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Hot Topic: IFE Audio Powers Small IPOD Charger   

Recently a small company in California began selling what we believe is a revolutionary device. The tiny Inflight Power Recharger uses the audio out power meant for headphones delivered to the jack in your aircraft seat as a source voltage to recharge your IPOD, Blackberry, Game Boy, or whatever. Audio to DC power…what’s going on here? We have included a section in the full story on the operation, but if you “just want the T shirt”, it uses a charge pump and it works. The Inflight Power Recharger is the latest development from Dr. Tom Giannulli, the company president. He told IFExpress that he has just launched the product with SkyMall and is in the process of taking the company and the product to the aviation marketplace. There has been plenty of interest in the innovative product and while the first manufacturing run has sold out, more are coming and the next production run is expected in early December. No doubt, this product will see much interest by the traveling public but we understand airlines and “large hardware and software companies” have been sniffing around. Outside of the typical in-flight charging applications, we see use as an emergency PED charger supplied by the airlines, an upper class giveaway, an item to be sold in airports and rental players at airports, and a terrific item to be sold on the Internet for many other modes of travel. We also see other applications for the technology, but we will talk about that later.

Using the re-charger can be explained in one sentence. Start by turning up volume of your aircraft audio control to max (with headphones disconnected), plug the re-charger cable in the audio jacks, connect your PED to the USB jack and turn on the switch. Charging an IPOD, for example, takes about 3 times as long as on a computer USB port but Dr. Giannulli told us that it will still charge while you use it.

As an aside, we asked John Courtright from AERO Engineering & Certification about any certification issues and he said: "As for FAA certification, this appears to fall into the category of a Passenger Electronics Device (PED) and, as such, the FAA permits the airlines to set their own rules on their onboard usage. Even though the technology is new, given the power output is similar to existing audio system output; I don't believe there will be many issues there. IFE vendors spend a lot of money making sure their audio systems not only deliver quality audio output and are designed to withstand extreme abuse such as short circuits caused by fluid spills and passenger objects. Passengers have been known to fill seat audio jacks with an incredible array of foreign objects such as pens, forks, hair pins etc. and I cannot remember of any negative safety consequences."

Be sure to read our feature article for more details on the Inflight Power Recharger including photos and a spec sheet.
 

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