[Q] Is any kind of fast charging possible? - Galaxy S 4 Active Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Team,
First off, I want to say thank you for creating an amazing resource for these phones. I currently have a Galaxy S4 Active MF3. I bought the phone with the intent of using it in conjunction with my car stereo, which is a Pioneer 8500 BHS. I've paired this up with a Samsung MHL 2.0 adapter and ARLiberator. On top of this, I have installed a OBD-II bluetooth module in the car that also communicates with the phone. The end result is that the phone delivers full touch screen control of all apps on the phone, full bluetooth hands free calling, voice control, GPS (Tom Tom), Pandora, and most importantly, gives me a second dashboard where I can customize any gauge that the car did not offer stock, such as boost gauge, wideband air/fuel ratio, exhaust gas temperature, and a few other things. I'm using the full version of Torque to do this. It is amazingly useful, with one exception. The Samsung MHL adapter never lets the phone charge at more than 300 milliamps. The USB connection straight from the stereo charges at 900, and a 2.1 AMP charger with the Samsung cable will charge at 1900. However, regardless of the combination I use, the MHL always cuts this down to 300. This causes the phone to lose about 15-20% of it's charge every hour. For short trips, this is OK, but for longer trips, I can no longer use GPS, which is a big problem, as that's the whole reason I got the phone. Other users of the standard Galaxy S4 and this combination have been able to get around this issue by installing a ROM with Fast Charge enabled, which gives them 800 milliamps. This is just enough to let the phone be used and slowly charged at the same time.
I understand that currently we're limited to stock kernels with modifications layered on top (GoldenEye, ETC...), and that the Fast Charge code requires a kernel recompile in order to function. Is this correct? Do I have any other options? I've considered wiring in a wireless charger just to get the phone to charge on long trips, but I'm concerned that wireless charging in addition to the USB input and charge may cause the battery to overheat or reduce it's life.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Matt

as far as I know, there is a possibility of welding a 100 Ohm (or just short circuit (more risky, but I've read that some guys using a standard usb cable with simple bypassed Data-wires in combination with the S4A)) between the D+ and D+ wires of the USB-Cable (should be the green and white wire within the cable). Regarding http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs a resistance below 200 ohm is the sign for a dedicated charging cable/device.
I've seen a manual of an sgs user, having full loading speed in his car, using a modified cable. Unfortunately his manual is in German, u can find it here. All credits belong to him.
by the way, i am pretty sure u will find an similar manual within this xda-board using the right search patterns, cause It does not seem to be device related.

shaDNfro,
Thank you very much for your reply, but unfortunately the 'cable mod' will not work in this instance. The reason that it won't work is that the stereo needs the Data + and Data - for Audio and synchronization data being sent back to the headunit for broadcast, and the MHL blocks the D+ and D- resistance from reaching the phone. To verify this, I took a stock Samsung cable with a voltage inverter in the car, and wired the whole system up into the MHL adapater. The system still charges at 300 ma, despite the fact that I can plug the same cable going into the MHL directly into the phone and get 1900 ma. If I use a 'modded' cable without the inverter, then the MHL still charges at 300 ma, but AppRadio will not function, as it gets no signal from the data ports on the USB. To add insult to injury, the MHL input is a 12 pin interface, and shunting D+ and D- cables on the MHL output is dangerous, as the system is doing more with the 12 pins than a standard 4 pin USB. I really don't want to fry a 400+ dollar phone.
What we really need here is one of two things:
1. The ability to upload a recompiled kernel into the system (I know that we have a bounty on this and it's not going anywhere)
2. The ability to modify the input amperage without a recompiled kernel
I'm not sure if either of the above two things can be done. I'm either going to have to live with this or get a new phone.
If ANYONE has any other ideas, please let me know!
Matt

Is it possible to mod usb cable to take the power directly from car charger?
Connect usb chargin wires to car charger from phones end of usb??
Sent from my GT-I9295 using poor english.

Vaiski said:
Is it possible to mod usb cable to take the power directly from car charger?
Connect usb chargin wires to car charger from phones end of usb??
Sent from my GT-I9295 using poor english.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vaiski,
That's not a bad idea! From some more of my recent research, it appears that I now have three options I can look into:
1. Vaiski's idea of adding a 2.1 AMP second USB line to the + and - phone input while cutting the current MHL + and - cable output. This would essentially allow the MHL to get its power from the stereo's USB input, and the phone to get its power from an external, high amperage USB line and still allow me to keep the data flowing between the phone, MHL adapter, and stereo. I've got a second 'generic' MHL adapter that I wouldn't mind cutting up to spare my $50.00 Samsung MHL adapter if this doesn't work. This wouldn't allow the system to get the full 1900 ma, but it should get me upwards of 300 ma, which is where I am now.
2. I can add a wireless charger into the mix. From what I've read, if you charge with USB and wireless charging at the same time, the wireless charging would take priority. This would give me the same results as option #1.
3. I can try using the samsung S4 Multimedia dock. It appears that the dock doesn't have the same voltage output limitations as the MHL adapter. It does cost $100.00, though, and it's rather bulky.
These are all really great ideas, but what really bothers me about all this is that it shouldn't be necessary. If Samsung/AT&T hadn't installed a bootloader kernel checksum, none of this would matter. I could simply put a custom kernel in and call it a day with my current hardware. Hopefully someone will crack the bootloader soon. That would really be the best option instead of being locked into 4.2.2.
Thanks again!
Matt

s4 active charging
mattb22 said:
Vaiski,
Thanks again!
Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know whether or not you found a solution to your problem yet. I discovered same problem using stock charging cable and having Bluetooth, Wi-Fi amd GPS turned on, playing music through usb to a pioneer stereo.... no Bluetooth on stereo, but was using a BT hands-free device. Anyway, same problem as you, charger wouldn't keep up. Tried turning off Wi-Fi... had mobile hotspot turned on for wife's tablet, helped some but still drained faster than charged. A couple months ago, I couldn't find the factory charging/data cable and phone needed charging, so I tried a cable from one of those battery powered phone chargers, thing is only about a foot long, but phone said "charging" it went from about 30% to full in less than an hour, this phone has never charged that fast. I've experimented with it a bit, and it won't work as a data cable but it will keep up with everything turned on. I don't know if it's the length of the cable, or if the pins on the cable are different, in any case, try different cables, if you only need charge while your driving then the lack of data won't be a problem, though I liked being able to charge and listen to music at the same time, I'd rather know that my phone won't be dead when I get to the other end of a long road trip.... besides I figured out that a flash drive plugged into stereo plays music better.
Hope this helps

Related

Friend purchasing nook for me. Should I get anything else?

I have a friend who is visting the US (I'm from Canada) and I asked him to pick me up a nook. Not finding clear info in some of the reviews, mainly concerned about charging.
This charges over usb when hooked up to your computer right? Just want to make sure it doesn't use a proprietary cable for charging. I read on the ipad side, that older computers don't give out enough power to charge over usb, is that an issue with the nook?
What adapters/cables does it come with exactly? And is it just a standard mini-sub for the charging?
Also, this has a headset jack correct? I've read no bluetooth, I guess there's no way to get a mic working on this then.
Micro USB, will charge VERY slowly using a computer. Includes a 2amp wall socket and special cable to quick charge (still micro usb, just more pins). Has a headset port but does not come with a headset.
I've only had a few mobile devices. I read the ipad can charge over usb if the mobo supports giving out that extra juice. Some mobo's have a new firmware update to enable this.
The connector is micro-usb but just more pins. Hmm. so if the cable breaks or I misplace it no other micro-usb will charge it?
edit: i read a little more and found that it's 30 pin proprietary cable to speed up charging. I also read the galaxy tab does something similar.
Does anyone know if they use the same pin configuration? probably not, but I can get tab usb cables here.
I know you didn't ask for it but I'll tell you anyway
In case you are worrying about registering your device (mandatory at initial setup).
I'm NOT in the US and it worked fine.
Good to know. Thanks.
But I'm more concerned about charging it and relying solely on their cables.
I read the ipad can trickle charge on newer computers but some wouldn't provide enough power. Asus et al have released utilities to increase the power to the usb ports.
I can't post the links but endgadget has an article about it providing links to those utilites. They just talk of apple devices but does this work with the nook?
It comes with a charger for US-type sockets and only if you charge your nook with this (and yes, it is proprietary ) it'll charge quickly. It does seem to charge when you connect it to a standard PC USB port but at an extremely low rate.
On the device Micro-USB (not Mini) is used.
You say it does seem to, do you mean from personal experience? How slow? It sounds like that if you do own one it was so slow you didn't let it finish.
Like if it's 8hrs overnight, I can live with that, but I want to confirm that there is a plan b and not solely rely on their cables.
And as I mentioned asus and others released utils to give more power output to the usb (although these seem like their were only created for ipads). Wondering if those utils speed things up.
for ex, google asus ai charger to see what I mean.
I received my nook Color a mere few hours ago so I can't tell you a lot about its charging behavior It "seems" to load slower via standard USB... if you want to know about the details check one of the large threads on the NOOK and its rooting. I remember reading some information about the USB connector and its peculiarities there.
Ah you just got it. I see.
I found this on the root thread:
'
"There are 12 pins coming off the connector. It looks like there are no pins for the standard micro USB portion, only the extended 12 pins. 2 pins are used to bring in +5V, 2 pins are for signal ground providing a hefty circuit for the 2A charging. USB takes up two pins, and as far as I can tell 2 more are for each LED via current limiting resistors. Two more pins go to discretes that I haven't identified, and two more pins are unconnected. I'll take my scope to them when I have some time."
Not sure what he means when he says no pins for the standard micro portion...
Maybe the plug doesn't have standard USB pins, but the NOOK itself does have standard USB pins as well as the proprietary ones. Because I have trouble inserting the original B&N plug, I went out earlier today and bought a standard Micro USB cable...
I connected it to the nook and it said "not charging", so I went out to do some shopping (10-20 minutes max) and left it at 89%... when I came back it was at 93 %.
So it DOES in fact seem to charge albeit slowly.
Thanks. It's weird, lots of comments of its own cable not fitting properly.
As long as it charges with a normal cable I'm good.
I guess it is charging... however there is a slight chance, that it's NOT charging and the battery charge display is lying (de-calibrated). I don't think so, but I'll only know for sure after a few more days of using only the standard USB charger cable.

[Q] Faster USB Charging?

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
Click to expand...
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
----------------
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.

Car Chargers

Hey all, I know this is a development area - but there is no General section for the G9... anyway...
I have an 80 Gen 9 original none hard drive none turbo which im installing in my car. So far it looks really really good - ill post a video when i finally get the facia on it. However I am struggling to keep up with the charge power wise.
I originally brought a tomtom microusb charger - which according to form puts out 1 amp (not enough). This works fine on my HTC evo 3d, but cant keep up with the power consumption of the 80. It does not show as a "slow" charger.
I then brought an adapter off ebay that has a 2.1a and a 1a port. These originally showed as slow, so I made an adapter cable shorting the data pins so it knows its a charger - but neither port can keep the thing powered, and both these and the tomtom 1 amp seem to discharge at the same speed while plugged in.
Im waiting on one from newmp3technology that is stated as a fast charger for the archos g9...
Now, on the device i have turned off bluetooth and wifi turned off, backlight always on at around 1/2 brightness, and i have it running an external laptop hard drive off the port on the back. GPS gets turned on when necassary - but doesnt really seem to negatively affect the power situation (which was kinda surpising). Ive set the maximum CPU usage at just 600mhz to try and kerb the power consumption also. While driving i have Poweramp continually playing, and have used copilot on and off for sat nav. It doesnt drop fast - but nor is it staying fully charged. Im sure I had no problems with this while on AC power in the house.
If anyone knows of a working fast charger, or has a suggestion I would be most greatful. I may between now and then test with an invertor and ac power supply. One other idea I have is to run the USB hard drive with a powered USB hub, to move the power consumption away from the device.
I believe there was one of those dual-usb chargers from Belkin, but knowing them the charger could be pretty expensive.
It also has one 2 amp and one 1 amp slot, though I have not tried it yet.
i have this
http://www.newmp3technology.com/francais/all-Archos-model-charger.htm
This is an other option www.newmp3technology.com/francais/archos-101-80-g9-cigar-split.htm
I also need to be able to run/ charge my 80G9 turbo on the road for long periods.
first the basics, the original Archos cable must be used to get max charge (its short and has the log like thing inline near tablet) every other cable/ wall charger I have tried will only give weak charge and if using tablet with other cable it may never charge at all *if you know this great, but everyday others have to find this out the slow or no charge way
now, that applies to the wall plug for sure but with a cigarette lighter usb adapter I'm not so sure you will get enough juice just with that cable. If there is a 12V adapter or complete plug and usb cord that gives full needed output, great. until its used and proven (real world) I don't know if it exist yet.
the best alternative may be to use a Power Inverter like one below, there are so many available I don't know if the ones with usb outlets would work, I have a cheap inverter I need to try but just with factory Archos wall plug & cable (I've used it in the past to power a hand grinder etc. with no problem, car battery stayed charged up even when vehicle was off)
http://www.amazon.com/Wagan-2003-6-...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1329710122&sr=1-17
I use the original Wall-Charger that came with the Tablet in conjunction with an HTC USB Cable that came with my HTC Desire.
It's charging as fast as with the original Archos USB Cable.
Even the small Wall-Charger from the Desire charges the Tablet very fast.
OK Ive received the so called fast charger from newmp3technology and it registers as a slow charger using the original supplied cable from archos. It took 17 days to arrive... not particularly happy with newmp3technology.
Anyway, I have found that the tomtom charger does actually charge the system while it is active - even though its only a 1 amp charger and the system requires 1.5 amp. Over about a week of driving for approx 1.5 - 2 hours a day the charge has risen from 0% to 19%. I had a USB extension (no more than 1 meter long) in line with the charger and that actually slowed the rate of charge.
The system is active the whole time - usually playing music through power amp, and sometimes using GPS via copilot. Ill test again to see that it can still maintain charge with GPS running. These devices really only require a small amount of power - I used to run a full computer in car and that pulled a bunch of power.
Here's the general section
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1511
No Probs - unfortunately that section did not exist when i created this thread...

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.

What wire lines of the usb does android auto use?

Usb has 4 (generally) wires Red and Black for +-5v and another two for data (most often white, green).
The question is: Do i need all 4 wires for car head unit to recognize android auto by connecting the usb?
If i cut voltage (red and black wires) will it still recognize it?
If not, if i give external voltage to phone to red and black wires i have cute, will it work now or not again?
My main problem for asking this, is that car head unit does not provide much voltage when connecting phone for android auto and decharging slowly..
I am sure if i cut voltage wires as i describe above and connected to a light charger i will have more voltage.
But i afraid destroying head unit so i prefer to cut voltage of head unit, and use only voltage from lighter charger..
Any info about this?
I am actually going to install permanently an old phone to the head unit only for android auto.. And i want to be changed.
Anyway i decided to destroy a cable to find out myself..
By only cutting red wire, android auto loose connection...
But how does it see it?.. If i put a resistor or something could i trick it?..
If anyone know would be very helpful.
Sent from my SM-T700 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Hi Sosimple
I have no possibility of trying it myself but I guess there are two possible problems that cause Android auto to stop working.
1: mobile
Your phone recognises that it isn't being charged so there can't be a Android auto connection. To test this out, connect a charger to your modified cable (connect plus and minus to the charger and d+ and d- to the car)
2: car
Your car recognises that there is no draw at the USB port, so no smartphone is connected (this is unlikely though, because the smartphone could have a full battery). To test this, try putting a resistor in between plus and minus of the cable. (10Ohm~500mA so don't go below 10Ohm. Try higher resistors first)
If none of the above work, consider buying a USB y cable (used for external HDD) to cross out possible mistakes
Regards
Thanks. I will test a resistore some day..
My car (intellilink system is called, opel corsa) has 1 usb only. But you can connect a 4 port usb switch, so to use 1 port for a usb stick with mp3, and another usb to connect phone for android auto at the same time.
And working fine this way.
If i use a y cable to connect it 1st usb to lighter charger, 2nd microusb to phone, and 3rd usb to usb switch, i really don't know what is going to happened regarding voltages. If there is any danger for the intellilink system of opel corsa.
I don't care if anything happens to phone as i have an old to test, or the switch, as it is cheap, but i do care for intellilink as it is expensive. That's why i haven't test a y cable..
Sent from my SM-G9350 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
If Android auto works with the switch, no need for trying a resistor (because only the switch could measure the current draw)
So the reason it doesn't work must be the missing charge voltage at your phone. Did you try connecting + and - to a charger?
Your switch gave me another idea. Try finding a powered switch (a USB powered or directly 12v powered one). Those switches with external power exist and they could provide enough amps to charge your phone while using Android Auto.
m00str said:
If Android auto works with the switch, no need for trying a resistor (because only the switch could measure the current draw)
So the reason it doesn't work must be the missing charge voltage at your phone. Did you try connecting + and - to a charger?
Your switch gave me another idea. Try finding a powered switch (a USB powered or directly 12v powered one). Those switches with external power exist and they could provide enough amps to charge your phone while using Android Auto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i also had the idea to take a powered usb switch. I couldn't find one where i live yet..
Although if i found one, i also have the fear if i could harm cars intellilink system..
Because: Intellilink takes voltage from cars battery and give voltage to usb.
If i then i take a powered usb switch, which i will connect it to usb charger lighter (which takes voltage from car battery) and connect then the switch to usb of intellilink system, who really knows what happens Regarding voltages? All take power from cars battery. I don't know if i can connect them without destroing intellilink system..
Thing become to complicated to be sure what will happened.
I read alot in forums but haven't read something similar..
Anyway if i test it, i will post the result..
Sent from my SM-G9350 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Those external powered switches usually separate input data and output voltage completely, so there is most likely no connection at all
The point that both devices are powered by the same source (car battery) even reduces the risks of damage because of the same minus/ground potential. (I would even connect the minus poles of all devices if I soldered myself a y cable, just to have all GNDs connected, but there is no need to do so.)
Can't you order one from Amazon or eBay? I don't know where you are from but most Chinese or Hong Kong sellers (eBay) ship almost worldwide.
I hope it works for you somehow.
I probably will create one by muself.. I live in Greece. I have already created one, doing something similar. With an on/off button i choose if i will change phone from usb charger from lighter OR connect to intellilink (and disconect from usb lighter charger at the same time)..
I experiment with this. It looks to work well as in on i have intellilink connection, android auto, and in off i disconect from intellilink but charge from usb charger in lighter..
I'll keep this for some time..
Sent from my Nexus 5X using XDA-Developers Legacy app

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