Develop Bugs

CDMA Touch Pro 2 - Charge from PC/Laptop?

Sorry if this is a duplicate thread, I searched quite a bit for a solution but only found stuff for the TP, not the TP2.
Ok, so I know with the original TP you could charge it from a computer, but it was not as fast as a wall charger unless you had the fix that allowed it to charger faster on the computer.
Well on my TP2, it really won't charge the phone, and if I am using something like wifi router that uses a lot of power, it will actually lose power while charging off my computer...
Is there a fix to bypass this so I can have my phone plugged into my computer and charge it???

make sure in your battery settings the box that says "when device is turned on, do not charge the battery when connected to the PC" is unchecked. meaning an empty box. if its checked off, uncheck it. also, this might help, when plugged up to ur computer, cut ur backlight all the way down or low. the phone will use less battery that way and will charge faster when hooked up. either way though, charging thru a pc is trickle charging, meaning its gonna b slower than wall charger anyways. i havent came across the fix u mentioned for the TP.

trickle charging is when battery is fully charged and is still pluged on charger, then charging change to trickle power charge, around 20mA+actual request of the phone. this way if you have phone/any electronic in general on charger for a month, it's still kept fully charged.
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htc have two modes of charging slow 500mA and fast 1A (1000mA)
to say to the phone that charger is fast, you need to have one pin on mini-USB connected to ground. this pin is unused by mini-usb specifications but htc is using it for this trigger.
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cut open mini usb connector on usb to mini usb cable and wire the unused PIN to power ground (get pinouts pics or use multimeter!!!!! don't guess try it)
then you still facing another problem, USB is strictly specified to not exceed 500mA (with 10% toleration) no trick to get more then this from one usb. some computers are not so precise with rules though and could give slightly over 550mA
to get 1A you need to use two usb ports in parallel. like some china made usb harddrives enclosures
get an additional USB connector and add it to your cable.
NOTE: DON'T CONNECT DATA LINES ON THIS SECOND CONNECTOR!!!!!
data = inner 2 pins
power = outer 2 pins
* you can get an USB extension cable, wire 2 power lines out of it, connect to your usb - miniusb cable... this way you still can use the other usb for other device
NOTE: this is not a standard though accepted solution. I haven't saw or heard of any burned computers cos of this but wouldn't be surprised to see one.
anyway if I had that need, I would go for it
when making this cable, be very sure 5v wire is not touching data lines!!! Test it properly before plugging to PC! I have brand new laptop now, the old one is lying with DEAD usb host below table just because I believed there have to be protection against this. There IS NOT.
NOTE: NEVER LAUGH ON MY PAINTINGS!!

Or you can buy one for $4
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Othe...medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=googlebase

actually NOT.
without grounding the special pin on mini USB side of the cable, mobile would charge by 500mA no matter if you put 100A charger in. or paralleling 20 USBs

Wow...I'm pretty tech savy but that was a bit confusing...so I get the gist of that, but how is it that all it takes is plugging the usb chord into the htc ac power supply will fix that? why isn't it required for all that jazz of rewiring crap on the ac adapter as well, since it comes from the same usb chord...?

eh, have mercy with that english slang we are mostly not englishers here
What you meant was, why htc AC (wall) charger charges on hi power without those tricks?
Because the connection is already made there.
That's not a hidden trick anyway. Not even trick. It's a standart feature.
HTC is, not like other manufacturers, sticking to specs and mobile would not demand more then 500mA from standart usb connection.
usb is defined to be max 500mA
if you want a connector which is based on standart (htc's usb-hub can use usb cables), and you want a fast charging without violating standarts than this was the best resolution, to use pin which is generaly unused to trigger-detect 1A charger.
But as htc didn't made computer fast-charge cables. A serious company will not release such a cable. Connecting power from two usb hosts together - I feel pain by doing it, but it proved computer stabilizators don't mind it and though I don't think it's giving really double, it's giving more then 500mA.
But here you have to "imitate" original htc AC charger by shortwiring that trigger pin the way as it is there.
hope this was your question about.
Just final note in red when making this cable, be very sure 5v wire is not touching data lines!!! Test it properly before plugging to PC! I have brand new laptop now, the old one is lying with DEAD usb host below table just because I believed there have to be protection against this. There IS NOT.

In car battery charging

I have travelled to devon on Saturday and used Google maps navigation which is simply superb as u could see the traffic jams in advance (believe me there were plenty of them) I had my phone charger charging my desire but the battery drained still any idea why surely the charger should charge it or keep the power at the same level ?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Anyone surely someone must know why the car charger hasn't enough power to charge the phone when running navigation and the normal phone functions
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

I have no solution but I have the same problem. Quite frustrating.

You need a charger that outputs at least 1000mA. Most in-car chargers only output 500mA, and so the phone will discharge quicker than the charger can charge it.
Regards,
Dave

foxmeister said:
You need a charger that outputs at least 1000mA. Most in-car chargers only output 500mA, and so the phone will discharge quicker than the charger can charge it.
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
especially with some GPS apps that consume lots of juice...

Any suggestions which are the best chargers ? Does anyone know what the new HTC dock will incorporate ?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Get a cheap USB cable extender, cut it in half and short the middle 2 pins. Don't remember what colours they are. Look on Wikipedia.
I had same problem. Not anymore. Charges properly when I plug in through the custom cable.

This is a common problem.
It bugged me sufficiently that I investigated it in detail.
The Desire, and presumably some (all?) other HTC phones, employ relatively complex charging circuitry.
When you plug a USB cable into the phone, the phone does at least two different checks to determine what type of power source you have just connected.
If you have plugged in a mains powered official HTC charger, which has a rated output of 1A, then the phone knows that it is safe to draw a maximum of 1A from that charger.
The phone will then draw enough current to power itself and, on top of that, charge the battery at the same time.
This current will typically be in the region of 800mA (0.8A) to 900mA (0.9A).
Under these conditions there is enough current to power all the functions of the phone, including WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS, as well as the usual GSM radio and the phone's other functions, as well as being able to charge the battery.
However, if the phone believes that it is connected to a power source with a lower rating such as a standard USB port, then it will limit the maximum current that it draws from that power source to between 400mA (0.4A) and 500mA (0.5A) as this is the maximum officially provided by a USB port.
In other words, the phone is intelligent enough not to overload a standard USB port but, when more power is available, it is able to use it.
The mechanism that HTC uses to detect a power supply capable of supplying 1A, as opposed to a USB port, is very simple indeed.
When the phone detects that an external power source has been connected, it checks to see if the two data lines of the USB connector on the bottom of the phone have been short-circuited.
If they have been short-circuited, the phone takes this to mean that a suitable power source has been connected providing a current of at least 1A.
If the data lines are not short-circuited, the phone assumes that the power is coming from a USB port or other device not capable of providing more than 500mA.
In practice, the way this has been implemented is that within the official mains powered HTC charger, the two data pins of the USB connector are shorted together.
As soon as you connect this charger to the Desire, the phone detects the short-circuit and knows that it is connected to a charger capable of supplying 1A.
This particular trick seems to be something unique to HTC rather than being a universal standard, although this is a bit of a guess on my part based on having looked at only a few other chargers.
What this means is that if you have a car charger that is rated at 1A or higher, your HTC Desire will still only draw a maximum of 500mA from this charger.
This problem is easily rectified by opening up the charger and soldering together the two centre pens of the USB connector so that the phone sees this short-circuit and realises that it can safely draw I higher current from the charger.
Unless you know what you are doing and fully understand what I have explained above, then please don't go fiddling around with your charger.
I have carried out this modification myself on a couple of non-HTC mains-powered chargers and a couple of 12V car chargers with 100% success.
I have, however, found that some 12V chargers, even though they are rated at 1A or even 1.5A do not result in the Desire drawing the expected current.
What I found was that the phone would draw only about 250mA and then, after I had shorted the data terminals within the charger, the phone would draw about 450mA but not the 850mA or so that I had expected.
I have yet to determine with certainty why this is but it appears that as the phone begins to draw current from the charger it is able to detect if there is even a relatively small dip in the voltage coming from the charger and, if so, the phone backs off on the amount of current that it draws.
I will be doing a few more tests in my electronics lab to try and get to the bottom of this and provide a more detailed analysis and, hopefully, a useful solution.
In the meantime though, I have at least solved the problem that I was having and, based on numerous forum posts, the same problem that many other people have been having with car chargers not effectively charging the Desire.
Tim

mercianary said:
Get a cheap USB cable extender, cut it in half and short the middle 2 pins. Don't remember what colours they are. Look on Wikipedia.
I had same problem. Not anymore. Charges properly when I plug in through the custom cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Snap!
I didn't see your post before making mine (above) but my experimentation agrees fully with what you've said.
You can do it the way you've described, by modifying a cable, or you can do it inside the charger itself.
Just make sure that the cable going to the phone has all four USB wires in it. Some of them only have the two power wires, so the phone will never detect the short circuited data lines.
Tim

If you do not want to open your car charger, you can always create a male to female adapter that shots D+ and D- on the female side like the one in the attached picture
Obviously, the charger needs to be able to provide the 1Amps that are needed. If not, it will at best shutdown in protection mode, at worst fry completely with a great chance of fire...

Interesting stuff...
I bought an official HTC car charger and noticed that the included usb cable, when plugged into a pc, does not allow data transfer, only charging.
Can anyone explain that ? Why would there be a difference in the wiring ?

They want you to buy an official USB cable I guess ? Considering any microusb cable works I'm surprised they bother

Maybe because they just put the two VCC and GND wires in there, thus saving on the cabling cost.

Ok how about this then......
I have a USB port I'm my car (to plug in music on a dongle I presume) if I use the USB lead from my charger supplied with the phone (which also works as a data cable) I get a the charging status icon on the battery bar.
So......
Is my phone charging at 1 amp on the car, and at home or am I getting 0.5 on both or something else?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

_Crusoe_ said:
Ok how about this then......
I have a USB port I'm my car (to plug in music on a dongle I presume) if I use the USB lead from my charger supplied with the phone (which also works as a data cable) I get a the charging status icon on the battery bar.
So......
Is my phone charging at 1 amp on the car, and at home or am I getting 0.5 on both or something else?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you check your battery stats by dialing *#*#4636#*#* and look at battery info, then you can see if it is charged by USB (max 500 mA) or at AC (more then 500mA)

I bought the official HTC charger, works perfectly.

thanks a lot for the explanation. I went for an uprated USB car charger but was still using normal cables to plug into it and the phone wasnt keeping up when bluetooth and GPS was on and was flat by the end of a long journey. Have tried the mod and phone is showing as plugged into AC so hopefully this is going to sort my issues.

So am I right in saying that, unless you get one which has been adapted as described above, there is no real difference between one in-car charger and another - none of them will be up to the job of keeping the phone full of jiuce whilst running GPS over a long journey.
Was thinking of shelling out for a Brodit kit, but at £50+, I'll stick with a cheap one.

Narco77 said:
Interesting stuff...
I bought an official HTC car charger and noticed that the included usb cable, when plugged into a pc, does not allow data transfer, only charging.
Can anyone explain that ? Why would there be a difference in the wiring ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got the offical charger and the usb cable is fine for data transfer.

Bingo Accent said:
So am I right in saying that, unless you get one which has been adapted as described above, there is no real difference between one in-car charger and another - none of them will be up to the job of keeping the phone full of jiuce whilst running GPS over a long journey.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really.
For the "mod" to work, your charger must be able to source at least 1000mA which most can't anyway.
So you first have to find a charger that does and then, if it's not already the case, short the D+ and D- cables together.
Note that this can be done by disassembling the charger (not being sure of being able to put it back together), by using conductive glue on the USB plug itself (a bit invasive) or by using an adapter like the one I shown in my previous message (but you need to do it yourself or have someone do it for you)

[Q] Looking for App / Widget

Hey there...
Has anyone come across an app or a widget that can show you the actual current draw from the charger?
I have about 4 different car chargers that don't seem to be up to the job and I would like to see if they're actually putting out enough juice... or, more importantly, is the phone getting enough juice...
Something that could show what the phone is using vs how much it's getting would be even better...

The only info you can get in the incoming current is the phone telling you USB (0.5a) or AC. Type *#*#info#*#* in dialer to see this info. I think its under general.
More to the point the charger probably isn't the problem.
The phone will draw up to 1a when connected to an official AC charger. Otherwise it will draw up to 0.5amp (USB).
USB standard is 0.5amp the phone needs about 0.7amp to charge when switched on. If you were to plug your phone into your laptop USB port and your phone tried to pull 1amp it 'could' fry parts of your laptop because it is only designed for 0.5amp. To stop this the phone will only charge at 0.5amp when attached to an unknown charger.
To make the phone charge properly we need to make the phone think its plugged into an original charger.
To do this simply short the data pins.
This can be done one of 2 ways.
Crack open the charger and short the 2 middle pins.
Or
Get a USB wire extender. Cut it in half and splice the data wires together. Look on Wikipedia for the colours, I don't remember.
I like the second option because you can then use it to charge from any USB port. Ie ps3 Xbox wii freeviewbox skybox laptop PC or whatever has a USB port on these days.

I have 4 chargers all rated 1A that I have "modded" and none of them seem to be able to actually charge the phone...

Get a voltimeterthingy to see how many amps it is outputting.
If none of them work maybe its your car. Could have blown a fuse. Might not even be connected of its a used car. Try the chargers in another car.
Does the phone say its charging when you plug it in and then not charge or does it just do nothing?

Phone comes up "Charging (AC)" but doesn't actually charge...

Androids built-in power monitor gathers current data and can show you the battery charge rate approximately. It does work fairly accurately by our testings in the FroYo Battery Life thread. Use apps from the market like CurrentWidget or OSMonitor (under Messages) to see instantaneous device current draw (or net charge) but you'll very likely need root access for these to work.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

Awesome! Thanks... CurrentWidget is exactly what I was looking for

Which USB cables will allow "fast" charging?

I've been using a mix of old and new USB cables for charging and have noticed that some micro USBs from my Blackberry days will charge the TB but VERY slowly, even using the wall charger.
I want to order some more fast charging USB cables, but how do I identify the difference? What IS the actual difference between the cables?
Thanks!

Usb charging is normally slower than AC wall charging. Most cables are designed exactly the same but some chargers are suited for more amperage per hour. I'd recommend downloading the app -"battery monitor widget" and plugging in your charger and seeing what type of miliamp per hour rating you're getting off of that particular usb port. If the port is in front of the computer, normally those get slightly less voltage than the main ones in the back. Also If you're rooted make sure you aren't on an old outdated kernel that has trickle charge coding thats messed up. I normally get 500-800ma/h based off the AC wall chargers, and anywhere depending on what computer (Work vs Home) USB ports anywhere from like 150-350ma/h. Hope that little tidbit helps.

It is a bit complicted.
When you simply apply power, the Thunderbolt (and most micro USB phone) charges at a slow rate. I have measured this at around 350ma max on the Bolt. This is mainly because the USB port power standard on a PC is 500ma max. They need to stay under that.
By the micro USB standard, if you tie the two USB data lines (D- and D+) together, then the Thunderbolt goes into a fast charge mode. I have seen around 850ma max. You can place a piece of aluminum foil on the charger end (large USB) to short out the two center pins only and switch it to high rate.
Some cables tie the two wires together. Those are fast charge only cables that you can't used for a USB connection. Some chargers tie the two wires together. So they fast charge with any USB cable.
What gets complicated is that of course the charger needs to be capable of about 1 amp for the fast charge to work. AND, some cables use such small wire diameter, that they can't carry the high current rate. I have a couple of cheap cables that even on the fast rate, only carry around 300ma.
AND, if you have time, charge at the low rate. The battery and phone will run cooler, and the battery will last longer. My overnight charger is the lowest rate that I can get by with. But I need to use a super high rate when using the GPS on my motorcycle to keep up with the bright screen and such.

worwig said:
It is a bit complicted.
By the micro USB standard, if you tie the two USB data lines (D- and D+) together, then the Thunderbolt goes into a fast charge mode. I have seen around 850ma max. You can place a piece of aluminum foil on the charger end (large USB) to short out the two center pins only and switch it to high rate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this for my CaseMate battery backup and was able to get 800ma charging from it...
If you are just looking for a good car charger, i highly recommend the Motorola Rapid Charger from amazon, they are about $5 shipped. Those charge at the AC "Fast Charge" rate.

converting usb standard to fast-charging
Basically, the cable that came with my tablet, which allowed fast-charging, crapped out. I bought what I thought was the same cable and it still didn't work the right way. In searching through the forums, a a phrase hit me... two-pin fast charging cable. Seeing that, I took a small knife and a pair of needle-nose pliers and extracted the two inner pins( data pins) from he USB side of my cable. The cable, without the data pins, became a dedicated fast-charging cable. I have done this process with three cables so far to see if it was a fluke and every one is capable of fast-charging. I hope anybody that has been hitting the wall on this, reads this, because I was getting very frustrated with the convulated answers some people were giving to address this (especially from Munich!). Try it out, you can bury me in ashes if it doesn't work for you!!!

It's not the cable, it's the brick you're using. My nexus 7 charging brick has a higher output than my tbolt brick, so I use my n7's to charge it in a fraction of the time. Never rely on your computer's usb port to charge your device especially if it's your daily driver

USB charging cable

Lately I've noticed something odd. Depending on the USB cable I use the charge rate seems to vary substantially. In fact, in some cases under heavy phone usage, I've seen the battery decrease while on the charger. Now, I know what you're thinking: Some USB cables have the D+/D- pins shorted which switches from USB (500mA) to AC (1A) charging mode. I'm using a really cool CTC-2USB-5V2A charger which seems to show up as AC on all cables (including the ones that barely charge it). The two cables I know are charging it well are the one that came with my HP Touchpad and the one that came with my Kindle Fire HD 7, the ones that didn't have been el-cheapo eBay cables. Since its showing up as AC for all the cables, I'm assuming the only difference can be that the eBay cables use thinner wires which take more voltage drop.
Have people seen this before? Is this the problem? Does anyone know where to get some quality 2 meter / 6 ft cables cheap?

If you want to verify that one cable is allowing more current through than another, I would suggest getting "Battery Monitor Widget" by 3c (in the play store)
Put the apps widget on your screen, plug our phone in and wait for widget to update. Do the same for each cable and compare

CNexus, I am absolutely convinced one is charging faster than another.I was using the battery monitoring that came with the phone (or at least the one in Blazer ROM). You can plug one cable in and update the graph and the slope of the battery state is much higher on one cable than another. I installed battery monitor widget and I do not see anything that shows how much current is going into the phone.
But this really doesn't address the question of why one cable is charging faster than another, is it the wire gauge? Is there something else going on I don't know about?

hpmaxim said:
CNexus, I am absolutely convinced one is charging faster than another.I was using the battery monitoring that came with the phone (or at least the one in Blazer ROM). You can plug one cable in and update the graph and the slope of the battery state is much higher on one cable than another. I installed battery monitor widget and I do not see anything that shows how much current is going into the phone.
But this really doesn't address the question of why one cable is charging faster than another, is it the wire gauge? Is there something else going on I don't know about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can absolutely verify that this is true. It's usually that the pins in the micro sd port are running thin from normal use. Usually normal wear and tear, or possibly the cable has gotten crimped somewhere on it Respectively, the same Non- charging cables are likely to corrupt data transfer as well, making it difficult to do development, or transfer your favorite videos or songs.. Someone recently stole my new cable and all the files I'd transferred to my phone from the computer or vice versa from my older cable were corrupted. Especially ROMS, KERneLS, and Video. This could be a potential huge problem for someone in a sticky situation needing to ODIN, or make an ABD shell connection. I suggest tossing those cables and buying new ones. I know they're expensive, but it might be the difference between having your phone soft bricked till next payday or not.

Timmetal, just to be clear I am comparing multiple identical eBay cables to the Touchpad/Kindle Fire cables.... Sounds like you are saying it is a manufacturing defect in the cables (presumably all of them) that are not necessarily related to the wire gauge. Regardles...
A 6 foot 28 gauge cable would drop about 800+ mV (which is a lot, since a fully charged battery is probably around 4.2V and USB is 5V).
A 6 foot 24 gauge cable would be about 400 mV drop.
A 6 foot 22 gauge cable would probably be 250-300 mV drop.
Monoprice has 3 styles of cable:
1) the 28/28 economy cable (which I presume means 28 gauge on all wires) for 81 cents the
2) the 24/28 cable (presumably 24 gauge on power and ground, and 28 on the others) for $1.40
3) the "premium" cable which they don't give any info on, for $2.96
Newegg has a 22 gauge for $4
Price isn't that big of a deal one 1, but I'll probably buy 10 which starts to make a difference (although prices go down a bit with quantity on all of these). Sounds like the 24/28 Monoprice might be the best bet.

Battery monitor widget is an app, after you download it long press on your home screen > widgets > and there should be one for the "battery monitor widget" app, so basically put the "battery monitor widget" widget on one of your homescreens
And im not saying this is to see whether one is charging more than another, because you can just see that clearly
This is to see how much more it is because this app shows you the mA coming through the cord

The phone software controls the charge rate based on what it thinks it is plugged into. I think it limits its draw to 500ma if it senses a USB port on the other end (since the USB standard limits it to 500ma anyway), it charges at 700ma if it senses a wall-wart type charger. Not sure how it senses the difference, but you will notice on the lock screen it will say either Charging (USB) or Charging (AC).

Questions and help issues go in Q&A
Thread moved
FNM

poit said:
The phone software controls the charge rate based on what it thinks it is plugged into. I think it limits its draw to 500ma if it senses a USB port on the other end (since the USB standard limits it to 500ma anyway), it charges at 700ma if it senses a wall-wart type charger. Not sure how it senses the difference, but you will notice on the lock screen it will say either Charging (USB) or Charging (AC).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry if I didn't make this clear, the phone is claiming it is an AC charger in both cases, but one cable versus another makes a big difference in charging speed. Anyway, I ordered 9 of the $1.40 Monoprice cables. We'll see if they work.

poit said:
The phone software controls the charge rate based on what it thinks it is plugged into. I think it limits its draw to 500ma if it senses a USB port on the other end (since the USB standard limits it to 500ma anyway), it charges at 700ma if it senses a wall-wart type charger. Not sure how it senses the difference, but you will notice on the lock screen it will say either Charging (USB) or Charging (AC).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sort of off topic but Interesting. My lock screen just shows charging. USB port on computer, USB cable plugged into wall charger or dedicated 700mah Blackberry wall charger, it makes no distinction as to how it's being charged. It does charge faster using a wall charger obviously but I've never noticed a difference in rate between using different cables.