AC USB Travel Charger Output Voltages??? - General Accessories

I've seen PDA AC USB travel chargers mostly with 5.5VDC output but also one with 12VDC output.
Is the 12v output too high???

Hiya, the usb standard power output is 5v dc (ish) at 0.5 amps (again, ish although pretty close normally). I would suspect that the 12v refers to a 12v (i.e. car lighter socket) to usb and that the advert you saw contained a tpyo...
HTH
(Why *are* stupid people allowed to write advertising copy!? Whenever I see the phrase "blazingly fast" these days I automatically ignore the rest of the ad...)

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Cheap accessories I recommend

So after getting my Evo I devided I needed 3 items. A usb cable for my computer, a car charger that could also double as a usb cable for my computer, and an hdmi cable to take advantage of all of this badass phones features. Well I shopped around at a bunch of the usual sites like amazon and ebay but I ended up at dealexteme.com.
Here is what I ordered: (and the SKU so you can too)
- SKU: 26313 - Retractable USB to Micro 5P Data/Charging Cable (60CM-Length) - $3.14
- SKU: 35687 - Car Cigarette Powered USB Adapter/Charger with Retractable USB to Micro USB Cable (Black) - $5.33
- SKU: 37396 - Gold Plated HDMI V1.4 Male to Micro HDMI Male Shielded Connection Cable (1M-Length) - $12.20
So far I have only received the USB cable and the car charger. They are the exact same cord but the car kit has the cigarette lighter plug. I am very happy with both items and I am just waiting on my hdmi cable which should be here any day. Anyways I just wanted to let you guys know that ya it comes from across the Pacific so it takes longer than most other places but for the price I dont think you can beat it.
Do they charge the phone quickly? especially curious about the car charger... does the phone see it as USB? If you're unsure, the easiest way I've found to check is to install "Battery Indicator" and see if it reads "AC" or "USB" in the notification drawer when charging. Seems to make a huge difference in charging times.
agent0014 said:
Do they charge the phone quickly? especially curious about the car charger... does the phone see it as USB? If you're unsure, the easiest way I've found to check is to install "Battery Indicator" and see if it reads "AC" or "USB" in the notification drawer when charging. Seems to make a huge difference in charging times.
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I'd imagine it would be the same at plugging it into a wall in your house. the charger changes the dc voltage from the cigarette lighter into 115 vac.
i think
I've got one of those mini cigarette usb charger rated ay 700ma at ebay. I think usb cable with the car charger can do about 500ma and wall outlet can do about 1000ma. Correct if I wrong.
chinot66 said:
I've got one of those mini cigarette usb charger rated ay 700ma at ebay. I think usb cable with the car charger can do about 500ma and wall outlet can do about 1000ma. Correct if I wrong.
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usb will give you 500ma, the htc wall wart you get is rated at 1a aka 1000ma.
the other i dont know.
jasongthang said:
I'd imagine it would be the same at plugging it into a wall in your house. the charger changes the dc voltage from the cigarette lighter into 115 vac.
i think
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It's actually the other way around. Though we use AC as our main power source most (not all) use DC power. It's a lot easier to change AC to DC and AC has the ability to transform to lower or higher voltages relatively easily and efficiently.
Most electronics run off of 12V or less.
FattySparks said:
It's actually the other way around. Though we use AC as our main power source most (not all) use DC power. It's a lot easier to change AC to DC and AC has the ability to transform to lower or higher voltages relatively easily and efficiently.
Most electronics run off of 12V or less.
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Rectify! I mean . . . testify!
I really wanted to have a quick car charger, seems useless to me to have a slow charger in your car, would be fine having a slow charger in my house though. the car charger from the palm pre is a 1000 mAh charger, used it and it actually seems to charge faster than the htc home charger. $20 shipped from amazon.com
I got the same USB cable & car charger & an extra wall charger in a kit for <$4 shipped.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715367
davebu said:
I really wanted to have a quick car charger, seems useless to me to have a slow charger in your car, would be fine having a slow charger in my house though. the car charger from the palm pre is a 1000 mAh charger, used it and it actually seems to charge faster than the htc home charger. $20 shipped from amazon.com
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This is specifically made for the ipod, but it would do the same thing and its a bit cheaper. http://www.amazon.com/Charging-Gene...5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1279810668&sr=8-5

[Q] Slow USB Charging in AC outlet

Whenever I plug my Desire in an AC outlet, it charges ridiculously slow. I check the battery status and it says "Charging (USB)" (not AC) and USB Debugging pops up. My wall adapter says it has an output of 1000ma. Is the chord bottle-necking the charging speed or is it the adapter? I am using the chord that came with my phone but I bought a new adapter to fit my countries outlets.
Same problem. I would like a resolution to this also.
There is allready a thread concerning this issue and it has the solution your looking for.
mercianary said:
There is allready a thread concerning this issue and it has the solution your looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have looked on the forums and it should seem like I should get regular AC charging on my Desire. I have a 1000mah charger and I am using the USB cable that came with my phone. I am wondering why I do not. I looked at my USB (fat side) pins and they are shortened. I have included an image of my charger.
if the adaptor says it supports iPhone etc then that is why the USB debugging symbol is coming up.
because that symbol is up it will only charge at 500mA max (the phone thinks it is in a PC, it doesn't wnat toburn out the USB port).
if it is a cheap adaptor, the voltage regulator may be limited to 100mA. thats what happened with me.
either way, in my eyes you have 3 choices.
1. buy a new adaptor
2. put a new voltage regulator in the adaptor (a friend did this for me)
3. use a converter so the adaptor you have will work in your wall.
nzdcoy said:
if the adaptor says it supports iPhone etc then that is why the USB debugging symbol is coming up.
because that symbol is up it will only charge at 500mA max (the phone thinks it is in a PC, it doesn't wnat toburn out the USB port).
if it is a cheap adaptor, the voltage regulator may be limited to 100mA. thats what happened with me.
either way, in my eyes you have 3 choices.
1. buy a new adaptor
2. put a new voltage regulator in the adaptor (a friend did this for me)
3. use a converter so the adaptor you have will work in your wall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
O I didn't realize if it was branded to work with iPhone it would charge slowly. Thank you for your help. Next time I'll watch out for a "Works for the iPhoney."
Bump
I would like to know how it ended?
I have a same problem, the only difference is that i have stock HTC AC charger with separate USB cable (stock too). When plugged to AC it shows "charging(USB)". Tried different cables, same result. Tried two different AC adapters, but both were from NOKIA, same result...
This might help your slow charging issue
If the wall charger is causing your phone to charge in a USB state, the charge time will be very long compared to a normal AC charging state which I'm sure you are aware of. A cable called QuickCharge might help. It will enhance USB charging to AC charging. You can find it on Amazon by searching for 'QuickCharge'. It's the 2nd or 3rd item down.

[Q] Optimal charging hardware for Note III

So the note III is the first smart phone to use USB 3.0 this raises some interesting questions. First of all I’m a neophyte with electrical “stuff (to use the technical term) so I apologize if some of this is easily answered (which would be great).
1. Since USB 3.0 can draw 5 Voltsdoes this mean that the current crop of car chargers won’t charge the Note III at full speed. All the car chargers I’ve seen are 2.1 Amps (some are dual port and claim 4.2 but that’s total, not in a single port). Does this mean that we’re locked to slower charging in the car?
2. For those of us with built in DC/AC inverters, would we be better served by using that plug and a wall USB charger? If so which one, my Note III will be shipping soon, so I’m assuming that 1000mA is still the maximum (I think USB 3.0 supports 900mA).
3. Will the note III charge slower using a USB 2.0 cable even with the best inverter/car adapter
4. Do we need a “charge only” cable (like http://www.amazon.com/Specialised-Micro-USB-Cable-Charging/dp/B0088HTYUE ) to achieve the best charging speed ?
5. In the event we can't get an optimal charger will the note III charge faster with a 2.0 charge only cable vs a standard USB 2.0 (I assume so but better to ask).
The move to USB 3.0 only affects charge rates connected to a PC. 2.x is limited to 500mA while 3.x is 900mA I think. Both standards use 5V, but 2A AC chargers often run a bit higher at 5.3V. The chargers don't directly adhere to either USB spec and basically trigger fast charge the same as before, by shorting out or putting a fixed resistance between the data pins. My old HP TouchPad USB 5.3V/2A charger with 2.0 cord charges my Note 3 just as fast as the Samsung 5.3V/2A adapter with USB 3.0 cord does. If you look closely, you'll notice that the "USB 3.0" Samsung charger doesn't actually have the extra 3.0 pins, it uses a 2.0 port. That's because for pure charging devices the standard doesn't matter, only the current and voltage rating and that it shorts the data pins.
Sent from my SM-N900T using xda app-developers app
CalcProgrammer1 said:
The move to USB 3.0 only affects charge rates connected to a PC. 2.x is limited to 500mA while 3.x is 900mA I think. Both standards use 5V, but 2A AC chargers often run a bit higher at 5.3V. The chargers don't directly adhere to either USB spec and basically trigger fast charge the same as before, by shorting out or putting a fixed resistance between the data pins. My old HP TouchPad USB 5.3V/2A charger with 2.0 cord charges my Note 3 just as fast as the Samsung 5.3V/2A adapter with USB 3.0 cord does. If you look closely, you'll notice that the "USB 3.0" Samsung charger doesn't actually have the extra 3.0 pins, it uses a 2.0 port. That's because for pure charging devices the standard doesn't matter, only the current and voltage rating and that it shorts the data pins.
Sent from my SM-N900T using xda app-developers app
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Thanks for the response.
So I should use a "charge only" cable, correct?
bladehawk said:
Thanks for the response.
So I should use a "charge only" cable, correct?
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If you want maximum charging out of a PC, yeah, otherwise it really doesn't matter. Also, if you use a fast charge kernel with fast charge enabled, it does the same thing by forcing the charger detection in software rather than in hardware. That said, you're still at the mercy of your USB port. USB 2.0 ports on PC's are only rated for 500mA usually and while you can overdraw from most without issue, you run the risk of overloading and at least triggering a software shutdown of the port (at worst, burning up the motherboard's power regulator for the USB 5V rail).
If you're plugging a cable into an AC adapter, it literally means nothing. All a "charge only" cable is is a USB A to micro B cable with the two data pins on the micro B side shorted together. Only the GND and +5V lines are wired through to the USB A connector which makes it only draw power, not data, and the shorting of the data pins makes it detect as an AC charger. Since the AC adapters short the data pins already, both cables look the same on the phone end when connected to an AC adapter. Same goes for a car adapter or external battery pack.
Technically, USB 2.0 and earlier, maybe 3.0 as well, are only supposed to let you draw 100mA. Devices must enumerate themselves to the controller and request the power limit be increased to 500mA. Many motherboards are pretty lenient about this so you can usually get away with plugging in a 500mA (or higher) load without telling the PC first but be aware it's breaking the specification and could be unsupported.
Some PC/laptop are BC 1.1 compatible. Meaning they can charge higher than the 450ma they usually do. I think it allows for up to 1.5a charging but don't quote me on that I forgot. I have a USB 2.0 hub that can use a wall charger and allows one device on any of the 4 ports (automatic sensing) to charge higher than usb2.0 specs. There are some hubs that allow all ports to do this. I am waiting for plufable technologies to update their 3.0 hub to do this.
sent from my sm-9005.
It is the normal case that the speed will be much slower when you charge a device such as your Note3 via USB than via DC Power Supply. USB is mainly designed for the communication. The standard charging current of many mobile phones is 1 A or higher. But the highest output current of USB cable is only 0.5 A which could not reach the source demand of a phone. Except for this, we do not recommend charging via USB because the unstable current output can easily reduce the battery life of your Note 3.
Handlewd said:
Except for this, we do not recommend charging via USB because the unstable current output can easily reduce the battery life of your Note 3.
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Now that's something I never thought about. I would always plug my old phone into my computer when I got to work just to keep it topped off. Though lately, I'm plugging into a powered Belkin hub, so hopefully the current is more stable.
Now that I've got a new phone, I may rethink my charging strategy.

Amazon stock USB cable and charger is something special

Hi. Here is what I've found.
Kindle stock amazon charger is [email protected]
Stock USB cable is 2.0, a little bit thicker than others and it's short.
I have the dumb USB 2.0 voltage+ampermeter.
Also I have BlackBerry USB charger 750 mA and Kindle e-book USB charger 850 mA and a bunch of USB 2.0 thin cables from short to long including long Kindle e-book cable.
According to my measurement device Kindle charges maximum at 1A and only by stock cable and stock charger. No other of my cables are capable to deliver 1A to it. Also Kindle e-book USB charger was capable to deliver 900mA but only in combination with HDX stock cable.
All other variants are capable to deliver maximum of 500 mA.
I didn't test if my BlackBerry charger is capable to deliver documented 750 mA, maybe it just can't.
I'm pretty sure that the stock HDX 8.9 cable is very special, maybe it has some capacitor inside on some pin but I'm unable to check this at the moment.
It is just a 9 watt USB charger with a higher gauge USB cable, my galaxy S4 came with a 10 watt charger and same type of higher gauge cable of USB cable.
@phage80, how much current can your HDX take from Samsung charger/cable and how do you measure it?
HDX stock cable doesn't contain any gauge labels.
My measurements of current were taken between the USB charger and the cable.
The worst acceptable gauge of USB 2.0 is AWG 28. I=1A, U=5V, P=5W. Are you sure that AWG 28 is not capable of handling 5W for 0,5 meters?
28awg can have an issue passing more than 1 amp at .5 meters at longer lengths it can actually drop to 500ma. The cable that came with the S4 is 1 meter long and has no issue passing the full 2 amps. And just use a cheap USB voltage and current meter that plugs in between charger and cable.
phage80 said:
28awg can have an issue passing more than 1 amp at .5 meters at longer lengths it can actually drop to 500ma. The cable that came with the S4 is 1 meter long and has no issue passing the full 2 amps. And just use a cheap USB voltage and current meter that plugs in between charger and cable.
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according to AWG wire tables #28 wire has a resistance of 0.0694 ohm/ft.
therefore, E=I*R=2A*0.0694*3ft=0.416 so with a 5V source only 4.16V appears the the device.
The current will therefore drop and the V will rise since the device draws less current at a lower terminal V. An eqilibrium is reached.
As the device charges the current will drop and therefore the terminal V will rise creating a new equilibrium point.
The result is that it will take much longer for the device to reach full charge BUT it will eventually get.
Never said it wouldn't fully charge. But this is also why most USB cables use 26awg wire or better for power conducting wires and 28awg just for the data pair.
I use a cable with label "ECOMOTO" to charge my hdx ,100%。
The Amazon Basic ac charger is 2.1a but only one USB port. And you need to get your own USB cable
Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk
Has anyone gotten a message that says the kindle is charging at low power on the stock charger while watching videos? Has happened to me on many occasions
Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk

Gemini PDA picky about USB-C chargers?

My Google Pixel or ASUS chromebook chargers don't seem to work unless the pda is off. I'm disappointed that this device didn't implement USB-PD and that I can't charge from either side. What's the point of a standard connector if you need a proprietary power brick. MediaTek Pump Express was a poor choice.
I agree. So plugging into your charger when the Gemini is off WILL charge it?
I have a USB-C charger in my truck, and I will say that when my Gemini is plugged in it will hold the charge at whatever level it's at. It won't charge it, but at least power won't be depleted. Still disappointing, for sure.
dimex said:
I agree. So plugging into your charger when the Gemini is off WILL charge it?
I have a USB-C charger in my truck, and I will say that when my Gemini is plugged in it will hold the charge at whatever level it's at. It won't charge it, but at least power won't be depleted. Still disappointing, for sure.
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Yes, if my Gemini PDA is off-off, my Google Pixel USB charger does seem to charge it. I don't have any numbers, but I doubt it's using the higher voltage modes so it's probably a slow charge. The red charging light comes on after maybe a second. Same poor behavior using an Anker PowerCore+ 26800 USB-PD with J5 Create JUCX01 USB-C to USB-C cables (an expensive but highly regarded cable supporting 100W power delivery AND 10 Gbps transfers). My car's AOLIEKS 48W USB-C USB-PD cigarette lighter port adapter is also useless for the gemini PDA when using the 30 W USB-PD port with a JUCX01 cable. I'll try using the QC 3.0 USB-A port with Gemini-provided USB cable tonight.
None of my standard USB-C chargers seem to do anything at all when the Gemini PDA is on. As though the cable isn't even detected. This indicates a firmware issue in the charge controller, IMHO. I looked closely at the Gemini-provided USB cables and the USB-C plug seems maybe 0.5mm longer than my other USB-C cables, so maybe it's a physical thing but I doubt it.
rgmmm said:
Yes, if my Gemini PDA is off-off, my Google Pixel USB charger does seem to charge it. I don't have any numbers, but I doubt it's using the higher voltage modes so it's probably a slow charge. The red charging light comes on after maybe a second. Same poor behavior using an Anker PowerCore+ 26800 USB-PD with J5 Create JUCX01 USB-C to USB-C cables (an expensive but highly regarded cable supporting 100W power delivery AND 10 Gbps transfers). My car's AOLIEKS 48W USB-C USB-PD cigarette lighter port adapter is also useless for the gemini PDA when using the 30 W USB-PD port with a JUCX01 cable. I'll try using the QC 3.0 USB-A port with Gemini-provided USB cable tonight.
None of my standard USB-C chargers seem to do anything at all when the Gemini PDA is on. As though the cable isn't even detected. This indicates a firmware issue in the charge controller, IMHO. I looked closely at the Gemini-provided USB cables and the USB-C plug seems maybe 0.5mm longer than my other USB-C cables, so maybe it's a physical thing but I doubt it.
Click to expand...
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I was adding a 6-outlet wall tap to the outlet near my bedside table today, and while consolidating chargers I plugged the Gemini's USB-C cable into the AUKEY 12W Dual Port Home Travel USB Wall Charger Adapter - Black charger I have. It charges the Gemini, whether it's on or off. Not sure about voltages or numbers either, but the Battery page in settings showed "Charging by AC" and the time remaining seemed pretty short.
There does seem to be some magic sauce with the included USB cable. Using that cable worked fine with my power bank, but not my car charger.
I've done some testing using a Pluggable USB-C meter (can't post links due to being new, it's on amazon).
Charging is only on the left port. (More on that later.)
Using the supplied charger + cable I get 8.8v at 1.35A (close to the 9v the charger has printed on the back, charger says it supports 12v according to the back but I guess the Gemini doesn't).
Using an Anker PowerPort+ (60w, one type-c and USB A ports) I get:
- Anker USB A to C cable: 5v (well, 4.78v), 1.8A
- Anker USB-C to C cable: Nothing. :/ (the pluggable adapter doesn't even turn on, presumably not seeing any negotiation to even turn on).
Also tried a few other USB C cables and power supplies (Apple, Chromebook) and they don't charge it or pass power.
While the left port is the only one that will charge, the Gemini will take power on the right hand port -- the amount varying by usage it seems (I've seen between 0.15A and 0.41A when worked hard), so presumably it is possible to take power from a hub which should mean the device stays alive for longer but won't charge.
I hope it's possible to add proper PD / type C charging in a software update, for me a huge advantage of type C is not needing to have different adapters for fast charging... (I'm a little confused because pump express claims to support USB PD on mediatek. c o m / features/pump-express (sorry mangled url because I can't post them...), not sure what that means in non-marketing speak as it obviously doesn't work).
Forgot to test with it turned entirely off:
- It does charge off the Anker USB-C charger via C-to-C cable, but only at 4.96v, 0.38A, i.e. you're going to be waiting a while for a charge. Makes me hopeful this is a software thing though.
---------- Post added at 09:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 PM ----------
Replying to myself, but thought this was useful to point out:
psionfan said:
It does charge off the Anker USB-C charger via C-to-C cable, but only at 4.96v, 0.38A, i.e. you're going to be waiting a while for a charge.
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...which does lead to an interesting trick:
Turn it off, plug it to the type C charger, then it will continue charging at a low rate while on. Could be useful if you forget the right charger (which is totally something I see myself doing).
USB-C charging is a compatibility mess, and yes, it seems Gemini PDA is on the bad end of it. I have various
But I had an LG phone that couldn't reliably charge from a MacBook Pro USB-C power supply--and it seems that charger can't charge my Gemini at all. Two rather mainstream companies that can't manage to implement a standard and make it work right, Gemini can't make it work at all, isn't unique in having problems, but clearly on the bad end...
Sounds like the USB-C standard is badly designed.
-kb

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