[Q] Question on how Android devices charge. - General Questions and Answers

Okay so recently my car charger took a dump and I searched for one thats able to power my Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 while using GPS in the car. Found one bought it and it workes and has Apple and Non Apple ports so other devices can pull more than 500mA HOWEVER, it would still decharge while using GPS using a brand new monoprice cable. So I loaded up the battery monitor app and looked at how much of a charge my tablet is getting. These are my findings,
Note the power drawn showed roughly 500-800mA of draw while testing these cables
1. brand new micro USB cable from monoprice failed to put the device into a charging state. On either port of my charger or if it did it was roughly 200mA on the non-apple and little less than that on the apple port.
2. Modified cable shorted pins (green and white) to pull more power pulled roughly 1-1.2amps bringing charge rate around 400mA on the apple and non apple port.
3. OEM samsung cable pulled a solid roughly 2amps, put the device charging at around 1200ish mA on either port. Wtf? Same as my AC charger.
So it seems that the Samsung cable is the only one to charge my device worth anything. Unless I'm missing something about how these devices charge ect. This makes no sense.

Russosaur said:
Okay so recently my car charger took a dump and I searched for one thats able to power my Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 while using GPS in the car. Found one bought it and it workes and has Apple and Non Apple ports so other devices can pull more than 500mA HOWEVER, it would still decharge while using GPS using a brand new monoprice cable. So I loaded up the battery monitor app and looked at how much of a charge my tablet is getting. These are my findings,
Note the power drawn showed roughly 500-800mA of draw while testing these cables
1. brand new micro USB cable from monoprice failed to put the device into a charging state. On either port of my charger or if it did it was roughly 200mA on the non-apple and little less than that on the apple port.
2. Modified cable shorted pins (green and white) to pull more power pulled roughly 1-1.2amps bringing charge rate around 400mA on the apple and non apple port.
3. OEM samsung cable pulled a solid roughly 2amps, put the device charging at around 1200ish mA on either port. Wtf? Same as my AC charger.
So it seems that the Samsung cable is the only one to charge my device worth anything. Unless I'm missing something about how these devices charge ect. This makes no sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Tab uses more power to charge since tablets have bigger batteries or more batteries. Standard micro USB chargers are not built to draw in as much power as Tab chargers. It is all in how it's wired and the amount of teeth. Also my Tab uses its own wall adapter to draw in more power.

I was looking into that its the difference between a 5 or 11 pin micro usb connectors. I would assume, oh well I'm only out a few bucks for the two cables, now I need to fine an 11 pin one to keep in my car.
Sent from the Milky Way

jpijper said:
Sprite Terminator:
http://store.spritesoftware.com/?page_id=280
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue with other tablets. They draw more power so they need a different USB cable.
Sent from my SGH-T989

Related

Issue with charger

When I bought the Infuse Wednesday, I was excited to discover that the charging port is the same as my Bluetooth headset (Plantronics Voyager Pro) but while using the phone at work with the charger plugged in for the last 4 hours, I noticed my battery is around 20%. So my question is, do chargers and data cables made for other products not work with the Infuse? And if so, WHY!?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
i can't tell you offhand exactly why but its definitely true. My wifes samsung focus (wp7) charger actually doesnt charge my phone faster than it dies unless I am doing absolutely nothing on it. My phone actually died watching a movie through the hdmi out using her charger. And of course it died with 6 minutes to go. If I find any more info as to the "why" part I will be sure to post. But I wanted to let you know the charger definitely makes a difference
ok so I found a better answer: even though they all use the same voltage. Those 5v chargers have 1 main difference. Different Amperage. Some chargers output only .5A, while others put out 1A. These differences will in turn make the difference between how fast or well it charges your device. This is info I gathered so take it with a grain of salt. If anyone has a better answer or can elaborate feel free to do so!!
Ok, this does make sense. The charger I've been using all night is 5V 180mA... Not all that powerful. Just didn't think it would leave me at 5% 8 hours into my night shift...
Thanks.
Pat713 said:
When I bought the Infuse Wednesday, I was excited to discover that the charging port is the same as my Bluetooth headset (Plantronics Voyager Pro) but while using the phone at work with the charger plugged in for the last 4 hours, I noticed my battery is around 20%. So my question is, do chargers and data cables made for other products not work with the Infuse? And if so, WHY!?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plantronics headset chargers are rated, at MOST, 300 mA. (That's what the one that came with my 975 is rated.)
Our phones need at LEAST 500 mA. The wall charger is rated 700 mA, if you want to run navigation in a car dock it looks like you need at least 1000 mA.
Also, our chargers signal that a "dumb charger" is present by shorting D+ and D- together. I'm not sure what our phones will do with chargers that don't do this (at the moment I'm assuming the phone goes into USB charging mode instead of AC.) In the case of the car dock, what the charger does is irrelevant, as the dock signals its presence in another way and does not pass through D- and D+ from the charger. (D+ and D- go to the audio line out of the dock.)
Also, our phone (and likely many others) assume that they can get whatever current is needed from the charger, so if the charger "droops", it doesn't seem to do anything other than act weird (in most cases, drain the battery).
And another problem I found.. When I first got my Infuse, I was thrilled to see that it used the same type of cable that several other devices I have used. MicroUSB...
So I tried charging with the cable & charger from my Kindle. No go.
It will charge with the Kindle charger, just not the Kindle USB cable. Which makes the 4 extra kindle cables I have useless..
If I had time and inclination, I'd set about to figure out what the difference is between the two cables.
One of the reasons I returned my Atrix and bought an Infuse was because None of my MICRO-USB chargers worked with the Atrix. So far they have all worked with my Infuse.
indymx said:
And another problem I found.. When I first got my Infuse, I was thrilled to see that it used the same type of cable that several other devices I have used. MicroUSB...
So I tried charging with the cable & charger from my Kindle. No go.
It will charge with the Kindle charger, just not the Kindle USB cable. Which makes the 4 extra kindle cables I have useless..
If I had time and inclination, I'd set about to figure out what the difference is between the two cables.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd, I was able to use the usb cable that came with my kindle 3.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
One thing I learned working at multiple cell phone places: Motorola phones are PICKY when it comes to chargers. Sprint basically has an ongoing memo to every tech, moto phones are ONLY to be used with moto chargers. It makes no real sense, but it's true.
I've also noticed that my iGo charger takes a good bit less time for a full charge than what came with the phone. Also, not using the adapter and plugging the phone directly into a computer via USB, also makes charging faster. I this k the problem is the USB adapter that Samsung tossed in. Just my .02!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Former phone: iPhone 3GS (P.O.S.)
Current phone: %s (Loving it!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sent using XDA app on a phone/OS lightyears ahead of anything Apple has ever secreted from their excrement filled cavities!
One thing - phones vary widely in how they determine that a "dumb charger" is connected.
Samsungs look for D- and D+ shorted to each other. A lot of generic chargers (like the $1.25 Monoprice car chargers) do this.
Apple devices look for weird resistor combinations from D- and D+ to +5 and ground. See http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/icharge.html
Mini-USB motos used weird combos of resistors to D- and D+ along with resistors between a normally unconnected pin and GND. MicroUSB defines this extra pin as "ID". Our phone uses resistors between ID and GND to determine if "other" devices are connected, such as the Jig, Car Dock, Home Dock, etc. See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=820275 for more details.
The MicroUSB cable that came from our phones is pretty thin-gauge wire. I have a cable from Monoprice that should work MUCH better at high currents, and HAS worked better at high currents with the car dock and an iPad charger. (Without the car dock, it gets seen as a USB charger due to the funky iCharging resistors mentioned above. The car dock works because it doesn't pass USB D+ and D- from the charger to the phone.)
WARNING: I reference the Monoprice cheapo chargers above. They claim they are a 1A charger but they are NOT. They have a resistor that sets peak switch current of the regulator to 600 mA, and output current is going to be less than this.

Findings on Galaxy S4 charging current

With the advent of the S4, and its higher capacity battery, one could understand a higher charging current. However, I seem to have uncovered some findings that the charging system on the S4 is a bit more complex than first thought!
This is a bit techy, and assumes you have a basic amount of electrical knowledge, ie voltages, currents, resistance etc., but I'll try and keep it as simple as possible for anyone who may not!
To explain: The mains charger supplied with the S4 is a model number ETA-U90UWE, rated 5V @ 2A. However, the phone will ONLY charge at full current (which as I have measured so far, depending on what the phone regulates it to, typically sits in the region of 1.2 - 1.5A), when using the supplied charger (or possibly one of equal or higher current rating, depending on how it's configured internally), AND the supplied usb cable, OR any other usb cable, provided its shielding (the metal outer surface of the connectors) is connected at BOTH ends of the cable. Use a cable that doesn't have this shielding, and the charge current drops, regardless of whether there is plenty of current available or not. Use a different charger with an unshielded cable and the current drops even more, again regardless of whether it can supply plenty more current.
My assumption on this, is possibly an effort by Samsung to avoid the scenario of sticking 1.5 amps down a flimsy cheapo cable, the wires of which will likely be too thin to carry it.
After doing some probing around with a meter, I have managed to find a slight difference with the charger itself, compared to a generic one. In a generic one, the two data pins are usually just shorted together, which tells most phones that it's a mains charger rather than a USB port. On the Samsung one on the other hand, the pins appear to be shorted together, and also connected via resistors across the supply line (known as a potential divider), which holds these shorted data pins at a certain voltage. This is what tells the phone what sort of charger it's connected to.
Attached are a couple of diagrams to show the difference between the two chargers. There are in fact various setups of resistors that different manufacturers use to set the charging current, so it's quite easy to run into compatibility issues!
To make this a little less confusing I have done some preliminary experimenting, and I set out my results here.
For the test, I used combinations of 4 different usb style mains chargers: an apple iPhone one rated at 1A, an iPad one rated 2.4A, an HTC 1A one, and the genuine S4 one. With these I used two cables - the supplied Samsung S4 one (which is shielded), and a cheap generic one (which isn't). I started by measured the charging current directly with a meter, by using a very short usb breakout lead I've made, enabling me to interrupt the 5V line. However, I soon noticed that the use of any extension cables, even shielded, can lessen the chance of maintaining a good shielding connection, so I continued the exercise relying on the "galaxy charging current" app to get a reading.
Charger.................... Cable................ Current (A)
=====================================
HTC 1A.................Generic..................... 0.5
HTC 1A.................Samsung S4..............1.0
Apple 1A...............Generic......................0.5
Apple 1A...............Samsung S4..............1.0
Apple 2.4A............Generic......................0.6
Apple 2.4A............Samsung S4..............1.3
Samsung S4.........Generic...................... 0.8
Samsung S4.........Samsung S4...............1.3
So as you can see from these results, the original charger makes a difference, and the supplied cable (or a good quality shielded one) makes a further difference. If you have any further findings please feel free to add them here.
I can see that this is going to confuse some people, as it has me, as I'm sure some will inevitably try charging up their phone on generic chargers/leads at some point, with potentially long charging times resulting!
.
Very nice findings! Thanks for sharing them.
Not only what you say about longer charging time, but also discharging may occur (it has with me) while connected to the USB. I left my phone with USB tethering and it shut itself down after a couple of hours (it was low on battery already). I wanted to keep all the accessories in "new condition" in case I sell the phone in a few months, but I guess this justifies using the official charger and usb lead.
I hope someone can shed some light on the detection mechanism or the particular characteristics of the official cable so it can be replicated in generic ones.
From your findings, also Appe 2,4A charger has some control on the cable used, thanks.
Yes, but you won't be able to get more than about 0.75A out of it even with the samsung s4 cable.
You could try to add an extension cable to check if the charging system needs exclusively an original samsung cable from the charger to the phone.
Original samsung charger => extension cable male/female => original samsung cable => phone
PS: is there an app to check the charging current?
My experiments used an extension cable, that's the one I made into a breakout cable. So no it doesn't change by adding a cable.
There is an app, called galaxy charging current, which I tried also. In the 0.75A results above it showed a max permissible current of 1000mA, with the fully samsung setup it showed 1900mA. In the lower scenarios is showed up as 460mA. Other than that it doesn't tell you anything, it literally just shows you a max possible current, not the actual current it's drawing.
I've found out what the issue was, my generic cable was obviously a cheap one and wasn't shielded! I have edited my original post to re-explain.
Also I did a further test on a PC usb port - the Samsung cable allowed for 500mA, but the unshielded cheap one only allowed about 350mA, so (as pintycar found out), the phone actually carries on discharging in this case!
Interesting post.
I've been trying to mod a car charger so that the s4 draws more than 300mA so far unsucessful. I'm going to add in the 82K resistance and see what happens.
demusss said:
Interesting post.
I've been trying to mod a car charger so that the s4 draws more than 300mA so far unsucessful. I'm going to add in the 82K resistance and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Using a 5a digital bench power supply, I took a normal micro USB cable, cut it in two, added in the 82k resistors and tested.
Before: 450ma, after 1.73a
Then using a clamp meter I tested it with a 2amp Asus tablet charger - it varied between 1.48 and 1.61 amp.
I have since built a few more cables - one to use in my car (again 2 amp charger).
All in all, it works very effectively. Thanks for the initial research (saved me having to open my charger.)
BTW I suspect it is the charger where the resistors are, not the cable, otherwise the phone would try to pull 1.5a + from a laptop if you connected it.
Left my samsung cable at work so will test it tomorrow (if I remember)!
W.
Interesting. So basically for us laymen, you are telling us to use the original charger and cables to the extent possible ... right?
Can you clarify to me what an unshielded cable is? Maybe with a picture? I've got a blackberry's cable at work connected to my PC.
At home, I also have a cable and charger that I got with my Nexus S (I think this says Output 5.0V ~ 0.7A).
Would this be a problem or can I get by with these?
Thanks
I've been using the Samsung cable+charger+USB extension cable and charging the S4 usually takes about 4 hours, I'm going to try with just the Samsung cable next time and see if it makes any difference since people are saying that theirs can be fully charged within less than 3 hours.
Paparasee said:
Interesting. So basically for us laymen, you are telling us to use the original charger and cables to the extent possible ... right?
Can you clarify to me what an unshielded cable is? Maybe with a picture? I've got a blackberry's cable at work connected to my PC.
At home, I also have a cable and charger that I got with my Nexus S (I think this says Output 5.0V ~ 0.7A).
Would this be a problem or can I get by with these?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I believe (guess work here ) that only the original charger "needs" a shielded cable - could be checked by shorting the ground and shield on one side and see if it works at the higher current - if I am bored I may do it - it probably checks the shield and limits the current if it is not there (note I have not tested this so only going by the first posters findings).
BTW a shielded cable has a wire mesh around the 4 internal cables - this mesh avoids external interference messing with the signals. Can't see it affecting the charging though BUT shielded cables tend to have thicker internal cables so could be related to this.
I have it charging at 1.7a on an unshielded cable (thought he power strands are thicker than average) Shielding should only affect the data transfer speed, not the charging current.
If the Nexus S has only a 700mah charger then this will not be able to provide enough current for high speed charging and could easily burn out - nice smell, dead charger, not much else. therefore only use a normal unmodified usb cable (and it will charge at about 450mah).
W.
all this would eexplian why the charger that camewith my S2 dosen't appear to charge my phone fully over night...
For what it's worth I'm charging with a Note 1 charger...a thick shielded cable via the S3 docking station....and getting 900mah...
will get my original cable tonight and have a go tomorrow...
interesting read, my s4 lead and charger are still in the box and I'm using my nexus 10 ones phone charged from about 30% to full in just over 2. may have to change the old HTC £2 lead I've got connected to my works pc then, maybe why it's struggling to charge when playing music. guess this is one way to get people to buy more expensive cables
Very interesting read, thanks TS.
My original charger and cable set is still in the box; I've been using my Mom's old Galaxy Note charger.
I'll try the original cable + wall mount and see how fast it is compared to my current charger.
wmccann2 said:
Using a 5a digital bench power supply, I took a normal micro USB cable, cut it in two, added in the 82k resistors and tested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you show me your final cable with a pic? Thanks
After this thread I have stopped using my blackberry bold cable to charge s4 and of course the cheap one too.. thanks op!
Sent from my GT-I9500 using xda app-developers app
I'm not sure if shielded vs. unshielded is the difference - probably wire gauge is the difference.
For example, if you shop at Monoprice, you have two options for USB cables: 28 gauge cables, and 24/28 gauge cables.
For wire gauge, lower is larger - the 24/28 gauge cables have thicker wires for the + and GND lines. A pure 28 gauge cable is likely to drop voltage a bit at high currents, and my observations have been that most newer devices, ESPECIALLY Qualcomm-based ones, are VERY finicky when it comes to input voltage drops.
As to the charger itself:
Apple chargers are almost guaranteed not to charge at full current, as they don't conform at all to the USB battery charging standard. Some newer Android devices do have at least partial detection of Apple chargers, so they may charge at 1A if an Apple charger is detected (any Apple charge, even 2.1A ones).
It sounds like the included official charger is a tablet-compatible one. Samsung tablets expect D+ and D- to be held by the charger at 1.2 or 1.8 volts (I forget which). As a result, Samsung tablets will not charge from standard chargers (like an N7 charger), but standard devices (like an N7) will charge from Samsung tablet chargers.
Now, the question is: Does the GS4 *require* a Samsung tablet-style charger, or did Samsung just include a tablet-style charger because it's backwards-compatible with standard devices? (less part numbers to track in inventory).
A useful pair of points would be: Using the same cable, does the Samsung charger behave significantly different from a Nexus 7 charger?
wmccann2 said:
Hi,
Using a 5a digital bench power supply, I took a normal micro USB cable, cut it in two, added in the 82k resistors and tested.
Before: 450ma, after 1.73a
Then using a clamp meter I tested it with a 2amp Asus tablet charger - it varied between 1.48 and 1.61 amp.
I have since built a few more cables - one to use in my car (again 2 amp charger).
All in all, it works very effectively. Thanks for the initial research (saved me having to open my charger.)
BTW I suspect it is the charger where the resistors are, not the cable, otherwise the phone would try to pull 1.5a + from a laptop if you connected it.
Left my samsung cable at work so will test it tomorrow (if I remember)!
W.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I missed this post on my first read-through: What happens if you just short D+ and D- when using the bench supply?

Galaxy s5 2.1A car charger not working

I recently got a new Galaxy s5 on contract. I've heard that the galaxy s5 supports fast charging with a 2.1A charger. I bought a 2.1A car charger online, but the charger doesn't work when I connect it via a regular micro-USB cable to my phone. My brother's Galaxy s4 mini charges fine on it.
I was reading something on another post mentioning the need to modify the cable itself?
Any suggestions? I have another USB car charger for an iPad, and this charger also doesn't seem to work, whereas my old 1A car charger does work, but charges very slowly.
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Buy this one Maxboost car charger at Amazon or e-bay. Best of the best.
I was hoping to find a solution that doesn't involve buying a new charger
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Miltzi said:
I was hoping to find a solution that doesn't involve buying a new charger
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I havent tested with my Galaxy S5, but previously I had "noname" chargers and cables, and they worked fine with my HTC One S, but didnt work with my GF's Galaxy S3.
Samsung might have made devices more "sensetive" to crap products. Try different cable (try original USB cable that came with ur phone and the charger you bought).
I tried original USB but to no avail. Perhaps this has something to do with this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1497864&page=2
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
The problem is most generic car chargers are designed to work with Apple products. Apple uses a non-standard way of telling their devices essentially "hey, I'm a charger." This makes "standard" devices not recognize the charger properly. The device tends to think it's plugged into a computer and only draw around 500mAh.
You can convert a USB cable into a charging cable by shorting the data pins (on the device side), or you can buy charging only cables. I've been using these cables on my S2, and now my S5: http://amzn.com/B007F1DV76 . I used a Galaxy Charging app to verify charging rate and it indicated 1.2A on both the Samsung wall-wart and cable as well as my Scosche 2.1A car charger w/ charging only cable.
LoSt180 said:
The problem is most generic car chargers are designed to work with Apple products. Apple uses a non-standard way of telling their devices essentially "hey, I'm a charger." This makes "standard" devices not recognize the charger properly. The device tends to think it's plugged into a computer and only draw around 500mAh.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is this? When 4 out of 5 devices are built on Android? http://tinyurl.com/qxpnyoh
I am so irritated at not having access to quality accessories for my devices. Take for example I wanted a set of great sounding headphones that controlled my mic, my tracks, etc. But, you won't find it other than Samsung's own that come with the phone. I had a great sounding pair of Seinnheisers but could not go back and forward on tracks. I plugged it into my ancient Ipod 5th gen classic and worked beautifully! For $80 I should get full functionality for my S4 or S5! My only choice is the LG Tones. Which are awesome but if my battery dies then no music or calls for me!
Frustrated!
My Klipsch earphones work perfectly changing tracks with with the inline remote.
Also my 2.1A charging won't charge my GS5 but it'll charge a GS4 and my Galaxy Exhilarate.
Sent From My Galaxy S5 Far Far Away
I followed these instructions and my car charger now charges my gs5:
mox123 said:
Anyone wanting to know how to fast charge using the usb port on your pc/laptop?
This usually takes ages compared to charging via mains lead, the hack itself is quite simple and involves modifying the usb cable
my results are as follows (these can vary depending on what you are using your phone for, what background apps running, etc.
charging with mains lead :
4.2v
998mah
mains ac
charging with STANDARD usb lead:
422mah
3.999v
standard usb
and finally the MODIFIED usb lead hack:
4.161v
782mah
usb hack
as you can see it is a 53% increase in charging compared to standard usb charging mah, and slightly under mains ac charging mah,
as my phone is always plugged in at my work pc or home pc or laptop or whatever this works out good
TUT:
use at your own risk this is for information purposes only and I hold no responsibility to any damage that may arise
using a micro usb cable (charging cable for htc phones)
cut it using a pliers half way through the cable
using pliers again cut away the thick black wiring, the red and black small wiring, and white and green wiring
from the usb port end to the microusb connect the black and red cables together so they join
from the microusb end short out the white and green cables together
from the usb port end leave the white and green cables, do not touch these
use insulation tape/solder to clean it up and then your cable is ready
I will make a mod for car chargers also soon
see attached image showing which wires to cut and which to join up and which to leave alone, if this helped you in anyway (it should help you ) then please hit the thanks button
this mod will trick your pc/laptop/htc into thinking that it is not a pc usb cable and will allow higher currents and voltage to your phone
you can check this with current widget from market place
once this mod is done, you cannot use the same cable again for pc/usb tethering or usb disk drive, only cable can be used for charging
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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vitnameet99 said:
Buy this one Maxboost car charger at Amazon or e-bay. Best of the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which cable are you using with that charger?
LoSt180 said:
The problem is most generic car chargers are designed to work with Apple products. Apple uses a non-standard way of telling their devices essentially "hey, I'm a charger." This makes "standard" devices not recognize the charger properly. The device tends to think it's plugged into a computer and only draw around 500mAh.
You can convert a USB cable into a charging cable by shorting the data pins (on the device side), or you can buy charging only cables. I've been using these cables on my S2, and now my S5: http://amzn.com/B007F1DV76 . I used a Galaxy Charging app to verify charging rate and it indicated 1.2A on both the Samsung wall-wart and cable as well as my Scosche 2.1A car charger w/ charging only cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also bought a charger (Rapid USB Car Charger, http://bit.ly/VrK8s2) that was able to charge up to 2.1 A, but when I connect my Nexus 5 (with OEM cable), I charge with speed of 500 mA. I expected least 1 A.
I'm not amused at all! End users shouldn't have to deal with this nonsense. This should work out of the box!
I have two alternative:
1. Buy this charging cable.
2. Change kernel to trick the phone to draw more power from the USB port.
This 2A charger from PowerGen has dual ports that are actually labeled for Apple and "Standard" charging. PowerGen 2.4Amps / 12W Dual USB Car charger Designed for Apple and Android Devices http://amzn.com/B006SU0SX0
Works fine with the stock cable also. I have this one in my wife's vehicle since she has an iPhone and I have a Samsung.
vitnameet99 said:
Buy this one Maxboost car charger at Amazon or e-bay. Best of the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't find any online store that will ship to Sweden.
Funny, none of my old $$$ dual chargers would charge my S5 for S&G picked up a dollar tree special and it charges my S5! I give up!
Goofy
http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Dual-Port-Charger-PowerIQ-Technology/dp/B00D82O68Y/ref=pd_cp_e_1
i use old regular usb cables, charges about 1% per minute, works great!! (not using usb3 cables)
wtf black price!! lol. mine was about $10, purchased 2 when the s5 phones came out.
I heard that cables matter the most in charging. I always use cables that came with my phone and have had no issues charging my phone so far. Have used PowerGen and Avantek. Both charge my iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4 at full speed. High quality construction and seems pretty durable.
This car charger works flawlessly at 1800mAh, i have been using it for a few month now.
http://www.dx.com/p/usb-3-0-to-micr...for-samsung-galaxy-note-3-265166#.U_bg1PmSzkV
I tried at least 5 different chargers and none of them charged more then 450mAh, i was really depressed about it until i found the charger linked above. Also, the fast charging USB cable *charges on 750 - 850 mAh which is just enough to not let your phone loose battery percentage while the navigation is turned on.
Try a Special Samsung Galaxy S5 Charger
Miltzi said:
I recently got a new Galaxy s5 on contract. I've heard that the galaxy s5 supports fast charging with a 2.1A charger. I bought a 2.1A car charger online, but the charger doesn't work when I connect it via a regular micro-USB cable to my phone. My brother's Galaxy s4 mini charges fine on it.
I was reading something on another post mentioning the need to modify the cable itself?
Any suggestions? I have another USB car charger for an iPad, and this charger also doesn't seem to work, whereas my old 1A car charger does work, but charges very slowly.
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Hello,
I think you should go for a special Samsung Galaxy S5 Charger[/URL] car charger .I found a large variety of car chargers but you should look if it is the right watts that your S5 needs,maybe this is the reason why your brother phone charged and yours not

Apple Charger

Anyone attempt to use an iPad charger with the Tab S? I always travel with it and just pack a micro USB cable since it has high output. Just attempted to plug in my 10.5 to it and nothing. Luckily I was able to track down a different charger, and it worked fine with the same cable. This is the first device I've had that refused to charge using my iPad charger. What gives?
Mine won't charge that method either. (ipad air plug)
I think the Tab S is very picky, with some other chargers, i get the lightning indicator in the battery with a red cross on top, is this the same with you.
Yeah, mine's a little picky too. It won't charge off the Motorola micro usb chargers we have all over the place at work, but it will charge off just about any USB plug and cable I throw at it. Also charges off the USB ports in the plug strip in the living room.
litesout said:
Yeah, mine's a little picky too. It won't charge off the Motorola micro usb chargers we have all over the place at work, but it will charge off just about any USB plug and cable I throw at it. Also charges off the USB ports in the plug strip in the living room.
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Do you get the red cross on top of that battery indicator.
There is a standard for high current usb chargers (rather than pc usb ports) that is indicated by having the data lines shorted together, as far as I understand it the iPad charger uses a different system to indicate high charge ability. (I'm assuming) the Samsung charger has these pins shorted internally and uses a plain cable (which can also be used for pc data connection).
You can get the high charge rate from a standard charger by using a cable with the data lines sorted, either make your own or buy a ready made one (e.g. Portapow or their plug-in inline adapter). I'd guess that the same cable would also get full charge via the iPad charger, these cables though cannot be used to connect to pc for data.
Samsung dedicated chargers
Apple and Samsung both use their own unique standards for USB charging so their devices know when they are connected to a charger capable of supplying the higher current they prefer. They do this by using a resistor voltage devider inside the charger to apply a very specific voltage to the data leads of the USB cable.
A little Googling will find examples and descriptions of the Samsung design.
There is a little plug-in, intelligent, USB adapter available that will interface Apple and Samsung devices to any charger. It senses what device you have and supplies the correct voltages on the data leads so your device thinks it's plugged into its official cherger. I think I saw it on ebay.
Edit- here is the adapter to allow using any charger with Samsung or Apple devices.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Charging-Port-Controller-Fast-charging-adapter-identificatio-For-Phone-PAD-/141342316282?pt=US_Other_Cell_Phone_Accessories&hash=item20e8a896fa
Just keep in mind that this adapter will make your tablet believe it's connected to a charger that can supply high current. If the charger cannot supply high current, it will be overloaded and it's output voltage will sag.
I don't think this will damage the Samsung tablet, but it will slow down charging and may overheat the charger.
cheetokhan said:
Apple and Samsung both use their own unique standards for USB charging so their devices know when they are connected to a charger capable of supplying the higher current they prefer. They do this by using a resistor voltage devider inside the charger to apply a very specific voltage to the data leads of the USB cable.
A little Googling will find examples and descriptions of the Samsung design.
There is a little plug-in, intelligent, USB adapter available that will interface Apple and Samsung devices to any charger. It senses what device you have and supplies the correct voltages on the data leads so your device thinks it's plugged into its official cherger. I think I saw it on ebay.
Edit- here is the adapter to allow using any charger with Samsung or Apple devices.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Charging-Port-Controller-Fast-charging-adapter-identificatio-For-Phone-PAD-/141342316282?pt=US_Other_Cell_Phone_Accessories&hash=item20e8a896fa
Just keep in mind that this adapter will make your tablet believe it's connected to a charger that can supply high current. If the charger cannot supply high current, it will be overloaded and it's output voltage will sag.
I don't think this will damage the Samsung tablet, but it will slow down charging and may overheat the charger.
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Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but I was also unable to charge the tablet with my wife's macbook using the same cable that works fine with other wall chargers. I am pretty sure it worked fine when it was booted into bootcamp as well...
She's in Europe for a few months so I won't be able to confirm for a while.
mears said:
Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but I was also unable to charge the tablet with my wife's macbook using the same cable that works fine with other wall chargers. I am pretty sure it worked fine when it was booted into bootcamp as well...
She's in Europe for a few months so I won't be able to confirm for a while.
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The only charger I've used with my Tab S 10.5 is this one- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DVH62J2/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I haven't even tried the factory charger yet. I'll have to test it and see if the Tab S uses the same voltage sensing on the data leads as the previous Samsung tablets.
I've been using an Ipad 10w charger,fat,square,.twice the weight of the OEM Samsung charger ,removable prongs.
It WORKS WELL. Where my Samsung OEM charger has trouble charging
when the tablet is in use, the fat Apple charger kept charging at a good speed.
A bit warm as compared to OEM Samsung charger but not "Hot".
Probably 20% + faster charging as its very noticeable (except 99 to 100 % takes a while, charging rate software?)
I'm using an original Apple charger at work to charge my 8.4. I don't know if the charger is for an iPhone or iPad. Someone left it at work. I gave away the lightning cable that came with it since I don't own an Apple product. The cable I'm using is part of an LG qi charger (doesn't come with a wall adapter/charger).

Cable and charger comparison: Samsung, Asus, Blackberry, Monoprice, Anker, PowerGen

I thought I would like to share with others my findings about the USB cable issues and the charging issues also reviewing few products.
I know that it would probably be best with some real table lab equipment but I have tested it with a usb multimeter device : PortaPow USB Power Monitor / Multimeter / DC Ammeter
Showing me Amps and volts.
It is true what is said that the device can detect to a degree the charger
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53917336
So I used combo of software and hardware testing. I also tested with a S3 and S4 rooted (custom roms), and nexus 7 2013 (unique to this charger that it specs the 5v at 5.2! @ 1.35A and it does push more, to other devise as well)
Not all cables are equal; even not all OEM will work past 1A. It seems that most OEM’s cheat by using a shorter micro USB cable to get better charging results, this is the question many ask why so short cables, the OEM’s are only now slowly moving to thicker power wires IE 28/24 in there OEM usb cables.
Now my findings about the PortaPow USB Power monitor and any of the kind, is that it seems to effect the charging Amps of the device and also effect any smart chargers (will talk about below)
In the past I used to use exclusively the “Battery Monitor Widget” by 3c, lately I went and got also “Galaxy Charging Current Lite” for whatever reason my S3 shows as incompatible? Thought it should work on it, my S4 installed and shows max and reference/average
Test 1: S3 Genuine 100% OEM cable (I know because I bought the S3 new @ t-mobile)
Test 2: Claimed Genuine Samsung Micro USB cable 5 feet ECC1DU6BBE
Test 3: Nexus 7 2013 usb cable (is claimed to be a 28/24 AWG)
I was skeptical about the Claimed Genuine cable, and though it looks and feels just like the real thing, it varies in the logo and length. Performance wise has shown consistently of a 0.1-0.15A lower than the Genuine Samsung cable that I have from S3. This was done with the USB power monitor and with the Galaxy Charging Current Lite app, it even said 860mAh vs 760mAh when I tested the cables, but genuine cable did push up more power and the software was wrong as I have seen over 1.13A with USB Power monitor, but as said the real Genuine cable was better.
The Nexus 7 2013 micro USB cable that is short, performed the best, gave the max Amps out of all the cables. I will test my Monoprice 28/24 cables and update this thread.
Quick tests of chargers:
Car charger form Amazon,
PowerGen White Dual USB 4.2A (20W) Car charger Designed for Apple and Android Devices
I quickly tested to see if this thing will push past 1A and it did at the time I was testing with nexus 7 and its cable with the usb power meter, and It was pulling around 1.13A
Next up single wall charger, I saw this and had to buy!
Blackberry Folding Blade Charger for Playbook rated at 5v @ 1.8A! priced under $5!!!
I tested this one with the software on my S4, it quickly showed after few min pulling 1.4A and Galaxy charger showed maxed out 1900 on all!
I think this one wins for the cheapest and sturdy charger, just shy of 2A!, will become my work charger, the cable is nice and thick along with pretty good length 6ft+!
Next up I had to get me a family charger (4-5 port)
I get tired of short cables on wall chargers, so I went and got
Anker® 40W USB Desktop Charger
This charger claims a total of 40w for 5 ports! With intelligent device detection PowerIQ.
This charger so far (1 day use) has been great, I connected the S3 and the power meter showed 1A, I connected the S4 with the meter and was only getting 1.13-1.3A, the software did not show max, so here is the issue seems the usb monitor will cause the charger to not read the devices to there 100%, after taking it out and connecting it directly the galaxy charger showed maxed 1900mAh
The USB cable used was the nexus 7 one.
What I love about this charger, no lights! Perfect for me for overnight charging, also has standard power cord, the unit itself is quite compact too, now I can have short usb cables 1.5ft or 3ft ones and not worry about reach, as the charger can stay next to your devices, simply use conventional power cable extender on the charger unit, not on your usb devices!
I will conclude that it seems now since we are pushing past the usb spec for charging, that the shortest cable is best, be it 28 awg or 24 awg, and of course OEM’s already knew that, I am pretty sure that the OEMs are switching to 28/24 awg cables
Links:
PortaPow USB Power Monitor / Multimeter / DC Ammeter
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DF2485S/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Samsung ECC1DU6BBE 5-Feet Micro USB Charging Data Cable - Original OEM - Non-Retail Packaging
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DVBB0XQ/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Anker® 40W USB Desktop Charger
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GTGETFG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Blackberry Folding Blade Charger for Playbook (Black)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004OZMWUS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
PowerGen White Dual USB 4.2A (20W) Car charger Designed for Apple and Android Devices
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088U6OZY/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
if people are interested, I can designate some time and take few pics of the monoprice cables, and show why they fail, its obvious but need a good pic to show the reason, maybe we can find a way to fix them?
the cables are great, the connectors look great at first but are not so great
I just ordered the Anker 40W USB Desktop Charger on Amazon with same day shipping for $5.99. Thanks for your review!
been using the Blackberry Folding Blade Charger for awhile now. indeed the closet and fastest ul get to the original charger
it can be had on ebay 2 for 4.99
kinubic said:
been using the Blackberry Folding Blade Charger for awhile now. indeed the closet and fastest ul get to the original charger
it can be had on ebay 2 for 4.99
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I could not find 2 for 4.99 I did find 2 for 8 or so... are you sure its the "Blackberry Folding Blade Charger for Playbook" this one is specifically 1.8A
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-New-OEM-...Phone_PDA_Cables_Adapters&hash=item58afbd2941
looks like Amazon still is selling them as well
drutort said:
I could not find 2 for 4.99 I did find 2 for 8 or so... are you sure its the "Blackberry Folding Blade Charger for Playbook" this one is specifically 1.8A
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-New-OEM-...Phone_PDA_Cables_Adapters&hash=item58afbd2941
looks like Amazon still is selling them as well
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yes the seller is mobilepros1
just checked his store seems his not selling it anymore
not sure if u can see this but this was the listing
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=221456227839&view=all&tid=1395101280012
kinubic said:
yes the seller is mobilepros1
just checked his store seems his not selling it anymore
not sure if u can see this but this was the listing
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=221456227839&view=all&tid=1395101280012
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ah yes I searched item#221456227839
that was even better bargain heh
the USB cable is as important as the plug. I use an ANKER 4-port plug with a factory S4 cable. It runs at 1900, same as if I used the factory S4 plug. I ran a whole experiment too. I had a USB cable IDENTICAL to my S$ cable, and it only charged at 320 with the same ANKER or S4 plugs. My S4 has a popup telling me to use a better charger

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