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Skyrocket can't function as GPS Navigator?

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
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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
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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?

[Q] Anyone have complaints with their car charging?

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

Good QI Charger for my car?

So im kind of new to the whole wireless charger aspect for cell phones etc.. however to get to the point I have a Verizon Galaxy S5 and use it rather often in my car for GPS Navigation while paired with my cars Bluetooth so I can stream music and be hands free while driving. I was looking for a good/decent wireless charger car mount that will actually charge my phone while GPS and BT are on. Cant really tell from most sites/articles but not many of them say how high the output amps are and when they do its generally 1.0amp or so as where the sock wired charger is 2.0 amps. I have found that when I use a 12v car charger that puts out less than 2.0 amps and ahve gps/bt on the phone doesnt charge or charges extremely/crazy slow. Is that just a downside to wireless charging?
Anyone have any recommendations for a decent wireless charger? The one that am looking at at the moment is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TJL5SRQ...TF8&colid=3U083AEMT3RVH&coliid=I2VJSGSVJNM3M0 mainly because from what I read most wireless chargers cause the phone to get warm and this particular mount attaches to the AC vent so the phone should stay reasonably cool plus I can attach it to my cup holder thing as well.
Thanks for any feedback,
~SG

I have used this one, and it stays much cooler than others I have tried. I would buy it again.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQDE1K8

NEW Review of Kmashi Quick Charge 2.0 car charger (adaptive fast charging)

This is a review of Kmashi Quick Charge 2.0 car charger (Qualcomm certified), ($4.89 with coupon code)
I recently received this USB car charger and I immediately put it to the test. I have had multiple car chargers that hardly supply enough power for my phone to charge while also running the GPS and streaming music. I have a Samsung S3 phone so its older and the battery is two years old so it really needs a good charger to be able to work properly. I first plugged in the charger into the car auxiliary power port and I was happy to feel the snug fit letting me know that the charger won't easily get accidentally removed. The included USB to micro USB cable also fit nicely in the charger and my phone and did not wiggle around like my last cable. My phone was at 85% and I was streaming music along with running my GPS for around a 25 minute car ride. At the end of the drive my phone was at 97% which I considered to be real good. With my last charger sometimes my battery wouldn't increase the charge at all as it was draining it faster then the charger could replenish. The cable was a perfect length to go from my center console port to my cell phone mount on the dashboard. The only recommendation I would add a second USB port so that two devices can be charged simultaneously. I have been given this product as a sample in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Thank you, for review. I think to buy a similar charge...

The coupon still works?
Does the coupon still work ?

Best Car Charger for S5?

Whats the best car charger for the vzw S5 that can charge the phone the quickest? Right now I have a Motorola charger that came with the Motorola Droid years ago and its worked well so far but I would like something thats more powerful and has the ability to charge the phone faster.

USB to lightening
Any of the standard micro USB will work (as I am sure you know). I have yet to see a lightening cable with car charger but, I use a USB port adapter for the auto plug (cigarette lighter) with a lightening cable plugged in. Works best for me and much faster than any other standard charger. Hope that helps.

Just seen this advertise, I'm going to give it a whirl, looks decent though;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TARTANTECH-...&qid=1443987655&sr=8-100&keywords=usb+charger
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using Tapatalk

I have been using this for a long time, keeps my GPS, IPHONE, bluetooth headset, and my S5 with an original cable. It has 2x 2.1A and 2x 1A ports. No complaints about it at all, had a handy LED to show its powered up when connected.
http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/digipower-4-port-usb-car-charger/6000187989279

Pagaldesi4life said:
Whats the best car charger for the vzw S5 that can charge the phone the quickest? Right now I have a Motorola charger that came with the Motorola Droid years ago and its worked well so far but I would like something thats more powerful and has the ability to charge the phone faster.
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Griffin Technology PowerDuo 2 amp Power car Charger its available on amazon
charges pretty fast

I need to post some pictures of mine, but I got a GREAT wireless charging dock. It worked better in my old car, but does ok in my new car (2014 CTS-V), except that I have to wedge some cable into the DVD slot to keep it from flopping around.
I bought a wireless charging insert for my S5 & can use stock cases unlike the Samsung wireless charging back cover. I got the insert & car dock from Aliexpress. I love the car dock, works great.