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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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
After scanning through the nookcolor instrction manual, i noticed that the Nookcolor is NOT supposed to charge through the usb plug if connected to a computer...
My does however and once the nook is fully charged, the "nook light" goes green just as it does when plugged into the wall AND moving files is no longer possible.
This is not really a problem as my nook usually has a permanent 67% battery power, but just out of curiosity...
Has anyone else noticed this?
I did not go to 100% so can not say about the moving files, however, changes with USB...did not see if it did before I rooted...as rooting was the 1st thing I did...
Very nice surprise to see USB changing as the non-replaceable battery (Apple kind-of drag) and ONLY B&N charger had me thinking about returning...Now with only the non-replacing battery the only issue and I have a rooted android tab/e-reader I will kept it.
Also I was one of the lucky 25% discount (paid $184 plus tax) THAT WORKED. When I tried the next day to get a 2nd one the store manager said Corp sent a message the 25% was no longer valid.
Ahhh so it happens to other people too...
Anyway, 184 dollars is dirt cheap! i live in australia so i had to get mine of ebay (bn don't ship down here) so it was $290 + $50 for express shipping from US for a grand total of 340 smackeroos! All i can say is thank god for the current US to Au exchange rates.
Sent from my Nookcolor using XDA bb
The Nook will charge from ANY source, it just doesn't show a light on the cable unless it's charging from the included charger. My assumption for this is that it doesn't show charging unless the current is HIGH, and the included charger is rated for 1900mAh. 4 times what a normal USB port provides. Even double what a normal phone charger provides.
So it doesn't show it's charging, but in fact it will. I've left mine plugged into my USB here at the computer messing with adb and such on and off, watching logcat etc and it slowly charges.
Yes but mine does have a light on the cable and once the power reaches 100% the ability to move files is lost and thecable light goes green, just like it does when plugged into the wall...
Sent from my NookColor using XDA App
How long does it take to charge via USB? I feel like when my nook is plugged in with USB that battery life is maintained but a full charge would take a long time. I'm around a computer most of the day so charging via USB is much easier than a wall outlet.
The NC charger provides about 4 times the curent of a standard USB port, so it should take about 4 times as long to charge from USB as compared to the charger.
I am using the Nook color wall charger, but left my cable at work. my nook was dead, i plugged in using a standard micro usb and the wall charger, it says wait 15 minutes, which makes me believe it is charging it. Let me go check...still says that. Do you think it will charge? I was able to transfer files with the micro usb cable to my SD card on the nook, but it wont charge it?
It may trickle charge on a non-OEM Nook Color cable (a standard micro-USB), so it would probably require charging overnight at the very least to get a near full charge once again, and certainly longer than 15 mins to get it back to usable from a low charge state.
Depends on the output of the charger, but youd likely be looking at anywhere from 4 to 8 gours for a full charge...
Sent from my NookColor using XDA app
i think i can confirm standard micro usb does not charge this thing, even with the nook wall charger. I had it plugged in from being dead for about an hour and it never came on. Thankfully i found the real charger and am back in business.
It will trickle charge for me with the nook cable hooked up to my computer, but I thought this issue was already covered and others said it would charge with a regular usb cable (again on the computer not via the adapter). Is this not the case? I hate to think I'm reliant on the nook's usb cable and can't charge at a friends.
I have charged my NC with the cable from a cell phone. It takes a LOT longer and in fact, doesn't seem to keep up with even moderate use: wifi and web browsing and battery will slowly continue to go down. Just not AS slowly as being unplugged.
But it does charge.
Hopefully someone will find a way to make the damn thing charge without verifying that it's using a Nook cable.
jve34 said:
i think i can confirm standard micro usb does not charge this thing, even with the nook wall charger. I had it plugged in from being dead for about an hour and it never came on. Thankfully i found the real charger and am back in business.
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Click to collapse
False, it does charge. I assume at .5A, but it's possible it's lower. Haven't looked.
TchnclFl said:
Hopefully someone will find a way to make the damn thing charge without verifying that it's using a Nook cable.
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Click to collapse
Plug it into any USB source using any cable providing 500mA, it will charge. It won't SHOW it is charging, as it doesn't appear to show charging unless it's on the fast 1.9Ah speed the Nook charger + special Nook cable provides. However, if it's idle enough the thing does charge.
Sitting on my desk playing with adb one day plugged into my workstation it charged 20% in a little over 2 hours. Of course that's pretty slow, but consider this is a 4.0Ah battery, you cannot compare to your phone charge times unless you multiply by 2.5 to 3!
So 20% over 2 hours would be 50-60% over 2 hours on a typical Android phone battery.
you say it charges, but leaving it plugged in from being dead to the Nook wall charger but to a standard USB did not charge it at all. No power
I have no doubt that the nook cable, plugged into a PC will charge it. It is the cable that is different.
Here are the ways that I have verified that my Nook Color wil charge:
NC wall charger/NC usb cable- best and fastest
NC wall charger/Droid usb cable (standard) - charges slowly
other USB wall charger/either usb cable- charges slowly
computer USB/NC usb cable- charges slowly
computer USB/other usb cable- charges slowly
What I have NOT done is completely drain the battery and test.
My guess is this: it charges slowly without a high rating charger and the special NC cable and when it is dead it takes a LONG time to get enough juice to boot.
Another possibility is that device variance has kicked in and while most people seem to get at least a trickle charge out of any cable/charge source we have, other units simply will not.
that is kind of what i was thinking, the fact that it was dead was not enough to even charge it properly where as if it had kind of been charged then maybe it would be more noticable that it was charging.
jve34 said:
you say it charges, but leaving it plugged in from being dead to the Nook wall charger but to a standard USB did not charge it at all. No power
I have no doubt that the nook cable, plugged into a PC will charge it. It is the cable that is different.
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Click to collapse
It charges no matter what cable or charger as long as it's providing reasonable current. Most USB ports and non-fast chargers provide 500mAh.
If it's dead I don't know, I don't do that to LiIon batteries.
Just reading up on USB chargers, and I found somewhere in a thread here about phones defaulting to smaller ma when charging via USB if the connector didn't have the data pins shorted or something.
So, I was wondering a couple of things:
1) If the default charger supplies 700ma, do you think that is the most the Nexus S can draw? Does anyone have one of these shorted USB chargers? Does it charge the NS faster?
2) If it does charge faster, how hard would it be to do something similar to shorting the data connections? I have a generic AC-USB cable which I currently use for my iPod touch.
3) Is there a way to check if it is already shorted out? The USB charging port looks similar to ones on my computer, but I'm not sure what to look for.
Thanks for any help! Maybe if we can sort out this stuff, we can provide a solution for those looking for faster charging!
it does work safely, i'm using a 1000 mAh charger at home, and a 2000 mAh charger in the car both are from aftermarket eBay/DealExtreme charges.
no overheating
and charges faster than stock
AllGamer said:
it does work safely, i'm using a 1000 mAh charger at home, and a 2000 mAh charger in the car both are from aftermarket eBay/DealExtreme charges.
no overheating
and charges faster than stock
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Click to collapse
Ok thankyou for that AllGamer, I'll think of possible ways I could mod the charger now
The only reason it is slow is because of the USB charging brick instead of just a charger.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I know it's a wrong thread, but anyone has any pointers as to how to short a regular USB cable to make the phone think it's a power adapter cable?
XBOHDPuKC said:
I know it's a wrong thread, but anyone has any pointers as to how to short a regular USB cable to make the phone think it's a power adapter cable?
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Nah it's not the wrong thread that was one of my questions! I'm not sure exactly where you would do it, but maybe if you skinned the wire, then cut the data lines it would work?
Not sure which end you would do it on however, but that may not matter. Any other ideas?
The two center pins in the USB carry the data. If you pull them out, the cable won't be able to connect to the computer.
Sent from my Nexus S
Wow - you don't need to do this and you wouldn't want to in a computer anyway.
The USB specification says that 500ma (@ 5v) of current should be available from a computer's USB port. Of course, the actual wires can carry much more than this, so manufacturers can tell their phones to takes as much current as is offered.
Almost all computers limit their USB power output accordingly - this is why some opld usb-powered external hard drives needed 2 USB plugs to get enough power. The only computers that I am SURE emit significantly more than 500ma on their USB ports are first and second generation MacBook Airs.
Some phones, the N1 and every other HTC specifically, look for a specially shorted cable to "know if they are plugged into the wall adaptor" as opposed to a computer USB port. In reality, this is just a way to make you specifically buy HTC chargers as opposed to third-party off-brands, because plugging one of these phones into an off brand charger will limit the current draw to about 450ma.
If you want to know if your Android phone thinks that it is in "USB" mode or in "AC" mode, just plug the phone in, open the dialer, enter *#*#4636#*#* and then select battery info. If your phone is one that cares (not all do), it will say USB if it thinks it should be in USB charging mode, or AC if it thinks it should be in AC charging mode.
I would not try shorting out the middle pins in a cable and then plugging it into the computer. First, most will probably just disable the USB port completely, shutting off even power you could draw. Second, if it doesn't shut down, you run the risk that a badly-built USB port might not properly limit the current to 500ma - and since they are not designed to furnish more current than that, you might melt something expensive or start a fire. third, if you make a mistake, you risk shorting out either your phone or your computer, which might ruin your day, week or month, depending on your financial means to replace the system that cooks itself.
I would just run out to your local store, pay 15 bucks for a 2A third-party usb charger brick, and go to town. That will work perfectly - this is what I use, and it probably cuts the charge time by 30-40%. Obviously, this indicates that the NS is not capable of drawing a full 2A - I have not put a meter on it, but I would bet that it limits itself to somewhere just under an amp in.
I have recently bought both a 2A wall charger and car charger and my phone does not recognise either of these as anything more than a 500mA source.
Is it really just a case of opening the car charger up and shorting out pins 2 & 3? they are currently not connected to anything in the charger.
If it's indeed a matter of shorting the data lines, then I think you can skin the wire as suggested by others, but then cut the data lines, short the end that leads to the phone, leave the end to the computer open. I think it's the phone that tries to determine whether the data lines are shorted.
Edit: Can someone measure the continuity between the data pins with the stock charger? I wonder if they are shorted. I'm still waiting for my Nexus S to arrive, so can't test it.
Yup, the data lines in the stock Nexus S charger ARE shorted.
I just modified a cheap 1A car charger by popping it open, soldering the 2 data lines together and putting it back.
The report on the Nexus S before I did this (*#*#4636#*#*) said "USB", and afterwards it now says "AC".
I will report back after I make a road trip if this improves the GPS + Pandora + Screen in car situation. I suspect it will.
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Yup, the car charger seemed to actually maintain and increase the battery this time. Seems good.
The NS supports chargers output to a max of 1000mA, as it says on the back of it, where the battery resides.
There is a very nice cable out there called a CSquid. They make one for the Streak.
I took an external battery pack which has 2 USB charging ports and plugs straight into the wall on my trip to Vegas. It worked nicely when I tested it at the house prior to the trip. I used it with my Streak on the plane while the wife and I watched a movie. It came in damn handy charging both the wifes phone and mine at the sametime while drinkin way to much playin video poker at the bar.
Then I let the battery on my tablet die. I mean completely discharged dead. So I just plugged it in to the battery backup, plugged the backup into the wall outlet and NOTHING. No charge indicator, no lights on the softkeys, nothing. Tested the USB port with my phone, all was good.
So I ended up buying a USB wall/Vehicle charger at the gift shop of Harrah's for twice what it was worth. Plugged in and the Streak started charging, same stock cable I used with the battery backup charger. After that I was able to use my Streak with the battery backup on the plane ride back home with no problems.
Which lead me to the CSquid cable. It's designed to function off of low powered USB ports. Some device out there, ours included, the Galaxy Tab and the iPads as well, will not charge from a depleted battery state off of some USB ports. This includes PC's if they enter into a low power state. Some ports on laptops for example, my HP has 2 ports that are fully powerd and 2 that are not. A keyboard or a mouse works fine, but try a 3G modem and it detects it, but won't function. Flip the same modem to a port on the other side and it works like magic. What I'm saying is this problem is device specific.
So I recreated the scenario and tested same.
I ran a movie on my Streak until it shut itself off. I tried powering up and it wouldn't go. I plugged my battery backup into the wall, grabbed the stock Streak cable and cabled them up. No charge indicator on the Streak. The battery was dead, dead. Reconnected it twice and the same result.
I then repeated the process with the CSquid cable. I immediately recieved a charge light. This was a good sign. I tried to power it up and it wouldn't go. So I went out to the garage and had a smoke. Came back in about 10 mins later, hit the power button and the Streak booted up. All was right with the world.
If you're in the market for another cable you want this one.
I ordered the cable off Amazon for $20 and some change for delivery. It showed up USPS in 3 days.
This is their site: agreenc.com
Oddly they don't list the Streak on their site, at least yet. But this cable does exist for the Streak.
Like I said I got mine off Amazon. Just search them for Dell Streak CSquid and it'll pop right up
Dear elodahl,
I'm not sure whether I understood you totally correct but you seem to have the problem when you try to charge your streak from you battery backup when this last one is plugged into the wall, am I correct? Was the battery backup discharged and hence you plugged it into the wall? If so, it could be possible that the energy taken from the wall is completely dedicated to charge the battery of your backup device and it is not drained outside to charge the streak. This could explain why after the cigarette the streak started to charge: the internal battery of the backup thing was charged enough to start draining energy to the streak.
Could be this correct?
On the other hand, do you know if this cable has the "on the go" pin enabled? I mean, using a female-female usb adaptor, have you ever tried to plug an external usb device or keyboard to the streak through it? At the moment and to my knowledge, non of the existing cables for the streak can do something like that, one has to open the cable and soldier together a couple of pins to make this possible.
Many thanks
I haven't tried using the cable with a gender bender and use it as a pass though. I don't have a need so I never screwed with it.
This isn't a problem to be solved. This is a solution to a problem that exists.
The battery backup was fully charged. The Streak was fully discharged, which is a big part of it. If you end up with the Streak fully discharged you can't get it to power up off of say a battery backup or (some/most) PC USB ports. You won't even get the red LED charging indicator to light. Again this is with a fully discharged battery on the Streak.
Basiclly what the cable does when you flip the switch on it from it's standard data cable position over to the power postion is send voltage down an additional pin. Voltage on this pin makes your USB power source appear as a AC power source. This allows the system to boot, and charge, even with the same exact USB power source that did not work prior to you sliding the switch on the cable.
This is similar to what Motorola did a few years ago with their USB charges. I carried Motorola Q for a couple years which is were I ran into the issue. Yes The device had a mini-USB connection. Yes it could charge off of that connection. But it could only charge if you used Motorola's mini-USB charger. Only a select few 3rd party mini-usb chargers would work, most wouldn't. On the other hand if you could charge a Motorola off of a charger that charger would charge any other mini-usb device known to man.
I found the pinouts for Motorola's charges on some site which showed that they were using the "spare" pin. There is a open pin in the USB spec. which an OEM can use to do whatever they like.
You can charge a Streak off of any USB power source unless you completely discharge it. If you completely discharge it you need an AC power source, or something that looks like an AC power source to the Streak. Which is were this cable comes in.