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

anything with extra wattage will weaken a battery.

It will charge but it will take a longer time to be 100%

As the iPad does not have any Firewire circuitry, it won't charge using a Firewire charger. Even the last couple of generations of iPods can't use them. Sorry.

Those statements do make sense. A higher wattage USB charger (5 volts nominal) would charge the iPad fine and should result in a shorter charge time. The problem with firewire is that the voltage is higher (8-30 volts) that the USB voltage of 5 volts nominal. Thus, the higher firewire voltage could likely damage the iPad.

Jisatsu6189 wrote:
anything with extra wattage will weaken a battery.

It will charge but it will take a longer time to be 100%

I think you mean "Those statement do not make sense", yes?

Scott Hoffner wrote:
I have an old Firewire wall charger that came with my first iPod (wht 20gb). It is a 12 watt .64Amp output.

The voltage is wrong. DO NOT EXCEED 5 VOLTS ! ! !
You can use just about any USB charger but NOT a firewire charger.

The salient point is the one MegSt._Clair raises. The iPad does not support FireWire so it will not charge.

The Firewire chargers are 12 VOLTS 1 amp and NOT the correct voltage as already talked about.

BUT I wonder how you had planed to use it as the Firewire socket is not a USB socket.

IF you really really have to try it you could connect the fire wire charger output to a 12 volt input (car)auto USB adapter. This way all the voltages would be correct. You are on your own about making the cable and the current will still be a bit low.


having said all this we really don't know the MAX designed voltage input range on the ipads 5 volt line. It might do 12 Volts but I am not going to test it with my one and only I pad. DO not Do it -wait for Myth Busters.

What a bizzare round of answers. The voltage, wattage, amps or otherwise make no difference to this discussion.

The pins on the dock connector on the iPad do not go anywhere for Firewire. You can plug a firewire charger in the bottom without problem, it just won't do anything as the pins are not connected. Apple announced that they were not supporting firewire anymore years ago. I think the it stopped being supported in 1st Gen iphones and around 3rd gen on iPods.

So unless you have a device of this generation that supports firewire, you might as well bin it. I have a box full of them!!

No. USB is not Firewire, and the iPad cannot be charged from a Firewire charger.

Despite all the other learned resonses on wattage, volatge ad the rest, none of that matters.

nick101 wrote:
No. USB is not Firewire, and the iPad cannot be charged from a Firewire charger.

Despite all the other learned resonses on wattage, volatge ad the rest, none of that matters.

There were already 8 "NO" answers, but your "NO" answer really cleared it up for us.
Thanks.
(PS. Spell checker is your friend)

When the current goes through the wire to the dock connection on the edge of the ipad, the devices does not "know" the shape or configuration of the connection to power at the other end. Clearly, the ipad does not interface with a firewire DATA port. However, there is an adapter cable for ipad devices with three ends: dock (to device); USB (to computer for data); FireWire (to AC wall adapter for power).
It seems to me that the 12V 1.0A output of the old wall adapter should be able to charge the ipad. I do not have the three legged cable, but do have a ipod power adapter with FireWire only connection. Has anybody tried this alternative to the 10V output wall adapter intended for the ipad?

It seems to me that the 12V 1.0A output of the old wall adapter should be able to charge the ipad.

Since the FW 12vcd pins do not connect to the charging circuitry, it is irrelevant. It will not charge the iPad.
The FW voltage pins are not the same pins used by the USB voltage.
Pins 19 & 20 are +12vdc FireWire and pin 23 is +5vdc USB.

Oh, I get it. Thanks Chris.

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

I, too, have an ipod first generation (yes, it still works... it's one of 8 we have in our family)... the power adapter from that is a firewire - that plugs into the wall - with the standard ipod connection. It is 12W. I haven't plugged it into my ipad 2 for fear of blowing the thing up. Especially with the wait time to replace....

Did anyone ever try it?

I haven't tried connecting my old FW- to-iPod-connector cable with charger to my iPad, but years ago, when I bought a newer iPod Touch to replace my gen 1 iPod Touch (that used FW), the old FW cable didn't work on the new iPod. As I recall, the new iPod displayed an error message on screen when I tried. But it wasn't fried.