Piercing the Pogo Pin Veil
What is a Pogo pin?
According to Wikipedia, A pogo pin, also named spring-loaded pin, is a type of electrical connector mechanism that is used in many modern electronic applications and in the electronics testing industry. Pogo pin is named because it resembles Pogo stick in terms of shape and structure. Both of them are bullet-shaped and equipped with a helical spring. To a degree, Pogo pin is like a tiny Pogo stick.
Pogo pins are used for improving durability over other electrical contacts, and strengthening the electrical connection in case of shock and vibration. Thus, they are at their best when it comes to precision instruments where risks of loosening are barely bearable, say, medical instruments.
Pogo pins are known as parts of medical connectors and industrial connectors, while in fact Pogo pins are not that remote and inaccessible. They are just close to us in our daily life even most of them are ignored by us. This passage will bring you into the world of Pogo pin to which we get used to “turning a blind eye”.
1. Bluetooth Headset
With the development of technology, more and more phone producers gradually cancel the 3.5mm headphone jack and combine it with the USB-C/Lightning port charging jack. As a result, people have to share two functions with one jack. That leads to endless complaints because listening and charging sometimes are equally important and neither of them should be put behind. It’s under this circumstance that Bluetooth headset rises to fame.
Till today, Bluetooth headset is familiar to most people, if not all people who own a phone. Thanks to the invention of Bluetooth headset, people not only get through the dilemma in the question but usher into a “wireless era”. Why? When we want to charge the headset, what we need to do is to put them into the case. Of course, it requires us to charge the case. Here comes the question—how does the headset get charged inside the case? That’s where Pogo Pin works.
Taking a typical two-pin headset as an example, the two pins are respectively the positive and negative pole, and are used to transfer the power of the charging case to the earphone. Apart from two pins, more pins are also available with other functions. In general, the rest of pins are used for data or signal transmission.
2. Smart Band
QH technology has cooperated with Xiaomi in providing magnetic Pogo pin for Xiaomi smart band.
As long as the charger gets close to the smart band, they can connect to each other, automatically. The magnetic charging cable is designed to withstand high current, which can meet the needs of fast charging. The magnetic charging cable is also dustproof and waterproof.
With magnetic charger involved pogo pins, Xiaomi is making the charging process simpler, faster, safer and particularly users-friendly. Today, magnetic charging cable has become more and more popular.
3. Smart Thermos
Have you ever come across thermos which can give you a hint of the temperature of the water inside? Undoubtfully, this kind of design brings us convenience. With the temperature, we can judge the time when the hot water is “cool” enough to drink. The question is, how do we charge such thermos? On the market there are some ways, while the way of magnetic charging with pogo pins takes the cake.
Taking Hals thermos cup as an example, Hals has applied the pogo pins into the design of charging. Open the lid of the cup, you can see two metal contacts. This supports magnetic charging. Compared with common USB-c ports, this magnetic charging prevents from water entering. Thus, it’s safer. It is this charging design that removes the traditional charging port so that it makes appearance improvement possible, and this is exactly a point why some manufacturers now employ magnetic charger instead of traditional ones because the traditional port will occupy some space, while using magnetic connectors involved pogo pins will reduce such space with only two ports existing in the surface. Therefore, it is convinced that magnetic charging will be a new trend and will prevail in the near future.
4. Electric Toothbrush
Nowadays, Electric toothbrushes prevail among young people not only for its efficiency but effectiveness. With rapid stride in technology, Electric toothbrushes has upgraded from time to time. Let’s look at two charging methods of it.
One is the more traditional Type-C wired charging. The electronic products on the market basically popularize the Type-C charging interface.
The other is magnetic charging with pogo pins. As usual, there are two pogo pins acting as metal probes with two sets of positive and negative poles, which are connected to the charger and the battery terminal respectively. Those metal probes both have a spring inside. Under the action of pressure, the probe spring shrinks, and the two sets of metal contacts are connected for charging. The rest of pins may be used for data or singnal transmission.
Although the products we have mentioned above is common seen in our daily life, the pogo pins in them tend to be neglected.
Today, magnetic charging via pogo pin might be a new trend because it boasts following characteristics.
- It boosts for automatic absorption, zero insertion force and automatic orientation, providing a reliable connection for hard-to-reach locations.
- It is easier to disconnect when the plug or harness is under severe strain, thus avoiding the risk of injuring the user or damaging the connectors and equipment.
- It is designed to withstand high current transmission 5A-10A, and charging is less time-consuming.
- With Pogo pins, excellent waterproof design can be achieved. Unstable connection resulting from shock could be avoided as much as possible.
- It does well in removing space intended for charging port.
- It possesses a longer life span.
- It is easy to clean.
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