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High speed charging

I went from an OG droid to the revolution. The car charger i used to use for the moto droid was charging that phone very fast, just like the ac charger. Now with the revo, it's pretty damn slow. I tried shorting the data pins with some solder and the revo actually dropped about 200mv worth of charging current. Strange. I thought shorting the data lines together put the phone into fast charge but when i "cat /proc/kmsg" it says "charging at 0mv" even though it is actually charging at about 400mv as verified by a ammeter. My home charger gets "charging at 1800mv". Some strange stuff. I'm gonna try the ipod method of 2.8/2.0 unless someone else can chime in here. Thanx

I'd be interested in this also. I'm using New Trent USB battery pack and I want it to be acknowledged by the Power Manager as a fast charge source -- not the "computer connected USB" source it shows as now.

I use a store bought adapter, with the verizon/LG cord I got with the phone, and if I use Google Maps and Navigator, I lose power while I am plugged in. Glad to see I am not the only one with the "issue"
I figure its just the way the phone charges, not anything to do with any bugs or what not, so I never really worried about it. I just make sure I am fully charged before I need to use the power sucking apps.

markapowell said:
I use a store bought adapter, with the verizon/LG cord I got with the phone, and if I use Google Maps and Navigator, I lose power while I am plugged in. Glad to see I am not the only one with the "issue"
I figure its just the way the phone charges, not anything to do with any bugs or what not, so I never really worried about it. I just make sure I am fully charged before I need to use the power sucking apps.
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On USB "computer powered" I've found maps and weather apps suck battery much faster than it can recharge. I noticed that the car adapter is detected as "AC Powered" -- even though it's starting off as 12VDC. I was hoping to use the external USB battery pack to keep the internal battery full while using the maps and weather in our boat --- but after 5 hours with screen on and battery pack attached at "USB Computer" recharge rates, the internal battery was flat-out DEAD, and the external pack was only down about 35%.

We just need to figure out what the data lines want to see for a "dedicated charger" type-2 charge connection which will yield the full 1800mv like the ac charger does. I'm working on this...hope i don't fry my phone's usb controller
My problem is, i don't have a charger that shows up as such. My friend's last night did, i may try to get that from him and sniff the connection for resistance values etc.

Hey...I'll leave that level of wizardry to you! Good to know there is a possible answer.
Sent from my Revolting VS910 4G using XDA Premium App

I too would be very interested....thanks for the post

High Speed Charging
Dear All:
I do alternate energy research and we deal with Li battery packs all the time and have seen fires from improper charging. It is okay to advise rom and other software mods but when dealing with electricity it is possibly life threatening. We do not want to read in the next days post about a member dying in his sleep due to a fire. Please use utmost care when you post soldering and wireshorting hacks. We do not know the technical level of the person on the other end.
Second-most, the quality of third party chargers is very shoddy and they do not follow IEC or UL codes which adds another danger factor.
For example I bought a Chinese made Lamptron inverter for my cathode lights and the input wiring was wrong could have fried my gaming rig if I didn't check.

I understand your convern but 1800mA is the charge rate of the wall (ac) charger. That's what we're trying to achieve with a car charger. If you buy crap you're asking for problems. Most car chargers can output 2 full amps @5v but are setup to only charge at 500mA. USB charging of smart devices utilizes the data+ and data- lines as charge mode indicators. Small changes in resistance (therefore voltage) changes how the phone will pull amperage. I think everyone knows the danger of overheating lithium-ion batteries. We're not trying to do anything more than what the wall chargers already do. Check out xda a bit more and you'll see lots of posts about this very subject for different phones. Like this one. Or check out Ladyada's ipod charging research for some other good info. FYI, a good source of CCFL inverter parts is in old broken lcd tvs. Cheap, easy and reliable.
Now that that's out of the way, i set up a breadboard today so i can check some things out but had no time to test so hopefully tomorrow i can give some insight as to what the revo wants data line wise so it goes into "type 2" 1800mA charge mode. Will post with what i find and maybe some pics.

Alright. I just dug in for an hour and found out some things. My wall charger supplies 3.68vdc on both the data+ and data- lines. While using this charger the phone (using /pro/kmsg) goes into "type=2" charging mode with 1800mA. So. I hooked up my car charger. I noticed 2.1vdc on only one data line. So i made a quick resistive divider up to bring both data lines up to 3.68. BAM...didn't work. I also tried shorting the two data lines together while at 3.68v....nope. Then i threw a potentiometer in between the two data lines and tried a few values up to 200ohms....nope. I then pulled all connections to the car chargers data lines and supplied a fresh 3.68v to the output cable...nope. Last thing i did was just use my power supply to supply the 5v and gnd without the car charger in the loop....still couldn't get a type 2 charge. I'm losing my mind here. I think i missed something stupid or am over thinking this. I might start from scratch later but first, i need a few cigarettes. I'm hoping someone can chime in with a simple fix and call me stupid

I found another charger i had bought from radio shack a while ago. It's a PointMobl charger. Plugged it in and got an 1800mA type=2 charge. Sweet. Now i'm gonna dig into it and see why it works....plus i'm ditching the damn spiral cord cuz they piss me off.

I'm using the wall charger from a Moto Razr, and it puts the Revo into fast charge. I found the pinouts here: http://pinouts.ru/all/razrv3_charger_pinout.shtml
Any new insight from that?
[I'm Revolting -- are you? Beamed directly into your brain by Revolt 1.3]

Danzdroid said:
I'm using the wall charger from a Moto Razr, and it puts the Revo into fast charge. I found the pinouts here: http://pinouts.ru/all/razrv3_charger_pinout.shtml
Any new insight from that?
[I'm Revolting -- are you? Beamed directly into your brain by Revolt 1.3]
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Some phones are like that. Common usb is 4 wire, micro usb adds another pin. That pin needs to get a 200ohm resistor jumped to the shorted d+/- lines. The thing is, the wall charger only has 4 pins like every other usb. Unless the cable itself has the extra pin connected to the data lines through a resistor, it still doesn't explain the difference. I haven't taken this other charger apart yet, actually, i don't think i can without destroying it as it looks to be sonic-welded at the seams. What happened to the old screw-ended cig lighter adapters??

deftonesmw said:
Some phones are like that. Common usb is 4 wire, micro usb adds another pin. That pin needs to get a 200ohm resistor jumped to the shorted d+/- lines. The thing is, the wall charger only has 4 pins like every other usb. Unless the cable itself has the extra pin connected to the data lines through a resistor, it still doesn't explain the difference. I haven't taken this other charger apart yet, actually, i don't think i can without destroying it as it looks to be sonic-welded at the seams. What happened to the old screw-ended cig lighter adapters??
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Probably one too many people opening them and electrocuting themselves. Or glue is cheaper than metal screws.
Sent from the awesomsness, that is my phone. Rev, Revolt 1.0, swype, go launcher.

deftonesmw,
I wanted to say I'm looking forward to your findings. In the meantime, I ended up buying a car charger that claims high ma charging. It sounds like Danzdroid has issues with his battery pack charger which could possibly benefit from your research too.

Wall charger: 100 to 120 AC converted to low voltage dc
Car: 12v DC no conversion, probably resistance regulated.
Stating the obvious the wall charger is a complete different beast from the low voltage computer/car charger. With out a 12v dc to ac converter I don't think you will ever get a car to charge like a wall charger.
Your radio shack device probably uses some type of capacitor device to ramp up the juice then runs it through some sort of regulator which simulates the AC style charge.
Or at least if I was designing one that is how I would do it.

Haxcid said:
Wall charger: 100 to 120 AC converted to low voltage dc
Car: 12v DC no conversion, probably resistance regulated.
Stating the obvious the wall charger is a complete different beast from the low voltage computer/car charger. With out a 12v dc to ac converter I don't think you will ever get a car to charge like a wall charger.
Your radio shack device probably uses some type of capacitor device to ramp up the juice then runs it through some sort of regulator which simulates the AC style charge.
Or at least if I was designing one that is how I would do it.
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My car charges like a wall charger. It's not about inverting alternating to direct. It's about getting the phone to pull the amperage. Regardless of what the max current is, the phone has modes of charging. It will pull what it's directed to pull depending on the charge mode it's put into by either d- and d+ voltages and/or resistance across certain conductors. Most car chargers can produce a full 2 amps, that's not saying they are actually doing that though. It all depends on what the phone is taking, not what the charger is giving. You're looking at this the wrong way. 90% of chargers are capable of the output (dc car chargers), it's the phone that desides what to pull according to the chargers instruction (data lines and/or 5th micro pin). The charger's maximum output is equal to the fuseable value it contains. So. Yes, my car charger charges the same as my wall charger. By the way, capacitors by themselves store energy, they don't "ramp" anything. The only caps in my car charger are for smoothing as far as i can see. It's all about resistance, not capacitance. A wall charger is just a car charger with an inverter before it in the sequence. In fact, you could open a wall charger up and split the two circuits, apply 12v to the dc half's input traces and get the same effect....without the ac components even in the same room.

20 buck solution.
Buy inverter.
plug in AV charger.
Enjoy AC charging in your car.
I'm working on a real solution to this but for now an inverter is a good workaround
"Home-Less and happy"

K0G said:
20 buck solution.
Buy inverter.
plug in AV charger.
Enjoy AC charging in your car.
I'm working on a real solution to this but for now an inverter is a good workaround
"Home-Less and happy"
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lol...i was doing the same thing for a while

deftonesmw said:
I found another charger i had bought from radio shack a while ago. It's a PointMobl charger. Plugged it in and got an 1800mA type=2 charge. Sweet. Now i'm gonna dig into it and see why it works....plus i'm ditching the damn spiral cord cuz they piss me off.
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I went to Radio Shack today and got one of these. It shows up just like the ac charger does. I will be able to use it in my car dock for navigation and not have to worry about the running the battery down. At least that is what I am hoping for.

pls keep ur n10 charger in safe place.

Last nite, I played dead trigger until battery warning indicated 4%.
But I still keep playing and suddenly the screen went black.
I think the battery is totally dried out at that time. So I used the following
charger but failed to charge even after 10min. Here's the charger:
1. 3rd party 5V 3A charger,liteon brand.
2. old nokia 0.5A charger.
3. original samsung note2 charger.
all those 3 charger works normall on my n10 before last nite.
and suddenly i think maybe i can try out the original charger of n10.
And it works!
So i wonder if samsung or google put special charger on the adapter?
Before we know anything furthur.pls put ur n10 charger in safe place.

I think most tablet chargers output a voltage of 12v. That might of kicked your battery back to life.

xxKamikazexx said:
I think most tablet chargers output a voltage of 12v. That might of kicked your battery back to life.
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I've confirm the voltage of my n10 adapter. Which printed "5V 2A".

It probably just needed a certain amount of minimum battery voltage to function and show charging. I doubt if the OEM power supply is special in any way. The charging circuit is really inside the N10.

wptski said:
It probably just needed a certain amount of minimum battery voltage to function and show charging. I doubt if the OEM power supply is special in any way. The charging circuit is really inside the N10.
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when i plug in the non-n10 charger, even after 10min,n10 is not able to boot. Only flaahing the battery charging symbol for 1 sec.
when i plug in the original charger, n10 can be boot instantly.
thats why i think it is very weird about the original charger. but other chargers still works well when n10 battery is NOT completely dried out.

matika said:
when i plug in the non-n10 charger, even after 10min,n10 is not able to boot. Only flaahing the battery charging symbol for 1 sec.
when i plug in the original charger, n10 can be boot instantly.
thats why i think it is very weird about the original charger. but other chargers still works well when n10 battery is NOT completely dried out.
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Yeah, that is very strange indeed. It does draw in the 1800mA range from the battery during boot up. Are you using the same micro-USB cord all the time? It was reported that there are big differences in charging rate with different brands of cords.

This was covered in another thread recently.
Basicially the Samsung chargers have 2 pins shorted together to get full charging power of around 1.5A with the n10. Using other chargers will get you around 500ma output.
My guess is if you left your tablet on the "other" chargers overnight it would come on just fine. They simply don't output enough juice to power the tablet when the battery is that low.

matika said:
when i plug in the non-n10 charger, even after 10min,n10 is not able to boot. Only flaahing the battery charging symbol for 1 sec.
when i plug in the original charger, n10 can be boot instantly.
thats why i think it is very weird about the original charger. but other chargers still works well when n10 battery is NOT completely dried out.
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Had you left the other chargers on long enough, the tablet would have booted fine. I've run into this. I have an old(er) Samsung Tab 2 10.1 charger I use with my N10 (now along with a Pogo cable) and my N10 charges rapidly. That, coupled with the two wires shorted out in Samy's setup for the larger amp's.....also, in my job, I work with other chargers all the time and use them all the time across multi platforms, to include my N10, and it charges fine (albeit much more slowly).

swany6mm said:
Had you left the other chargers on long enough, the tablet would have booted fine. I've run into this. I have an old(er) Samsung Tab 2 10.1 charger I use with my N10 (now along with a Pogo cable) and my N10 charges rapidly. That, coupled with the two wires shorted out in Samy's setup for the larger amp's.....also, in my job, I work with other chargers all the time and use them all the time across multi platforms, to include my N10, and it charges fine (albeit much more slowly).
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My charger(PS) for my Dell Streak 7 works just fine with the N10. This all makes sense except for the fact that the poster stated using a: 3rd party 5V 3A charger,liteon brand which didn't work.

wptski said:
My charger(PS) for my Dell Streak 7 works just fine with the N10. This all makes sense except for the fact that the poster stated using a: 3rd party 5V 3A charger,liteon brand which didn't work.
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Should still work fine. Voltage is the same and the device will only draw as much amperage as needed. May have something to do with the circuitry in the charger? It may have been bad. As long as you don't supply more volts you are OK. More amps is also OK. Not enough amps will lead to burning up the charger unless the device is smart enough to realize its on a low amp charger (like the n10) and kick down so as not to over draw (ie - over drawing from the USB port which is a .5amp (500mAmp) or 1amp (1000mAmp)...someone correct me on the number here please)
The whole reason manufacturers tell you not to use someone else's charger is so you don't plug in, say, a 12 volt charger into a 5 volt item. That would pop something. That or some cheap charger poorly built could allow "dirty" power through causing problems. Both issues voiding warranties

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but depending on the usage of the tablet, you might not be able to charge it quicker than the power usage. For me, if I'm playing a demanding game at 1.7Ghz and max brightness, neither USB or Pogo can charge the tablet, and battery still drops (slower, but still drops).

swany6mm said:
Should still work fine. Voltage is the same and the device will only draw as much amperage as needed. May have something to do with the circuitry in the charger? It may have been bad. As long as you don't supply more volts you are OK. More amps is also OK. Not enough amps will lead to burning up the charger unless the device is smart enough to realize its on a low amp charger (like the n10) and kick down so as not to over draw (ie - over drawing from the USB port which is a .5amp (500mAmp) or 1amp (1000mAmp)...someone correct me on the number here please)
The whole reason manufacturers tell you not to use someone else's charger is so you don't plug in, say, a 12 volt charger into a 5 volt item. That would pop something. That or some cheap charger poorly built could allow "dirty" power through causing problems. Both issues voiding warranties
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Never seen anything burn up because of low amperage., power or watts generate heat and power(watts)=voltage x current.
Did you ever see a PS(charger is inside the N10) with a USB port that supplies anything but 5V? I haven't.

Current (amps) does the charging.
No USB charger will provide anything more than 5.1 volts. If the charging block has a USB plug look at the rating. Amperage for smaller devices may be 1a or even less. Newer big smartphones have bigger batteries and need more current to charge. My old Thunderbolt charger is 1A, the charger Motorola provides for my Maxx HD is 1.5A, the Samsung charger for my Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is a 2 amp charger, so is the charger for the iPad that some frickin' jerk ripped off from my house. The Xoom escaped that problem by having a separate charge plug, not using the USB system, it 12 volts at 1.5 amps. See the pattern? A tablet of any kind has an even bigger battery and needs even more current to charge. The reason the N10 may lose charge even when plugged in is that the charger can't deliver the current needed to run the device and charge the battery simultaneously.
As I see it, Samsung and Google need to supply a slightly higher amperage power block to compensate for the use/charge balance problem. Our solution would be to turn it off and charge the device every night or even leave it plugged in when not in use.
Another thing is the surface area for current transfer. The USB points are tiny, the POGO Pins, dedicated to charging would be able to handle more current because they have more surface area.
Any one who knows better may correct me, I just ordered an N10 today from Google so my information here is what I have read here and what I know from years in the electronics field..

ongre12 said:
No USB charger will provide anything more than 5.1 volts. If the charging block has a USB plug look at the rating. Amperage for smaller devices may be 1a or even less. Newer big smartphones have bigger batteries and need more current to charge. My old Thunderbolt charger is 1A, the charger Motorola provides for my Maxx HD is 1.5A, the Samsung charger for my Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is a 2 amp charger, so is the charger for the iPad that some frickin' jerk ripped off from my house. The Xoom escaped that problem by having a separate charge plug, not using the USB system, it 12 volts at 1.5 amps. See the pattern? A tablet of any kind has an even bigger battery and needs even more current to charge. The reason the N10 may lose charge even when plugged in is that the charger can't deliver the current needed to run the device and charge the battery simultaneously.
As I see it, Samsung and Google need to supply a slightly higher amperage power block to compensate for the use/charge balance problem. Our solution would be to turn it off and charge the device every night or even leave it plugged in when not in use.
Another thing is the surface area for current transfer. The USB points are tiny, the POGO Pins, dedicated to charging would be able to handle more current because they have more surface area.
Any one who knows better may correct me, I just ordered an N10 today from Google so my information here is what I have read here and what I know from years in the electronics field..
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You don't need more current to charge a bigger battery, it's all about how long it will take to charge to full.
Some have stated that they've seen a 3A battery drain with certain games. The 9Ah battery would last approx. 3 hours which exceeds the max rate of the charging circuit and the PS. Even on a fully charged battery at that rate doesn't last that long.

AFAIK for any tablet to be able to draw 2A from any 5V charger (that can supply the needed amperage) the data pins (middle two pins from the use cable) have to be at 2.5V. Otherwise even if the charger is with correct specifications 5V/2A the tablet might not charge at all, or charge at a lower rate.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

I forget the actual brand/model of the actual charging chip but if you poke around in the N10 files you can find it but it's specs are list as 2.5A max but N10's code limits it to 2.1A. This isn't the PS wall wart commonly called the "charger".

The recommended charging current for any lithium ion or lithium polymer is 0.7C. What that actually means is a current 0.7 x max capacity in mAh. For most phones e.g. my Galaxy Note 2 with a capacity of 3100 mAh this means a current at about 1.7A.
The battery Nexus 10, on the other hand, could very well be charged at a whooping 6.3A current.
In USB Battery Charging Specification 1.2 the maximum current a USB port can supply for charging purposes can be as high as 5A.
With the Perseus kernel for Note 2 you can actually specify the max limit for how much current the phone will draw from any charger.
So in theory.. it should be possible to charge the Nexus 10 with a 5V 5-6,3A charger.. and that would probably be very quick!
For the record: I havn't seen many (any?) chargers with more that 2.3A

MartiniGM said:
The recommended charging current for any lithium ion or lithium polymer is 0.7C. What that actually means is a current 0.7 x max capacity in mAh. For most phones e.g. my Galaxy Note 2 with a capacity of 3100 mAh this means a current at about 1.7A.
The battery Nexus 10, on the other hand, could very well be charged at a whooping 6.3A current.
In USB Battery Charging Specification 1.2 the maximum current a USB port can supply for charging purposes can be as high as 5A.
With the Perseus kernel for Note 2 you can actually specify the max limit for how much current the phone will draw from any charger.
So in theory.. it should be possible to charge the Nexus 10 with a 5V 5-6,3A charger.. and that would probably be very quick!
For the record: I havn't seen many (any?) chargers with more that 2.3A
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Sure the charging rate is way under what it should be but as they use larger and larger capacity cells the only solution is a removable cell to charge by other means.

Criteria for charging amps

Hi,
Does anyone know why it is such a god damn crapshoot for charging speeds on the galaxy note 2 (or any samsung device for that matter).'
You buy a charger rated for 2amps and you never know what it will give you.
You buy a USB micro cable and get anywhere between 0.4amps and 1.6amps.
What is the criteria that the phone is using to determine how many amps to pull from the charger? How does it even know what gauge of wire it is? Is there some sort of resistance check?
I have a Galaxy Note 10.1 and that is even more particular than the GN2. With most aftermarket chargers, it absolutely refuses to charge. I've had so much trouble finding a charger for it I've just stopped using the tablet since I only have one working charger for it.
It really sucks spending anywhere between $2-$30 dollars on a charger and not knowing if it will work. My success rate has been less than 10%.
I try to do forum and google searches, but all I seem to find are comments like "I bought this charger. Seems to work." With no detailed information on what performance they are getting out of it.
This is really turning me off samsung products. I don't have this problem with my HTC or LG android devices.

I don't know why you have problems, I have 2 samsung devices (phones) and I chare them with their original chargers, charger from Nexus 7 and my old charger from Desire HD and all work just fine... ofcourse, the original one is the fastest, since it is 2A, HTC one is 750mA and Ativ S one is 500mA, N7 one is 1A....

dalanik said:
I don't know why you have problems,
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You kind of answer this for yourself, as follows:
dalanik said:
I have 2 samsung devices (phones) and I chare them with their original chargers, charger from Nexus 7 and my old charger from Desire HD and all work just fine... ofcourse, the original one is the fastest, since it is 2A, HTC one is 750mA and Ativ S one is 500mA, N7 one is 1A....
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Your stock charger is 2A. (about 1.5-2 hours to charge)
Your HTC charger is 750mA (about 4-5 hours to charge)
Your ATV charger is 500mA (no better than a computer port. 6-8 hours to charge)
This was my point. This IS my problem. Obviously the stock charger works at 2A, but with any other charger it is anyones guess as to what speeds you're going to get out of it. Even when they are specified to work at 2A, you are likely not going to get 2A out of it. The phone is so bloody fickle.
If there was some benchmark or specific set of criteria I could use when I purchase a new charger to know for certain if it will charge at 2A, then that would mitigate some of the problem at least. But right now, there is none as far as I can tell. When I purchase a charger, I literally have no idea if it will run at 2A with this phone.
I'm glad that you're not bothered by the slow charging speeds and are happy with <1A. I'm sure this works well for most people. It doesn't for me. I push my phone to the max (as I have every right to) and need a charger that can keep up.

Well, charging slowly is different to what you say i.e. "refusing to charge at all" etc. And of course I don't use Ativ's charger to charge N2 often, it would take ages But I use HTC's charger that is 750mA and it charges within 2 hours which is OK.
Anyways, the only solution for you is to buy BRANDED charger from a company you can trust not some cheap chinese, t should work just fine whether it gives 2A or 1.9A is really no big difference.

dalanik said:
Well, charging slowly is different to what you say i.e. "refusing to charge at all" etc. And of course I don't use Ativ's charger to charge N2 often, it would take ages But I use HTC's charger that is 750mA and it charges within 2 hours which is OK.
Anyways, the only solution for you is to buy BRANDED charger from a company you can trust not some cheap chinese, t should work just fine whether it gives 2A or 1.9A is really no big difference.
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Well, there are chargers that refuse to work. Especially with the Galaxy Note 10.1.
Cheap ebay chargers are a crapshoot, that much goes without saying. But there are many brand-name chargers that don't work at full speed, despite being rated for 2A.
Its not so much a charger thing as a samsung thing. While I'm not able to find specific criteria as to how/why the phone decides to charge at the speed it does (which is really the only question I had with this thread), I can tell you that there are many brand name products (monoprice, anker, ngear, etc) that are rated for 2A, but will not run at 2A with the samsung. They will usually run at 2A with other products though.
The more research I do, the more I highly suspect that this is a case of Samsung propriety. It looks like that they are deliberately throttling aftermarket chargers to force you to buy their overpriced samsung chargers. As I understand it, it has something to do with creating a voltage divider between two of the contacts, but every diagram I find shows a different wiring scheme. This would indicate that no one really knows for sure.
The one and ONLY question I have with this thread is to find out what criteria the N7100 uses to determine how much amperage to draw. I remain confident that no one will answer this question because it seems no one knows.

For the Note 2: there is a way to get a simple measurement of how much current is being pulled. Refer to this thread for the apk and more info.

alpha-niner64 said:
For the Note 2: there is a way to get a simple measurement of how much current is being pulled. Refer to this thread for the apk and more info.
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Thanks for posting this. I suppose I should have mentioned that I have this app already and it is incredibly useful. I also have this, which with only a few bizarre exceptions, reports the same as the app.
The more people who are aware of this app, the better. People who think that their aftermarket charger "works fine for me" are probably unaware of how much those chargers are under-performing.

I don't have the education to explain your situation your situation well. But it boils down the electrical engineering the the physics of electricity.
There are quite a few variables that all effect the charging of devices. First thing is what does the device require for charge input, which is both amps and voltage. For whatever reason, quite a few tablets require 15 volts versus 5, which is what most mobile phones need. I have this same issue with my ASUS Transformer Infinity pad. It requires 2.0amps with 15 volts. I have a Galaxy Note II with needs 2.0amps with 5 volts. Unfortunately, when I use my phone charger with the tablet, it puts out enough to trigger a charger is plugged in (turns on tablet if it is off), but not enough to trigger there is actual charging. It does charge it, but it's a trickle charge; basically if it using while plugged in, it only slows the battery depletion rate.
As for the charge output, now you're getting into build quality, resistance of the components of the charger itself and the USB cable being used.
And then depending the device, the pins used on the USB cable can have an effect too. This mostly occurs with tablets or proprietary cables because the pins may tell the hardware what kind of charger is being used, which may have built in limits for charging.
Hopefully that helps some.

lovekeiiy said:
I don't have the education to explain your situation your situation well. But it boils down the electrical engineering the the physics of electricity.
There are quite a few variables that all effect the charging of devices. First thing is what does the device require for charge input, which is both amps and voltage. For whatever reason, quite a few tablets require 15 volts versus 5, which is what most mobile phones need. I have this same issue with my ASUS Transformer Infinity pad. It requires 2.0amps with 15 volts. I have a Galaxy Note II with needs 2.0amps with 5 volts. Unfortunately, when I use my phone charger with the tablet, it puts out enough to trigger a charger is plugged in (turns on tablet if it is off), but not enough to trigger there is actual charging. It does charge it, but it's a trickle charge; basically if it using while plugged in, it only slows the battery depletion rate.
As for the charge output, now you're getting into build quality, resistance of the components of the charger itself and the USB cable being used.
And then depending the device, the pins used on the USB cable can have an effect too. This mostly occurs with tablets or proprietary cables because the pins may tell the hardware what kind of charger is being used, which may have built in limits for charging.
Hopefully that helps some.
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That last part is correct. I actually know enough about electrical circuits to be pretty sure it is the phone deciding how much power to pull.
Ohms law states that the amperage of a circuit is the voltage of the circuit devided by the resistance (in ohms).
USB circuits are almost universally 5 volts. I remember reading somewhere that a phone has a potentiometer that protects it from circuits of incorrect voltage, up to a certain amount. This is probably why you can get away with sticking a 15V charger onto your phone and not blowing it up. You cannot depend on this however. Generally, you do not want to stick a charger into your device that is a different voltage rating than what the charger is rated for.
The charger decides the voltage, using an internal device that changes AC voltage (120VAC if youre american) to 5VDC (USB) or whatever your device needs. This device is called a rectifier.
As stated above, the charger decides the voltage. The battery determines the resistance*, therefore the amperage is the natural result of deviding the voltage by the resistance.
*Resistance is added to the circuit by the wire and the charger itself, but is usually inconsequential.
When a charger says that it is rated for a certain amperage, that means that it is the maximum amount of current that thr internal components can handle safely, without running the risk of earth-shattering kabooms (fire). If the circuit you have connected to your charger contains too little resistance, you will increase the amperage (ohms law, as stated above), and you may end up with a piece of charcoal where your charger used to be.
Thr fact that the samaung phones can change the amperage of a charging circuit so fickly must mean the phone is capable of changing its resistance. So the question becomes, what criteria is it using to determine when to change the resistancr and to what?
-PW
This may be the longest thing ive ever typed on my phone.

I'm not disagreeing since, as you said, the mobile device manufactures have build in some safe guards so we don't fry them from incorrect chargers or over charging.
But there are charges that are 15v. I've have one that came with my ASUS Transformer Infinity Pad. I think many Samsung tablets are in the same boat. I don't recall using that charger on any of my smartphones; if I have, it's only been once or twice, but good possibility I may never have. But as stated earlier, I have used my phone chargers on the tablet, but only does a trickle charge. That tablet has some wide input plug at the end of the USB cord. I'm thinking one of the pins must not get enough power to trigger the full charge. Yet, if I use my Anker external battery, set it to 15v, and a few adapters, it triggers the normal charge cycle.
Don't forget,phones such as Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S3, use 11pin microUSB ports versus the standard 5. I have no idea what all pins do or trigger, My assumption, part of your answer why the charge output varies lies with how they're use the other pins. I know quite a few tablets have more than 5 pins since the USB port is some wide thing; the ASUS does because it carries data and power for the separate keyboard that can be attached to be a suedo-laptop that has USB ports, battery and full 104 key keyboard; I don't recall what other ports the attachment may have.
I still hold that part of charge difference is also the USB cord itself since difference materials have difference resistance. It may not be as significant as the charger itself, but I've seen significant differences in charging times or depletion rates (around 10% battery per hour) using MHL adapters purely on the USB cables.
Yes, typing out long replies on the phone's virtual keyboard blows monkey chunks. Thus, I use a blue tooth keyboard instead for those situations. I also have a blue tooth mouse, LOL.

Is a fast USB car charger harmful?

After looking up a bit on USB car chargers, many people seem to recommend the Scosche Dual USB Car Charger (reVOLT 12W + 12W). Each USB port outputs 2.4A of power to charge any device (there's a known issue with this charger for some non Apple devices, you should use charge-only USB for those), but our HTC One stock charger outputs only 1A.
I am afraid a fast car charger like this one will easily overheat my battery, charging it much faster than usual and degrading its lifespan. Should I worry about this or can I order this charger and not worry about it?
I'm confused because a lot of people recommend car chargers like this one (with more output power than what the stock charger of your device gives you) and no review mentions the issue I'm raising here. Is this a non-issue?
Would appreciate more information on this topic from more knowledgeable people in this area.

Nazgulled said:
After looking up a bit on USB car chargers, many people seem to recommend the Scosche Dual USB Car Charger (reVOLT 12W + 12W). Each USB port outputs 2.4A of power to charge any device (there's a known issue with this charger for some non Apple devices, you should use charge-only USB for those), but our HTC One stock charger outputs only 1A.
I am afraid a fast car charger like this one will easily overheat my battery, charging it much faster than usual and degrading its lifespan. Should I worry about this or can I order this charger and not worry about it?
I'm confused because a lot of people recommend car chargers like this one (with more output power than what the stock charger of your device gives you) and no review mentions the issue I'm raising here. Is this a non-issue?
Would appreciate more information on this topic from more knowledgeable people in this area.
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Click to collapse
I'm no expert here but it is my understanding that the phone will take what it requires to charge no matter if you have a 1A or a 2A charger meaning that you will be wasting the power delivered by the charger. I don't think it will affect the battery nor will make it charge faster as I think the internal logic of the phone would not permit so. It could also be the case that HTC limited the power output on the charger but not on the phone meaning that in this case it will charge faster, and I think degrading battery life. Anyway, if you have someone with a higher amp charger you can test this yourself by measuring the time it takes to fully charge with the original charger and the other one. It will not really have an impact in battery life if you just try.
I guess I didn't respond to your question actually! Sorry

Thanks anyway
But if anyone knows the answer for a fact, please pitch in...

J_M_V_S said:
I'm no expert here but it is my understanding that the phone will take what it requires to charge no matter if you have a 1A or a 2A charger meaning that you will be wasting the power delivered by the charger. I don't think it will affect the battery nor will make it charge faster as I think the internal logic of the phone would not permit so. It could also be the case that HTC limited the power output on the charger but not on the phone meaning that in this case it will charge faster, and I think degrading battery life. Anyway, if you have someone with a higher amp charger you can test this yourself by measuring the time it takes to fully charge with the original charger and the other one. It will not really have an impact in battery life if you just try.
I guess I didn't respond to your question actually! Sorry
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You definitely aren't expert, neither am I, but there are couple things:
You were right about that, that device should pull only as much as it needs.
But he won't waste power (in ideal world). As the phone pulls only 1A from 1A or from 2A charger, he still be pulling 5Vx1A = 5W.
Now, to the original question.
Basically every device pulls as much as it can / needs. The Amps on charger says about how much can it deliver maximum.
The question is, how is constructed htc charging circuit. Whether it relays on maximum from charger, or it has internal limitor..
I will try to make an example to make it clearer:
Imagine, that you have a tube made of glass and a reservoir full of water. Tube is your phone and reservoir is charger.
Now, 2 situations can ocur:
1, Tube is made of very thin glass and it relays, that there won;'t be bigger pressure (more water) in reservoir. If there would be more, tube would crack.
2, Although tube is made of thin glass, it has some mechanism included, let's say pressure regulator on the beginning to reduce the pressure.
Now the question is, which of these cases is our phone about.

In short, the HTC One will pull only 1A out of your charger, regardless of whether it's 2A or 100A. The only way you can make it pull more than 1A is by installing a custom kernel like ElementalX or Bulletproof and ticking on 'Enable USB fast charge' which is disabled by default because it shortens the battery's life.

remusator said:
You definitely aren't expert, neither am I, but there are couple things:
You were right about that, that device should pull only as much as it needs.
But he won't waste power (in ideal world). As the phone pulls only 1A from 1A or from 2A charger, he still be pulling 5Vx1A = 5W.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I meant to say is that it would be wasting a 2A charger whilst the phone only seems to require 1A, not meaning that the charger will still be delivering at maximum capacity (2A).
Guess none of us could answer his question as we still don't know how the phone handles the charge.

Subjective answer from an anonymous noob, but I charge my phone with a 2.1A wall charger (built into a power board) and there's no perceptible change in charge rate. I've also used a cheap portible charger, a lithium 800mA, and that battery gets HOT like my m7 is pulling 1A just because it detects it's not limited to usbs 500mA (the power dialog reports AC charging mode).
So it seems to me to be a simple 2 mode as shown as a status in the power dialog, either usb or AC. But, I haven't actually measured or tested anything; this is all just casual observation and assumption.

Can I blow up my USB device?
There is a huge variance, then, between normal USB 2.0 ports rated at 500mA and dedicated charging ports which range all the way up to 2100mA. This leads to a rather important question: If you take a smartphone which came with a 1A wall charger, and plug it into a 2A iPad charger, will it blow up?
In short, no: You can plug any USB device into any USB cable and into any USB port, and nothing will blow up — and in fact, using a more powerful charger should speed up battery charging.
The longer answer is that the age of your device plays an important role, dictating both how fast it can be charged, and whether it can be charged using a wall charger at all. In 2007, the USB Implementers Forum released the Battery Charging Specification, which standardized faster ways of charging USB devices, either by pumping more amps through your PC’s USB ports, or by using a wall charger. Shortly thereafter, USB devices that implemented this spec started to arrive.
Fast forward to 2013 and the HTC One. It is equipped with a USB 2.0 port and when no data is transferred it will accept a charge up to 1A with a minimal standard of 500mA. When you buy a charger that says 2A output, this normally means a max of 2A for the charger. When it comes to charging the phone, the phone will only pull enough power it can from the charger and not more.

@Nazgulled
Now a days Car charger is so essential for us. But when we chose A Car charger for our device its not match, so it s harmful for us & its some time cases to damage our device.
Most of the time The power out put of the car its 12V or 24V. and The Charger give different out put for different device. And its a major thing about the charger whats Ampere given output. Avantek Car charger give us different option ; I think its give different out for our device. Avantek take also help auto adjust to the device. So its protect the device.
I Use Avantek Car Charger for my family & You can also try it for your device.

Nazgulled said:
After looking up a bit on USB car chargers, many people seem to recommend the Scosche Dual USB Car Charger (reVOLT 12W + 12W). Each USB port outputs 2.4A of power to charge any device (there's a known issue with this charger for some non Apple devices, you should use charge-only USB for those), but our HTC One stock charger outputs only 1A.
I am afraid a fast car charger like this one will easily overheat my battery, charging it much faster than usual and degrading its lifespan. Should I worry about this or can I order this charger and not worry about it?
I'm confused because a lot of people recommend car chargers like this one (with more output power than what the stock charger of your device gives you) and no review mentions the issue I'm raising here. Is this a non-issue?
Would appreciate more information on this topic from more knowledgeable people in this area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, fast usb car chargers may harm your device. Because if device get power more than its capacity then it would be definitely harm your costly devices. So please purchase a perfect and valuable charger for your devices long life.

Also quick note using a charger that charges your device faster will decrease the life of your battery, remember slow charging is best for the battery and that goes for all batteries

To answer conclusively as I have before:
I've had many many many phones and this is what I've learned over the years through experience and a lot of searching. Our phones are designed for whatever rating it is on the stock charger, which is 1A. However we have chargers that support more current. Which leads us into the next part.
Phones will only "pull" what is it rated for. It controls the final pressure valve in the water metaphor. In this example. Our phones are rated 1A Max @ stock kernel. "Extra power" isnt and cannot used up due to this rating. hence no extra loss except on your wallet. Fast charge raises the rating and limits vary from kernel to kernel. I've used my phone with a 2.4a charger + fast charge enabled before and its fine. Its a little warm (more on that in next paragraph) I'm on "dirty unicorns" ROM and I haven't gotten around to checking the limits
Regardless.. Whether it is detrimental to your phone battery is personal choice as having the % below 40 and heat is #1 enemy to batteries. Our batteries are designed for 5 years max anyway. If you want to play it safe, get a 1A charger and a max 6ft cable as more = less current. Make sure this cable is not from eBay or has sufficient guage size as the copper in some eBay cables can be thinner than your hair. This is important.
If you're looking for unpractical long term savings. Keep your phone room temperature within its temperature rating. Keep charge above 40%, optimally around 80% as lithium batteries degenerate when kept near 100% for too long. (See how frail our current battery designs are? There are higher battery tech our there, but due to cost none are in phones)
I've had horrible horrible power efficiency Roms before and as worst, it just stays on one % value without dropping (no fast charge, 1a charger)
Charging only cables are useless because since 4.3 kernels, android supports iPhone chargers as well.
In addition, car chargers have built in voltage regulators in them, our 12v car source can actually range from 8v to 30v depending on conditions. 8v on crank, and during cold days, 14.4 alternator running, 24v on car boosts. Most car 12v ports are unregulated and Most car chargers operate around 11-15v and give off excess power as heat. Given this, in truly exceptional cases, unless you deliberately overload the charger, we're still good as 5v from a GOOD charger are pretty stable for the phone. Monoprice sells good chargers with good electronic internals for a very good price. Bad chargers pass off this electrical noise to your phone.
TL-Dr.. no difference between 2.4a and 1a. Phone takes what it is rated for(1a). Extra isn't used. Fast charge kernels can increase this rating at a slight warming of phone. In all cases, heat / below 40% = more detrimental to battery life than current speeds. Get a good cable with good gauge size. (Copper width)
If you need further proof, google the terms I have presented or search XDA. There has been many "conclusive" posts on this matter and you'll find many of them say this same exact thing.
Phew.. What a long post.
Sent from my One

Smart IC Powerful will determine the current which your phone needs
Nazgulled said:
Thanks anyway
But if anyone knows the answer for a fact, please pitch in...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smart IC Powerful USB Car charger will determine the electric current which your phone needs
Sold by HAWEEL and Fulfilled by Amazon
ASIN: B00Z65KBVM

HTC m7 can take max 1.5A but it seem to not work with many chargers, in such case it falls back to 1A.
But if youre using the phone for GPS navigation, then charging faster will just make it more hot (hot from usage + even more hot from charging) and it will stop charging anyway (because of the heat).
Also, heat is biggest enemy of batteries, the hotter it gets while charging the worse it is for the battery.

Can I use my S6's Fast Charger with my N6?

Also can I use the S6 cable with the dash charge brick? Thanks in advance!

I'm careless with the chargers I use - slow charging with my N6, fast charging with my N5/N10 - and never have any problems. It looks as if each device draws the charge it needs. Perhaps an electrical engineer could enlighten us both on the risks, if any?

I'm no electrical engineer, but @dahawthorne is correct. The phones only draw the amperage they actually need. It is possible to mix and match phones and chargers so long as the charger meets the amperage requirements. For example, I keep my N6 charger near my bed. If for some reason I need to charge up the N6 at my desk, I use my Galaxy S4 charger, which outputs 2 amps and is thus sufficient for the N6.
Where you would run into a problem though is if the charger you used didn't output sufficient amperage for the phone that was connected to it. For example, if instead of using my S4 charger I plugged in my Dell Streak charger which only outputs 1 amp. In that case, the charger would begin to heat up as it tried to compensate for the increased demand from the phone. After an unknown period of time in this state, the charger will either burn out, or cause a fire.

"the charger will either burn out, or cause a fire"
Now you're worrying me...

You should be. There is a reason why manufacturers don't recommend doing what we're discussing.

dahawthorne said:
"the charger will either burn out, or cause a fire"
Now you're worrying me...
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In EU chargers must have an overheat protection.
There have been publications that cheap chargers from China does not have such protection.
Mostly it concerns the 'smaller' type chargers.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Where you would run into a problem though is if the charger you used didn't output sufficient amperage for the phone that was connected to it. For example, if instead of using my S4 charger I plugged in my Dell Streak charger which only outputs 1 amp. In that case, the charger would begin to heat up as it tried to compensate for the increased demand from the phone. After an unknown period of time in this state, the charger will either burn out, or cause a fire.
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Click to collapse
I don't think that's the case. If the charger is rated to supply 1A, it will supply 1A or less. I've used a 1A charger with my LG G2 and it never burned out or something. Unless that "uknown period of time" is a reaaally long time lol
Back to his question, my LG G2 charger supposedly supports Quick Charge 2.0 but my Nexus 6 only charges a 1.5A with it,same with my car charger with supplies up to 2.4A on each port. Then with the Motorola turbo charger, it goes up to like 2.3A. :'(
About the cable, of the cable worked at high amperage with the S6 charger, then it should as well with Nexus 6's charger

As I understand it with the n6, if you use a regular charger, the phone will only charge at the standard USB current, 500ma I believe. If using the turbo charger, or another Qualcomm 2.0 certified charger. Then you get the high wattage charging.
When I plug the phone into the laptop, it says charging very slowly. Leads me to believe there is some communication between the battery and charger...

I keep forgetting that smartphones are smarter than the other hand-held electronics I've dealt with since I was a kid. With normal electronics, they don't have a processor that can dynamically adjust to the amperage levels coming in from the charger. So, you connect an AC adapter to a device whose amperage requirements are greater than the maximum amperage of the adapter and, at best you end up with an overheated adapter and a device which may not function correctly. At worst, you end up with a house fire as the charger melts down.
However, while we all mix our devices and adapters, keep in mind that there are reasons why you shouldn't be doing this, according to the manufacturers. Damage to the device is one of those reasons, and damage to your home is another. If you're going to do it, you need to be careful, and you need to be aware of the potential pitfalls.
If you want to learn more, this article may be of help. If you don't want to read it, he summarizes his points at the end of the article, those points being as follows.
Make sure that the voltage matches as closely as possible.
Make sure that the new supply is rated to provide the same amperage or more.
Make sure that the connectors match, both in physical form and in polarity.
The last one doesn't apply as much to smartphones.