Will an old iPod "firewire" charger work for my iPad

The only thing that happens if you plug a new iDevice into an old FW style charger is that the iDevice will tell you that charging won't work. The iDevice will not be damaged.

Apple even has a tech note on this.

If you care about the details:

Early iDevices used FireWire instead of USB for connectivity. The first iPod had a FireWire connector, not a dock connector.

Apple designed the Dock connector with pins for both FireWire and USB. The early iPad cables had the dock connector on one end and a FW plug on the other. Modern cables have replaced that FW connector with USB.

USB supplies 5V, Firewire supplies anywhere from 9 to 30V. Older iDevices could charge off of either the USB pins or the FireWire pins. Charging off the FW pins was generally faster.

Many third party chargers used the FW pins, as they could provide more power and the device would charge faster. In fact, even Apple's powered speakers used FW style charging.

Current iDevices no longer have the circuitry to charge or communicate off the FW pins.

When you plug your iDevice into a FW style charger you will not hurt your iDevice. The higher FW voltage is on connector pins that are not connected inside your iPad.

Yes, because I've been doing spring cleaning in my office. Doesn't work as the dock connector on the iPad or iPad 2 (or any recent iPods or iDevices for that matter) no longer have a pin designated for FW charging (or syncing) or any FW charging or syncing circuitry. So it does not recognize it nor charge from it. Apple actually informed accessory makers 2 years prior to the change the FW charging would not be supported in future models. Since FW chargers can have a range (up to 36W) it is necessary to have circuitry within the device to control charging.

Elise J. wrote:

I am an engineer - and I swear that none of these responses makes full sense.

Really?

The dock connector has 30 different pins for different uses.

iPad charger is 10volt 2amps.

Normal USB does not charge the iPad(unless screen is off then it trickle charges it).

High power USB port fully charges.

Johnathan Burger wrote:

iPad charger is 10volt 2amps.

Actually, iPad charger is 5.1VDC, 2.1 Amps.

Right, 5.1 volts .... it's 10 watts.

This is an old post but I am having this same situation. I have two older ipods which used the firewire charger. I no longer have this charger, I replaced the batteries but am unclear how to charge these. I have tried multiple standard USB->DOCK with no luck. I don't want to buy one of these adapters as they cost more then the unit is worth. What do do?

If you have old iPods that only charged via Firewire, then your only options are to connect the iPods to a computer that has Firewire; buy another AC adapter - computer swap meets or Apple user groups in your area may be a good resource; or just recycle those iPods and get new ones (Apple will give you 10% off of any iPod other than a Shuffle toward the purchase of a new iPod).

Regards.

-> http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Aipod%20firewire%20charger&pa ge=1

The charger is not a FireWire device but a charger for the older iPods that could connect to your Mac via USB or FireWire. I still have my older iPod and it's charger. It is plugged into my iPad right now charging as we speak. The connecter to the charger is USB style and the end is the standard iPod iPad connector. The FireWire connector was for transferring data or charging from a computer not the charger. This older charger workers with almost all versions of iPods, I touches and iPads as any damage I might be doing to my iPad or I touch, I have had any problems so far.

I meant to say I have not had any problems as it is just a higher wattage USB charger. My older MacBook cannot charge my IPad as its USB does put out enough power for it.

Scott posted more than two years ago, so I doubt he's going to see or care about anything posted in this thread now.

Regards.

An old but active thread and since my older Ipod charger, for the last of the firewire supporting ipods, the Ipod Photo, works for my Ipad and lots of other I devices, I wanted to share that information with others like yourself.

Regards too