to use it with my new iPod?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 25, 2009 2:18 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 25, 2009 2:28 PM in response to grekgator

does it charge using firewire? older ipods could be charged using firewire and USB. newer ones can only be charged using USB.

Reply

Answer 2

grekgator Author

Level 1

1 points

Sep 25, 2009 2:31 PM in response to Anna Sandham

Um, I don't really know what you mean. All I do is dock the iPod to the thing that makes it charge (sorry, I don't know what it's called).

Reply

Answer 3

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Sep 25, 2009 2:34 PM in response to grekgator

Given the age of your iHome it probably was charging using the Firewire (12v) pin/charging circuitry on the older iPods. The newer iPods not longer can be charge via FW hence your iHome cannot charge your Touch.

You can try something like this: http://www.scosche.com/products/productID/1695

Be sure to avail yourself of the email address and be sure it will work with your model iHome before buying one.

Reply

Answer 4

Sep 25, 2009 2:37 PM in response to grekgator

i don't understand it in great technical detail.
but when i bought my ipod mini (4 years ago), as well as coming with a USB adapter, it came with a firewire adapter. i think there used to be fire wire sockets in computers, but they obviously never caught on, or USB were found to be much better.
so in older ipods there was something extra in the socket which allowed it to also be charged by firewire. but apple have recently stopped doing this. which has caused problems with charging with a lot of third party sound docks etc. because a lot of these used the firewire charging facility rather than the usb.

i'm not sure if the first gen was compatible with firewire, i had one, but always used USB to charge it.

Reply

Answer 5

grekgator Author

Level 1

1 points

Sep 25, 2009 6:06 PM in response to deggie

Ok I get it now. The new iPods only are compatible with USB based chargers?

So I was just looking at a cheap iHome model which I probably will get. It says it is compatible with the 2nd generation touch, does that mean it will also be compatible with the 3rd generation too since the 2nd generation is very recent as well (so it would have USB)?

Reply

Answer 6

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Sep 25, 2009 6:08 PM in response to grekgator

Yes, if it is compatible with the 2G it will work with the 3G.

Reply

Answer 7

Sep 26, 2009 3:42 PM in response to Anna Sandham

Just one small point on the USB/Firewire stuff.

Firewire is still largely used for video and professional audio applications. Apple's choice to drop on the ipod was not because USB was better, but simply more common. Technically, firewire is often considered better. Unlike USB which has all traffic going through the CPU, firewire devices could communicate directly with each other. That's why the older 400 Mb/s firewire could perform better than USB 2.0 which had a higher theoretical speed of 480 Mb/s.

Technical details aside, USB is still more common so it made sense for Apple to sell a normal consumer device like the iPod with only USB.

cheers,

Mark

Reply

Answer 8

Sep 26, 2009 4:09 PM in response to Mark Miller8

thanks for that Mark. I wasn't sure at all about it. sounds a bit like the old beta max v vhs battle.

Reply