Database Develop

Vehicle chargers won't work...

Okay, I'm stumped. I'm already getting a replacement device from HTC under warranty so my problem is solved, but like many of you, I HATE NOT HAVING AN EXPLANATION FOR THINGS!
I'm also wondering if anyone else has had this problem? About 10-Days ago my Kaiser (Tilt) stopped charging via the automotive charger. The A-C charger works fine, but the vehicle charger sent to me with my device from AT&T completely stopped charging my device. I went to the AT&T store & bought a new charger, It didn't work. I changed power points, & cigarette lighter in the vehicle &, it wouldn't work. I tried the charger in the vehicle of two different AT&T sales guys & also tried multiple chargers, & it wouldn't work. Is there any reason why the unit would lose it's ability to charge via a vehicle charger while still retaining it's ability to charge through USB to computer & through the A/C home charger? It seems to me that if the charge portion of the MB was fried, then all charging would be affected.
So how can my device charge fine through all means EXCEPT the vehicle charger?
Again, AT&T is sending me a new device, but I hate not having an explanation for the problem, drives me Nucking Futs!!!
Any ideas, anyone?
Thx!

I dont want to sound rude but have you checked your power settings?
Under the "Advanced" it has a option for "When device is turned on, do not charge the battery when connected to the PC."
If this is ticked it will not charge via the in car charger.

It's a known issue, not just with the Tilt
I had the same problem with my Axim X50 and X51v.
The original sync/charge cable wouldn't charge from the car's lighter, while non-branded cables did so without any problems at all.
This happened with other Axims as well, so I know that it wasn't a defective unit.
I then purchased an HP Ipaq HW6910, and encountered the same issue with my wife's Mazda 5 - the HW6910 woudn't charge if the cable was connected to the charger, when I started the car. It only worked if the adapter and cable were disconnected while staring the car. This did not happen with my Mazda 3 or my Mitsubishi.
And another thing I discovered, is that some cables are not designed for use with car chargers, but they work perfectly with AC chargers.
I bought a couple of retracting sync/charge cables for my HW6910, they worked only when connected to the mains. But regular cables worked perfectly with both power sources.

Jygar said:
I dont want to sound rude but have you checked your power settings?
Under the "Advanced" it has a option for "When device is turned on, do not charge the battery when connected to the PC."
If this is ticked it will not charge via the in car charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OF COURSE I DID.
Yeah, It charges fine from the PC, & from an A/C source. But the HTC TYTNII car charger that came with my device, as well as replacement car chargers don't work.
wisniak said:
I had the same problem with my Axim X50 and X51v.
The original sync/charge cable wouldn't charge from the car's lighter, while non-branded cables did so without any problems at all.
This happened with other Axims as well, so I know that it wasn't a defective unit.
I then purchased an HP Ipaq HW6910, and encountered the same issue with my wife's Mazda 5 - the HW6910 woudn't charge if the cable was connected to the charger, when I started the car. It only worked if the adapter and cable were disconnected while staring the car. This did not happen with my Mazda 3 or my Mitsubishi.
And another thing I discovered, is that some cables are not designed for use with car chargers, but they work perfectly with AC chargers.
I bought a couple of retracting sync/charge cables for my HW6910, they worked only when connected to the mains. But regular cables worked perfectly with both power sources.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny, I just ran out to the truck & grabbed one of the guys Blackberry chargers & it looked like it was working. But SK Tools reports an even bigger (negative) amp draw (like discharging twice the normal rate). So with the BB charger it dischages even faster. Maybe reversed polarity Guess I should've checked first. That's a moot point now though as I await my new unit. Weird though.

Well i was using a BB charger that worked fine up until this morning. i bought my phone when it first came out so it wasnt easy to find a charger made for it at the time. i never had a problem until today. i also noticed that the Usb terminal on my device was bent. i called htc but they charge way too much to fix it. i have no idea how or when the terminal broke but it does still charge when pluged into pc or into the wall. ill have to spend $80 to have ppctechs fix it.

wassup, i`m in SF Cali, I had a att 8525 that was doing the same thing. I assumed it was the phone when it 1st started happening. After a week or so it was bothering me so i started playing with it trying to figure out if it was a setting, bad flash, or hardware. I noticed that if the phone was off it wood charge but not if it was on. I started flashing my phone and testing (for trouble shooting purposes) and for the first 2 or 3 roms problem still existed, then one of the roms i flashed to would turn on the back light as if it was charging but no LED or charge, when this started happening I realized that if i turned my fone off it wood start charging and continue to charge when i booted the fone back up. So if when i got in the car i pluged in/ shutdown/ waited like 45 sec or 1 min. / then booted it would temp. fix the problem for as long as my fone was on the cable. At some point after that many weeks/roms later i noticed it was working correctly again, So I had decided it was a glitch in the rom, But i`m not a Dev. or fone guru so I really dont know what it was, but hope this helps someone.... PEACE!! ~bboyphrog1~beatz`n pieces krooh~

flexte said:
Well i was using a BB charger that worked fine up until this morning. i bought my phone when it first came out so it wasnt easy to find a charger made for it at the time. i never had a problem until today. i also noticed that the Usb terminal on my device was bent. i called htc but they charge way too much to fix it. i have no idea how or when the terminal broke but it does still charge when pluged into pc or into the wall. ill have to spend $80 to have ppctechs fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The slight diagonal slant on the bottom right? It's supposed to be like that. All AT&T Tilts (and I'd assume TyTN II's, but I've never had one to compare) have a mini-usb port that looks that way.

i looked at a 8525 and the usb terminal was straight. i even took a pencil and straightened mine out. it should be bent. that wouldn't make sense because the charges slot is not bent. i think the problem is that one side of the terminal is not soldered to the board and can easily be broken. in another thread 3 people have the same issue. as far as the car charger goes ill do some testing but until today it was charging fine while the phone was on.

this issue is known ,it even happens with the htc tynt.... by simlpy rebooting while in the charger it starts working again ..at least with mine.

I've had the same problem. I went to the lcoal AT&T store and they said they never heard of it so I thought it was just me. It looks like many of you have the issue. I wish I knew what it was. It was really bad with my 8525,

i thought Faria developed a cab to fix this issue in the hermes forum? might be worth having a search for it and when i get home i will see if i have a copy on my pc.

any of you guys get anywhere with this? I have exactly the same problem. posted in a couple of other threads actually.
Not sure whether the usb port is damaged, but it's certainly is slightly "down" on the right hand side.
It charges perfectly on the mains and perfectly from usb, but not in the car.
I have used a normal car charger, spent £50 on a Carcomm powered mount and tried one of the separate chargers that you plug the standard mini usb cable into. Nothing works. This is driving me crazy (if you'll excuse the pun!) a the primary reason I bought the Kaiser, was for GPS.
Thanks

well i also just found out 2 of my minisync cables dont work anymore. 1 of them still charges the phone but neither of them sync the phone anymore. it still syncs fine through a normal usb cable.

I am using a moto Razr car charger and it works fine so far.

Okay, confirmed on my replacement Tilt: The USB port is arrow straight. Someone earlier mentioned it being lower on the right side & indeed my DEAD DEVICE was as such. Looks like a bad job of connecting the port to the device.
NOTE!!!!!!
It's a good idea to take a look at your charger before you plug it in to make sure the charger USB connector is not bent or mi-sshappened.

i have the same problem i went through 4 att car chargers adn 5 phones. They are crap. Its not the phone its the charger if you play with it you will see that it comes and goes. The end tip on the charger is bad doesnt make a good connection. i have yet to find a good car charger.

Mine stopped charging using the car charger supplied and a brodit. A friend's kaiser charges OK with the same chargers.
No-one has mentioned it in this thread, but my phone, shows "charging" in the battery control panel and the LED lights up to confirm this. The percentage charge value decreases as though it isn't being charged!
As others have done I noticed that the corner of the plastic centre of the connector nearest the reset hole was slightly bent and I assume (though can't remember doing so) that I missed the reset hole with the stylus tip and pushed it in. Menu driven resets for me from now on!
HTC Europe didn't know anything about this fault, so seem to be happy to repair / replace it under warranty. It's with them at the moment, so I'll have to wait and see.
RSVRover

faria said:
this issue is known ,it even happens with the htc tynt.... by simlpy rebooting while in the charger it starts working again ..at least with mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that didnt work for me. only one of my chargers work now.

RSVRover said:
Mine stopped charging using the car charger supplied and a brodit. A friend's kaiser charges OK with the same chargers.
No-one has mentioned it in this thread, but my phone, shows "charging" in the battery control panel and the LED lights up to confirm this. The percentage charge value decreases as though it isn't being charged!
As others have done I noticed that the corner of the plastic centre of the connector nearest the reset hole was slightly bent and I assume (though can't remember doing so) that I missed the reset hole with the stylus tip and pushed it in. Menu driven resets for me from now on!
HTC Europe didn't know anything about this fault, so seem to be happy to repair / replace it under warranty. It's with them at the moment, so I'll have to wait and see.
RSVRover
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please let me know the outcome. mine is getting worse by the day.

Now I'm confused.
Because the device charges over USB I just assumed it would draw <500mA (the max output of a USB port) but the specs say it draws up to one amp.
Having owned a high-drawing device before (Axim x50v) I know that trying to pull this out of a USB port can blow your motherboard. So are these safe to charge over USB??? How does the device know whether its being charged over USB or mains - are there different charging pins on the connector?

Car Charging Problem?

Anyone else having trouble with their car charger not charging their at&t tilt? I have 2 aftermarket car chargers from cellphoneshop.com and having problems. Im using DCS wm6.1 v1.5 rom and radio 1.64.06.04. I plug the charger in, the red light on the charge goes on, the orange light on the phone goes on, the battery status from quickmenu in the top right corner blinks on/off, the phone says its charging, but the phone isnt charging. The battery is going down like it normally would while all this is going on. Ive tried 2 different car chargers on 2 different vehicles and still the same problem. I dont believe its the car chargers since the 1st one i used is the one ive been using for the past 3 weeks now with no problems and the second car charger i tried is the same as the first but brand new out of the box both with the same problem. I just flashed to this rom today and this is the first time trying to charge my phone with this rom via car charger so maybe its just the rom? Im stuck at work til 11 so i cant test it on my usb or home charger til then. Any ideas or do u guys think its just the rom? Thanks! Ive never had this problem with duttys 2 newest roms, just this one i flashed back to today.

Sometimes the orange charging light on the phone will flash on/off super fast! Also sometimes the orange light will disappear and while its off the phone will still lie to me and say its charging.

is there anything running on the phone when you plugged it in? my phone wont charge after i've been using 3g for some time and it heats up. also is there any other device you can test the charger with?

XtreMe_G said:
is there anything running on the phone when you plugged it in? my phone wont charge after i've been using 3g for some time and it heats up. also is there any other device you can test the charger with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, i have java, hotmail, and palm messaging on in the background but having programs on in the background never made a difference before nor did being in 3g coverage which is what im in 95 percent of the day living in southern california. No other phones to try the chargers on. Ill try turning the phone off for a bit and charge it and see what happens. That would determine if the coverage or backgrounds apps are stunting the charge.

Im convinced its the rom now. When the phone is powered off the orange light is there showing its charging then after a few minutes disappears. I then unplug the charger and plug it back in but this time instead of an orange light theres a red light that stays on! I then unplug the charger and the second i unplug it the red light goes away and the phone turns on by itself. I dont think a simple car charger can do all that to a phone. I really liked this rom too. Oh well, just gotta charge my phone when i get home on the home charger if that works and reflash back to duttys march 08 rom.

Anyone else have similar car charging problems?

SOLUTION
It's not the ROM, it's the charger. Generic chargers are not wired the same as HTC chargers. HTC shorts pins 4-5 on the mini-USB end of the cable signaling the phone to enter into charge mode. Normal mini-usb chargers don't and so it's intermittent. If you purchase an HTC charger OR modify a cable the problem will be solved.
If you have other HTC phones, you'll see similar issues, especially when the battery is <10%.
The phenomenon is pretty well documented elsewhere on this site.
Regards,

liquidsilver said:
It's not the ROM, it's the charger. Generic chargers are not wired the same as HTC chargers. HTC shorts pins 4-5 on the mini-USB end of the cable signaling the phone to enter into charge mode. Normal mini-usb chargers don't and so it's intermittent. If you purchase an HTC charger OR modify a cable the problem will be solved.
If you have other HTC phones, you'll see similar issues, especially when the battery is <10%.
The phenomenon is pretty well documented elsewhere on this site.
Regards,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh, you could be right because the stock home charger that comes with the phone works perfect charging. So do i have to buy a ridiculus $40 car charger then from at&t? Guess its too good to be true when the generic is only 4 bucks.

i use my car charger all the time when i am driving and i dont expereince any of these problems... aside from the fact that it chrages slower then the AC charger but its understandable...

liquidsilver said:
It's not the ROM, it's the charger. Generic chargers are not wired the same as HTC chargers. HTC shorts pins 4-5 on the mini-USB end of the cable signaling the phone to enter into charge mode. Normal mini-usb chargers don't and so it's intermittent. If you purchase an HTC charger OR modify a cable the problem will be solved.
If you have other HTC phones, you'll see similar issues, especially when the battery is <10%.
The phenomenon is pretty well documented elsewhere on this site.
Regards,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive never had problems though with these generic charges with other roms and yes i've charged my phone from 0 to 100 percent on the generic car charger i have before. This is the first time ive charged my phone with this rom and with the car charger so thats why i would say its the rom since it has charged many other roms perfectly. Do you know of a good place to buy an htc offical car charger? The best i've seen on the web so far is 25 bucks.

I'm going to get one of the USB car chargers.

Even the chargers ATT sells can fail. They are just repackaged junk for the most part with low current ratings.
$25 is pretty good for an HTC charger. Highly recommended to go this route.
Those who have success with the generics are just lucky as the chargers don't meet specs. The odds are good that it will let you down someday.
As I mentioned above, there's a lot of info on this topic already posted elsewhere on the forum.

Got an official HTC Charger (in at&t packaging even) from eBay seller "NakedCellPhone" for $10 + about $5 shipping.
They're marked as for the Cingular 2125 & a few other older models but it works perfectly.

DOES THE HOME CHARGER (ac) WORK???
If so, it DOES & only USB to PC or Automotive charging is affected, you've most likely damaged your USB port pins while trying to soft reset.
Take a look at the USB port on the device. If it is curved or lower on the righ side, congratulations, you are both the Perp & the victim. The USB port was poorly placed by HTC, & the stylus was poorly placed by you.
Sometimes it can be (very gently & at your own risk) bent back into shape depending on which one of the two usb port versions your device has.
BTW, if you have a business account they are only $15.00

Not all chargers are the same.
The stock OEM charger has a rating of 1A. Most car chargers that I have seen have 500mA to 800mA rating. In most cases, with these lower current chargers, you won't notice a difference except for possible longer charging time. Though, if your battery is really low, <20% or so, your car charger may not work.
I have experienced this phenomenon not only on HTC devices like the 8925 and the 8125, but also the Siemens SX66 as well.
As a side note, I've read somewhere that charging using a USB cable to your computer allows for 500mA, UNLESS the PDA is syncing through ActiveSync when the PDA asks permission to draw 1A of power. If I remember correctly, the OEM charger shorts a couple of pins to simulate this situation, but of course, the power converter/inverter is also rated at the higher current as well.
I'm not sure shorting the pin on a lesser rated charger is going to have much effect, except possibly breaking your device or cable.
Cardyin

I just don't understand how the generic can charge my phone everyday for almost 3 weeks now then all of a sudden stop and acting so weird, see posts 2 and 3. Then i try my second generic car charger right out of the box and does the same thing. Yes, my phone charges perfectly through the usb on the computer and the home charger it came with so i dont think its the port on the phone thats messed up. Guess ill have to invest in an official htc car charger and see how it goes.

GSLEON3 said:
DOES THE HOME CHARGER (ac) WORK???
If so, it DOES & only USB to PC or Automotive charging is affected, you've most likely damaged your USB port pins while trying to soft reset.
Take a look at the USB port on the device. If it is curved or lower on the righ side, congratulations, you are both the Perp & the victim. The USB port was poorly placed by HTC, & the stylus was poorly placed by you.
Sometimes it can be (very gently & at your own risk) bent back into shape depending on which one of the two usb port versions your device has.
BTW, if you have a business account they are only $15.00
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 2 last pins on the right side are down just a notch from the rest of the port but its pretty much always been like that, even when the car charger was working. Only having problem with the car charger, computer and ac charging works fine. I'll try to move the pins up and align them but its so minor how much they are down.

cardyin said:
Not all chargers are the same.
The stock OEM charger has a rating of 1A. Most car chargers that I have seen have 500mA to 800mA rating. In most cases, with these lower current chargers, you won't notice a difference except for possible longer charging time. Though, if your battery is really low, <20% or so, your car charger may not work.
I have experienced this phenomenon not only on HTC devices like the 8925 and the 8125, but also the Siemens SX66 as well.
As a side note, I've read somewhere that charging using a USB cable to your computer allows for 500mA, UNLESS the PDA is syncing through ActiveSync when the PDA asks permission to draw 1A of power. If I remember correctly, the OEM charger shorts a couple of pins to simulate this situation, but of course, the power converter/inverter is also rated at the higher current as well.
I'm not sure shorting the pin on a lesser rated charger is going to have much effect, except possibly breaking your device or cable.
Cardyin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You guys think this charger is worth a shot or just pay the extra 20 bucks for the official? http://www.semsons.com/hipocarchwim.html It says its power output it 850mA!

Here is the cheapest original htc car charger i could find, www.talkietech.com/htcvecarpoch.html Heres some specs, OEM HTC Car Charger (81551) Features:
HTC Cell Phone Vehicle Charger allows phone to be charged on the road
Original Genuine HTC car charger guarantees maximum durability and performance
High quality aluminum brushed LED indicator light
Part# 81551
Compatible with:
HTC Cingular 8525, Cingular 8125, HTC Cingular 2125
HTC T-Mobile Dash, T-Mobile Wing, T-Mobile MDA and T-Mobile SDA
HTC T-Mobile Shadow, HTC Touch, Sprint Touch
It doesn't say though it works with the 8925 or tilt, would it still work on my at&t tilt? I think it would since my tilt's home charger charges my 8525 fine. What do you guys think?

deeznuts said:
The 2 last pins on the right side are down just a notch from the rest of the port but its pretty much always been like that, even when the car charger was working. Only having problem with the car charger, computer and ac charging works fine. I'll try to move the pins up and align them but its so minor how much they are down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can garuntee they didn't come "down just a notch". There ar multiple threads about this issue. Sometimes it causes auto chargers to fail completely & somtimes it just causes a bad connection.
When the device was new, it was straight as an arrow. I know this because I have a TYTNII & a Tilt & this happened on the Tilt. I would drive into the local store & tell them you are having charge issues. They'll let you test out one of the stock chargers, & if that doesn't work, then it's a connection issue because of the mis-shappened port. The pins in the USB port are pretty small. It does NOT take much deviation for them to lose good contact. It also happens more frequently on the devices that have the open ended pin block.

Charging battery while using TomTom 6 in the car

Hello everybody,
i wonder if any of you encountered the problem of not charging the battery in the car while using TomTom 6. It happened to me many times and it's quite annoying because at a certain point the phone will go off and it will need to be charged while off otherwise it will not work.
Since it happened in different cars it does not depend by the charger but has to be a software problem either of WM or TomTom.
Any suggestion?
Thanks!
Panco

Buy a decent charger with at least 2A.

2A? 1A should be more than enough...
(I'm not sure you'd be able to find a 2A USB charger as the USB2.0 spec requires connectors to be rated at 1.5A tops so if there was such a beast I personally wouldn't touch it)
Mathew

Do a careful inspection of the USB connector on the phone and the car cradles/leads - my money is on a piece of cloth/fluff etc breaking the charger connection.

Today, I tried using CoPilot (with a live internet connection going for Traffic updates), with bluetooth switched on (so that I could connect with my Parrot kit in the car), and the phone on charge.
On the journey back home, CoPilot was running (and on the screen) whilst I was on a call via the Parrot. And yet, the battery was still getting charged properly! I was actually impressed that the charging would work automatically once the cable was inserted - my MDA Pro needed the display to be off before I could see the red charging light come on and for the phone to start charging.
FYI, the charger was a cigar_lighter_adapter-2-USB_cable type.
I've got an MDA Compact IV with the original ROM (but TouchFlo tweaks, etc).
So, I'd say either there's something wrong with your adapter, cable, or indeed TomTom is using a lot of juice!

panco said:
Hello everybody,
i wonder if any of you encountered the problem of not charging the battery in the car while using TomTom 6. It happened to me many times and it's quite annoying because at a certain point the phone will go off and it will need to be charged while off otherwise it will not work.
Since it happened in different cars it does not depend by the charger but has to be a software problem either of WM or TomTom.
Any suggestion?
Thanks!
Panco
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it does this with most GPS SW and the problem is heating preventing battery charging to avoid the battery to catch fire, especially with the the phone placed in the windscreen with the sun on it. At night the issue is no longer an issue. So when you have a break for coffee let the phone have a break too to cool down and recharge.

Or mount it infront of an air con vent

Nuri58 said:
No, it does this with most GPS SW and the problem is heating preventing battery charging to avoid the battery to catch fire, especially with the the phone placed in the windscreen with the sun on it. At night the issue is no longer an issue. So when you have a break for coffee let the phone have a break too to cool down and recharge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank for your post, i think you got the point with something (the heating of the battery+gps) preventing the battery to recharge; i'm convinced of this because the problem is not always present but it comes at certain conditions.
I'll try to let the diamond cool down at regular intervals and not to position too exposed. I also noticed that it's advisable to first connect the phone to the charger then after some minutes run the tomtom otherwise the problem is likely to happen.
Thanks to all.
Panco

There are many tool available to show you the internal temperature of the device - the battery monitor 'Batti' is one such tool (and it's free).
Give something like that a try then you'll be able to see if your problems bear any correlation with temperature.
Mathew

Im experiencing the same with Garmin, yes, it was hot...first I thought the cigarette-to-usb-adapter was not strong enough....
Will try to keep it cool

You need a USB car charger with at least 1A, as said in previous post, but with any USB cable the current limiting will be lways be 500mA.
Only the original Diamond cable will allow you to charge with currents over 500mA. To measure the charge current you can use several programs, like my TodayWarrior (as it is a plugin you will need to disable temporarilt Touch Flo or use Second Today).

It's not heating of battery, but just that when Using tomtom, with backlight, Full GPS usage, phone on and that VGA screen just pulls more than your charger can bring
Got the same issue, and yes, as said before, get a heavier charger.

I have the same problem using IGO8.
First point, using Full GPS in car will consumme a lot of energy.
So it's better to use a 2A/5V charger (5V is the important thing ... And for your information, HTC is selling 2A car charger for their last phones ...)
Second point, the GPS chip is badly placed in the phone, behind the battery.
So yes, when the GPS is used for a long time, it makes the battery hot and the phone stops the battery charging ...
The point is to use a good car craddle, one that lets the phone "breath" (one that doesn't cover to much the rear of the phone) ...

beemerTPPC said:
You need a USB car charger with at least 1A, as said in previous post, but with any USB cable the current limiting will be lways be 500mA.
Only the original Diamond cable will allow you to charge with currents over 500mA. To measure the charge current you can use several programs, like my TodayWarrior (as it is a plugin you will need to disable temporarilt Touch Flo or use Second Today).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The input sideon car chargers inclusive of HTC is 500 mA at 12 V and the output side 1A at 5V, which is what the phone requires and all car chargers I have do. But the important thing about ion-lit batteries is that they require very controlled charging conditions (contrary to the older Metal or Cadnium). E.g. If the battery is completely flat (2 V or below) it is extremely hard to recharge and will require several hours in the charger while building up the voltage to about 3.2V, only then normal charge will start. Sometimes the stand-by consumption of a phone makes it imposible to recharge it while in the phone, and requires an external recharger. This may explain the observatiobn that it is better to wait a couple of minutes before starting TT after connecting to the recharger to ensure correct initial charging.
Riel said:
It's not heating of battery, but just that when Using tomtom, with backlight, Full GPS usage, phone on and that VGA screen just pulls more than your charger can bring
Got the same issue, and yes, as said before, get a heavier charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the way to get a battery to explode, but fortunately the phone will not allow charging to take place and adding more amps will possibly increase heating and just worsen the situation. But correct as more power the device draws as hotter it gets and as sooner charging stops.
As Nani says there is an element of disign problem (cannot be a surprice to HTC that people actually will like to use the Navigation also on long drives), so if placed so it can cool will defenetly help. So will dimming the display to the minimum.

Car chargers bricking Kaisers

What exactly is the scoop on this? Is it that they overpower the charging circuit (everyone says they charge the phones faster)? Is there a way to tell you're about to do damage?
I don't use the car charger that came with my Kaiser, I have several generic chargers which all work just fine. However I noticed that when running GPS, although the charge light was on, the battery wouldn't really charge. It wouldn't discharge either, I put it up to the extra drain on the phone's power system.
The other day though, my phone... stopped charging? I was driving (GPS) and the phone suddenly beeped a critical battery warning, the charge light was off... but the power was plugged in and the charger's power light in the cigarette socket was on. It WAS making a connection to the phone: if I unplugged it the screen would go dimmer, if I plugged it back in it would get brighter. But it still seemed to be running off the battery, which was draining regardless. The moment I got to my destination, it all powered off. Is this a forewarning of darker circumstances to come?

from what I've read you should not be using generic chargers. The amperage could differ. Therefore, if the electricity in your vehicle spikes you could be riding with a paper weight.
In addition, it is common that your device will not charge (nor discharge) while running your gps application. I play monopoly often while my phone is in the charger and my device usually doesn't charge while I am playing.

Also, I think the pinout on generic USB chargers are different. The ones that are for Moto Razr / Blackberry phones dont work to charge the phones ( as I have a work blackberry and tried it) It didnt hurt my phone, however it just didnt charge. I have heard of others damaging but if its not made for the kaiser, I wouldn't try it.

I've never had access to Moto Razr / Blackberry chargers. While I can't speak for those, I know generic USB chargers would have exactly the same pinout as the stock Kaiser charger. The amperage supplied may indeed differ, I think that might have explained my issue above. It was almost like the charge circuit 'gave up' since the phone was demanding as much/more power as it was getting.

CrArc said:
I've never had access to Moto Razr / Blackberry chargers. While I can't speak for those, I know generic USB chargers would have exactly the same pinout as the stock Kaiser charger. The amperage supplied may indeed differ, I think that might have explained my issue above. It was almost like the charge circuit 'gave up' since the phone was demanding as much/more power as it was getting.
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My razr charger works perfect with my tilt.. (MOTOROLLA branded - not generic)

Ditto on the motorola razr charger;Have an old razr charger I use it for travelling instead of unplugging my original;works fine!!

+2 on the Motorola branded car charger...charges my Tilt just fine. Now I'm paranoid, though...

CrArc said:
What exactly is the scoop on this? Is it that they overpower the charging circuit (everyone says they charge the phones faster)? Is there a way to tell you're about to do damage?
I don't use the car charger that came with my Kaiser, I have several generic chargers which all work just fine. However I noticed that when running GPS, although the charge light was on, the battery wouldn't really charge. It wouldn't discharge either, I put it up to the extra drain on the phone's power system.
The other day though, my phone... stopped charging? I was driving (GPS) and the phone suddenly beeped a critical battery warning, the charge light was off... but the power was plugged in and the charger's power light in the cigarette socket was on. It WAS making a connection to the phone: if I unplugged it the screen would go dimmer, if I plugged it back in it would get brighter. But it still seemed to be running off the battery, which was draining regardless. The moment I got to my destination, it all powered off. Is this a forewarning of darker circumstances to come?
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That is the exact same thing I am experiencing with my Tilt.
Tilt is charging from a generic car-to-USB and USB cable.
I start TomTom.
Charging works fine for a while.
Then suddenly the charging stops and the battery is drained.
I found only two ways to get it to charge again:
1. Turn off device with TomTom charging; hold Tilt against cool air flowing from AC; plug into charger (while still off) ... then the phone turns on and charges.
2. Take out the battery; put it back in ... start phone.

It does seem that either the phone can draw power faster than a USB charger can supply it or the use of wifi and gps whilst charging overheats it. I particularly see this behavior when I'm running tomtom and navizon. The phone seems to remain charging longer in cooler weather or if I point an air vent at it. My current no wifi woes started after an occurrence of just this behaviour the other day.

RAZR chargers don't have enough current and it doesn't keep a positive charge when using the GPS. It says it's charging but ultimately it goes down. Sometimes it stops charging and I had to unplug it and plug it back in. Use a charger made for the Kaiser. The charger from my brother's bluetooth GPS works fine though.

I have a generic USB cigar lighter adapter which I have been using to power mine with no problem. The only way I can see a charger frying a phone is if there is a voltage spike that isn't regulated.

The charger needs to be rated with an output of 5v 2amps which is what the electric charger is rated at. Bought one off ebay for $6. Most car chargers are rated quite a bit lower (400ma).

As the previous post states, some chargers are rated at under 500ma. This is not enough to change the Kaiser... I find that the Blackberry charger works fine, but sometimes takes a very long time to charge as the current isn't quite enough. I have a generic one at about 1000ma and that works fine.
USB from a PC is normally 500ma sustained.

I think there's another thread or 2 about this somewhere. I've been having the same problem with the Kaiser not charging via generic and razr car chargers.
After seeing the other thread I bought an HTC charger from ebay - at least it looks like one and is advertised as one! The sticker on the 'real' HTC charger only says 0.5 amp (same as the others are rated), but charges no problem with TomTom going.
I tried measuring the current using different chargers and PowerGuard and I think there is a definite difference (although not an easy thing to interpret). I notice the cable is significantly heavier on the real HTC charger (also coiled and tends to drag the phone from where I mount it a little). Others have said the pinouts are different too.
I looked for a 2amp charger but couldn't find one (if anyone knows a source?).
It's an intriguing problem but a 'real' HTC charger seems to fix it.
The other thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=406771

There were a range of brodit car mounts with built-in chargers that bricked the kaiser. I bought one and it instantly blew it's fuse. I replace the fuse and it blew my kaiser up instead.
Assuming it was the kaiser I had it replaced, only for the charger to blow it up again.
Since then I contacted dsldevelopments (UK Distributor) who replaced it with an updated model. I have not had any issues after that.

I had this problem (Kaiser not charging in the car when GPS is on) and resolved it totally by getting the offical HTC car charger. Although output is 0.5A it is rated to 2A - my previous generic car charger was only rated to one amp and that would work fine as long I wasn't using GPS but once I ran GPS it just couldn't cope. Definately resolved this problem with the official HTC car charger (got mine of flea bay for £8)
cheers
Barney

I've had no problem with designed-for-Moto chargers and ones specifically designed to charge over USB from a dumb charger.
The problem is that drawing more than 100 mA without negotiating a connection with a PC violates the USB specification. Many manufacturers have gotten around this by finding other ways to signal the presence of a "dumb" charger, telling the phone it can draw more than 100 mA.
In the case of Mini-USB devices like the Motos, Blackberries, and HTC devices, the Mini-USB connector has a fifth pin that is normally not connected. If the charger plug grounds this pin, it signals to the device that it is permitted to draw more than 100 mA without a PC connection.
If you get a charger that does not ground this pin, an HTC device will not charge rapidly, if at all. (Typically only charges slowly when screen is off). This is why you get two cables when you order a single MiniSync from BoxWave, for example. They give you one "Sync and charge from PC" cable (no pin grounded) and one "Charge only" cable (pin grounded for dumb chargers). (If the pin is grounded it interferes with data communications for most devices.)

I use a motorola charger, which is fine if you do not use GPS.
when I use the GPS after some time the battery is very hot and stops load, but if I put the cell in front of the AC, just cools again to load.
I think the problem is due to protection from overheating battery

Belkin Charger
I grabbed a Belkin charger for my KRAZR/RAZR phones and it seems to work just fine, even with GPS running. My official Moto one also works fine with the tilt in GPS mode.
I do notice, though, that no matter what I'm using to charge it with, with GPS it gets hot. Since Li-Ion batteries are supposed to stop charging at a certain temp, it's possible that the combination of a lower grade charger and the heat generated by using GPS/WiFi/Cell at the same time (or any combo of the three), might be the issue.

Car charger too weak?

Has anyone else had an experience with the G1 not charging when on a car charger and running bluetooth and the GPS. I thought I had seen a thread once about this issue, but cannot find it.
I went on a long trip and used my G1 and copilot. After about 6 hours my phone was dead (slower than if it hadn't been plugged in I suppose).
Granted I am using an old HTC Kaiser charger, but that shouldn't have anything to do with it. Is it possible or even likely that the charger isn't putting out enough amperage to overcome the current drain imposed by so many radios running? The charger was also very hot. When I turned my phone off (actually it was off because it was out of power), it charged fine.

pinetreehater said:
Has anyone else had an experience with the G1 not charging when on a car charger and running bluetooth and the GPS. I thought I had seen a thread once about this issue, but cannot find it.
I went on a long trip and used my G1 and copilot. After about 6 hours my phone was dead (slower than if it hadn't been plugged in I suppose).
Granted I am using an old HTC Kaiser charger, but that shouldn't have anything to do with it. Is it possible or even likely that the charger isn't putting out enough amperage to overcome the current drain imposed by so many radios running? The charger was also very hot. When I turned my phone off (actually it was off because it was out of power), it charged fine.
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yes, i know exactly about it...i have 2 G1's and noticed that my generic mini usb charger in my truck only worked on 1 of them, i bought a new t-mobile one and now they both work, its because of the allowed amperage of the charger, the g1 requires more for charging purposes. just go grap u a t-mob usb and ull be back in business.

I've got the car charger from tmobile and on long road trips ill have google maps open following where im going and bluetooth on and connected to a headset and the brightness on max, and the phone charges just fine...well slowly of course.
Sounds like it maybe the charger, but i have no reason why cause you say it charges fine when the phone is off. Maybe try using a different outlet, or a different car and see if it fixes it.

yes veritasaequita,
I, too, think the amperage is too low. It will charge, but not with every radio the device has running (as they will be if you use a sat/nav and bluetooth while driving).
I guess I will grab a charger that is actually for a G1. Thing is, the AT&T Tilt (for which the charger is actually for)is a pretty demanding device as well. Would of thunk the charger adequate.

Most of the generic chargers you'll find online charge at .5AMP. Before buying one, make sure it's 1AMP so that it actually charges as if it were plugged into the wall.