23 May 2022

Mophie–Solved the issue

Several posts ago I wrote about my woes with my new Mophie Juice Pack and how it wasn’t charging wirelessly via QI Charging.  I had Mophie chargers that I used before for years and they worked on every Mophie I had but not on the new Juice Pack.  I sent several back to Amazon as defective. 

I wrote the folks at Mophie via snail mail and got a response.  They said that it was the power or the cable and/or could be incorrect placement of the unit on the charger.  They sent me a free QI rapid charger for Apple devices.  That arrived at lunch time today.  What I didn’t know is that this unit had it’s own power supply.  I hooked it up and magically everything just worked like it was supposed to.  That got me curious so I took a charger I had by my computer and hooked it directly to my powered USB hub and magically that charger works now.  Looks like it was a power supply issue.  Apparently the new Juice Packs are hungry for power. 

The true test will come over night when I hook up the unit and see how full it is in the morning.  I suspect all will be fine but I am not fully calling this resolved until I do that test. 

I placed an Amazon order for a new power strip that has USB inputs in addition to AC Power.  I plan to hook up my charger directly to that and I have a suspicion that it will work and my woes will be gone.  While I got an extra charger out of this, that wasn’t my end goal.  My end goal was to solve the problem. 

The only oddity that I need to have explained to me is why it doesn’t charge in my vehicle.  I am using a Mophie cable and it’s plugged directly into a powered USB port, so it should be able to draw whatever power it needs while the vehicle is running.  I may just need to buy a new charger for the vehicle and if that’s the case that won’t be the worst thing in the world. 

I will mention in my next future post, most likely tomorrow what the results are of the overnight results.  I am not fully sure what I will do with the free charger but because it’s a rapid charge I am not crazy about it.  I think rapid charging a battery takes away life and while all batteries die eventually I want to maximize the life span of every battery be it rechargeable or not. 

I am a little baffled by how this all worked out but thus far it looks to be good news and that makes me happy.  The only other thing I could wish for is that I was able to get my Juice Pack in Red to match the color of my phone.  Mophie’s Product Red originally went to support the AIDS movement and now I believe it goes to a random charity but still your doing good by buying Red and it doesn’t cost anymore than any other color.  The black case I have now tends to get lost or blend in, where if you have red it stands out.  I’m big on colors anyway, probably the gay in me but I don’t like to always just blend in or go with the crowd.  Different can be good!

With all of this good luck happening I am wondering if I shouldn’t have purchased a lottery ticket while I was at the store.  If I hear someone wins in my neck of the woods that will of course tell me the answer to my rhetorical question was YES.  That’s the kind of luck I am used to, but if it’s changing as long it’s for the better and not for worse I am all for it!

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