I came across with this video on YouTube recently, titled “Smartphone Charger Convert Into Wireless Charger”.
The process claimed to be able to convert an ordinary phone charger into a wireless charger is demonstrated in this video. A magnet, copper wire, aluminum foil and electrical tape are needed in addition to phone charger and cable. First, cut the charging cable into two pieces and peel off the protective layer to expose the red and black wires on both ends. Afterwards, apply glue near the USB port on the charging adapter and stick the magnet firmly there. Then, wrap the exposed wires with aluminum foil, copper wire and electrical tape. Your phone charger is now wireless-ready with an effective range of up to 50 feet! Isn’t that great?
The first question that come into my mind is that if such technology can be achieved so easily, why are wireless charging products not widely available in the market? It must be the evil big phone manufactures trying their best to create an illusion that wireless charging is hard to achieve in order to cheat our money on expensive wireless charging set, right?
In fact, anybody with the knowledge of high school physics can easily tell whether the video is real or not.
The technology of inducing electricity on a wire from another wire by wrapping them with copper wires has existed for over a century, and we are all using it everyday. One typical example is transformer, the device that converts the 220V electricity out of your wall plug into 10V to power your appliances. However, it requires an alternating current, opposing to the direct current that phone chargers normally use. Also, the process can never be 100% efficient, meaning that the output power is always lesser than the input, and the distance between the two wires contributes to the efficiency of the transformer. A distance of 50 feet is simply too far away for the wires to induce any electric current. Furthermore, the mod involves cutting the charging cable and thus separating the positive and negative wires (i.e. the red and black wires), creating an open-circuit. How is it possible for an open-circuit to work?
(TL;DR: One can easily prove that the mod doesn’t work with high school level physics)
After further digging on YouTube, I found several more videos of similar “tricks” to convert your charger and even earphones into wireless devices, one of which is uploaded two years ago.
Apparently it is one of the many rumours being recycled repeatedly on the internet. I really have no idea what benefits do the people making these videos get by teaching others how to break their phone chargers.