Database Info

Fast charging N1

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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.

Battery Charger ?

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.

[Q] Working USB car charger while navigating

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.

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

External charger

I have tried several non- Samsung chargers with my Tab S and found them very slow charging. These are good brands like Anker, not junk.
I notice that the charger says 5.3 volts at 2A. Most chargers are only 5V. I picked up a 5.3V Samsung charger and found it worked fine.
Anyone else had similar problems?

Many chargers put out over 5 volts while only listing 5 vols on them. I tested a bunch i had and about one third did.

cable
it's not the charger - it's the cable
in original cables there's a tiny electrical resistor - the phone detects it. if it's not there, the phone will only charge with 1 or 1.1 ampere.
some non-original cables seem to have this resistor too, as the work fine.

I will have to try to confirm this. It makes sense, but I thought I tried tye Samsung cable with the 5.0V adapter and got very slow charging.

Same here. Samsung 5V, 1A charger. Very very slow. No matter which cable I chose.

I'd expect a 14 charger to be slow. I ordered in some 5.3V Samsung chargers and Samsung cables and they do work very well. Still haven't had time to check in my 5.0V chargers with the Samsung cable to check. I thought it wasn't as good.
I've got an Anker 5 port charger that definitely doesn't work well with a coiled cable I got from Amazon.com.