Database Develop

HD2 Mains Charger with a difference!

I think this is pretty unique
http://tinyurl.com/yztqtrq
A mains charger with multiple plus adapters BUT...and here is the clever bit, the mains charger has a small lithium ion battery built in so that whilst you are charging your HD2...it's also charging the internal battery. That means if you are away from a power source, you can still charge your HD2 by flicking the switch on the side of the mains unit and it then charges your HD2.
I haven't had it long enough yet to see how many charges it'll do, but it seems like a good bit of kit and the only charging kit I'll ever need. Heck, it even comes with two USB ports in the top, (you can actually charge TWO devices at the same time) plus a USB charge cable and a car charger plug too.

Nice, but what's the battery capacity there? It looks a bit smallish.

Batrtery capacity
Looking at the battery it's a 3.7v, 1000mAh ... 'BL-5C' which I think is battery for some Nokia phones.

..you don't use the smaller 'emergency' battery actually in your HD2, you just plug your HD2 into the charger as normal, flick a switch on the charger and it uses the juice in the emergency battery to charge your HD2. So this means that even if you are away from mains power, you can still charge your device
simples...

1000 mAH is too little, alas. Otherwise I'd get a couple of those.

Too little...?
Hiya
Electricity isn't my strong point....but I don't get why you say 'it's too little'. I've been charging my HD2 using the device and it seems OK. Did I confuse you? The 1000 doesn't go *IN* the HD2...it stays in the charging unit and charges it form there...

stevep said:
I think this is pretty unique
http://tinyurl.com/yztqtrq
A mains charger with multiple plus adapters BUT...and here is the clever bit, the mains charger has a small lithium ion battery built in so that whilst you are charging your HD2...it's also charging the internal battery. That means if you are away from a power source, you can still charge your HD2 by flicking the switch on the side of the mains unit and it then charges your HD2.
I haven't had it long enough yet to see how many charges it'll do, but it seems like a good bit of kit and the only charging kit I'll ever need. Heck, it even comes with two USB ports in the top, (you can actually charge TWO devices at the same time) plus a USB charge cable and a car charger plug too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great find! The whole package is actually as cheap as a cheap non-OEM HD2 battery

stevep said:
The 1000 doesn't go *IN* the HD2...it stays in the charging unit and charges it form there...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but that doesn't matter - surely a 1000 mAh battery will not be able to fully charge the HD2's 1230 mAh battery?
In fact, it would probably be better if the secondary battery did go into the HD2 as you're sure to lose some of the power by way of heat etc during the charging.

I must say i like the car charging aspect. If you find yourself low in the morning, you can charge while you driving, and take it with into work (or anywhere without having to plug in) and finnish it off. Traveling time is not usually sufficient to give a decent charge.
You can then replenish the small battery on the way home. Makes sense.

I got one of these but am having some trouble using the sync & charge cable with a PC. Although the phone will charge when plugged in, t I'm not asked whether I want to connect via ActiveSync, disk drive, etc. and I get driver errors on the PC. Do I have to do something special to use the cable with a PC?

I think its a charging cable only and not a data transfer cable.

[Q] Making an external battery charger.

Hi there!
My brother just bought me a spare battery. Well it still needs to be charged after usuage. The thing is I have to swap the batteries everytime I used them both. The solution is to buy a cradle to charge it but these are kinda expensive.
My solution would be to build my own charging cradle. But I lack the knowledge of electricity skills to succesfully making such charger without blowing up my battery. Therefor I'm asking the community on XDA for help!
Well this is what I need:
- Battery has 3 connectors: + and - and on in the middle but i dont know what that is.
- I have a usb cable with 4 wires (black/red/green/white)
- I want to connect the usb connecter to my PC or AC adapter and the wires to my battery.
This way I can charge both my HD2 and the spare battery at the same time.
The question is, is this possible and if yes, can this be done just like that or do I need transistors or conductors (or whatever they may called). It needs to be safe, I dont wanna blow up my battery or my AC adapter nor my PC...

Do not even contemplate it.
It is clear that you do not know enough about batteries.
A quick google for desktop chargers came back with one for only £30

For 25quid i got a spare battery, desktop charger and 2 screen protectors from e-bay. Carnt go wrong at that price

I know that the AC adapter converts the input of electrical energy to my phone, I believe my phone does it to my battery too (thats where I'm not too sure).
All I need to know is if I can charge the battery safely when connecting the red wire to the + and the black wire to the - side of the battery... (The green and white wires are data)
I'm not to sure because the AC adapter has a different output than the PC USB output. Although the USB dilivers a tiny bit less voltage it delivers a significant less amount of Whats (or Amps) Basicly that means it just takes longer for the USB to charge as long as the voltage remains identical. (The USB delivers less voltage but the effect on damaging the battery is minimal because the difference is discardable)
My actuall question was: can I connect my battery directly to the AC adapter or do I need to convert the electical energy again (if my phone does a second convert after the AC adapter).

You can find chargers on eBay for less than 5usd. Buy one or you will fry your battery.

VerusAmos said:
I know that the AC adapter converts the input of electrical energy to my phone, I believe my phone does it to my battery too (thats where I'm not too sure).
All I need to know is if I can charge the battery safely when connecting the red wire to the + and the black wire to the - side of the battery... (The green and white wires are data)
I'm not to sure because the AC adapter has a different output than the PC USB output. Although the USB dilivers a tiny bit less voltage it delivers a significant less amount of Whats (or Amps) Basicly that means it just takes longer for the USB to charge as long as the voltage remains identical. (The USB delivers less voltage but the effect on damaging the battery is minimal because the difference is discardable)
My actuall question was: can I connect my battery directly to the AC adapter or do I need to convert the electical energy again (if my phone does a second convert after the AC adapter).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Watts not Whats
Simple answer: No you cannot connect your battery directly to the AC adaptor.
Detailed answer:
The USB port of a computer/AC adaptor provides approx 5V and a variety of currents depending on what the USB lead is plugged into.
This 5V goes to the phone.
Inside the phone is the battery charging circuit, this detects the level of charge in the battery, controls the voltage and current going to the battery to stop it releasing too much hydrogen which would cause the battery to swell and explode (look on youtube for lithium polymer battery fires).
If you think you can create a charging circuit (including selecting the right ICs and programming them) without burning yourself in a hydrogen/lithium fire, be my guest.

Incapable of making an external battery charger...
Here I am trying not to be a complete idiot and then I go and spell watts the wrong way...
But tnx for the replies, that was all I needed to hear... I guess I'll be swapping batteries after all untill I find a cheap external battery charger...
Cheers!!!

Amzer makes a very nice cradle with charging slot for your spare battery. I got mine for $28USD. I'm not going to provide the link to the outfit I bought mine from because they weren't the best of suppliers to buy from. But the Amzer cradle works very well. Downside is that you cannot use it if you have a case for your Leo that wraps around it, and is designed to stay on. Leo must be caseless to fit into the cradle. But even if you don't use the cradle as a cradle, it does have the ability to charge your spare battery.

Quick question about charging a mobile battery

Quick question. If you leave your phone plugged in and its fully charged and your using it, is the phone just leeching off the charger for power or is the charger pushing out small bursts of power to the battery. The context of my question is i'm starting to use webtop alot and I leave my phone on all day plugged in. Is continuing this behavior going to impact my battery or does the phone just leech directly off the charger without using the battery?

It's fine to leave it plugged in all the time. The phone has a "smart circuit" that use what is called trickle charge to just continually top off the battery as it drops below full charge. The phone is designed such that it doesn't receive power directly from the charger or USB cable, unless the +5v DC current is on pin 1 like a factory flash cable.
Bottom line is there is no damage or shortening of the life of the battery to leave it charging all the time while in the dock or any other means and Li Ion batteries no not have memory problems.

On a related note, is there any damage in using low-power chargers?
I have an external solar-powered battery charger that also supports USB-out, and I find that it doesn't put out enough power to really charge the battery, but it can keep the battery at its current charge level (whenever it is plugged in) for the equivalent of one charge (so the phone could theoretically last 2ish days).
I'm wondering whether this is constantly charging/discharging the battery (bad thing), or just providing enough power to run the phone (good thing).
I've also seen a similar behavior when charging over USB. If I'm using the phone a lot, sometimes a usb port doesn't supply enough juice to charge the phone.
I also saw this in some (rarer) cases with my OG Droid, but I didn't pay it much mind because I had 3 batteries for that thing and you could pick them up for a few dollars off of Amazon.com.

Thanks!
cellzealot said:
It's fine to leave it plugged in all the time. The phone has a "smart circuit" that use what is called trickle charge to just continually top off the battery as it drops below full charge. The phone is designed such that it doesn't receive power directly from the charger or USB cable, unless the +5v DC current is on pin 1 like a factory flash cable.
Bottom line is there is no damage or shortening of the life of the battery to leave it charging all the time while in the dock or any other means and Li Ion batteries no not have memory problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for your response. I had a feeling it was something like this. Good old "smart circuit".

podspi said:
On a related note, is there any damage in using low-power chargers?
I have an external solar-powered battery charger that also supports USB-out, and I find that it doesn't put out enough power to really charge the battery, but it can keep the battery at its current charge level (whenever it is plugged in) for the equivalent of one charge (so the phone could theoretically last 2ish days).
I'm wondering whether this is constantly charging/discharging the battery (bad thing), or just providing enough power to run the phone (good thing).
I've also seen a similar behavior when charging over USB. If I'm using the phone a lot, sometimes a usb port doesn't supply enough juice to charge the phone.
I also saw this in some (rarer) cases with my OG Droid, but I didn't pay it much mind because I had 3 batteries for that thing and you could pick them up for a few dollars off of Amazon.com.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To my knowledge, there is no reason a low power charger should present any problem, but charging from the USB on a PC is limited to 350mA and will definitely not push enough current to charge the phone while it is under heavy use like Mobile Hotspot tethering with LTE or even 3g.
The standard wall charger is 850mA and even that can sometimes only keep up or charge very slowly under heavy load.

USB spec is [email protected] not 350mA. But yes, a dedicated charger probably will charge faster. Some may go as high as 1A output...
Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

Rechargeable Battery Case

Got this case on Amazon, never heard of the brand "BOVON" but figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out. This case hooks directly into your phone to deliver 4200 mah. Note that it is not "providing" power but rather charging your device. Real life use would dictate that you use your phone regularly until the battery is extremely low, then power this battery pack on. Once your phone is fully charged, you could keep it in the case or remove it from the battery pack. Note that charging the battery pack is not charging the phone. I tried plugging the phone into the battery pack as it is charging to see if both charge but it does not. You have to remove the phone from this case when you want to charge it separately. That could be a turn off to some, but if I'm going to be out all day and not have access to power, I would much rather stick it in this case than try to walk around with the phone plugged into a powerbank with a micro usb cable.
Video of it here so you can see how big it is and how the phone fits.
youtu.be/Vp7HxZ7nPio

Is there a downside to constantly leaving my Pixel on a wireless stand?

I know that we shouldn't constantly charge phones (or overcharge them) but my wireless charging dock sits on my desk and is the natural place to place my phone when I'm working. Might this damage the battery over time and should I only use the stand when the phone needs a fuller charge? Thanks!
[EDIT: I say 'constantly' in the headline and really I mean 'often'.]

Depends on the charger but most should be fine.
Here is some advice from Belkin on it
https://www.belkin.com/us/resource-center/wireless-charging/safety/