Database Develop

USB Charging So Slow Almost Not Worth It

Is anyone else having this problem?
Any work around to having it actually charge the battery up?

it uses electricity faster than its recharging its crap! ive never known any device do this. When im low on battery and have it connected to my computer i have to switch it to the mains for 30 mins. Its terrible, bad design fault

I have the same problem with my Toshiba G900 (WVGA too). Very slow on USB, but normal fast at standard charging or car charging. USB is very bad for this at all.

it really depends on what you're doing with the phone, its unlikely to charge when busy, its a lot faster at charging than my old advantage, im actually impressed!
have you made sure that you've not ticked turn off charging whilst connected to a computer?
charged in under 3hours whilst on connected to ubuntu yesterday.

don't u guys realized how many amperes that a USB socket and your PC (as well as the power supply) allowed compared to a wall socket?

usb chargin usually is never worth it.

I don't understand your disappointment, usb voltage/ampere are the same for all devices, even for my touch when used as modem doesn't supply enough power for charging seriously

Does it even charge at all via USB when the X1 is on idle? If it does, how long does it take from low to full?

I left my X1 idle on USB for 6 hours, it was nearly flat when I put it on and after 6 hours it was still 1 bar below full. Whereas my LG Viewty fully charged in about 2 hours. My Universal only takes about 3 hours
So in my case, comparing the three phones, you can see where my dissapointment originates from.

vinokirk said:
I left my X1 idle on USB for 6 hours, it was nearly flat when I put it on and after 6 hours it was still 1 bar below full. Whereas my LG Viewty fully charged in about 2 hours. My Universal only takes about 3 hours
So in my case, comparing the three phones, you can see where my dissapointment originates from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But remember the size of battery the x1 has maybe the 1500 comes into play.

BuddyLee said:
But remember the size of battery the x1 has maybe the 1500 comes into play.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, of course. Xperia's battery is bigger. That's like complaining that your glass fills up faster than your pool. (may be exaggerating a bit )

BuddyLee said:
But remember the size of battery the x1 has maybe the 1500 comes into play.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True tho, point taken.....dissapointment level aleviating.....slightly....

After my phone beeped saying the battery was low, I plugged it into my USB hub (which has a mains supply). An hour later I removed the cable and the phone beeped again.
At least with my P990 I was able to gain some charge, it seems like with the X1 it just stops the battery running down.

Try it after Softreset again. I had this problems with an old ROM on my G900 too. After some time it did not charge. Softreset fixed it.

also yall are forgettin that it's a different kinda battery in the x1 compared to other phones it's ising a li-po compared to a li-ion (which is in most other ppc phones) it charges slower via usb because it's tryin to keep from exploding any extra surge that the usb gets could cause your phone to explain
the li-po is more likely to explain given the way it's built
when you use the wall chargers and car chargers the connection are ment fron rapid rechargin of the device unlike the usb which is for data transfer mainly
when you think about the charge time just think about how long it actually takes for your phone to run out of battery life from what i heard it's close to like 1.5 to 2.5 days compared to normal ppc phones that last probably a day at the most with out recharge
hope this help

Keland44 said:
also yall are forgettin that it's a different kinda battery in the x1 compared to other phones it's ising a li-po compared to a li-ion (which is in most other ppc phones) it charges slower via usb because it's tryin to keep from exploding any extra surge that the usb gets could cause your phone to explain
the li-po is more likely to explain given the way it's built
when you use the wall chargers and car chargers the connection are ment fron rapid rechargin of the device unlike the usb which is for data transfer mainly
when you think about the charge time just think about how long it actually takes for your phone to run out of battery life from what i heard it's close to like 1.5 to 2.5 days compared to normal ppc phones that last probably a day at the most with out recharge
hope this help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Err... this is not true for TP. TP lasts about 2 days on average from normal daily usage and it doesn't have problem charging via USB. Given that the port used is USB 2.0 not 1.1 or below. Took about 2~3 hours from nearly flat to full charge if I remember correctly. I have to try again just to make sure. But definitely not taking 6 hours.
I would've thought that X1 shouldn't have any problem with charging since the battery is only like 150mA more than TP. Also, if it's charging faster from the AC adapter, the same result should be expected when charging from USB port. Doesn't matter the type of battery used. Unless if X1 somehow limits the charging current on purpose when PC USB port is detected. Even though USB 2.0 is actually capable of giving out 1.5A maximum. Try to soft reset it after charging for about 2~3 hours. See if the battery gets fully charged. Some TP users are experiencing this issue as well when the battery meter only updates to fully charged after doing soft reset. Experienced users might want to try and measure the current drawn when charging via USB 2.0 port.
Hope this helps.

On my xperia if i put it in sleep mode, it charges no problem using USB.

the advantage used to charge slower from a usb port, that is until someone found out that the standard ac charger had a short across two of the usb pins, and with a quick mod of a usb cable charged quickly from the usb on a computer
however my x1 charges the same from usb or mains, I use the same cable, but can't see what difference that makes.
there are three conditions that affect charging speeds, whether device is on or not, off charges much faster, whether screen is on or not, screen off charges faster, whether theres good radio signal, if like at home, reception is dodgy it can really draw a lot of juice.

Just for comparison sake, I did a test on my TP just to confirm. Charging via USB 2.0 while it was on idle with screen turned on, from 4% to 100% it took about 2.5 hours and its battery feels warm.

Ok lets clear out some things.
A standard PC USB socket can provide maximum 500mA (milli-Amperes) Current at 5 Volt. Ideally that means that a battery rated at 1500mAh (milli-Amperes-hour) can be charged around 3 hours (minimum). Now, subtract the current that the xperia needs while operating and you will get how many milli-Amperes are left for charging.
Of course in order to know how many current the xperia needs to operate you need to connect an ammeter in series, also keep in mind that current needs change depending on usage (wifi, 3g, bluetooth etc).
So in essence if you USB port is not very good and can't give fully 500mA and the xperia needs a great amount of current to be on, then the charging time can be quite long. A simple formula could be:
xperia_Battery_mAh / (USB_Current - xperia_Current)
Now the mains charger is rated at a greater value than the USBs 500mA. Actually I don't own yet an xperia (waiting patiently to arrive), so I don't know how much current the charger can give. Can someone see what is the rating of the charger?
From other devices I own (that can charge through USB) I've seen that their chargers are rated as high as 2 Amperes. Obviously these devices never draw so much current, it is just a failsafe or it was more cheap for them to bundle a charger like that. But they could draw 800mA of current which the USB port is unable to do so.
Keep in mind that while charging with USB might be longer, generally it can be safer for the battery (longer battery life and more charge/discharge cycles), although I am not so sure about this with excessive charging times in a USB port.

[Q] Need a better charger cable when plugged into my work computer

So to my understanding the 2a that is supplied to our phones when plugged into the wall is due to the wall part and not the cable. Is there any difference in the cables that could provide me a better charge? I leave my phone plugged into my work computer most of the day and it doesnt seem to give it much of a charge. Is this something wrong with the USB port itself (can you systematically change the output provided on your computer? I wonder if t would make a difference in the front vs back usb ports.
Also I am not against getting a nice dock for it while its here at work but I like to keep it in landscape mode. If anyone knows of one available to keep it on with a clock or something and still eb able to charge it I would be appreciative.
Thanks in advance.

The computer usb ports are normally limited to 500mA. The oem wall charger is 2000mA. So you get 4x the current when plugged into the wall. On top of that some chargers have basic circuits in them that the phone recognizes so it knows to pull more current. If you want a fast charge use the supplied wall charger.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app

i do wonder about this too, as my iphone will charge (sufficiently) thru pc, but the note 2 takes forever

Do they sell or could you make a cable that has two usb plugs on the end, one that will plug into the computer for syncing and one that could plug into the oem wall charger for fast charging.
I would think you could use the two data wires in the usb to connect to the computer and the two power wires to go to the wall charger. Would be really easy to do and only require an old usb cable for the second male USB A end.
Does anybody have any experience with this or know if its possible. The dock seems to have this ability but I would prefer not to purchase an expensive dock.

Some of the more advanced PC motherboards out there have one or two high-current USB ports that can be set for dedicated smartphone/tablet charging. Most of these are Intel Sandy boards as far as I know.
FWIW the Perseus kernel charges far faster IME than the stock kernel.

The iPhone charges "more" than the Note 2 because the iPhone's battery has a smaller capacity. (1440 mAh vs 3100 mAh) so basically every 1% of battery on the Note 2 is over 2% on the iPhone.
ronzza said:
i do wonder about this too, as my iphone will charge (sufficiently) thru pc, but the note 2 takes forever
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A

Before I bought the note, I had a sgs with cm10 and a kernel that supports fast charge. It neglects the pins used for data signal on the usb and makes it a power source only, and I'm pretty sure I got around 1mah with this method though I didn't measure it.
Should be no reason for it not to work on our phones if a kernel supports the method.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

USB 3.0 changes from 2.0
MDavisiw said:
So to my understanding the 2a that is supplied to our phones when plugged into the wall is due to the wall part and not the cable. Is there any difference in the cables that could provide me a better charge? I leave my phone plugged into my work computer most of the day and it doesnt seem to give it much of a charge. Is this something wrong with the USB port itself (can you systematically change the output provided on your computer? I wonder if t would make a difference in the front vs back usb ports.
Also I am not against getting a nice dock for it while its here at work but I like to keep it in landscape mode. If anyone knows of one available to keep it on with a clock or something and still eb able to charge it I would be appreciative.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so this is my understanding. If it's a laptop they usually only have one usb port inside. its then run to a hub and from there split to all the other laptop usb ports that you see on the outside. so the power is usually lower than the 500ma. I thought the cable from cableforge.com was bad but it was just the low power from the laptop port.
This said USB 3.0 runs on its own line so it usually works better. now this is where i may be wrong isnt the usb 3.0 more than 500ma?

Excelus said:
The iPhone charges "more" than the Note 2 because the iPhone's battery has a smaller capacity. (1440 mAh vs 3100 mAh) so basically every 1% of battery on the Note 2 is over 2% on the iPhone.
A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The iphone and most other phones charge "more" because they pulls the entire 500mA that the usb spec allows. For some reason, Samsung phones only pull 96mA over usb. A new cable won't make a difference.

Want faster charging/Device discharging while charging/not charging? Read within!

Background
Hi all, I, for a very short period of time was suffering from the problem of my phone DISCHARGING while it was charging. This made no logical sense to me until I did some research, which I will detail below.
How USB Power works (Roughly)
Firstly let's discuss USB power provisioning. Strictly speaking, the specifications say that any given USB port should provide a maximum of 500mA (or 0.5A) at 5 volts. *Don't shoot me electronics guys, I'm simplifying for ease of explanations sake*. Imagine that ampage as the actual force of the charger, how quickly it can ram power into your phone. Like the rate of flow on a pipe.
The beginning of the problem
This was all fine and dandy when all USB was really used for was Keyboards, Mice, Memory, etc, low current draw devices. Something else I should mention here is that the Ampage that a port CAN provide is not the Ampage it DOES provide - the device draws a certain Ampage and if the USB controller agrees it outputs said Ampage. Later, when USB was beginning to be used for more power hungry applications, ie External hard drives, these required more power than the port could (In theory) provide. However, most more modern motherboards/USB controllers were more than capable of supplying plenty more Ampage if it was requested. This was breaking the specification but not in any massively dangerous way so as such nothing bad happens.
This is where we get to the actual issue people are experiencing here. The Nexus 4 is a standards compliant device in the respect that it seems to only draw 500mA from any USB port no matter what it's potential, unless it's an AC Wall wart. If you're experiencing problems with wakelocks (see XDA) and other things, this causes your phone to draw more than 500mA which means your phone actually discharges while it's charging! Terrible!
This is quite easy to get around, but again I'm going into detail so let's explain how the phone tells the difference between a dumb wall wart and a USB controller. Easily! The USB controller obviously makes use of the data pins found within the USB cable, whereas a wallwart just (almost always) shorts them out. The Nexus 4 can detect this short, and as such draw more power *While still in quotation marks staying in spec*.
The root problem is not with how the N4 is charging, it's with the wakelock you're experiencing which is causing the phone to draw so much power while the screen is off. While the screen is off and the phone is in Deepsleep (A CPU state where it uses very little power) - it should draw no more than 50mA leaving 450mA for charging the battery, but you guys are probably experiencing a wakelock of some sort.
Solutions to the problem or How to break a specification for the good of mankind
The simple solution is to install this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootuninstaller.batrsaver
This forces the device into a Deep sleep when the screen goes off by killing applications and turning off all internal chipsets that have wakelock capability, most commonly networking on the Nexus 4. This will allow your phone to charge (slowly) off USB without an issue. Another common wakelock is when the device is picked up by your desktop as a media device. The USB controller inside the Nexus 4 forces a wakelock which keeps it from charging. Stupid design, I know.
* A more hackish solution is to install Francos kernel, buy his app, and tick the Fast charging option in the kernel settings dialog. This will force the phone to think that everything is an AC adaptor and will force the phone to draw as much current as it can from the USB port (which on most modern motherboards is fine, and results in extremely quick charging).
* An even simpler solution than all this is to just use a 'USB Charging cable' - this is simply a cable that does not have the Data pins, and as such does exactly the same as what enabling USB fast charge above does. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Micro-USB...487076?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item51a465d124
If you live near a Poundland store here in the UK they sell a 4 in one USB cable type thing which turns 1 USB port into Ipod sync connector, Nokia connector, MicroUSB and MiniUSB, and this doesn't have the data pins and as such is excellent.
One final point, an excellent app for monitoring whether your device is actually charging or not and how quickly is Current widget: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manor.currentwidget&hl=en
This widget will tell you how much Ampage is going into or leaving your battery. If the battery icon is green, then it's discharging, if it's black/white then it's charging. The bigger the number, the faster the discharge/charge. This is an extremely easy way to test speed of chargers too.
Recommendations
Another solution, just use an AC Wall wart - they're cheap as hell and the one supplied with the Nexus 4 is an extremely fast charging one. Shame I've gone and lost mine.
A way to roughly monitor charging current draw
I'd also recommend you install https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manor.currentwidget&hl=en and monitor, if the battery is green while charging it's discharging and you need a more powerful charger/to figure out what's causing your phone to use so much power.
General good values in Current Widget
I generally saw a max draw of about 750mA for charging (not including draw for powering the device, the Nexus 4 can draw more power to charge and power the device) on my old Rev10 first generation Nexus 4. On my new Rev12 board I'm noticing this increase to about 850mA.
Are higher amperage chargers any benefit to anyone?
Yes and no. You will not notice faster charging unless you use your device while charging. Your nexus will draw as much power as it needs to power the phone while charging at the fastest rate. For example on the stock 1.2a charger
1200mA | 800mA goes to charging 400mA goes to powering the phone idling
Let's say you start a stability test. Your phone will obviously be using a lot more power so this will happen
1200mA | -600mA goes to charging and 1800mA goes to powering the phone stability testing
That minus value above may look strange! Let me explain. If the phone needs more power than the charger can supply, it will draw from the battery. That's the minus number.
If you have a higher ampage charger like for example a 2.5a charger
2500mA | 800mA goes to charging 400mA goes to powering the device
Stability testing
2500mA | 700mA goes to charging 1800mA goes to powering the device
Can you see the difference?
DISCLAIMER: I am not an electronics engineer nor do I claim to be, I am simply a hobbyist and this is what I've found to be the case. Please correct me if I've made any mistakes, I want to learn.

Thanks!
Thanks so much for this post. It's very helpful.

kn100 said:
Another common wakelock is when the device is picked up by your desktop as a media device. The USB controller inside the Nexus 4 forces a wakelock which keeps it from charging. Stupid design, I know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't true for everyone then as mine connects and charges just fine off of my laptop and desktop when connected as a media device. In fact its on my laptop right now charging, gone from 68% to 81% in about 30 minutes and it shows connected as a portable media player.

Great info! Thanks for writing this!
In certain use cases the Nexus4 discharges faster than it charges and this is a very useful guide.
I use my phone for navigation in my car and having the GPS on and the screen at high brightness
drains the battery faster than the 0.5A car chargers can supply. Car chargers rated for 2.0A work well.
I haven't tried a 'USB charging cable' with the data pins shorted, it may work as well.

-Mindroid- said:
Great info! Thanks for writing this!
In certain use cases the Nexus4 discharges faster than it charges and this is a very useful guide.
I use my phone for navigation in my car and having the GPS on and the screen at high brightness
drains the battery faster than the 0.5A car chargers can supply. Car chargers rated for 2.0A work well.
I haven't tried a 'USB charging cable' with the data pins shorted, it may work as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
was over in Nexus 7 forums and the 4.2.x kernel should have solved the problem at least for having to use shorted cables. have to wait and see if 4.2.2 brings any more changes.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1984838
Section 6 in this link is about power supplied through USB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus
I can't tell if we have an updated kernel allowing faster usb charging as I'm limited by the power output of the usb port in my laptop. The output (5V at 500mA max) is controlled by the laptop (USB Standards) and it doesn't matter what the phone or cable is capable of as that's the max it will give out and that's about what I'm charging at. If I had a dedicated charging port in my laptop then it would be different and I could see if its able to draw more power. I have a 1.0 amp port in my car and it does charge at the higher amperage, I would assume it would do the same thing if I had a 2 amp usb port in the car. So I think the stock kernel has the fast usb charge built in it just depends upon if you have a usb port capable of providing a faster charger, it has nothing to do with the cable as I'm using a standard unmodified micro usb cable and its able to draw the max a usb device is able to put out.

thanks
thanks for a great detailed post!!!
I have the same trouble with my N4 when I was charging while using my phone...
I find it very slow... I guess I've been spoiled by my previous iPhone (which charges fairly fast)....
i might be stating the obvious but I find the phone charged "a lot" faster when it's OFF
if you are running low with your battery and need a quick 10 min charge, just do yourself a favour by turning off your phone...
the difference is quite significant!

kzoodroid said:
This isn't true for everyone then as mine connects and charges just fine off of my laptop and desktop when connected as a media device. In fact its on my laptop right now charging, gone from 68% to 81% in about 30 minutes and it shows connected as a portable media player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, me too. It only discharges while charging when I am playing like NFS most wanted.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

The issue with cables is with the LG usb wall charger as the one supplied isn't capable of getting the 5 volts at 1.2 amps that the charger is rated at, mine is getting around 300 - 400 mA. The micro usb cable I have in my car and use with my laptop (for charging and data transfer) is able to handle the higher amperage, it gets around 1 amp with the LG plug. There are no specs on these cables so I can't list a definitive difference and I would assume that the cable mod in the OP might help with the LG cable. It also might just be simpler to only buy those cables capable of handling higher amperage as obviously they are out there from my experience.

The cable I'm using is an RCA coiled charging/syncing cable model AH732CBR (has data pins). The maximum I'm getting from this is about 870 mA regardless of the amperage of the usb port, I've tried a 1.0, 1.2 and 2.1 and they are all around 870 mA on current widget. I would suppose if I could find a strictly charging cable I could get higher (link to ebay in OP is outdated) but this is still 2x that which I'm getting from the LG cable supplied with the phone which only puts out 300-400 mA. Our phone also has Qualcomm's quick charge which is supposed to improve battery charging times by 40%.
http://www.droid-life.com/2013/02/1...allows-your-device-to-charge-up-to-40-faster/

How do you measure how much mA the device draw from the charger?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

omrij said:
How do you measure how much mA the device draw from the charger?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
current widget, link is in the OP

kzoodroid said:
The cable I'm using is an RCA coiled charging/syncing cable model AH732CBR (has data pins). The maximum I'm getting from this is about 870 mA regardless of the amperage of the usb port, I've tried a 1.0, 1.2 and 2.1 and they are all around 870 mA on current widget. I would suppose if I could find a strictly charging cable I could get higher (link to ebay in OP is outdated) but this is still 2x that which I'm getting from the LG cable supplied with the phone which only puts out 300-400 mA. Our phone also has Qualcomm's quick charge which is supposed to improve battery charging times by 40%.
http://www.droid-life.com/2013/02/1...allows-your-device-to-charge-up-to-40-faster/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bit of a late reply but please bear in mind the Nexus will NOT draw anything more than about 800mAh from the wall for charging alone. That is the absolute max and is a hardware limit - If the cable is transmitting that and it's showing in current widget you've got a good setup. See the added section in OP for more info on higher amperage chargers.

[Q] Only charging from Sony chargers?

So, for the past couple of days I've run my battery pretty much dry, when I got to a charger it was at about 6-12% both times. What I've noticed is that my phone doesn't seem to charge from anything except the charger it came with (in the dock... now that I think of it, I should probably have tested that as well, so it isn't just shutting down USB when low on battery) when it is in this low-battery state, nor does it appear in ADB. I tried shutting the phone off and charging like that, but it didn't work. As I am typing this, the phone (currently at a much higher charge) is successfully charging from exactly the same machine and same USB cable that it wouldn't work with last night while at 6%... what gives?
Has anyone else experienced this?
For the record I am running CyanogenMod nightlies (2013-06-10), however I am finding it difficult to believe that software would have an impact on this.

Rekoil said:
... What I've noticed is that my phone doesn't seem to charge from anything except the charger it came with...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange. I'm currently using my. Old x10 charger and got no trouble. The manufacturer should not have any impact for charging. You can use an iDevice charger if you really need juice. ( of course with the right cable )
Rekoil said:
...I tried shutting the phone off and charging like that, but it didn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it's CM that not allows off charging... If I want to charge my old x10, I had to tun it on. If I connect the charger the green light tun on. So it go into flashmod.
Rekoil said:
I am finding it difficult to believe that software would have an impact on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know how deep dose CM control the charging. Seems to be enough to make troubles... An answer from a dev would be welcome.
Hope I could help a bit.
"I know that my English isn't perfect, but I still hope it's comprehensible." Send over the cool Xperia Z

naphets8 said:
That's strange. I'm currently using my. Old x10 charger and got no trouble. The manufacturer should not have any impact for charging. You can use an iDevice charger if you really need juice. ( of course with the right cable )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well like I said, at the moment (at 80%) it is charging fine using all manner of chargers (Apple iPhone charger included). It is only when I really need it that it doesn't seem to want to charge from "lesser" chargers
naphets8 said:
I believe it's CM that not allows off charging... If I want to charge my old x10, I had to tun it on. If I connect the charger the green light tun on. So it go into flashmod.
I don't know how deep dose CM control the charging. Seems to be enough to make troubles... An answer from a dev would be welcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I will have to restore Sony software on it and try at some point. It certainly doesn't seem like there is a good reason for this behaviour to be hardware related, I mean what if I didn't have the dock? (Again, need to test if the original charger will charge via USB in low battery state)
naphets8 said:
"I know that my English isn't perfect, but I still hope it's comprehensible." Send over the cool Xperia Z
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not as bad as you seem to think

Ok, I think I've nailed this down. My Xperia Z dropped to 18% at some point during the weekend. And all I had to charge it with was an iPhone charger (providing up to 1.1A so that's still not too bad) and a USB cable without a data pair. This didn't start charging. However, luckily my friend had an LG charger with a USB cable containing data pairs. This did start charging! (And his phone charged using my iPhone charger with data-less USB cable) Unfortunately I am an idiot and didn't think to try his cable with the iPhone charger, but at least this is a start! (I'm starting to believe it is the iPhone chargers somehow, which is strange because electricity is electricity, and chargers don't discriminate)

I use my old N900 charger
Sorry to hear you have problems with the charger, I use my N900 charger to charge anything (that charges by micro USB - Including my Xperia Z) around the house with no problems. I can't charge the phone in a MAC or PC USB port if the device is not detected (even if the port has power), but I found out that lots of devices behave like this (I guess its a good way of forcing users to buy a "quick" charger).
Rekoil said:
Ok, I think I've nailed this down. My Xperia Z dropped to 18% at some point during the weekend. And all I had to charge it with was an iPhone charger (providing up to 1.1A so that's still not too bad) and a USB cable without a data pair. This didn't start charging. However, luckily my friend had an LG charger with a USB cable containing data pairs. This did start charging! (And his phone charged using my iPhone charger with data-less USB cable) Unfortunately I am an idiot and didn't think to try his cable with the iPhone charger, but at least this is a start! (I'm starting to believe it is the iPhone chargers somehow, which is strange because electricity is electricity, and chargers don't discriminate)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Ok. It's effectively a start of and answer. It make me believe that the phone communicate somehow someway with the charger. But that sounds unrealistic.
You wake up my curiosity. Will try to look at this. But it will take some time.
"I know that my English isn't perfect, but I still hope it's comprehensible." Send over the cool Xperia Z

zunido said:
Sorry to hear you have problems with the charger, I use my N900 charger to charge anything (that charges by micro USB) around the house with no problems. I can't charge the phone in a MAC or PC USB port if the device is not detected (even if the port has power), but I found out that lots of devices behave like this (I guess its a good way of forcing users to buy a "quick" charger).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd, a micro USB cable doesn't change by the manufacturer, except if they change de voltage, i use the Sony cable and a GS3 usb cable at work, no any problem.
Anyway just in case i always prefer to use the manufacturer cable to avoid damage my phone.

QualQuek said:
That's odd, a micro USB cable doesn't change by the manufacturer, except if they change de voltage, i use the Sony cable and a GS3 usb cable at work, no any problem.
Anyway just in case i always prefer to use the manufacturer cable to avoid damage my phone.
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We don't think it is the cable (unless it is a cable which only has the power pair and no data pair, that could be a problem), but rather the charger, that is causing problems.

[Q] using laptop battery as usb charger

I bought a crappy battery pack from dx.com.
the battery works but makes a horrible noise when connecting the phone to the 2A port ... 1A no problem
also it was cheap, chinese, and labled "power bnak" instead of "bank"... total crap
and then I thought... I have a practically new perfectly good huge capacity 12 cell laptop battery that is just sitting on the shelf doing nothing since I don't carry around my laptop most of the time and its connected to ac power with battery disconnected all the time....
what if I could connect a Usb port directly to the battery?
It could be a really overkill emergency charger!
Anyone knows how this can be done?

maxlieb said:
I bought a crappy battery pack from dx.com.
the battery works but makes a horrible noise when connecting the phone to the 2A port ... 1A no problem
also it was cheap, chinese, and labled "power bnak" instead of "bank"... total crap
and then I thought... I have a practically new perfectly good huge capacity 12 cell laptop battery that is just sitting on the shelf doing nothing since I don't carry around my laptop most of the time and its connected to ac power with battery disconnected all the time....
what if I could connect a Usb port directly to the battery?
It could be a really overkill emergency charger!
Anyone knows how this can be done?
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Wrong voltage.. U would frie your charging circuts..

maydayind said:
Wrong voltage.. U would frie your charging circuts..
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When you charge from the wall socket it's also the wrong voltage... you convert it

maxlieb said:
When you charge from the wall socket it's also the wrong voltage... you convert it
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True but u asked if u connect it derectly. So stop asking questions u already know the answer to..

maydayind said:
True but u asked if u connect it derectly. So stop asking questions u already know the answer to..
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Directly meant without a huge laptop attached to it

It's possible
Some laptops will keep power flowing to USB ports without being fully on- possibly in sleep mode. Recommend doing that if that's the case, although that's quite heavy to carry around just for charging your phone.

A multi meter can tell you what voltages are coming off the laptop battery and radio shack or a local electrical supply store can get you the parts to convert the voltage to the same as the battery on the "power bnak" then it should just be a matter of making sure you have solid connection and plug in - that big of a power source would be great for camping or power outages.