Universal charger popular for ten years (network diagram)
"Your dad's mobile phone charger is not at home. I'll charge it for a while. " One day in 2002, Chen Tianhan, a senior two student from Zhengzhou No.1 Middle School in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, was reading a book after lunch, and a relative who was a guest at home asked.
Chen Tianhan promised to find out the charger that Dad put in his bag, but it didn't work.
"No, my mobile phone has a trapezoidal head, not a flat head." Relatives said helplessly.
Chen Tianhan patted his forehead and secretly scolded himself for being stupid at lunch. Later, Chen Tianhan looked at his relatives' mobile phone models and remembered that his neighbor's uncle was also the same brand, so he borrowed it. However, although the charging problem has been solved, Chen Tianhan still has an old problem and can't settle down to study.
Chen Tianhan, born in 1985, has a strong hands-on ability since childhood. When he was three years old, he couldn't figure out why the sofa was so soft, so he dissected the sofa with a fruit knife. When he was a little older, he couldn't figure out why the clock moved, why the recording opportunity rang, why the TV opportunity had pictures, and why the computer could access the Internet, so he took them apart again. This once gave his parents a headache. Of course, the "king of destruction" Chen Tianhan's children's shoes have not been beaten for this.
In order to curb the destruction of his son's talent from the root, dad also asked Chen Tianhan to write a letter of guarantee of "taking care of things and putting an end to destruction" and bought some detachable toy equipment for Chen Tianhan to ponder, so as to "respect his son's interests on the basis of avoiding the loss of family property". However, Chen Tianhan is a master of "remember to dismantle but don't fight", and Chen's father's request is like air when his interests come. At this moment, because of the problem of mobile phone charging, Chen Tianhan's heart became active again. Of course, now Chen Tianhan is no longer the curious baby who can't figure it out and disassemble it at will.
In fact, Chen Tianqi's attention to the problem of mobile phone charging is not a day or two, so he took this opportunity to put down the heavy schoolwork in high school and "make a big difference" in his busy schedule. Chen Tianhan first went to his uncle who loves to fiddle with electrical appliances, but denied it without listening to him. This is unrealistic, because the charging head of the mobile phone charger is not a master key, nor can it be changed like the Monkey King's golden hoop, and remind Chen Tianhan to focus on learning.
"Curious Baby" Chen Tianqi (network map)
Uncle's veto did not discourage Chen Tianhan. Later, Chen Tianhan found Ma Jian, the technical director of Zhengzhou Tsinghua Alumni Entrepreneurship Development Co., Ltd., who had helped him make inventions and innovations many times. But here, Chen Tianhan's idea was rejected again.
"Tian Han, think about it, you are definitely not the only one who has this idea. Those mobile phone manufacturers must have pondered it, but why they don't develop it is not how difficult it is, but meaningless. " Ma Jian said, "Think about it, different mobile phones have different battery specifications, and these batteries have different specifications for chargers. Even if you can make a charger suitable for all kinds of batteries, how can you ensure that the charger will not harm the battery? "
But how do you know until you try? Chen Tianhan thought. Chen Tianhan, who was beaten twice in a row, not only didn't give up the idea of making this charger, but strengthened his goal. So he was unwilling to let Ma Jian help him find a breakthrough, and then he undertook the task of investigating the charging law of mobile phone batteries by himself. In the following days, Chen Tianhan will go to the mobile phone shop when he has nothing to do, pretending to be a person who buys a mobile phone, in order to find the similarity of mobile phone batteries. In addition, he bought a lot of mobile phone chargers and took them apart to ponder the structure and working principle of the chargers. Whenever I get something, I write it down in my notebook or draw a picture.
Internal structure of traditional mobile phone disposable charger (network diagram)
With more disassembly, Chen Tianhan is more sure that the problem that different models of mobile phones can't use chargers can be solved. He found that the internal structure and working principle of chargers on the market are similar. They all convert the high voltage DC of 220V into the voltage required by the charged equipment through the switching transistor and transformer, thus charging the mobile phone battery. The function of the charger is only to change the form of electric energy. Excluding the voltage problem, the reason why the mobile phone charger is not universal is the matching degree between the charger connector and the mobile phone charging interface.
However, after Chen Tianhan drew 263 kinds of charging contacts of mobile phone batteries, this problem was automatically solved. Chen Tianqi found that the contact height of all mobile phone batteries is almost the same, and the difference is only the distance between positive and negative contacts!
With this great discovery, the rest of the work is much easier. So, after the preliminary sketch of the universal charger came out, Chen Tianhan collected materials and officially started research and development. Soon, the first charger sample came out. However, because the contact pin position of the charger is not fixed, poor contact often occurs, so Chen Tianhan had to improve this charger again. Two weeks later, the first universal charger was born, which used a splint to charge the battery contacts of mobile phones.
Schematic diagram of universal charger (network diagram)
The universal charger invented by Chen Tianhan is mainly composed of oscillation circuit, charging circuit and voltage stabilizing protection circuit, and its structure and working principle are basically the same as those of ordinary disposable chargers. But the difference is that the charger does not have a charging plug, but has two contact pins, which can be charged by the contact between the contact pins and the positive and negative contacts of the battery, and the contact pins can be adjusted according to the distance between the positive and negative contacts of the battery. In order to adapt this charger to the charging requirements of various types of mobile phone batteries, Chen Tianhan set the output voltage of the charger to 4.2V after consulting hundreds of different types of batteries. In addition, Chen Tianhan added an indicator light to the universal charger he invented to indicate whether the contact mode is correct and whether the battery is full.
Later, Chen Tianhan improved the second-generation charger on the basis of this charger. Compared with the first generation charger, the second generation charger is obviously a little more exquisite. It is worth mentioning that the charging contact pin of the second-generation charger was modified by Chen Tianhan with the spring removed from the bicycle.
Circuit diagram of universal charger (network diagram)
From April 65438 to May 2003, Chen Tianhan submitted a patent application for utility model through Zhengzhou Kewei Patent Agency Co., Ltd. and obtained the patent number. On July 14 of the same year, Chen Tianhan applied for a patent for his "telephone call recorder". In September, in the 18 National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition, Chen Tianhan won the first prize in engineering and the "Intel Talent Award" for his research and development achievements, and participated in the 2004 Atlanta World Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition. In May, 2004, thanks to Wannengchong, Chen Tianhan got the qualification to walk to the journalism department of Tsinghua University.
Yes, Chen Tianhan did not become an engineer or inventor as we imagined, but became a media worker. Today, Chen Tianhan is the deputy editor-in-chief of a domestic website. In fact, this is a reasonable thing, isn't it? Interest doesn't have to be a career, because it's like taking your favorite music as an alarm, which is a kind of disillusionment. It is those seemingly unreasonable things and ever-changing life trajectories that make our lives rich and colorful. We can never predict the future, otherwise, how can universal charging become a thing of the past, and how can Wifi and smart phones go deep into our lives, so that a low-headed family like me can't leave.
Today, Chen Tianhan is the deputy editor-in-chief of an information website (Qianlong.com).
However, although Chen Tianhan did not continue his own road of invention, Universal Chong was really popular for ten years. Moreover, at the beginning of universal charging, its popularity can be described as terror. Take Shenzhen Hailutong Electronics Co., Ltd., the first listed general charging company in China, as an example. In 2003, its first batch of hundreds of thousands of trial orders were sold out in just three days. The reason is that the mobile phone market at that time was not as developed as it is now, and it was difficult for people to find a matching charger after the original charger was damaged or lost. In addition, in order to meet the needs of consumers, most mobile phones at that time were randomly equipped with two batteries. The spare battery plus universal charging is the "original charging treasure". It is no exaggeration to say that the importance of universal charging of mobile phones at that time was even more important than the charging treasure of smart phones now. Moreover, the decade of universal charging is also the golden decade for the development of China's mobile phone market. Therefore, under the influence of various factors, Universal has become a necessary charging artifact for almost all mobile phone users in China.
Classic black three-lamp universal charger (network diagram)
Naturally, the universal charger, which has been popular in the mobile phone charger market for ten years, has also made many improvements. Not only is the volume smaller and smaller, but the appearance color is more and more colorful, and the stability and safety are also greatly improved. However, just like a master key that can't be opened without a lock, a master charger can charge all mobile phone batteries, but it is not the one that fits the keyhole best after all. Unable to adjust the output voltage to match the demand of the mobile phone will inevitably cause damage to the battery of the mobile phone. Therefore, under the ever-changing wave of the mobile phone market, the universal battery finally lost to the non-detachable battery and charging treasure. Moreover, we can no longer say that although we have different brands and models of mobile phones, we use the same charger-universal charging.
References:
Science and Education News 2003.09. 18.
China patent inquiry system. Chen Tianhan;
18 winners list of outstanding scientific and technological innovation projects in the national youth scientific and technological innovation competition 2003.08.26
Henan entrance examination information network. List of students admitted to colleges and universities in Henan Province in 2004. May 28th, 2004.