It seems the only way to fast charge a N1 is with the supplied wall charger. Standard Micro USB chargers whould only allow at much as 450mA of charge current regardless of the adapter current capacity.
The bundled charger however, manages to push 900mA into the N1. I made a cut in the charger wires and measured the current draw to make sure.
Now.. I'd like my car charger to be able to do the same. There must be some hack in the plug of the N1 charger since there are only 2 conductors from the case to the plug. You can see that the plug is somewhat longer than similar Micro USB plugs..
So I tried to see if one of the 3 unused pins can tell me anything but.. they seem unconnected as far as I could tell. Diode measurement (to test for any digital part inside) also did not produce any results. The next obvious step is to take the molded plug apart but I'd rather not...
Does anyone have any clue as to what makes that plug so special?
And please - I did my tests with a bench power supply - not the car chargers - so don't go around telling me it has to do with charger current capacity.
Thanks,
Nir
are you sure the micro usb cords you are using are able to handle the amps? most chargers made prior to now, only push about 450mA, the G1, and N1 chargers i have push a full amp though. I just ordered a car charger that pushes an amp too. There is nothing "special" about the plug.
followinginsanity said:
are you sure the micro usb cords you are using are able to handle the amps? most chargers made prior to now, only push about 450mA, the G1, and N1 chargers i have push a full amp though. I just ordered a car charger that pushes an amp too. There is nothing "special" about the plug.
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Click to collapse
I beg to differ. All the cords can easily supply 1 AMP. It is the phone itself that decides how much to draw from the charger based on something IN THE PLUG.
I am an electronics engineer so do understand I know perfectly what I am talking about
And your 1A car charger does not supply anything over 0.45A to the phone.. you will see that if you are using the phone while it charges (say nav or phone call) the phone actually looses some charge albeit it being charged... This will not happen with the stock wall charger.
I have a 900mAh car charger that I use and it does in fact give 900mAh to the phone while charging. I can tell because I used a 450mAh charger at home before and it was slooow and I could drain my phone while charging it. With the car charger I can stream music with spotify, use the GPS, have the screen on full brightness and the battery % will still go up.
I also bought a new wall charger recently, which is 850mAh on the USB port and has a 350mAh charger for a loose battery as well, works quite nice.
Has anyone measured the voltage or put a scope on the output of the stock charger?
maybe stock charger has a slight variance in voltage over USB chargers or some signalling going on and this tells the N1 to take more current from it?
I would like a solution to this too I've seen my phone discharge while on a supposedly 1A car charger using co-pilot.
SBS_ said:
I have a 900mAh car charger that I use and it does in fact give 900mAh to the phone while charging. I can tell because I used a 450mAh charger at home before and it was slooow and I could drain my phone while charging it. With the car charger I can stream music with spotify, use the GPS, have the screen on full brightness and the battery % will still go up.
I also bought a new wall charger recently, which is 850mAh on the USB port and has a 350mAh charger for a loose battery as well, works quite nice.
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Click to collapse
Forget the numbers on the chargers - what counts is what really goes into the phone and that needs to be measured with a current meter (test equipment). What you may think to be fast might not be that.
Original HTC chargers obviously do the trick of fast charging but this comes at a price compared to the $3-$4 garden variety on Ebay and the likes.
now I cannot help you with the electronics at all, but, my old HTC Touch Pro charger seems to charge the same as the one which came with the phone, is this correct?
(suits me if it is, as then I have a charger for home and work)
my blackberry bold 2 charger only says it outputs 700MAh, but both the google and htc chargers both say 1.0A
dnts said:
Forget the numbers on the chargers - what counts is what really goes into the phone and that needs to be measured with a current meter (test equipment). What you may think to be fast might not be that.
Original HTC chargers obviously do the trick of fast charging but this comes at a price compared to the $3-$4 garden variety on Ebay and the likes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is just anecdotal evidence as I don't have any equipment to measure it. But my phone no longer discharges when I use it while charging, which it used to do with the old charger I used. So while I can say for a fact that the charger I use now is faster, I can't say by how much (this goes for both the car charger and the one I put in the wall socket).
I ordered this charger a few weeks ago and it charges my phone as fast as the original charger. The label says 5v / 1200mA.
Genuine Nokia Mini AC-10U US Type AC Charger (100~240V)
$7,25 and free shipping. (Takes a while before you get it tho.)
GazzaK said:
now I cannot help you with the electronics at all, but, my old HTC Touch Pro charger seems to charge the same as the one which came with the phone, is this correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC Touch Pro = mini USB
Nexus One = micro USB
Not an engineering here, but I am guessing the phone not always drawing more than 500ma may be is to do with the charger itself.
There is this "fast charge" USB standard where a wall plug has the USB data pins shorted to indicate that it is a wall plug and hence the phone knows when to draw more power. So even if the charger is rated 1A, the phone might not know if it could utilize that if those pins aren't shorted. Try doing a quick Google on this ....
If someone can test if the stock charger that came with the phone in fact does have those pins shorted that would confirm part of this theory.
For all practical purpose - I used two cables/plugs with a bench adjustable power supply. Simple micro USB plug would only let me draw 450mA regardless of power supply voltage in the range 4.5-5.5V. Tried shorting data pins - nothing. Tried shorting spare pin to VCC or GND or any of the other pins - nothing.
Used original cable and plug - draws 900mA at voltages from 4.9-5.5.
So it's in the plug somehow.
Tried (very difficult) to see if the pins on the plug are shorted and all 3 spares (except for 5V and GND) seems unconnected.
Next step is the irreversible hot knife...
I'm bugged by this, too. I tested with my desktop dock connected to my car charger (which states 1000 mA): it loads slowly and my battery widget reports USB- instead of AC-charger.
Might it be that the phone tries to load more than 1000 mA at the beginning to be sure that it doesn't overload the charger? And if that fails, it falls back to 500 mA?
Could N1 use a simple logic of:
- always watch the voltage
- start drawing 500ma (or whichever is the lowest current as per USB spec)
- increment in say 50ma steps
- if voltage drops below 4.x V, back off and stay at that level
I just did a little test of my own. I have a Palm Pre car charger (actual Palm brand one labeled as 1000ma output) and I plunged my N1 into it on my way home from work. In twenty eight minutes, my battery went from 47% to 70%. Much faster than plugging into my computer, which is 500ma max. I don't have any fancy test equipment, and don't claim to know a whole lot about electronics, but seems pretty fast to me.
I have a 4-port 2A 5v USB charger, and connecting it to my Nexus OR Milestone with a MicroUSB cable (the one that shipped with either phone, or the one from my Kindle) yields painfully slow charging - it basically won't charge if you are using the phone.
Connecting the Nexus One charger yields fast charging on either phone - so it is not HTC (or Motorola) proprietary.
The Milestone comes with a 900mA USB plug, and connecting THAT to either phone with either of the MicroUSB cables yields fast charging.
I have another aftermarket 2 port 2A 5V USB wall charger (brand: T'nB) AND I have an iPhone USB plug, and both give fast charging on the Milestone, and I have not yet tried them on the Nexus One.
Breakdown (on things I've tried):
FAST CHARGING on Nexus One AND Milestone:
Nexus charger (either in the US (110v/60hz) or in France (220v/50hz) through an adaptor)
Milestone wall French USB plug (which I think is something odd like 850mA at 5.9v) with ANY microUSB cable (in fact, it seems to charge both of the phones faster than the stock Nexus One plug)
SLOW CHARGING on Nexus One AND Milestone:
USB plug on computer
One aftermarket 4 port 2A 5V USB charger (NOT a hub, only a charger)
FAST CHARGING on Milestone, untested with Nexus One
T'nB 2 port 5v 2A USB wall charger
Apple iPhone 1 port 1A 5v USB wall adaptor
Seems found the answer for Fast Charging N1
I had just do some test for Charging N1 With Original AC Charger , Other band USB Charger and PC USB charger.
1. Orginal Charger give N1 from 0% to 100% at about 2 hour and something.
2. The other band AC charger and PC USB Charger can only finish the same job over 5 to 6 hours.
The Fast Charging is Due to 5.1V (Measured at N1) and 5.2V(Measured inside AC charger). 0.1V Drop is due to resistance of USB cable.
The Slow charged is due to 4.8V (measured at N1) and 5.0V (measured on PC USB and Other AC Charger)
i.e. Original Charger mod from 5.0 V to 5.2V (about 10% increase in Voltage)
Looks my theory is correct then ? N1 watches the voltage and if it droops too much, it backs off the current.
So the key would be: get a charger than can maintain at least 1A @ 5.2V, use
a decent gauge, short wire from the brick to N1.
Has anyone tried a Blackberry charger on the N1? Will they work to full capacity as well? (They're on Amazon for a fiver)
Because the nokia charger is working
http://pinoutsguide.com/CellularPhones-Nokia/micro_usb_connector_pinout.shtml
see info under table.
I tested also HP charger + standard USB cable delivered with Nexus, and it is charching cca 1A.
Then I tested one noname Carcharger + standard USB cable delivered with Nexus, and also charging cca 1A.
I dismantle the noname carcharger and here is a result:
data line (pin2+3) is shorted and connected do + (pin1 ,Vcc) thrue resistor cca 630kOhm.
1 - 4 = 5.1V
2,3 - 4 = 3.2V
rashid11 said:
Looks my theory is correct then ? N1 watches the voltage and if it droops too much, it backs off the current.
So the key would be: get a charger than can maintain at least 1A @ 5.2V, use
a decent gauge, short wire from the brick to N1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I try to use power supply 5.2V 2A with cable without dataline (pin 2and3 not connected) and it is charging 480mA only.
I have now tested with an HTC car charger for the HD2. It's fast charging (tested with Waze running, two bluetooth connections and playing mp3 - and it's still loading the battery, whereas before it would be stuck at the current percentage) and even shows AC power instead of USB.
Hi Here in Mexico dont have a UK plugs and of corse my phone charger dont fits o the outlet but i have a USB Charger I can plug the Data cable to carge but the only question i have is this specs
Samsung Original Travel Charger is output : 5V = 0.7a
My USB output : 5V = 0.5a
Please Help
I think the only diff is the charges Times is less amp takes more time to full the battery.
i use the uk charger here in the u.s. i believe they are set for multiple power inputs just get a cheap adapter to change the plug configuration. that is what i am using.
i posted the below in another charger thread but in case it serves here
not sure if a lot of folks are just unaware, but every phone i've had charged fine from a usb port off my computer
since i started tethering my phone to my laptop (browse the web from family couch) december 2009, i haven't used the wall charger
even if i'm not tethering, i've got a spare usb cable on the desktop, that when i sit down at the desk, the phone or whatever device, gets connected to - far more convenient and fewer items occupying space on the desk
plus, i've got that Tmo car charger that just has a usb port on it's end - so the same cable that i use to tether to the laptop (when in the car), if i'm using the phone in the dock for nav, runs down to the charger - the charger, with no cable hanging off it when not in use, let's me leave the charger in the socket 24/7 - no looking for it in the glove box and untangling it etc
that charger is simply converting the 14V car voltage to 5 V the USB port normally delivers
2 - 3.5 hours seems to take my 1150mah battery from low charge to full
for what it's worth
celtichazard said:
Hi Here in Mexico dont have a UK plugs and of corse my phone charger dont fits o the outlet but i have a USB Charger I can plug the Data cable to carge but the only question i have is this specs
Samsung Original Travel Charger is output : 5V = 0.7a
My USB output : 5V = 0.5a
Please Help
I think the only diff is the charges Times is less amp takes more time to full the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is nothing wrong with that. 5V is all you need. As long as you don't supply too high a voltage, your batteries should be safe. Don't worry about the amperage (current). Lower current (0.5a vs 0.7a) just means that it takes longer to charge the batteries.
And for those who really must have a wall charger that charges the batteries directly, you can buy a universal USB charger (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15264). It works great. It plugs into any USB charger or laptop USB port, and charges any battery rated 3.7V. You can find them on eBay for just a couple of dollars.
Hi,
Today I was using GPS app - HTC Locations. In about 45 minutes battery went down from 100% to 50% (I noticed that using satellite GPS makes the phone very hot) and I decided to connect a charger that I have bought recently - HTC CC-C200 car charger.
The problem was... the battery was still being discharged!
I turned off the nav app and left only basic system apps and the phone was charging only about 5 percent in 30 minutes. Keeping in mind how fast the phone was discharging using navigation, it is simple that the car charger won't do.
Anybody else has this problem? How can I actually use a navigation??
is it the official car charger from t-mobile.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
It is original HTC's car charger - CC-C200
One question - can an USB extension cord (plug in to this original HTC's charger and then original HTC USB cable to this cord) decrease the speed of charging?
Car chargers will always charge slower. 12v vs. 110v.
hah2110 said:
Car chargers will always charge slower. 12v vs. 110v.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are u sure that the 110V network adapter, charge the phone with 110 volts ?
The 110V charger:
HTC New Slim Design AC Adapter TC E250 (with EU Plug Unit + micro USB Cable, 5V/1A
and the car charger:
HTC Generic Car Charger with USB/micUSB Cable CC C200 (1A/5V)
have SAME charge power: 1A at 5Vm that is 5W.
The PC USB ports are rated at 500mA, but if u check the port with digital multimeter (cut the cable and put Ampere-meter) u can see that u can drain ~700-800mA , Asus and SuperMicro Motherboard tested from me
@EniHS if u make the lenght of the cable bigger the electrical resistance grow too . I think that 1 meter more wont be such a problem, but if u really wanna check how this will change the power of charge u need to measure it with Ampere-meter
This is an easy one... I try to never get the charger from the store because it (usually) won't put out enough juice to keep up.
I found that if use the same current for charging my ipad, it works much better and can keep up. With that in mind, you can purchase any charger with a 2 Amp output (10 watts) that has a generic USB connector. Try the search "10 watt usb car charger" on Google or Amazon.
Get the free app "juice plotter," which will plot your battery usage and charge. If you're plugged in and the plot is still going down, then the drain is still greater than the charge, and you'll need a better charger. Good luck!
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
jdmarko said:
This is an easy one... I try to never get the charger from the store because it (usually) won't put out enough juice to keep up.
I found that if use the same current for charging my ipad, it works much better and can keep up. With that in mind, you can purchase any charger with a 2 Amp output (10 watts) that has a generic USB connector. Try the search "10 watt usb car charger" on Google or Amazon.
Get the free app "juice plotter," which will plot your battery usage and charge. If you're plugged in and the plot is still going down, then the drain is still greater than the charge, and you'll need a better charger. Good luck!
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be a solution. I'll buy 2A 5V charger. I assume that I should only replace the plug and the USB cable can be left from original HTC car charger?
Isn't it dangerous for the phone to charge by 2A instead of 1A (original charger)? Or the only difference is the charging speed?
Solved!
I did some tests today and discovered that if I charge the phone normally (no program running, GPS off) with HTC car charger WITH extension USB cable... phone was charging 1% in 25 minutes!!! That would be over 40 hours to charge the device from zero to full! I thought I had charger broken, but... I tried with NO EXTENSION CABLE, just the HTC plug and HTC cable, then the phone was charging normally 1% in 2 minutes!
So... the problem are extension cables, but still don't know why...
I noticed this even with wall chargers. Yesterday when I bought my phone, I plugged it in to my old charger & noticed it was charging slow. Once I switched to the charger that came with my Sensation, it charges normally now. I haven't looked at the chargers to compare if something is different but it is very strange
Isn't strange at all, it's essentially that they are not being supplied a great enough charge and so power from the battery is utilised in addition. ideally you want above 700mAh for standard charging/use.
Since I already tried 4 USB car chargers (Osungo Carjuice 2.1A, Belkin 2.1A, Ewent 2.1A, Belkin 1A) with several USB cables (my intention is to use this cable I got from dx.com), but none of the combinations succeeded in charging my N5 while using navigation on the road.
In the settings menu -> battery all of them display Charging (AC) when plugged in my car.
During night time they keep the battery around the same level and during day time the battery percentage even slowly drops.
I'm going to perform some measurements later today with Battery Monitor Widget and/or Currentwidget to get some numbers.
The stores close-by only sell this stuff for ridiculous prices, so I spent enough money on gas already. I haven't ordered anything online yet since it seems nothing is guaranteed to work and therefore I don't want to deal with the hassle of return processes plus shipping costs.
The only car charger that does work is the charger that came with my Galaxy Nexus car holder, but I never liked that charger since it doesn't have a coiled cable so the cable is all over the place across your dash and it has no universal USB connection to charge all kind of devices in your car.
Also I'm looking for a solution which doesn't require soldering of some sort.
Does the USB car charger + coiled USB cable which I'm looking for even exist and why is it so hard to just get a working car charger for your N5?
Today I did some measurements with Currentwidget and the problem lies in the cable which I got from Dealextreme.
When I tested with the USB cable which came with the N5 all chargers work fine.
Now I hope I can find a coiled USB cable which works just like the original N5 cable for a decent price.
Found one from Mediabridge, but it seems this cable isn't available in the Netherlands and on Ebay shipping costs are insane.
Does the 1A charger still charge the phone while navigating? Or is a 2.1A charger needed?
Rhatfield25 said:
Does the 1A charger still charge the phone while navigating? Or is a 2.1A charger needed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both can charge the phone while navigating, as long as you use the right cable.
Very annoying since there is no way to tell which cable is good and which cable is not good.
This was also noticed in the following threads:
[Q] Terrible charge rate?
Need good car charger recommendations please
Discharging while using Navigation
Tried the cable which came with the HTC OEM Car Charger CC C200, together with a 2.1mAh car charger and it barely charged the N5 while navigating. The charging level went up 1% in about 25 minutes time, in comparison if you use the cable which came with the N5 the level will have gone up around 15-20%.
The Mediabridge cables (such as this one) should suffice (available on Amazon and Ebay).
Since those are not available in Europe and shipping costs are way too high, I now found an alternative from Speedlink. Hopefully this one will work just as good as the original N5 USB cable.
I am using PowerGen 2.1A car charger with 3' Samsung OEM usb cable and able to charge the phone while using Navigation, brightness at full, and streaming tune-in on LTE. Very happy with the setup.
I had a monoprice 10' usb cable, the thick version with cap on ends, the 3' samsung oeum usb cable works much better. Testing on my old phone Optimus G Pro, there are about +200mA improvement using the 3' samsung oem usb cable over the monoprice 10' usb cable. so make sure to use the shortest usb cable possible.