Develop Bugs

AA battery charger, emergency battery

Hi
has anyone ever tried out AA battery charger for O2 Exec, Qtek 9000,HTC Universal ?
I cannot imagine how this could possibly work with just one AA battery.
Same question for AA Battery Extender Charger
(If this has been asked/posted around, please point me to. I couldn't find it)

I personally have a 2x AA charger I bought in Japan. Does mini-USB.
Um, I can't say for certain, but it did charge my Dopod 900 from 18% to 20%, at which point the thingie broke down and stopped charging and instead did a rapid discharge on my phone... bringing it down to 11% before I pulled it out.
It doesn't seem to charge unless the phone is off beforehand, as well, as noted in a Motorola-charger thread somewhere else.
I tested it with the alkaline batteries that were provided with it; your mileage might vary with rechargeable lithium-ions. I'm going to try 2x 2000mAh ones when I get back to Singapore and scrounge up a bit of change; I'll report back then.

One of the pictures seems to put the USB charger in the wrong place.
Is there a Universal with the charger at the SD Card area or is it at the side?
Full voltage (100%) is around 4.2V, so charging the Universal I expect higher voltage, isn't it not correct?
1 normal battery is usually 1.5V and rechargable type is 1.2V. Seems like need 4 batteries?
Is there a protection circuit for over charging?

Mmmm, perhaps I can help here.
Premise, I haven't test any of the chargers you mention (but they seem interesting to me).
I'm not 100% certain of this, but, I'm quite sure that there's no universal with the charge bay near the SD; this is just a simple graphic error surely made by the Ebay user that place the ad togheter, most PDAs have their power in around there!
CWKJ is absolutely right when He says that battery voltage is 4.2V, now, if you were going to charge the universal "directly" battery to battery (this is not the way rechargeable batteries are charged), you would need at least the same voltage that has the battery to be charged (this is 4.2V).
Battery chargers are "a little bit more complicated", each battery technology requires some kind of "different" battery charger (Acid like Lead batteries used in cars or UPSs, NiCd, NiMh, LiPoly, LiIon, etc.).
Some chargers verify the battery's voltage, others battery's current, others battery's temperature, others several of them, others a special mix of changes related to several of these parameters, and so forth.
The chargers you're talking about in this thread are contructed with a special switch mode power supply, the type that boosts (raises) the input voltage, they'll work as long as the "donor" battery has enough power (expressed in W or A*V). Also this power supply has a "efficiency" (expressed in %), so not all the energy is tranferred to the charging battery.
It depends on charger's quality how well will it work and how much will it last, the situation mentioned by linj seems like a defective charger to me.
One last thing, usually these boost converters have been made with over current and over protection circuits, and I'm saying usually, because one of my car chargers burnt itself out without any reasonable cause but a defective/poor design.
See the price that you're buying and you'll (not neccessarily) end with a good approach to the charger's quality.

With such cheap price, I would expect it to be direct to direct charging and not completed Switch Mode Power Supply charging.

For the first one mentioned by JumpinS (the cheapest), the converter seems to be present, there's a detailed photo where some components can be seen, including a little inductor that's absolutely necessary to make the converter.
The other one has no such photos but being expensivier...

Kernel to remove 650 ma limitation of battery charging?

Reference Thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833602
Apparently, according to the above research, although the EVO charging cable is rated at 1 amp, the phone is only charging at 650 ma. This adds an extra 45 minutes or so to full charge times.
This would make sense in the same way that 3 ghz cpu's can easily be pushed to 4 ghz by those who know what they are doing. The 650 ma is just to "idiot" proof the battery and to provide some wiggle room for "defective" batteries to still function safely.
HERE'S MY QUESTION:
Is this a hardware based limitation or software based? Could someone write a kernel or app that would disable this limitation allowing us to charge at full speed? I am NOT a programmer so have no idea if this is feasible but would appreciate input from those who would know.
Thanks in advance.

mitchellvii said:
Reference Thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833602
Apparently, according to the above research, although the EVO charging cable is rated at 1 amp, the phone is only charging at 650 ma. This adds an extra 45 minutes or so to full charge times.
This would make sense in the same way that 3 ghz cpu's can easily be pushed to 4 ghz by those who know what they are doing. The 650 ma is just to "idiot" proof the battery and to provide some wiggle room for "defective" batteries to still function safely.
HERE'S MY QUESTION:
Is this a hardware based limitation or software based? Could someone write a kernel or app that would disable this limitation allowing us to charge at full speed? I am NOT a programmer so have no idea if this is feasible but would appreciate input from those who would know.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well from my bit of micro-electronics experience, it is usually hardware done for this sort of thing, but until someone really checks all possible routes it is hard to tell.

SUPER EDIT:
All hail pete...

spankmaster said:
I noticed the R/C guy posting later in the thread saying there is no reason not to charge them faster. There is no reason to trust me over him but i can assure you he is wrong. There are at least 2 threads already here about people wanting 1 amp chargers, getting them, and then complaining about how battery their battery life becomes. So take whatever advice you'd like, but id recommend saving the life of your battery over 45 minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's see if I understand this correctly: You've read in a couple of threads that other people have claimed that they've suffered a loss of capacity because they've charged their Evo batteries with a 1A (1000mA) charger, am I right so far? And because you read this you know enough to tell someone who has years of hands-on experience with LiPo batteries and chargers that he's wrong. Did I get that right?
Whatever, dude. I certainly don't need to argue with you, but I'm compelled to point out a couple of things for other people's sake like the simple fact that the HTC wall wart that comes in the box with a new Evo has a 1A output.
And then there's the fact that a 1C charge rate is the de facto standard in the battery industry for LiPo batteries. Rather than make you do the math, a 1C charge rate for a 1500mAh battery is 1.5A and a 1C charge rate for a 3500mAh battery is 3.5A so charging either of 'em with a 1A rate is well below the most recognized charge rate in the industry.
But I must be wrong if you say so. And if I'm wrong then all the scientists and engineers who design LiPo batteries and chargers must be wrong too.
So I'm in some pretty good company, don't you think?
Pete

well, looks like my ass has been handed to me by science lol Sorry if i sounded insulting, you obviously know more than I. Just trying to give my best 2 cents from what ive heard, and i honestly have heard from a relatively large crowd that 1 amp charging does seem to hurt they're batteries. I thought maybe 1 amp or faster would be fine for the larger cells, maybe 2500 or 3500 or up, but maybe just the smaller cells like in most cell phones couldnt handle that fast a charge as well. No reason to argue with the science of it all though. Also, i do know that the wall charger that comes with the phone is 1 amp output, but many chargers say that but dont always output it depending on the device hooked up (the device not pulling that much, obviously not saying it knows whats plugged in). Does the evo actually charge a full 1 amp from it?

Although I appreciate everyone's input I think you are missing the point of my question. It is not "should we charge at 1 amp?", but "why are our 1 amp chargers only charging at 650 ma?".
If EVO's are rated to charge at 1 amp and the charger is 1 amp, why is it charging at much less. This sounds more like a software thing than a hardware thing. Why would EVO publish that its rated to charge at 1 amp when it cannot physically do so?

mitchellvii said:
Although I appreciate everyone's input I think you are missing the point of my question. It is not "should we charge at 1 amp?", but "why are our 1 amp chargers only charging at 650 ma?".
If EVO's are rated to charge at 1 amp and the charger is 1 amp, why is it charging at much less. This sounds more like a software thing than a hardware thing. Why would EVO publish that its rated to charge at 1 amp when it cannot physically do so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well one semi logical explanation is they limited it to keep the heat levels down to keep components such as the processor from overheating while charging, or they just wanted to do it to piss some people off.

mitchellvii said:
Although I appreciate everyone's input I think you are missing the point of my question. It is not "should we charge at 1 amp?", but "why are our 1 amp chargers only charging at 650 ma?".
If EVO's are rated to charge at 1 amp and the charger is 1 amp, why is it charging at much less. This sounds more like a software thing than a hardware thing. Why would EVO publish that its rated to charge at 1 amp when it cannot physically do so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want to be real clear about something before I throw any more info into the mix: My info is based on a mixture of my experience with LiPo batteries and charging circuits, my own observations during the time I've owned my Evo, and anecdotal evidence I've collected in this and other forums about the Evo. In other words, my info is based on educated guesses rather than hard facts and with that in mind ....
The Evo does seem to regulate the charging current (rate) to the battery to around 650mA. If you use a power supply that is incapable of supplying 650mA (like a USB port on a computer) then the charging rate will be less, but I haven't read any reliable evidence that suggests that a more powerful power supply will increase the charge rate. My own experiments seem to support that conclusion: I've charged my own Evo with my computer, the HTC 1A charger, a USB hub which can supply 2A, and a mobile charger rated at 850mA. The 850mA, 1A, and 2A supplies all take the same amount of time to recharge my Evo and the computer takes a little longer.
I've also read plenty of reports which suggest that the Evo also uses a mAh cap to limit the amount of charge it will accept before it terminates the charge cycle. It's important to understand the difference between charge amount and charge rate for this to make sense: A parallel example is gallons and gallons-per-hour: Gallons is an amount and gallons-per-hour is a rate. In the Evo's case, mAh (milliamp-hours) is the amount and mA (milliamps) is the rate.
Under normal conditions a LiPo charge cycle is terminated when the battery voltage reaches 4.2V per cell, but due to the volatile consequences of overcharging LiPos engineers usually build additional redundant safeguards into consumer electronics to protect consumers from themselves and a charge rate limit and a charge amount limit are often used together to that end.
So I'm not at all surprised to see evidence that both are used in the Evo, although I do think they erred a little too far on the side of caution.
Now if I had to guess (and I do), I'd say the ~650mA charge rate is hard-wired into the charging circuit and I'll be surprised if that can be changed with anything short of a hardware revision. The charge amount limit is another story, though. That is probably coded into the software.
And on that note, I'm done guessing.
Pete

Confuscius say ...
"It is better to guess and be found right, than to pontificate and be found wrong..."
EVO specs show that it should charge at 1 amp. The charger they give you with a new phone is a 1 amp charger and yet, in numerous threads we learn that people are only getting about a 650 ma charging rate.
THE CONSPIRACY THEORY (don't get excited, just tossing out ideas here - just because you are paranoid doesn't mean everyone really isn't out to get you )
There is something going on here that doesn't add up. Could it be that HTC could not get enough high quality batteries in time to ship and yet, all the specs had already been published? So they shipped some units with "non-binned" batteries and set the charge rate at 650ma to make sure they didn't blow up (lowest common denominator)? They also shipped the 1 amp chargers because they had already manufactured those with the idea the average Joe would never know the difference?
Think about it. It makes sense. Why else tell us it will charge at 1 amp with a 1 amp charger then limit it to 650 ma?
Could this be the reason why so many people with "identical" phones get such wildly different battery results? If this is true, HTC would be looking at one hell of a class action lawsuit.

Just noticed this:
mitchellvii said:
Why would EVO publish that its rated to charge at 1 amp when it cannot physically do so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe that HTC or Sprint has published anything about charge rates. The only thing (that I've seen) that even remotely suggests a rate is the fact that the wall charger they include with the Evo has a 1A output.
There are lots of reasons why a device like a LiPo-powered cell phone needs to internally regulate the charging rate and human folly is right at the top of the list. Imagine how many people would charge their phones at higher and higher rates without ever even considering the consequences of doing so if all they had to do was buy more powerful wall warts. Imagine how many people have already tried!
And I should add that the consequences of charging LiPo cells at excessive rates includes big balls of fire. Go to YouTube and do a search for "lipo fire" if you'd like to see for yourself.
The other major consideration is the amount of electrical current that the circuitry and components in the phone can handle. Push too much current through 'em and they become heaters. Push a little more and circuit board traces start popping like fuses if the components don't fail first.
I imagine you're asking yourself why HTC would supply a 1A charger if the phone will only charge at 650mA (note: you folks are so predictable ) and the answer to that is pretty simple too: The phone can use that extra power (overhead) to power the phone while it's charging the battery. Without that overhead you'd never be able to charge the battery at the regulated rate without turning the phone off.
And that isn't guessing.
Pete

But Pete,
To my understanding, the EVO runs off the battery even when it is being charged. Any overhead from a 1 am charger would not power the phone but just not be used at all. The reason the phone charges during heavy use with a more powerful charger is simply that it is charging faster than the battery is draining.
No power goes directly from the charger to the phone. Try plugging your charger in with no battery and see if it works

mitchellvii said:
But Pete,
To my understanding, the EVO runs off the battery even when it is being charged. Any overhead from a 1 am charger would not power the phone but just not be used at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw a lot of evidence of that in Evo forums before I got my phone and I initially hypothesized that it was why some people were experiencing the rapid ~10% battery drop off if they didn't take the phone off the charger as soon as the light changed from amber to green. And that may, in fact, be true for some Evos but I've seen no evidence whatsoever that my phone works that way. I put my phone in the charging cradle at night with no regard to the charge level and I grab it at whatever random time I happen to need it the next day, and my battery is always fully-charged and I've never experienced the quick drop-off.
My phone also seems to take the same amount of time to top off the battery from a known charge level regardless of whether I leave 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS on or turn them all off as long as I use the 1A wall wart.
Those two things have given me reason to question my own hypotheses. In fact, they seem to provide ample evidence to prove it wrong.
No power goes directly from the charger to the phone. Try plugging your charger in with no battery and see if it works
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've actually thought about trying that, but my job requires that I'm "reachable" at all times and I can't afford to experiment with my phone in ways which might brick it, regardless of how remote the chance is.
And the fact that the phone won't work via external power without a battery in it isn't hard evidence that the external power can only charge the battery. There are many reasons why it might not work including the possibility that the entire power management circuit in the phone requires some exciter voltage from the battery to work. That's actually a pretty common safeguard.
But the truth of the matter is I'm back to guessin' again.
Pete

spankmaster said:
The 1amp charging thing has been discussed many many times. its not a kernel limitation, but sort of a hardware thing. The evo has to be able to tell whether its being charged by a wall charger or a usb charger hooked up to a computer because usb ports CANNOT output a full amp. So on wall chargers and car chargers , even the ones with usb ports, there is a data lines are hooked together sending a signal to the phone that its charging from a more powerful source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think i might have actually answered your question there lol. Ever heard how weird ipod/iphone chargers are? its cause they have resistors on the data lines to signal the phone to charge, and chargers without them will not charge it. Similarly from what ive gathered, if you open up the charger you want to use, say a wall or car charger, you can bridge the two data lines together, and that will signal the Evo to charge at a full amp. you can use Spare Parts to see that it says charging via A/C to validate this. this has been the solution decided on so far and its very easy. hope i helped!

spankmaster said:
this has been the solution decided on so far and its very easy. hope i helped!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where are you getting this information, spankmaster? Who has decided on this solution? I'd genuinely like to know because I'd like to follow the threads myself.
Have you tried this yourself with an Evo or are you hoping one of us will and let you know how it goes?
And FWIW, I'm not trying to be a smart ass. I really am interested in this but I must say that I'm a bit skeptical.
Pete

PGRtoo said:
Where are you getting this information, spankmaster? Who has decided on this solution? I'd genuinely like to know because I'd like to follow the threads myself.
Have you tried this yourself with an Evo or are you hoping one of us will and let you know how it goes?
And FWIW, I'm not trying to be a smart ass. I really am interested in this but I must say that I'm a bit skeptical.
Pete
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heres the thread my friend!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=767961&highlight=car+charger
The OP has some good info as well. And i did this myself about an hour ago to test and it indeed works.

spankmaster said:
heres the thread my friend!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=767961
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a good find, spankmaster, but evidence still points to a a charging rate which is internally limited to around 650mA even when the phone detects an AC charger. Here's why I say that:
The majority of my own testing has been done on a Seidio Desktop Charging Cradle powered by a Seidio Micro-USB High Output Folding Travel Charger which I just now discovered has a 1.25A instead of a 1A output. Spare Parts already indicates (without any modification) Battery status: Charging (AC), Power plug: AC when I put my phone in the dock.
Now if this "Charging (AC)" condition would allow my phone to charge at the full 1.25A of the charger then it should take ~1.2 hours to charge a depleated 1500mAh battery. At just 1A it would take ~1.5 hours however the two times I deliberately did that as a test it took almost 2.5 hours to charge in the above-mentioned dock.
1500mAh divided by 2.5 hours = a 600mA average charging current but the actual current tapers off as the battery nears 4.2V so the maximum charging current over that 2 hour period was probably somewhere in the 640-660mA range.
The bottom line, at least as I see it, is that shorting the D+ and D- pins may cause USB chargers to charge at AC charger rates, but it doesn't seem to help AC chargers exceed the ~650mA maximum which is apparently hard-wired into the Evo.
The math says it.
I believe it.
That settles it.
'Course I'm still open to new ideas and I still have a glimmer of hope that there's a solution banging around in someone's head just waiting for the right "AHA!" moment.
Pete

ah ha, thats wierd. I think ill conduct a similar test of my own with the charger modified as they specified and see what my results hold. in the same thread there are people, or at least one or two guys, claiming to get a 45 minute charge, so their still might be something to it, or people are just being ridiculous lol. ill post back with my results!

spankmaster said:
in the same thread there are people, or at least one or two guys, claiming to get a 45 minute charge, so their still might be something to it, or people are just being ridiculous lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To charge 1500mAh in 45 minutes would take a bare minimum of a 2A charge current. That's dangerously over a 1C charge rate and if they actually can charge at that rate they stand a good chance of making a smoking hole in something. And If they are doing that and getting away with it they're definitely reducing the number of charge-discharge cycles they'll get from their batteries by a huge amount.
Realistically, I don't think it's possible to force an Evo to charge at rates like that so they're either spreading fertilizer or the batteries were more than half-charged when they started.
Pete

ya, i thought the same thing about 45 minutes. i brought my battery (stock) down to 15% and plugged it into my modified charger and am gonna stay up to see how it does. Its a 99.9% chance its gonna charge exactly like you said. But i was just thinking about the thing about the ipod charging as well, cause the ipod will only charge with the resistors in the lines, but different resistances will tell it to charge at different rates, so im just checking for the .1% chance that bridging the two data lines might signal the phone ever so slightly different then the pre made chargers your using. like I said, one and a million, buts its always worth exploring, if not even just to prove your brilliance
1 HOUR RESULTS: at a solid hour it looks like a got to 65% indicating a 50% charge. so the the moment im at a 750mah average charge rate. but as you stated before, as the battery comes closer to a full charge, it tapers so it looks like it'll probably average out. ill update again for the Hour and a half point.
1.5 HOUR RESULTS: solid 80% after 1.5 hours (again, starting with 15% charge so a total of 65% charge during testing time). Thats 975 mA in 1.5 hours which puts us right on the money at 650mAh charging rate! (SHOCK AND AWW! Lol)
Conclusion, bridging the data lines didnt do diddly SQUAT! i mean, i didnt test the rate before hand, but it certainly isnt giving anyone any 1 amp charging.
And brain blast, wouldnt it be just as effective a method to test charger output by cutting open the cable and hooking a multimeter in the circuit? Actually, imma try that right now!
Hokay, so hooking up the multimeter in line made things really screwy, evo stopped charging and the current on the meter was going way up and down. Either im even MORE retarded than i though and forgot how to use my multimeter or this charger is dangerous and i dont wanna use it anymore cause that shouldn't happen like that lol.
So, back to the OP's question.....
no clue mi amigo! good luck though!

spankmaster said:
Hokay, so hooking up the multimeter in line made things really screwy, evo stopped charging and the current on the meter was going way up and down. Either im even MORE retarded than i though and forgot how to use my multimeter or this charger is dangerous and i dont wanna use it anymore cause that shouldn't happen like that lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you place the meter in series (in-line) or in parallel (across) the +5/Gnd cables? For measuring current, it needs to be in series and you can fry circuits by placing it in parallel as it will present near-0 resistance, shorting all the voltage through the meter and straight back to the supply.

41,600mAh charger...

not sure how interesting this is to anyone but I can't find any other product like it so I thought I'd share.
http://www.luxa2.com/product.aspx?s=113
It's got 6 usb charge ports. Apparently it uses an LG Lithium Polymer battery and get around 92.4% efficiency.

That's good for camping, To keep the music going!!
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app

good for camping

Wow. that's some major power.

It might be not as efficient, but that's almost like taking an UPS with you.

daniel_loft said:
It might be not as efficient, but that's almost like taking an UPS with you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no way it's going to be 92.4% efficient. They say in the spec about using 16x 2600 mAh Li-ion batteries, wired up together. These batteries will have 3.7V output that will have to go to 5V USB converter, through usb-to-micro-usb cable to your phone, and converted back from 5V to 3.7V of your internal phone battery. This conversion will mean at least 30% of of efficiency loss. Which means this battery is only 70% efficient and you will not get more than 29,000 mAh of the actual capacity. Plus, with multiple daisy-chained batteries, I'm not quite sure about failure mechanism - if one fails how does it affect the output? And the weight/bulk of carrying it - definitely not portable, and probably very heavy.

So I had to make a couple calls but I was able to purchase one through a vendor. It's actually a pretty small unit.
Height is about 4"
Width is about 3.5"
Weight is 2.2lbs
So it's actually very portable considering it's charging capacity. I cant account for it's efficiency yet but I brought it to a buddy's house for Monday night football and we charged 3 phones and a tablet with ease.

OFFTOPIC: You damn brits/americans! can't you set the scale to kilograms and turn the ruler around?

haha sorry

Battery Mod + Solar Cell

Hello everybody, first post on XDA!
I am planning to mod my Nexus 5 battery. Considering that the dimension of the original battery is 57mm*60mm, I planned to buy 4 Sanyo 3,7V 840mAh and connecting them in parallel. I would like to post links but as a newbie I am not allowed to do so.
These are 14mm in diameter and 50mm long, meaning that 4 of them would be packed in 56mm*50mm, with 10 extra free mm where I can comfortably fit the "charging board" that I can unsolder from the old original battery. The problem here is that the charging board will probably have more than 2 pins, the others being for temperature and data. How can I deal with them? I haven't teared my battery yet, so I cannot see how the chip really looks like. Does someone know whether the data pins end up in the circuitry or are they somehow connected to the battery itself? Because in this latter case I would really have no idea how to deal with these extra pins...
In addition how will the circuitry and the phone itself deal with the increased capacity? Should I tell the phone the capacity has changed or will it auto adapt? I have read tons of posts on this topic, all saying different things...
Certainly that will increase the phone thickness and I plan on 3D printing a custom designed back-cover. Luckily the original 3D model is downloadable from GrabCAD for free, that is a good starting point. What material would you suggest me to print it in? PLA, ABS, Nylon?
Furthermore, I am planning to add a nerdy solar cell 4v, 35mA that will certainly do basically nothing except help in real emergency charging the phone while off, but it will give an awesomly nerdy look. The solar cell I am talking about is 32mm*39mm and would perfectly fit on the right of the camera.
I could fit a 100mA solar panel, or avoid the battery mod at all and just fit 5 of those solar panel for a summed max current of 175mA...
I plan charging the battery with direct connection of the solar panel to it through a diod. The only thing that worries me is that while 35mA are less than what the phone draws during standby, the battery indicator will never go crazy seing the battery tension growing while no charger is plugged in. On the other hand, higher currents, will actually be able to actively recharge the phone creating confusion to the phone that would not be able to realize what is going on. To avoid that I should connect the solar panels to the usb charging port. That would put the phone into charging mode and thus in a energy hungry more that could again cause battery to drain instead of charging or anyway to charge incredibly slow.
If someone is interested in this project and has suggestions of any kind I will appreciate and I will share the results.

pilitio said:
Hello everybody, first post on XDA!
I am planning to mod my Nexus 5 battery. Considering that the dimension of the original battery is 57mm*60mm, I planned to buy 4 Sanyo 3,7V 840mAh and connecting them in parallel. I would like to post links but as a newbie I am not allowed to do so.
These are 14mm in diameter and 50mm long, meaning that 4 of them would be packed in 56mm*50mm, with 10 extra free mm where I can comfortably fit the "charging board" that I can unsolder from the old original battery. The problem here is that the charging board will probably have more than 2 pins, the others being for temperature and data. How can I deal with them? I haven't teared my battery yet, so I cannot see how the chip really looks like. Does someone know whether the data pins end up in the circuitry or are they somehow connected to the battery itself? Because in this latter case I would really have no idea how to deal with these extra pins...
In addition how will the circuitry and the phone itself deal with the increased capacity? Should I tell the phone the capacity has changed or will it auto adapt? I have read tons of posts on this topic, all saying different things...
Certainly that will increase the phone thickness and I plan on 3D printing a custom designed back-cover. Luckily the original 3D model is downloadable from GrabCAD for free, that is a good starting point. What material would you suggest me to print it in? PLA, ABS, Nylon?
Furthermore, I am planning to add a nerdy solar cell 4v, 35mA that will certainly do basically nothing except help in real emergency charging the phone while off, but it will give an awesomly nerdy look. The solar cell I am talking about is 32mm*39mm and would perfectly fit on the right of the camera.
I could fit a 100mA solar panel, or avoid the battery mod at all and just fit 5 of those solar panel for a summed max current of 175mA...
I plan charging the battery with direct connection of the solar panel to it through a diod. The only thing that worries me is that while 35mA are less than what the phone draws during standby, the battery indicator will never go crazy seing the battery tension growing while no charger is plugged in. On the other hand, higher currents, will actually be able to actively recharge the phone creating confusion to the phone that would not be able to realize what is going on. To avoid that I should connect the solar panels to the usb charging port. That would put the phone into charging mode and thus in a energy hungry more that could again cause battery to drain instead of charging or anyway to charge incredibly slow.
If someone is interested in this project and has suggestions of any kind I will appreciate and I will share the results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly I would scrape the idea of a solar cell, it's going to generate very very little power especially since its going to be pointed down. Also that 175mA is probably going to be something smaller in the real world even under ideal condition it'll be almost impossible to generate that. Now for the batteries you would like to put into your phone, you have to open up your phone or find dimensions and see how everything fits together. Sometimes their will be some space around the battery and this is put for several safety reasons, so I do not recommend filling up the space if you go ahead with this replacement. This could lead to battery overheating which could cause it to leak and cause a short and destroy your phone. At the end of the day I really wouldn't recommend anything attempt this unless you really know what you're doing and the risks involved with doing this. I don't feel the increase in battery life would offset the risk factor of attempting this. Also I should mention that when you solder that it's going to be very fine and sensitive solder work, there are many things on that board that will be heat sensitive and power sensitive so using something like a $50 Weller wouldn't be sufficient.

Couple Battery Questions

Got 2 new batteries and I want to keep them for a while, so I have a few questions:
1. Is the OEM fast-charge charger and cable okay to use every day, or will it degrade the battery faster than a slower/regular speed charger/cable?
2. Since I have 2 batteries now, which is the best way to charge them both up? charge 1 in the phone, then swap and charge the other in the phone? Or buy a battery charger (and if so, which one)?
3. Any other helps regarding the chargers and/or cables?​Thank you for your help.

Faster charging will always generate more heat and put more stress on the battery, so slower charging would be better for a battery's lifespan, but I don't think you'll see a huge difference within two years.
By far the fastest way to keep going is having the second battery charged in an external battery charger and then swap when the other battery gets low, followed by charging the low battery in the external charger. Doing it this way also puts the least wear-and-tear on the phone's charging port since you'll rarely use it. I use LG's OEM external battery charging cradle (BCK-5200), but it may be hard to find nowadays. There's currently a used one up for sale in an auction by an American seller on eBay, and there are new ones from a South Korean seller for a higher fixed price. I wouldn't pay more than $25 for one. As for charging time, for me, it takes about 4 hours to charge my MaxxxJuice 4100 mAh batteries from ~5–10% to full. External chargers do not fast-charge, so you'll never put too much stress on the battery that way. Of course, swapping may not be for everyone as it may be inconvenient to take a case off and put it back on.
Unlike the older microUSB cables, bad USB Type-C cables that are not built to certain specifications can draw higher currents and destroy the devices they are charging. A few years ago, a Google engineer reviewed lots of USB-C cables on Amazon to give his view on those. If you need a third-party cable, make sure you get one from a reputable source with good reviews. My preferred USB cable is Anker's Powerline+ due to their extra strength/thickness, and I don't need much flexibility/twistability in my cables. Also, I like how the USB-C end connector is made of one single piece where you don't see any connecting lines around the middle (you can see an example here).
Other thoughts:
As long as there is a supply of extra batteries around and you can afford to buy them when the time comes, then you shouldn't worry much about how you charge your phone. In my opinion, that is one of the main selling points of having a hand-removable battery. I imagine a paranoid person on a phone with a sealed battery would be trying to keep the battery level between 40 and 80% at all times. So really, the only thing to worry about is having a decent USB-C cable and making sure the phone's charging port is clean and not worn out.
In case you are really interested on my detailed charging habits and related things on my V20, I discussed them while reviewing my batteries a while back on the V20 Subreddit.

Thanks!

C D said:
Faster charging will always generate more heat and put more stress on the battery, so slower charging would be better for a battery's lifespan, but I don't think you'll see a huge difference within two years.
By far the fastest way to keep going is having the second battery charged in an external battery charger and then swap when the other battery gets low, followed by charging the low battery in the external charger. Doing it this way also puts the least wear-and-tear on the phone's charging port since you'll rarely use it. I use LG's OEM external battery charging cradle (BCK-5200), but it may be hard to find nowadays. There's currently a used one up for sale in an auction by an American seller on eBay, and there are new ones from a South Korean seller for a higher fixed price. I wouldn't pay more than $25 for one. As for charging time, for me, it takes about 4 hours to charge my MaxxxJuice 4100 mAh batteries from ~5–10% to full. External chargers do not fast-charge, so you'll never put too much stress on the battery that way. Of course, swapping may not be for everyone as it may be inconvenient to take a case off and put it back on.
Unlike the older microUSB cables, bad USB Type-C cables that are not built to certain specifications can draw higher currents and destroy the devices they are charging. A few years ago, a Google engineer reviewed lots of USB-C cables on Amazon to give his view on those. If you need a third-party cable, make sure you get one from a reputable source with good reviews. My preferred USB cable is Anker's Powerline+ due to their extra strength/thickness, and I don't need much flexibility/twistability in my cables. Also, I like how the USB-C end connector is made of one single piece where you don't see any connecting lines around the middle (you can see an example here).
Other thoughts:
As long as there is a supply of extra batteries around and you can afford to buy them when the time comes, then you shouldn't worry much about how you charge your phone. In my opinion, that is one of the main selling points of having a hand-removable battery. I imagine a paranoid person on a phone with a sealed battery would be trying to keep the battery level between 40 and 80% at all times. So really, the only thing to worry about is having a decent USB-C cable and making sure the phone's charging port is clean and not worn out.
In case you are really interested on my detailed charging habits and related things on my V20, I discussed them while reviewing my batteries a while back on the V20 Subreddit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On that Subreddit, you mentioned you cycled a couple batteries. Did you have to do the whole fully charge and fully drain thing each time you switched to the new battery, or just when you first bought the batteries?

Would like to know the answer to ^this^ as well.

baldybill said:
On that Subreddit, you mentioned you cycled a couple batteries. Did you have to do the whole fully charge and fully drain thing each time you switched to the new battery, or just when you first bought the batteries?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pistacios said:
Would like to know the answer to ^this^ as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I only did the full cycle with the first battery three times, and that was it. The only reason to do that is for the Android software of the phone to get a better sense of your battery level. Of course, it won't be as accurate the longer you go swapping between batteries as undoubtedly they will differ a bit in capacity over time. But fully running down and then fully charging a battery isn't good for its lifespan if you do it too often. The only other times you'd have to really repeat the calibration is when switching to a battery with a different capacity or switching ROMs / doing a factory reset.

C D said:
No, I only did the full cycle with the first battery three times, and that was it. The only reason to do that is for the Android software of the phone to get a better sense of your battery level. Of course, it won't be as accurate the longer you go swapping between batteries as undoubtedly they will differ a bit in capacity over time. But fully running down and then fully charging a battery isn't good for its lifespan if you do it too often. The only other times you'd have to really repeat the calibration is when switching to a battery with a different capacity or switching ROMs / doing a factory reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I got a 4000 Powerbear that I'm calibrating now.
I'm also getting a 4100 Perfine.
Are they close enough that I shouldn't have to recalibrate for the 4100?

baldybill said:
So, I got a 4000 Powerbear that I'm calibrating now.
I'm also getting a 4100 Perfine.
Are they close enough that I shouldn't have to recalibrate for the 4100?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most likely yes. I imagine most of these 4000–4300 mAh Lithium polymer batteries that started popping up this year are very similar, and some may just be rebranded from the same common factory source. Barring a defective battery, if the two batteries had a significant difference in capacity, you could see things like early shutdowns on the smaller capacity one or being stuck at a low percentage for an unusually long amount of time on the larger capacity one.

Great info.
So it looks like all other batteries on hand should not be put into rotation with the higher capacity batteries to avoid inaccurate readings in Android.

pistacios said:
Great info.
So it looks like all other batteries on hand should not be put into rotation with the higher capacity batteries to avoid inaccurate readings in Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much this. I suppose one could try keeping separate copies of the batterystats.bin file from /data/system when rooted and swap them alongside the different batteries. But that sounds like too much of a pain to deal with, even if it works.

C D said:
Most likely yes. I imagine most of these 4000–4300 mAh Lithium polymer batteries that started popping up this year are very similar, and some may just be rebranded from the same common factory source. Barring a defective battery, if the two batteries had a significant difference in capacity, you could see things like early shutdowns on the smaller capacity one or being stuck at a low percentage for an unusually long amount of time on the larger capacity one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pistacios said:
Great info.
So it looks like all other batteries on hand should not be put into rotation with the higher capacity batteries to avoid inaccurate readings in Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
C D said:
Pretty much this. I suppose one could try keeping separate copies of the batterystats.bin file from /data/system when rooted and swap them alongside the different batteries. But that sounds like too much of a pain to deal with, even if it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to add to this, I found your pics @C D for the charging instructions and there's a note about using 3200mah batteries along with the 4100mah batteries.

pistacios said:
Just to add to this, I found your pics @C D for the charging instructions and there's a note about using 3200mah batteries along with the 4100mah batteries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that mean that if you switch between the batteries, they'll both last as long as they should (the 4100 longer time than the orig. 3200), but the system's percent will be wrong?

My understanding is that if you calibrate the phone to recognize the full 4100mah and then use a 3200mah battery, it will shut down early (but still use the full 3200mah).

Correct. They are warning you that swapping between batteries of significantly different capacities will throw off the accuracy of the phone's battery percentage indicator at all times, especially at the high and low percent values (so an early shutdown can happen when the smaller capacity battery is used). Of course, this won't affect either battery's true capacity.
I'd pay good money for a system that can correctly handle different battery capacities of any amount, but we all know where the future of hand-removable batteries has been heading for the last 3–4 years.

Does anyone charge their phone ONLY to 80 % or so?
If so, what apps do you use to limit this? Any other tips/advice?

baldybill said:
Does anyone charge their phone ONLY to 80 % or so?
If so, what apps do you use to limit this? Any other tips/advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use AccuBattery and it has a notification sound that plays when you hit the target charge percentage, but it's still up to you to remove the phone from the charger or else it continues charging to 100%.
Since our phones have replaceable batteries, I haven't made any special effort to take care of them. I have a pair of May '17 OEM 3200 mAh batteries that are going to get switched out for a pair of new 4100+ mAh Li-Po batteries once I get my second V20 set up. Every charger I use is QuickCharge 3.0 certified except for USB on my PCs and my Pioneer Android Auto headunit USB connection in one car. The vast majority of the time, I charge via QC 3.0. Pretty much the only time I let the battery charge via PC USB is when I actually need to transfer files between the phone and computer.
Before my phone started having issues in the past month with a phantom power drain, I would let the phone charge from 30-40% to 80-90% and then remove it from the charger at night before going to sleep. In the last half year as the batteries have aged, I've let it get up to between 90-95% before unplugging. For the past month, I've been charging the phone four times a day from 40-100% to combat the power drain issue, but that comes with knowing that I don't care about these old batteries or the state of the firmware on this first V20 anymore.
As for when I swapped the two batteries I have, that entirely depended on when I actually ran one down so far that I needed a 0-100% battery swap, which could be months at a time and usually happened while on vacation or away from a charging source for a longer period of time than what my usual home/car/work routine allows.