This weekend I went on a trip and decided to try out using my Skyrocket as a GPS navigator using Google Navigation. I had my phone mounted and plugged in the whole time for about a 2 hour trip. The screen was on the whole time usually at high brightness (it would dim every once in a while.) When I removed my phone from the mount I noticed the power was down to the low 60's, which struck me as slightly odd since it was plugged into the charger the whole time. The next day I tried to use it as a GPS system again, but even as it was plugged in, this time I literally saw the battery gauge draining. When I turned off navigation and the screen the phone would finally start charging.
Is this a common thing or is there an issue with my phone or possibly my charger? Does doing all those things really drain the battery faster than it can charge it? One last note is that I was not in an LTE area during this, or at least not the whole time (I only noticed it was LTE at one time during the trip.) When I saw my battery draining in front of me I definitely was not in an LTE area.
Might be your charger. I'm having no problems using it as my primary driving, hiking and general outdoor GPS unit. When on car charger, it's charging faster then it drains.
I believe my charger is an old Motorola car charger that came with my wife's old dumbphone. It's actually not even a Micro-USB charger, but rather a Mini-USB with an adapter.
This may be a dumb question, but the actual charging port shouldn't be the issue right? I'm assuming those are always the same standard.
Check the car charger amperage output. I have an old car charger to USB that only puts out 750mA and another thats puts out 1A. Anything less than 1A with the navigation running (which means the screen and GPS stay on, of course), and it'll still drain the battery (and even at 1A it may still drain).
I've been putting off getting a powerful enough car charger myself. You'll need one that puts out 1-2A I would think. Most of the common ones off the shelf are 1A or less, and I've heard that some chargers reported max output is not as good as reported.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
jslanger said:
Check the car charger amperage output. I have an old car charger to USB that only puts out 750mA and another thats puts out 1A. Anything less than 1A with the navigation running (which means the screen and GPS stay on, of course), and it'll still drain the battery (and even at 1A it may still drain).
I've been putting off getting a powerful enough car charger myself. You'll need one that puts out 1-2A I would think. Most of the common ones off the shelf are 1A or less, and I've heard that some chargers reported max output is not as good as reported.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i second this...my phone won't even charge on some wall chargers, unless 700mAh or higher. let alone do any battery heavy functions like GPS. get something with at least 1a output
I'll try swapping the chargers. I have an overpriced AT&T one that I got for free that is collecting dust.
If the charger has 1A output then it should be OK
I'm having the same problem with my Skyrocket and cheapy charger that I bought at Fry's. Use the navigation with screen on and my battery is less than when I plugged it in.
Going to buy this combo 2A and 1A charger.
http://www.amazon.com/GTMax-2-Port-..._1_5?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1329796381&sr=1-5
Its the amount of mah your charger is putting out. Not the phone. The charger is not supplying enough power
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
CZ Eddie said:
I'm having the same problem with my Skyrocket and cheapy charger that I bought at Fry's. Use the navigation with screen on and my battery is less than when I plugged it in.
Going to buy this combo 2A and 1A charger.
http://www.amazon.com/GTMax-2-Port-..._1_5?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1329796381&sr=1-5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I was looking for a more powerful option, I saw that one on Amazon as well. My only hesitation at buying it was why it was so much cheaper than all comparable options at local stores, or even online...I've heard that the cheapie chargers may not actually output what they say...though for $4 plus shipping, I guess it's not much of a gamble. Let us know how it performs!
P.S.-Pulled up the reviews...not too many positive ones (though 1 or 2 were good): http://www.amazon.com/GTMax-2-Port-...iewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Its actually more than just the charger output that is a problem. If the center two pins on the USB connection aren't shorted, the phone will treat it as a USB connection to a computer, not an AC connection from the wall, and only draw a max 500mah. I had bought a 1amp and 2 amp charger for my car and would get the same results as the 500. I started to think it was my car limiting my output!
But I then found an article detailing this problem that I've since lost the link to, but the method worked. Pop open the charger and solder the 2 middle connectors together and all is good.
I don't know why the charger manufacturers don't know this... Or maybe this phone is doing something new? Maybe someone makes a USB-> micro USB with the center pair shorted in cable?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
Just Google "Solder USB Car Charger" and you'll find plenty of tutorials about how to do that. Personally I'd rather just buy one that out of the box works.
Tried out my AT&T charger (which can be found here) and it worked perfectly. Set up the GPS and everything and now it will charge even while doing all that stuff. Thanks for the help
I have the same issue with my SkyRocket. LTE makes no difference. If I'm using Google Navigation or Waze and the Screen is on my charger/phone can't keep up with the battery drain. If I turn the screen off and keep the GPS app running the battery either doesn't drain or doesn't drain as fast.
I've checked my car charger and it's one of those dual usb ones, with a 1 amp port and a 2.1 amp port. It has no indication of which port is which, so I don't know what port I'm using at any particular time. I've tried both and the effects are the same.
Regardless, when the phone is plugged in to that charger the phone reports that it's an AC charger. Supposedly that means I'm getting at least 1 amp, right? So why is 1 amp not enough?
I don't like the car charger you guys suggested because it has the curly cord. I'd rather use a car charger that doesn't come with a cable so I can plug in my own usb cable.
Any suggestions?
Related
it says- output :5v 500mah
the original says-output:5v 1a(amper i guess)
will this screw up the battery?
chances are no, considering it is half what htc recommends you charge it with, either it will charge it very slowly (half the current of the original) or the voltage wont provide enough to kick the phone into charging mode and nothing will happen (i.e. the charger "wont work")
Thanks for the help
It'll work, but as panyan said, it'll recharge much more inefficiently than with a 1 amp charger.
Actually... It will charge the phone exactly as charging via USB, as USB is limited to 0.5A.
Yep, it will charge your phone just fine @ USB charging speed, I have a similar charger.
And some of you forgot to mention that the phone will struggle when for example you will play games or use gps. Charge will be insufficient and instead charging it will slowly discharge while using it.
Sent from my Desire HD uing XDA App
Well yes and no, in normal usage it will charge phone, but when you use your phone the way that you would drain the batty in two hours, then it will discharge.
Hey... Yeah if the charger is a car charger then it may not charge fast enough if using GPS software which can drain the battery fast. 1Amp reccomended for faster charging... other than that should charge fine but just slow like USB charging (which has a max of 500mA).
One question guys... I bought a car charger from ebay listed as for HTC phones. It looks like a cheap knock off product with a glowing blue HTC logo when used in the car. The device is rated at 2Amps. Now from what little I know about electronics I've been told that AC/DC Plug packs with more Amps are ok and the device just only uses what it needs. I'm not however familiar whith battery charing when you have a higher rated Amps charger... Would the battery on the phone just be greedy and "ask" for the full 2Amps? Would this then put strain or be dangerous by charging the phone too quickly?
Secondly while we are on the topic of electronics... I'm trying out a super cheap ebay battery supposedly rated at 1600mAH (I know these rating are usually fake). I've noticed the HTC battery is around 4.17V when fully charged. This battery charged up to 4.2V fully charged... Is that dangerous for the device?
2 amp is better, correct me if i am wrong. So the output is 5V and 2A, is that mean the power is 10W every hour ?
2 A charging current (if the phone takes in that much) will damage the battery in a long term use.
It is incredibly unlikely that the phone will discharge the battery faster than it charges unless you're doing something very wrong, e.g. Running a console emulator while downloading a large file over HSDPA with WiFi enabled (but not connected) and using GPS navigation with screen brightness at maximum!
Screen and background services take approx 150mAh, and I doubt radio will take much more than that combined. That puts drain 200mAh less than USB charging, 700mAh less than direct charging.
FYI: There's a spec for USB charging of mobile phones from supported USB ports which can pull up to 1500mA.
DeathJester said:
It is incredibly unlikely that the phone will discharge the battery faster than it charges unless you're doing something very wrong, e.g. Running a console emulator while downloading a large file over HSDPA with WiFi enabled (but not connected) and using GPS navigation with screen brightness at maximum!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... not sure for Desire HD I haven't tested GPS with SatNav software using current widget... I do know that I'm pulling well over 200mA just with basic use at home with Wi-Fi on and GPS & Bluetooth off and I kill all backround apps. I do know that I've been in the car and seen TomTom app on my friend's jailbroken iPhone 3G (or 3Gs) and with the GPS on and not doing anything intensive... we were actually travelling down a long straight highway, the phone was chewing more battery than the car charger could charge, so he switched off GPS.
Ah also guys no need to worry about the 2Amp charger... It sh*t itself on the 3rd car use and no longer works at all. Junk! I also noticed on the 2nd car trip that opening Android SpareParts the charge is displayed as USB Charging not AC Charging so yeah I believe that the car charger was only a standard USB (max 500mA) power output and not 1Amp let alone 2Amps. Annoying how false advertising or labelling is part and parcel with cheap Chinese products.I was meaning to test the charger's output with Current Widget (which is what I'll do for my next car charger) but the charger crapped out and was useless before I got a chance.
One thing I did notice from looking at a log using Current Widget while charging my phone on the A/C charger in standby, the charge tapers off the power output the more the battery is charged. To get an accurate idea of if the car charger is going to be outputting 1Amp I'd be sure the phone battery is down to 40% (or in the 40s) then with all other stuff switched off I'd run a log on Current Widget and turn the screen off for a few minutes. You should have a reading of around +700 to +800mA if the car charger is rated at 1Amp.
Be wary of the cheap Asian knock of car chargers with the coil spring cord and the HTC logo that lights up blue.... Not worth the 3 or 4 bucks they sell on ebay for.
There's a spec for USB charging of mobile phones from supported USB ports which can pull up to 1500mA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's commonly those double USB cables for laptop hard drives so yeah I can see that if the USB ports are actually giving you the full rated maximum of 500mA you can get 1Amp output with this kind of cable but 1500mA?!? The only way I'd see possible for this is either you have a tripple USB cable connected to 3USB ports that are all outputting the full 500mA (and that's if a triple cable even exists or lets say you solder another one onto a double cable) or you have a USB AC/DC charger or some other USB port/hub you've rigged up which provides more than the USB standards of max 500mA per port. How else is this possible?!? Has the max power output of 500mA changed since USB 2.0 standards?
yeah there are usb 2.0 ports with more than 500mA power supply.
some companys give some extra juice to their (or often only one) usb ports.
for example: i've got an Dell Studio XPS 16 Notebook here. it has 3 usb ports, 2 with normal 500mA supply and one with 1A (for charging your phone, etc).
DN41
I am thinking about ordering this:
http://www.amazon.com/G2x-T-Mobile-..._24?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1304350783&sr=1-24
But was wondering if I should spend the money and get a LG issued micro usb and car charger.
Anyone have experience with these chargers?
Hmmm that's alot of stuff for such a cheap price. Makes me wonder the build quality of that stuff. I might stay away from that. Just my opinion though. But to answer your question, I use a micro-usb cable I got from newegg. I also use the car charger I got with my MyTouch Slide a year ago.
First thing I thought was "too good to be true" and in my experience cheap stuff brakes stuff.
Yeah I think the quality of those accessories is probably quite low. If you want a good micro-usb cable I ordered 3 of these about a year ago and still use them today and they work fine on the G2x for data transfer and charging:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=micro_usb_cable-_-12-189-164-_-Product
I still have my micro usb charger I used for my blackberry curve (2 yrs old). I would assume that would work. I wonder if the old wall charger would work as well.
Those chargers are pretty much worthless. You need a high amp charger. The phone comes with a 1amp or 1000mA charger. If you buy a cheap charger that's 500mA for example you take more time to charge your phone. If the charger is really weak then you might not charge at all or even drop you battery levels while connected and using your gps in your car.
Note these are Blackberry and Motorolla OEM products that will work with your G2X. I use these and they are fine. They are both under $5 each at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/BlackBerry-Fo...PN0S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304613708&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Vehi...Q9CA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304613757&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/BlackBerry-Cable-Micro-1-0m-Black/dp/B001QATRCA/ref=zg_bs_wireless_10
Cheap doesn't mean bad. All that stuff costs nothing to make anyways.
I buy stuff like that all the time off amazon.com.
I buy stuff like that all the time off amazon.com.
I can tell you you get what you pay for.
I buy stuff like that for coworkers and everthing is still working fine except car chargers breaking because of rough handling of the chargers. Evething else is alive and kicking.
If you decide to get it let me know how the car charger, Charges the phone, and make sure to post pictures because some times picture are diffrent from what is posted on the web.
I personally got this charger from T-Moble (granted, it was $30), 4.8v 1A... and integrated it into my car:
Code:
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/AddOns/Accessories/AccessoryDetailPopUp.aspx?accessory=f2105fae-0bb1-47f2-b53b-a8acc9e98c56&inCart=True&catCode=-1
I removed the LED since it's hardwired to the car.
Grated, if you want to move the charger from car to car it's not ideal to hard-wire it... but eh.
Be careful what you buy.
I ordered a Micro-USB cable from an Amazon vendor. It was the one in this package:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XGBBY6
Package seemed good enough. Good deal. The case was serviceable (I won't use it fulltime, but for what I paid, I wasn't expecting much-- it's good for putting my phone in for when it's in the car, sitting on the dash, so that it doesn't slide around while I get GPS maps). The car charger works pretty well. But the USB cable...
I was experiencing battery drain from my phone while it was plugged into my desktop PC's USB with the aftermarket cable.
The next day I tried it with the one that shipped with my phone from LG and it works just fine.
For reals, has anyone experienced battery drain with an aftermarket cable while it was plugged in?
eatabagel said:
Be careful what you buy.
I ordered a Micro-USB cable from an Amazon vendor. It was the one in this package:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XGBBY6
Package seemed good enough. Good deal. The case was serviceable (I won't use it fulltime, but for what I paid, I wasn't expecting much-- it's good for putting my phone in for when it's in the car, sitting on the dash, so that it doesn't slide around while I get GPS maps). The car charger works pretty well. But the USB cable...
I was experiencing battery drain from my phone while it was plugged into my desktop PC's USB with the aftermarket cable.
The next day I tried it with the one that shipped with my phone from LG and it works just fine.
For reals, has anyone experienced battery drain with an aftermarket cable while it was plugged in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well typically USB doesn't have enough juice to power the phone while you are using it. It might in some cases but with WiFi, the screen, GPS, or whatever... you probably won't be charging the battery much if at all, and in fact might be losing power.
The same with USB chargers. The better chargers provide more power where most only provide the standard 5v (just like a desktop) so with heavy usage (GPS, screen, bluetooth) you might not gain anything.
I'm not sure about PC's because computers follow the standard of 5v and I don't think they will send more over the cable. A bad cable will have more resistance and probably not do as good of a job but overall should work.
The answer is any microUSB cable will work because it is a standard. Chargers (home and car) should provide more power to give it a faster charge.
Some Chargers are able to do "fast-charges" which I know the G2x can handle. I have a Microsoft Zune charger and it devastates my battery charge times. I'll be full in like 30min.
Typically batteries like a slow progressive charges though, which seem to last the longest. Oddly enough, I get the best battery life by charging my phone via my USB port on my Cable Box (haha).
As long as the charger's output is 5V then you're good. The higher the milliamp output on the charger the faster yourphone will charge.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
player911 said:
Well typically USB doesn't have enough juice to power the phone while you are using it. It might in some cases but with WiFi, the screen, GPS, or whatever... you probably won't be charging the battery much if at all, and in fact might be losing power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone charges just fine when I'm using while connected to my computer via USB.
It's the amperage that counts when it comes to filling up your battery. I've used .5, .6, .8 and 1 amp wall adapter and car chargers. The 1 amp charges much faster but, if I remember my USB spec, that's all that was allowed until Apple came along PCs are typically restricted to 500 milliamps (.5 amp) so it's a little slower but still enough to charge it., even under use. I suppose if you have GPS seeking satellites and the display turned up all the way you may draw more than 500 milliamps but I'd be surprised.
EDIT: if you're really interested in this stuff, check http://batteryuniversity.com/ and https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Power
So I use my phone in the car quite a bit. I usually connect audio through bluetooth and run a navigation app. When i do this, even with the charger plugged in, I slowly LOSE battery life, I can't even hold it at its current level. If I'm not running anything, my phone will slowly gain charge, but I'm wondering if there is any kind of stat I can look up to see if my charger is defective.
Thanks
GS3
Stock Rooted
It sounds like your car charger is not putting out enough power. Make sure your car charger matches the output level of the stock wall charger that came with your phone.
If that's not the case I'm at a loss.
Well its definitely not the same output as the wall charger. Even on my old phone (Incredible) it charged much slower int he car, but at least on that one it would still charge. Could the power draw on the S3 be that much greater?
I don't have this issue with my SGSIII.
I use the Device for Phone & music via Bluetooth to my Car Stereo, and Navigation. Charging has never been an issue for me. I didn't buy the Car Charger Accessory for the SGSII but instead opted to use the Car Charger that came with the mounting kit for my old Google Nexus One.
If you have a Car Stereo that has a USB Connection port, I would'nt recomendyou use that to charge your phone as most models don't put out enough Juice to charge a powerhouse like our phone. As with mine I used it one time to try and charge my phone and it only trickled charged it.
The output on the stock charger is 5V 1A
Ideally it would be best to use a car charger that output 1A
For comparison my old blackberry car charger puts out 0.5A and my old iPhone "quick" car charger aka iPad charger puts out 2.1A
The lower the amps = slower charge sometimes slower than your consuming.
That being said if Samsung put in all the proper safety features you could use a higher amperage and be ok as it would limit the amps pulled... If they didn't it could create too much heat and shorten the life and stability of your battery.
I would recommend locating a car charger that is equal to 1A and play it safe.
Hope this all helps... I'm not an expert at any of this but I researched this exact issue myself before as I wanted to know if it would be safe to use my iPad charger on this GS3 as I did my iPhone for quick dirty chargers... Short of it... I don't..
I'm currently using this
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003HM27DG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
I like it mainly for the cord retractability. I will try and grab an old micro usb charger from my parents and see if it makes a difference in the charging.
From looking at their website it says that charger is 600mAh
I don't know enough about power, etc.. To know what that converts too in A. But if I had to guess I would say it's lower than 1A but maybe somebody else who knows more could chime in as I would hate to give you any false information...
Either way, I hope you get everything straightened out
We have used these Verizon dual USB chargers (i.e., they have a male micro USB connector and also a female standard USB connector - so, you can attach a second cable for dual charging and/or use a proprietary connector, when desired) for some time now in two cars, both used almost daily. They charge well and only one had a connector that got a little loose after nine months, then was replaced with the same model. You can find them rather cheap at other sites and eBay, as compared to full price from Verizon's store.
- ooofest
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Hey Guys,
So I was recently on a trip this weekend and was using Navigation on my Nexus 5 for a 4 hour drive. I had noticed though after a short while that while I had my Nexus 5 plugged into a charger it was still continuing to drain battery.
With my Galaxy Nexus in the past I was able to run Navigation / Music / Etc.. all whilst still charging so it came as a disappointment when I saw this.
I made sure that I was charging on (AC) mode and it still continued to fall, albeit a little slower than (USB) mode though. When I went to the battery usage navigation had taken up about 59% of the battery drain, I was surprised because I though it would have been the screen but that was only like 14% of the battery drain.
Anyone else run into this issue?
Check the Amp output on the charger. Anything less than 1A will not charge the phone while in use.
I had the exact opposite issue with my G-Nex, the "rapid" charger I was using only output 550mAh as opposed to the 1A that is required to charge while in use. I don't believe it is an issue with the phone, it's probably just the charger. $10 to $20 will get you a nice, reliable one with the proper output, and possibly an additional USB port.
Hopefully this helps
Don't buy cheap car chargers, just not enough power. I use a Verizon car charger that has an extra USB port for charging another device and it charges while the device is in use.
Thanks for the input guys, unfortunately the charger was 1 amp that I was using. I do have another car charger that I use and none of them are the cheap USB ones. I guess I'll have to do some more testing with the other car charger that I have.
I was just mainly concerned, not if there was something wrong with the phone, but with the fact that even when charging in AC it wouldn't keep up with navigation's wear on the battery usage.
Thought I would update to confirm that my Galaxy Nexus car dock charger charged it extremely well after testing while navigating.
Definitely was the other one I was using.
When you switched chargers did you happen to also use a different cable? I couldn't get any of three different chargers that I tried to keep up with the GPS battery drain. Then I realized I was using the same cable with all 3 chargers. The problem was that the cable kept the phone in DC charging mode at nothing more than 0.5 amps. I bought this fast charging cable on Amazon and now I actually gain battery percentage even while using my GPS full time.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0088HTYUE/ref=ya_aw_oh_pit
jalanjkcarp said:
When you switched chargers did you happen to also use a different cable? I couldn't get any of three different chargers that I tried to keep up with the GPS battery drain. Then I realized I was using the same cable with all 3 chargers. The problem was that the cable kept the phone in DC charging mode at nothing more than 0.5 amps. I bought this fast charging cable on Amazon and now I actually gain battery percentage even while using my GPS full time.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0088HTYUE/ref=ya_aw_oh_pit
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I had exactly the same thing with my old phone and discovered it was the cable not letting more than 380 ma pass through it.
There are apps like this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ccc71.bmw that let you monitor mah in and out etc so you can test out different leads and chargers
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk