iPad Dock quirk - No car charger and audio jack at same time

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iPad Dock quirk - No car charger and audio jack at same time

Hey guys....here's the scenario.

iPad dock plugged into wall charger and external audio jack, no problem.

iPad dock plugged into 2amp car charger by itself, no problem.

iPad dock plugged into external audio jack by itself, no problem.

iPad dock plugged into 2amp car charger AND audio jack - PROBLEM!

The iPad will continue to charge but will not output sound from the audio jack. It will simply play music through it's internal speakers.

I placed my iPhone into the iPad dock and it has the same results, no audio through the external output. However if I swap the dock with Apple's universal dock, the iPhone charges AND outputs audio.

I'm just curious why the iPad dock would disable the audio output once you plug into the car charger that is rated to work for the iPad??

iPad - Wifi - 16GB, Other OS, Apple iPad Dock and Belkin PowerBolt Micro Car Charger

Posted on May 13, 2010 12:34 PM

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Answer 1

May 13, 2010 12:47 PM in response to robfern

Which car charger? I don't see an Apple one.

What if you plug the charger into the iPad directly and bypass the dock?

The iPad charger is 10W, so maybe 2W (did you really mean 2 AMPS??) is just inadequate? Even my old iPod charger is 5W, IIRC.

Doug

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Answer 2

May 13, 2010 1:02 PM in response to Doug Eldred

I guess the car chargers ARE mostly 2 amp, which seems bigger than needed. It would still be interesting to bypass the dock and plug the car charger and audio in directly.

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Answer 3

robfern Author

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May 13, 2010 2:15 PM in response to Doug Eldred

Most iPhone iPod car chargers are actually 1 amp which is why I bought the recommended Kensington powerbolt which is adequate for iPad.

You can see it here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1061LL/A?fnode=MTc0MjU4NjA&mco=MTc0NzA4NDE
It is still a 5v charger.

Yes everything works fine if I plug the audio cable into the headphone jack in the top of the iPad, but it's defeating the purpose for what I'm trying to do....a clean install for a car that will interchange between iPhone and ipad. As you can see the dock is working great in every other scenario except car charger and audio output from dock at the same time, which is what the dock is designed to do, albeit designed to do it plugged into a wall socket.

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Answer 4

May 13, 2010 2:23 PM in response to robfern

I guess the obvious next question is whether it's a problem affecting all iPad docks or if yours is misbehaving.

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Answer 5

robfern Author

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May 13, 2010 2:35 PM in response to Doug Eldred

That's correct, because using the same power cable and audio cable I am able to use the apple universal dock perfectly with the iPhone, however when I try the iPhone with the iPad dock it too loses audio but charges well.

Curious if anyone else is experiencing this.

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Answer 6

Jul 12, 2012 9:07 PM in response to robfern

I am having the same problem. I am using a Verizon Micro USB car charger that also has a USB jack that I plug my iPad into. I believe the iPad begins outputing audio through the USB cable and no longer thinks it needs to output through the stereo jack. I also experienced this before on a dedicated USB jack.

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