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Problems with Galaxy S and 3rd party ac adapters!

Yesterday night I was playing with the phone before sleeping. It was charging not with the provided ac adapter, but with the usb-miniusb cable + an aiino usb-ac adapter. Well, the weird thing is that using google maps, the touch/multitouch control was completely f****d up. I mean, it was impossible to pinch-to-zoom, using the zoom buttons worked, but when I used only one finger to move around the map, instead of moving it was zooming randomly in&out without a reason. So I unplugged the cable and it was working perfectly...

It seems your 3rd party ac adaptor is not appropriately grounded so there is a small current on the touchscreen. Capacitive touchscreens recognize minimal changes in currents on the surface. That's why fingers, oranges, organic material work with it, but no stylus or other pens.

Hmm that's an interesting point, I didn't think about that. Do you think I should stop using that charger? Could it damage my device in some way?

I got it with my iPhone 3GS on a car charger too. But it didn't hurt the device at all.
I cannot guarantee this though...

I always used it with my iphone 3g too, and also used my iphone while it was charging...but I never had such an experience on iphone's multitouch...that's really strange!

I had the same issue with a generic ac micro usb charger I bought on ebay.
Since the phone was just newly released, there seemed to be a premium on the chargers described as being for the galaxy s so I went and bought a much cheaper micro usb charger compatible with motorola devices. I figured the contacts would all be the same and all micro usb chargers the same.
Wrong.
As soon as I plugged in that charger, the touch screen was borked. The display was fine but the touch response was shot. If I tap the application drawer in the home screen, it would register a click on some other random spot on the display. The phone was utterly useless while plugged into this charger.
To troubleshoot, I tried mixing it up between the original samsung charger and the generic, resetting etc, and it always came down to the charger. Crap with generic, prefect with original.
TL;DR - not all chargers compatible with samsung galaxy s, borked touch response from generic charger.
Perhaps it would be useful to change the title off this post and move to the accessories forum? Useful for people to add their feedback on generic chargers they've used.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Btw, the charger did charge the phone but I guessed having extra current run through the screen would damage the capacitive sensors.
Compared to the original samsung which has 4 contacts, the micro usb plug on the generic had an extra contact. I tried to open up the plug to see if I could do something about the extra contact but it broke and I the it out.
Shame I didn't think to make a video to share.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

changaz said:
I had the same issue with a generic ac micro usb charger I bought on ebay.
Since the phone was just newly released, there seemed to be a premium on the chargers described as being for the galaxy s so I went and bought a much cheaper micro usb charger compatible with motorola devices. I figured the contacts would all be the same and all micro usb chargers the same.
Wrong.
As soon as I plugged in that charger, the touch screen was borked. The display was fine but the touch response was shot. If I tap the application drawer in the home screen, it would register a click on some other random spot on the display. The phone was utterly useless while plugged into this charger.
To troubleshoot, I tried mixing it up between the original samsung charger and the generic, resetting etc, and it always came down to the charger. Crap with generic, prefect with original.
TL;DR - not all chargers compatible with samsung galaxy s, borked touch response from generic charger.
Perhaps it would be useful to change the title off this post and move to the accessories forum? Useful for people to add their feedback on generic chargers they've used.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I changed the title, now I think to move it the help of a moderator is required...

i have the same problem with my crap charger. but mine won't even charge, it charges up like 1% / 30 minutes and I can't use it while the phone is turned off because it just turns on by itself. crap.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I use my nokia n97 charger to charge galaxy since I bought it no problem at all
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

i bought my SGS on ebay and it didn't come with a charger.
the 3rd party charger i bought on ebay doesn't charge the phone and makes it do all sorts of things by itself.
just a warning to others, you may want to spend the extra money on a charger that specifically says it's compatible.

carlocb said:
Yesterday night I was playing with the phone before sleeping. It was charging not with the provided ac adapter, but with the usb-miniusb cable + an aiino usb-ac adapter. Well, the weird thing is that using google maps, the touch/multitouch control was completely f****d up. I mean, it was impossible to pinch-to-zoom, using the zoom buttons worked, but when I used only one finger to move around the map, instead of moving it was zooming randomly in&out without a reason. So I unplugged the cable and it was working perfectly...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same problem with my desire, with a 3rd party microusb charger .... when i use pinch to zoom the screen goes crazy

Note that if I touch the usb cable ground (outer metal part) with one hand, my touch screen then works.

cedricberger said:
Note that if I touch the usb cable ground (outer metal part) with one hand, my touch screen then works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is definitely something to do with Capacitive touchscreens.
Similar thing happeend to my ipod touch 3g when I used a 3rd party wall charger on it

How bad is it to our phones ?....
I would like to know what is really happening.
Is the usb charger "ground" at an important voltage relative to earth ground ?
Is it at a variable voltage, which would even more confuse our phone ?
Could we safely ground it, and how ? (connecting the usb ground to earth, maybe via a grounded 220V plug ?) .
I think anyway I will at least mesure the voltage (and maybe leaking current relative to real ground) level of this usb "ground"...
Any electronician to explain how it is normally done in quality chargers ?

cedricberger said:
How bad is it to our phones ?....
I would like to know what is really happening.
Is the usb charger "ground" at an important voltage relative to earth ground ?
Is it at a variable voltage, which would even more confuse our phone ?
Could we safely ground it, and how ? (connecting the usb ground to earth, maybe via a grounded 220V plug ?) .
I think anyway I will at least mesure the voltage (and maybe leaking current relative to real ground) level of this usb "ground"...
Any electronician to explain how it is normally done in quality chargers ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what ground here is! My e-bay travel charger 4.7v 500mA with a Samsung logo has no ground connection on the charger - normal in Europe. Problem probably is that it is possibly not a Samsung unit at all - well it only cost 1euro - It does charge and the screen does freeze until I disconnect it. Only got it today - but nothing is getting hot and no other problems so far. The voltage rating is of course less than the standard 5v.

Bought a Belkin Dual USB car charger (1.0A + 0.5A) online. Will report back.

Rofa1 said:
I'm not sure what ground here is! My e-bay travel charger 4.7v 500mA with a Samsung logo has no ground connection on the charger - normal in Europe. Problem probably is that it is possibly not a Samsung unit at all - well it only cost 1euro - It does charge and the screen does freeze until I disconnect it. Only got it today - but nothing is getting hot and no other problems so far. The voltage rating is of course less than the standard 5v.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My best shots would be no ground (mass) issues, but:
1. stability of the charger output voltage
2. stability of the charger output current
3. value of the charger output voltage
4. capacity of the filter capacitors in the charger (too little - 50/60 Hz hum is distributed to the output)
5. Is the charger impulse or stabilized?
Capacitive screens must be very sensitive to changes of impedance and if there is no stable voltage or current or if the output is interfered with electrical network hum, the touchscreen may go crazy in my opinion...
edit: format tags corrected

Working fine without any capacitive screen issues.
The good thing is it works as charger mode instead of USB. So I assume the 1.0A socket would actually charge faster than USB mode.
v205 said:
Bought a Belkin Dual USB car charger (1.0A + 0.5A) online. Will report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It will be high-frequency noise on the DC output voltage of the charger. Chargers use a high-frequency DC-DC converter method and the cheaper ones don't do a very good job of filtering the high frequency out of the DC at the other end. This noise enters your phone and plays havoc with the sensitive circuits in the capacitive touchscreen.
It is nothing to do with grounding of the input side of the power supply; when you ground the output side (the USB plug) with your hand, your body capacitance filters out some/all of the noise.
You could probably filter this out by adding capacitors or whatever but really, the solution is don't buy $1 chargers for your $x00 phone.

Charger Outputs

I know some people use chargers other than the stock HTC charger...
does using a different charger with lower or higher milliamp ratings make a difference or hurt the battery in any way?

Dont know anything about damage, wouldnt think so.
In my experience, my HTC desire has two modes of charging USB (500mA) or AC (1A).
If the two middle pins of the usb cable are shorted it assumes its connected to an ac charger so it pulls 1A. This is due to the max rating of a pc usb connection being 500mA, so everytime it thinks its connected to a pc it wont draw too much and damage your pc motherboard etc.
Now coming back to your question, some chargers have their pins shorted, some not. Apart from longer charging times, the only real issue is for car chargers, where some poeple have found that if you use one that sets the phone to USB mode, and you are running lots of thing like nav software etc, the battery will still drain even with the charger connected. ie its using more juice than its taking.
Personally I have charged my desire with many USB devices, like ipod chargers, etc etc with no ill effect. I found out thtat my ipod WONT charge from the HTC charger, whereas my phone would happily charge from the apple charger. Prob due to some usual Apple rubbish about who gets the accessory money, so for travelling I just take the Apple charger now.

k.aalai said:
Dont know anything about damage, wouldnt think so.
In my experience, my HTC desire has two modes of charging USB (500mA) or AC (1A).
If the two middle pins of the usb cable are shorted it assumes its connected to an ac charger so it pulls 1A. This is due to the max rating of a pc usb connection being 500mA, so everytime it thinks its connected to a pc it wont draw too much and damage your pc motherboard etc.
Now coming back to your question, some chargers have their pins shorted, some not. Apart from longer charging times, the only real issue is for car chargers, where some poeple have found that if you use one that sets the phone to USB mode, and you are running lots of thing like nav software etc, the battery will still drain even with the charger connected. ie its using more juice than its taking.
Personally I have charged my desire with many USB devices, like ipod chargers, etc etc with no ill effect. I found out thtat my ipod WONT charge from the HTC charger, whereas my phone would happily charge from the apple charger. Prob due to some usual Apple rubbish about who gets the accessory money, so for travelling I just take the Apple charger now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both my kid's iPod 3G charge from their Htc chargers just fine so I'm not sure why yours wont. I bought a dock last week for the phone and when I plugged it in I got the screen problem that a lot of others have had where it doesn't respond much. It was like this for a while after too. The charger was some cheap **** 800mA that came with it but I doubt it was just down to mA.

> Both my kid's iPod 3G charge from their Htc chargers just fine so I'm not sure why
> yours wont.
The Problem is with the generation and Software of the Ipod, older ones charge from
normal wall chargers i.e. HTC just fine, but newer ones are more picky. Notices this
myself with my Ipod Nanos...

you should be able to use anything up to 1.5A just fine with a usb port. Just watch for excessive over heating when the phone is on and charging. When its off and the usual over charge protection in many chargers these days they will stop once the charging has finished. I have a bunch of RC lipo batteries and have never had a problem with anything up to 2A+ for ANY battery i have charged no matter the battery makeup.. over this and you can get quick and significant problems...

Houwald said:
> Both my kid's iPod 3G charge from their Htc chargers just fine so I'm not sure why
> yours wont.
The Problem is with the generation and Software of the Ipod, older ones charge from
normal wall chargers i.e. HTC just fine, but newer ones are more picky. Notices this
myself with my Ipod Nanos...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funnily enough mine is a very old 4G white one, the one with the round click wheel in the middle! But somehow it just refuses to charge...

joshndroid said:
you should be able to use anything up to 1.5A just fine with a usb port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
??
Per Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB
A maximum of 5 unit loads (500 mA) can be drawn from a port in USB 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
odd.. claims I did not hit 10 char...

zim2dive said:
joshndroid said:
you should be able to use anything up to 1.5A just fine with a usb port. /QUOTE]
??
Per Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB
odd.. claims I did not hit 10 char...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that doesn't mean the device is not capable... you have 2 ends, the charger/usb port and the phone side.. the charger gives 1A, normal USB gives 0.5A, and only HTC knows what the phone side can take.. but at least 1A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

alternative to the hp charging cable

I lost my wall charger that came with my HP touchpad. The round plug thingie is what I'm looking for. Searching on Amazon brings up a number of items, for example:
http://www.amazon.com/HP-North-American-Charger-TouchPad/dp/B0055QYJJM/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_3
However, is there an alternative that works? I was able to use the Evo cable rather than the original HP sync/charge cable that came with the wall charger, but is there an alternative wall plug that works as well? Paying almost $28 for a charging cable seems a bit ridiculous.
Any help and advice would be most appreciated.
[[FOUND MY ANSWER]]
I found that Walmart was having a sale on the North American charger with the barrel wall connector for $11.99 and Meritline was having a sale for 6' long USB to micro-usb cables (pair for $4.99 no tax/shipping).
The listing on the Meritline page says that the cables are compatible with the Evo.
Given that the cable that comes with the HP barrel charger is pretty much monkey spit and fails within a month, I found a solution that works for less than $20.
Links are below:
Walmart HP Touchpad charger
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-TouchPad-Accessory-Travel-AC-Wall-Adapter-Charger/16641536
Meritline Cables (use this code MLCK222YNL1 for discount (cannot guarantee how long this code is good for, drops the price for a twin pack of the 6' cables from $10.99 to $4.99)
http://www.meritline.com/showproduc...e=6-feet-high-speed-micro-hdmi-cable-ethernet

Pretty much any USB charger will work, but most give a notification on the Touchpad screen indicating that they may not be charging. This is because the official charger is at the high end of both voltage and current capability. I charge from laptop, desktop and a variety of Blackberry chargers with no issue, but the available current will determine how long it takes to charge and whether it charges much while the screen is on. Go for a USB charger that gives you 2 Amps and you should be fine.

dmarchant said:
Pretty much any USB charger will work, but most give a notification on the Touchpad screen indicating that they may not be charging. This is because the official charger is at the high end of both voltage and current capability. I charge from laptop, desktop and a variety of Blackberry chargers with no issue, but the available current will determine how long it takes to charge and whether it charges much while the screen is on. Go for a USB charger that gives you 2 Amps and you should be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the advice. To be more specific, can you recommend any alternative charging cables/wall charger units specifically?

Any brand name USB charger that gives off 2 amps should be fine. I tend to stay away from really cheap generic chargers. Any microUSB cable should be fine even a generic one if it has decent reviews. I worry about generic chargers since a poorly regulated one could send a voltage too high, but generic cables should be fine.

The chargers I am currently using, as well as the one that came with the TP, are the one that came with a Blackberry Playbook and the one from my HTC Desire HD.
The Blackberry charger gives an error on the screen that it may not charge the TP, but as it gives 2 amps, charges in pretty much the same time as the official unit.
The HTC again gives the warning and takes about twice as long to charge.

what about the nook color charger i know it higher amps might work as well

cesar2010 said:
what about the nook color charger i know it higher amps might work as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tested the TP with a charger for the NC, and unfortunately, it still gives the same "may not charge" warning...

There is NO after market charger that will charge at full rate like the HP barrel charger!
At best they will trickle charge at a much lower rate and take considerably longer to charge.
The TP relies on precise signaling which it will only get from the OEM item or specially modded after market units or cables.
Do a google for further info ie webosnation.com forums.

I think your looking for a 5.1v charger, aka rapid charger. This is used by the iPad, and some android phones like the Motorola droid 3, razr and htc rezound.
I could be wrong though,I haven't gotten my touchpad yet.but I do own all said device above (except the razr) and they all use the faster charging technology.
Sent from my rezound.

Izeltokatl said:
I think your looking for a 5.1v charger, aka rapid charger. This is used by the iPad, and some android phones like the Motorola droid 3, razr and htc rezound.
I could be wrong though,I haven't gotten my touchpad yet.but I do own all said device above (except the razr) and they all use the faster charging technology.
Sent from my rezound.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They will not work at full rate!

No one else uses 5.2 volts
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2

Don't believe all the hype about using ONLY the HP charger, there are many that do the job perfectly well. Too many people make these authoritarian statements and all they do is cause FUD.
At my office, I use the AC charger from my last Samsung phone (mythic) and it works IDENTICALLY to the OEM one. I have also used a Moto and and LG with NO PROBLEMS. I have no issues getting to fully charged in little time.
At home, my OEM cable is plugged into a high-power USB port (2.1A, I believe) and it has no problem charging from near zero to full as well. Front or top-mounted USB ports tend to be 500mA or less, but the rear ones (coming directly off the motherboard) tend to have a higher supply. I also use a non-HP USB cable occasionally and it works fine.
(I got my TP during the original fire-sale and have been charging it these ways ever since with ZERO ISSUES.)

R1ptide said:
No one else uses 5.2 volts
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The small voltage difference is marginal and isn't going to matter, the internal hardware should be able to tolerate a few tenths of a volt difference. In fact, I tested my Motorola charger rated at 5.1v and the Touchpad charger rated at 5.2v on a multimeter. The Motorola charger was outputting 5.20v and the Touchpad charger 5.16v. Granted this is at no load, but switching transformers are regulated so they should supply rated voltage at any current draw equal to or less than rated. Also depending on how well the voltage is regulated there may still be a slight AC ripple that the device has to deal with.

Does anyone know the time difference between using the TP charger and a standard droid/blackberry charger? Also curious if the charges last the same. I know theoretically they should since the battery is full either way, but electricals can be tricksiy..

sirclesam said:
Does anyone know the time difference between using the TP charger and a standard droid/blackberry charger? Also curious if the charges last the same. I know theoretically they should since the battery is full either way, but electricals can be tricksiy..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its all down to the charge rate that the TP is able to draw.
2A which is theoretically possible from TP AC barrel charger would charge the 6A+ battery of the TP from flat to full in approximately 6.5 hours.
If the BB charger were able to have 500mA drawn by the TP then it would fully charge in approximately 26 hours.
The charges would be no different.

To convert any regular USB charger into a TouchPad charger you need to add 2 resistors as per the diagram attached.
The presence of the resistors will trigger the TouchPad to draw the full 2A from the charger rather than the trickle charge it does when they are not there.
Please do not modify a cheap charger that is only rated for 500mA as you will most likely overheat it and it could present a fire risk.

stuart_f said:
To convert any regular USB charger into a TouchPad charger you need to add 2 resistors as per the diagram attached.
The presence of the resistors will trigger the TouchPad to draw the full 2A from the charger rather than the trickle charge it does when they are not there.
Please do not modify a cheap charger that is only rated for 500mA as you will most likely overheat it and it could present a fire risk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just pointing out that you need to start with a charger that is rated at least 2Ah to start with.
You can't turn a low rated one into a high rated one.

pa49 said:
Just pointing out that you need to start with a charger that is rated at least 2Ah to start with.
You can't turn a low rated one into a high rated one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh, for the love of gods. REALLY? I was just asking for a replacement cable. I don't want to reinvent the charging paradigm. I just need a simple recommendation for a cable. If a thread could be highjacked any further I don't know how it could be.
I appreciate all your "advice" but seriously, this is NOT what I was asking.

Anyone know if I can get a similar cable in the UK? Kind of lost my TP cable, and I miss the flexibility the long cable gave me, it was so much easier to use on charge!

well i know that my tbolt cable works. i have to use the tp adapter though. my tbolt adapter makes the touchpad say that the charger is incompatible.

[Q] Terrible charge rate?

One of the things I loved most about my Nexus 4 was just how quickly it charged. And unlike my SGSII before it, it could even gain a charge while being actively used for Waze. Really great.
With the 5 I'm back to where I was. And thanks to tools I picked up during the 4, I'm able to see why more easily. Seems on the exact same chargers I used my 4 on, I'm easily pulling 400+mA less than the 4 did from the same device and same cable.
I haven't had time to draw a correlation yet, but last night at home on a multi-out adapter from Monoprice I was able to pull over 1200mA which is more than I've ever seen ANY of my devices pull before. But today, on the same model at my office, but with a different cable, I'm pulling around 200mA. Same as what I was getting in my car, which would frequently dip into the negatives, and that was WITHOUT Waze running. Also of note, in ALL of these locations it's being listed as "USB plugged" instead of "AC plugged." I'd say that accounts for the difference there, but the 1200mA draw was listed the same way, so I doubt it.
So, has anyone else noticed this yet and found any correlations between devices, cables, etc., so we can figure this out? Using more power than it takes in will not be something I can survive with and will definitely make this phone a less-than-ideal upgrade over the 4 in the battery life department. But it's pretty clear it's not impossible to get a good charge.
(and yes, before anyone asks, all of my adapters have jacks with a minimum of 1A out, and each also has a 2.1A port. Surprisingly, unlike my 4 which tended to draw LESS power from the 2.1A port, the 5 appears to be unconcerned by the difference, pulling the same poor number from both)

Yes, i agree with you. I just check today, charging my phone from the pc and it seems fast charge isn't doing its thing.

duckied said:
Yes, i agree with you. I just check today, charging my phone from the pc and it seems fast boot isn't doing its thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I haven't even dared test it from a PC yet. All I can say is from wall warts and car chargers it's terrible. I can't imagine how bad it is from the limited PC ports. Although it's probably exactly the same, since it seems to be identifying all my wall outlets as USB connections.

using my lg g2 charger and it charges my nexus 5 super fast. 1 hour charge will give me almost full battery

spadeace9 said:
using my lg g2 charger and it charges my nexus 5 super fast. 1 hour charge will give me almost full battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not too surprising. I've read other reports that it charges nice and fast with the stock charger, which is likely the same as the G2 charger since they share most of the same hardware. But that doesn't help with car charging or those of us who've consolidated into multi-port chargers.
When I get home I'm going to mix and match some cables and devices and try to narrow in a bit more. This sounds like the Nexus 7 (2012) goose chase all over again.

The USB/AC detection is done with a definied resistance. Some chargers don't meet those exact resistances (cheap resistors have a big tolerance) -> the phone detects it as USB.
The cable can make big difference, I've tested several different cables on the N4 once, charging rate was between 600mA and ~1100mA (which should be the max) on the same charger.
Maybe the resistance in the charger is right inside the resistance tolerance, so the slight difference in resistance between the cables is enough.
Since the N4 most probably uses a different charge IC than the N5 (I haven't checked tho), it could be that the N4 had a wider tolerance than the N5.
What should help are those charge cables , the one I'm using from Porta Pow can only be used for charging therefore ignoring the charger resistance -> phone should always detect it as AC(even on a PC). Another good thing about those cables is the big wire diameter. Or a kernel where you can force AC charging regardless of the actual source.("fast charge")

That all sounds pretty logical. Considering I got much better results with the Monoprice premium cables I used last night (which oddly, are much THINNER than the cheaper ones), I'm going to experiment with those this evening and see if that makes all the difference.
As for kernels, I'm not planning to root this one if I can help it. I managed to get through the life of my 4 without rooting, too. I know it's heresy on XDA not to root, and until I got Nexus devices I would have agreed. But since stock Jelly Bean I haven't felt that burning need to "take back" control of my phone. I seem to already have plenty.

I observed the same inconsistencies with the N5's charging behavior and did some qualitative tests. I've attached a screenshot with my findings.
The phone is clearly capable of charging rapidly. My primary focus is getting a high current off the car charger. Is there a way to force AC charging mode vs. USB charging, or should I focus on more quality cables / adapters?

Just did some additional testing of my own and found some interesting results. I didn't take perfect notes, but here's what I got:
With the Monoprice 4-port Wall Charger 2.1A 8856:
Cheap Monoprice cable: bad charging, fluctuating between -80A and 200A.
Cheap unknown cable: same as above.
Monoprice premium 3ft cable: 900-1200A.
Monoprice premium 6ft cable: 700-900A.
With the Monoprice 1A car charger 6765:
Bad charging with all cables tried.
With the Monoprice 2.1A car charger 8858:
Bad charging with all cables tried, with exception of Monoprice premium 3ft cable which had same low end, but occasionally bumped over 300A.
With 3.1 (split between two ports) charger purchased on Amazon (my standby for my Nexus 4:
Bad charging with all cables tried.
With Monoprice 2-port USB Car Charger 3.1A 10071:
Cheap Monoprice cable: Bad charging
Cheap unknown cable: Bad charging
Monoprice premium 3ft cable: 700-900A
So it looks like high-end Monoprice paired with high-end Monoprice pays off. Unfortunately there's a rather serious catch with model 10071: it KILLS GPS. At least it did on my Nexus 4, and other reviews reported it as well. I can't be certain yet about it on the 5, but the little experimenting I did in the parking lot showed some anomalies I didn't like. Which means I apparently get to choose between GPS killing my battery, or charging my battery killing my GPS.
Also tried Nexus 7 2012 charger with its own cable and got bad charging, too.

TurboFool said:
Just did some additional testing of my own and found some interesting results. I didn't take perfect notes, but here's what I got:
With the Monoprice 4-port Wall Charger 2.1A 8856:
Cheap Monoprice cable: bad charging, fluctuating between -80A and 200A.
Cheap unknown cable: same as above.
Monoprice premium 3ft cable: 900-1200A.
Monoprice premium 6ft cable: 700-900A.
With the Monoprice 1A car charger 6765:
Bad charging with all cables tried.
With the Monoprice 2.1A car charger 8858:
Bad charging with all cables tried, with exception of Monoprice premium 3ft cable which had same low end, but occasionally bumped over 300A.
With 3.1 (split between two ports) charger purchased on Amazon (my standby for my Nexus 4:
Bad charging with all cables tried.
With Monoprice 2-port USB Car Charger 3.1A 10071:
Cheap Monoprice cable: Bad charging
Cheap unknown cable: Bad charging
Monoprice premium 3ft cable: 700-900A
So it looks like high-end Monoprice paired with high-end Monoprice pays off. Unfortunately there's a rather serious catch with model 10071: it KILLS GPS. At least it did on my Nexus 4, and other reviews reported it as well. I can't be certain yet about it on the 5, but the little experimenting I did in the parking lot showed some anomalies I didn't like. Which means I apparently get to choose between GPS killing my battery, or charging my battery killing my GPS.
Also tried Nexus 7 2012 charger with its own cable and got bad charging, too.
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There's a pattern obviously, the 6ft to 3ft drop seems high but is ok I guess.
I've never seen such a picky device when it comes down to charging, usually it just works as expected ^^
Have you tried your cables on the carger it came with ? Or the cable it came with on your other cargers ?
Is there something with "AWG" written on your cables ?
@random_dgp: Well you basically have 2 choices: get a kernel with (force) fast charge support (don't know if there is one yet) or get a charger/cable combo which works.
If you're planning on rooting your N5 anyway I would go for the kernel way I guess, since the charger and the cable are fine most probably, they just aren't in the specs the N5 requires.

maisi said:
There's a pattern obviously, the 6ft to 3ft drop seems high but is ok I guess.
I've never seen such a picky device when it comes down to charging, usually it just works as expected ^^
Have you tried your cables on the carger it came with ? Or the cable it came with on your other cargers ?
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The first-gen Nexus 7 was at least this bad. Actually its biggest problem was it refused to even ADMIT it was charging (even though it was) off of most devices. In fact everything I just listed it would claim wasn't even connected to it. A few hours later it was full, but it refused to recognize it. 4.2 fixed that, but it was still slow off of most devices. This at least admits it's being charged, but barely is.
And no, I haven't tried the stock charger yet. I guess I will, but it's not a high priority since it doesn't cover my issues.

TurboFool said:
One of the things I loved most about my Nexus 4 was just how quickly it charged. And unlike my SGSII before it, it could even gain a charge while being actively used for Waze. Really great.
With the 5 I'm back to where I was. And thanks to tools I picked up during the 4, I'm able to see why more easily. Seems on the exact same chargers I used my 4 on, I'm easily pulling 400+mA less than the 4 did from the same device and same cable.
I haven't had time to draw a correlation yet, but last night at home on a multi-out adapter from Monoprice I was able to pull over 1200mA which is more than I've ever seen ANY of my devices pull before. But today, on the same model at my office, but with a different cable, I'm pulling around 200mA. Same as what I was getting in my car, which would frequently dip into the negatives, and that was WITHOUT Waze running. Also of note, in ALL of these locations it's being listed as "USB plugged" instead of "AC plugged." I'd say that accounts for the difference there, but the 1200mA draw was listed the same way, so I doubt it.
So, has anyone else noticed this yet and found any correlations between devices, cables, etc., so we can figure this out? Using more power than it takes in will not be something I can survive with and will definitely make this phone a less-than-ideal upgrade over the 4 in the battery life department. But it's pretty clear it's not impossible to get a good charge.
(and yes, before anyone asks, all of my adapters have jacks with a minimum of 1A out, and each also has a 2.1A port. Surprisingly, unlike my 4 which tended to draw LESS power from the 2.1A port, the 5 appears to be unconcerned by the difference, pulling the same poor number from both)
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OOC what sort of dmm/ammeter are you using to measure this?

TurboFool said:
One of the things I loved most about my Nexus 4 was just how quickly it charged
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i dont know if you're making this up, or if i have a defective nexus 4 lol
before i optimized my N4 i was getting about 4-5 hours of screen time, but it took at least 3 full hours to charge. that charge time to usage time ratio was killing me.
i am having much much much better results with my N5. i have no reason to charge it through a USB port on the computer(are you using an USB 1.0 port or something?), but charging it with the charger that it came with, i get a full charge in about 2 hours.
my N5 will charge a tiny bit over 1% per minute(while on or off), until it gets to 80% and then it charges at about .5% per minute or something
if you're getting the same charge times on the wall charger then i think you might have a defective charger/device. testing this will also be a good way to find out if it's just a slow usb port too

TurboFool said:
The first-gen Nexus 7 was at least this bad. Actually its biggest problem was it refused to even ADMIT it was charging (even though it was) off of most devices. In fact everything I just listed it would claim wasn't even connected to it. A few hours later it was full, but it refused to recognize it. 4.2 fixed that, but it was still slow off of most devices. This at least admits it's being charged, but barely is.
And no, I haven't tried the stock charger yet. I guess I will, but it's not a high priority since it doesn't cover my issues.
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Oh that's bad , I didn't know that!
Would just be the "reference test" since the stock charger should meet all the specs (and works fine here with every cable).
@cutterjohn: "Currentwidget" can display those values.
Enddo said:
i am having much much much better results with my N5. i have no reason to charge it through a USB port on the computer(are you using an USB 1.0 port or something?), but charging it with the charger that it came with, i get a full charge in about 2 hours.
my N5 will charge a tiny bit over 1% per minute(while on or off), until it gets to 80% and then it charges at about .5% per minute or something
if you're getting the same charge times on the wall charger then i think you might have a defective charger/device. testing this will also be a good way to find out if it's just a slow usb port too
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The problem he's having isn't about a computer USB port at all, the problem is that the N5 thinks it's plugged in a computer and limits the current to 500mA to meet the USB specs (and don't blow up some usb ports without a fuse somewhere) but in reality it's plugged in a wall charger.
His phone should be fine since it's working as expected on some carger/cable combos.
Btw. the N5 isn't pulling more current than the N4(both 1,2A), so it should charge almost exactly as fast/slow as the N4. It should even be a bit slower since the battery is slightly bigger I think.

cutterjohn said:
OOC what sort of dmm/ammeter are you using to measure this?
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I'm simply using the app Battery Monitor Widget. Really handy tool that solved some problems for me on the 4 with some weird charging situations. While I'm sure it's not insanely precise, it reflects my draining or charging rate well enough to show me what's going on.
Enddo said:
before i optimized my N4 i was getting about 4-5 hours of screen time, but it took at least 3 full hours to charge. that charge time to usage time ratio was killing me.
i am having much much much better results with my N5. i have no reason to charge it through a USB port on the computer(are you using an USB 1.0 port or something?), but charging it with the charger that it came with, i get a full charge in about 2 hours.
my N5 will charge a tiny bit over 1% per minute(while on or off), until it gets to 80% and then it charges at about .5% per minute or something
if you're getting the same charge times on the wall charger then i think you might have a defective charger/device. testing this will also be a good way to find out if it's just a slow usb port too
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I think you're missing the fact that I'm comparing it directly to how well these same devices charged the 4. So they're clearly not defective so much as the 5's requirements have changed completely. And USB 1.0 (I think you mean 1.1) isn't relevant here, as I'm not charging off a computer, I'm charging off a wall and/or car adapter. But sounds like we had very different experiences with the 4. I could charge my 4 off my Monoprice pocket battery in crazy fast time, and my phone was always full by the time I reached my destination in the car, even with Waze running (once I figured out I couldn't use the long cable I was using initially).
maisi said:
Oh that's bad , I didn't know that!
Would just be the "reference test" since the stock charger should meet all the specs (and works fine here with every cable).
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Absolutely. A control of sorts. Might as well.
Btw. the N5 isn't pulling more current than the N4(both 1,2A), so it should charge almost exactly as fast/slow as the N4. It should even be a bit slower since the battery is slightly bigger I think.
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Exactly. That's why I was surprised. There's no way it SHOULD be this much slower. Yes, I can see percentage adjusting slightly for the larger battery, but that's why I'm going by mA input instead, and my 4 was getting WAY better in the car. Although I don't think it ever got the 1.2 I'm getting with the Monoprice wall combo, so THAT's impressive. Now if I can just get that in my car without the RF interference and I can call it a day.

maisi said:
@cutterjohn: "Currentwidget" can display those values.
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Well then your either have defective hardware or currentwidget just doesn't work. As I inferred hard to tell w/o proper tools.
[EDIT]
Oops, multiple responses and replied to incorrect one, but really if your recharge rate is that much lower v. n4 I'd say that your chargers or n5 are defective. It's going to take longer to charge the n5 obviously, and I have no idea what the max draw either can achieve as I've been strictly using inductive charging w/max 1A supply(as per Qi spec)... n5 takes longer to charge than n4, but thats to be expected by batt cap(and wear(decreased cap) of n4 batt)...
Subjectively, the n5 takes longer to charge, but not that much longer that I've noticed, again batt cap, etc. so...
Both USB/AC adapter chargers I know supply a max of 1.2A...
...(from last so) ask for a replacement n5, after they've been replacing them for a single dead pixel...
[/EDIT]

My n5 charging real fast fatter t than my n4!
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

cutterjohn said:
Well then your either have defective hardware or currentwidget just doesn't work. As I inferred hard to tell w/o proper tools.
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Neither I think, we don't need any mA values to see that something is wrong, android is telling us that it thinks that it's connected to a usb port while it isn't.
Of course if we would want to measure exact mA values we would need a different equipment, for cable comparisions in order to see a tendency, the values from the charge IC should be good enough.(IMO)
[EDIT]
Oops, multiple responses and replied to incorrect one, but really if your recharge rate is that much lower v. n4 I'd say that your chargers or n5 are defective. It's going to take longer to charge the n5 obviously, and I have no idea what the max draw either can achieve as I've been strictly using inductive charging w/max 1A supply(as per Qi spec)... n5 takes longer to charge than n4, but thats to be expected by batt cap(and wear(decreased cap) of n4 batt)...
Subjectively, the n5 takes longer to charge, but not that much longer that I've noticed, again batt cap, etc. so...
Both USB/AC adapter chargers I know supply a max of 1.2A...
...(from last so) ask for a replacement n5, after they've been replacing them for a single dead pixel...
[/EDIT]
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Just saw your edit ^^
Well it looks like the N5 has a very low tolerance for AC/USB detection, I'm sure that neither his chargers or Phone are defective, the chargers just aren't 100%in the spec which is obviously enough. I'm sure that the stock charger would be fine.

cutterjohn said:
Well then your either have defective hardware or currentwidget just doesn't work. As I inferred hard to tell w/o proper tools.
[EDIT]
Oops, multiple responses and replied to incorrect one, but really if your recharge rate is that much lower v. n4 I'd say that your chargers or n5 are defective. It's going to take longer to charge the n5 obviously, and I have no idea what the max draw either can achieve as I've been strictly using inductive charging w/max 1A supply(as per Qi spec)... n5 takes longer to charge than n4, but thats to be expected by batt cap(and wear(decreased cap) of n4 batt)...
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Clearly neither is the case from my testing. The N5 charges beautifully off of the right combination of chargers, and all of those chargers charged the N4 beautifully. Neither is defective, but the N5 apparently has a different tolerance requirement than the N4.
Really, as opposed to anything being defective, it sounds more like a design flaw in the N5. It's WAY too picky about its power sources.

Mine charged REALLY slow the first day and that night. It also drained really quickly during that same time. I am now on my third day and it has long battery life plus it charged about 20% in 30 minutes on a car charger. Seems quicker than my S3.

[Q] sm-p905 Charging with non genuine charger

Gday All,
I realise that this topic has been mentioned in a few threads, but from what I could find, there is no definiteve fix.
Is there a way to disable this so that a non-genuine charger will work once the screen turns off, or if I was to root the device, is there then a way to do it.
Please dont flame me, I'm a total newb to android, and I dont mind admitting that.
Bit dissapointed that Samsung has sunk to this.
TIA!

Not sure what issues you are having but I have been using a few different chargers without issue. Which exact charging method are you trying to use (cable type, charger type, charger rated output voltage and amperage)?
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

The problem isn't that the charger is 3rd party.
The problem is that the device requires a 5.1V 2A charger or higher.
Anything lower than that is simply not powerful enough. You can find these specs in small lettering on the charger. Most cheap 3rd party launchers are 5V 1A.

CrazyManR32 said:
Gday All,
I realise that this topic has been mentioned in a few threads, but from what I could find, there is no definiteve fix.
Is there a way to disable this so that a non-genuine charger will work once the screen turns off, or if I was to root the device, is there then a way to do it.
Please dont flame me, I'm a total newb to android, and I dont mind admitting that.
Bit dissapointed that Samsung has sunk to this.
TIA!
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Click to collapse
I was one of the ones having problems with it needing to have the screen on to charge. It was a problem with the charger (yes, it was marked as a high amperage charger), changed to a different one (Anker 40W 5 port) and it's working fine.

ericbergan said:
I was one of the ones having problems with it needing to have the screen on to charge. It was a problem with the charger (yes, it was marked as a high amperage charger), changed to a different one (Anker 40W 5 port) and it's working fine.
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Huge second on the Anker. I love that charger by the way. With various devices I would get irritated with some refusing to charge on certain chargers (my BlackBerry Bold in particular). I've since switched to the Anker 5 port 40 Watt and no longer worry about which cable I'm reaching for. Every device gets the power it needs with no fuss.

muzzy996 said:
Not sure what issues you are having but I have been using a few different chargers without issue. Which exact charging method are you trying to use (cable type, charger type, charger rated output voltage and amperage)?
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Initially i was using a belkin 2 port, 2.1amp per port charger, which would start charging but stop once the screen was off.
ShadowLea said:
The problem isn't that the charger is 3rd party.
The problem is that the device requires a 5.1V 2A charger or higher.
Anything lower than that is simply not powerful enough. You can find these specs in small lettering on the charger. Most cheap 3rd party launchers are 5V 1A.
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Click to collapse
This seems logical, but it does work when i use the genuine charger from my sgs3 which is a 5vdc 1a charger. Takes all night to charge, but charges non the less.
ericbergan said:
I was one of the ones having problems with it needing to have the screen on to charge. It was a problem with the charger (yes, it was marked as a high amperage charger), changed to a different one (Anker 40W 5 port) and it's working fine.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the info mate, ill see if i can get hold of one of these in australia, that being said, it appears that these are also 5v rather then the 5.3?

CrazyManR32 said:
This seems logical, but it does work when i use the genuine charger from my sgs3 which is a 5vdc 1a charger. Takes all night to charge, but charges non the less.
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That's because the retention rate of the S3's charger is higher than that of a generic cheap 3rd party one. Where the S3 charger actually delivers 0.8-1A, the cheaper ones usually average around 0.5A.
This is why charging over a usb 2.0 port without any power boosts also (usually, there have been some exceptions) doesn't work.
I usually charge mine with my Note 3 or S5 charger, as the three are all the same charger.