How to charge a Nintendo Switch in the car!

"alexatkin



Rep: 73




2


1"

"Regarding USB-C connectors, those are not rated for any particular voltage as they do also charge things like the Macbook/Macbook Pro, A lot of other Windows Laptops, The Chromebook Pixel, Cell Phones... and all of these are rated at different outputs.

My best guess is that the system can be charged at 5V, but charges faster (and probably while playing it) at 15V. Kind of like you can charge an iphone with their 1 amp iphone charger but it also charges faster with the ipads 2.1 amp charger."

"Folks. You are close to getting all the pieces of the puzzle. So let me explain.

You need a USB Power Delivery car charger. But there are a couple of different power profiles supported by the USB PD standard. So you need to have a charger which supports the higher power output profiles to be able to charge while playing. That's what we all want to do on those long trips right :). So 15 volts/2 amperes (30W) would not be sufficient if you play some of the power hungry games (i.e. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild).

So I would strongly recommend you using 45W+ power profiles.

Here is a charger I found, just recently released:

http://amzn.to/2kqKzkC

You wont find many car chargers which give you more than 36W USB PD output (12V/3A profile) out there. The reason is that all the big brands are putting their bet on Qualcomm Quick Charge standards which is not compatible with USB PD hence doesn't work on the Switch."

"I'm guessing but... Isn't it possible that the power adapter has 2 different outputs (5/15), because it's so intelligent that it choose what voltage instead you are recharging only the Switch or the Switch and 2 joy-cons?

Maybe it's absurd but think about it... Switch can be recharged with any type of usb C, not necessarly his power adapter. But what happened if I decide to recharge Switch and the 2 joy-cons with only 5 volt? Probably it works but first it recharge the Switch and then 1 joy-con at time.

What do you think?"

I don't mean to be rude, but I'm kind of surprised that nobody has said that the switch only takes 5 volts and 2.4 amps to charge while playing (though you can use less amperage if your not playing it) but the 15 volts is only to power the three USB ports on the dock. So In all reality. Any car charger will work as long as you have the USB type c cable. However if you do want to find a charger that will charge while playing, Nintendo probably has the best solution since most car ports are only 1-2.1 amps, so you'll actually lose battery while playing intensive games like botw