Develop Bugs

[Q] Dodgy phone or dodgy car charger?

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone else had a similar problem..
Everytime I connect a car charger, it charges for a second then disconnects itself, the charger is still plugged in, and the engine is running. The red light on the charger is on too. I'm not saying this is a ROM problem or anything at all, but its the second charger I've had that does this, I don't suppose anybody knows a fix if it happens on other devices too?

Is this an official HTC charger?
I know it sounds silly, but most cheap unbranded car chargers cause all sorts of problems. It's usually that they don't short the two data pins, so that the phone thinks it's plugged into a PC. It will then only charge at half rate (500mA) in line with usb standards.
Also, the charger may not even be able to handle a 500mA output, which would suggest why your phones sees the charger, measures the output, sees it as insufficient, and stops the charging. Is there a sticker on the charger starting current output? They can still be misleading though.
An official HTC car charger (just like the mains wall charger) will have it's data pins sorted out. The phone will detect this, and switch to mains charging mode, and draw the full 1000mA. You may have noticed that your phone will charge twice as fast off a mains wall charger than it will from being plugged into a computers usb port.
Trust me I've thrown out about 3 of the cheap ones! Even charging at 500mA, your phone will still not be getting enough juice to do google maps navigation with GPS.
Hope I've helped.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA Premium App

It's a cheap eBay one, but I've bought from the company in the past...when I had an iPhone And it worked perfectly. The first charger had a label saying it's max was 500mA. That lasted about 20 minutes..Need it so much more recently because of my battery drain problem http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=996938.
I had no idea HTC sold official ones (seems I lack common sense), will give them a go, at least then I'll get a decent warranty if it doesn't work...

jimster4389 said:
It's a cheap eBay one, but I've bought from the company in the past...when I had an iPhone And it worked perfectly. The first charger had a label saying it's max was 500mA. That lasted about 20 minutes..Need it so much more recently because of my battery drain problem http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=996938.
I had no idea HTC sold official ones (seems I lack common sense), will give them a go, at least then I'll get a decent warranty if it doesn't work...
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If its a USB charger try a different USB lead. When my Desire arrived brand new the lead would only work properly when I bent the lead round the back of the phone otherwise it would start a charge (LED would light up red, phone says charging) but the battery % would never get any higher. Bought a new official HTC lead and problem solved.

Lost charger

Hi all,
I lost my charger unfortunately.
I did search around but found amazon out of stock.
Where can I buy the charger.
Thanks.

drpratik said:
Hi all,
I lost my charger unfortunately.
I did search around but found amazon out of stock.
Where can I buy the charger.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SPN5...SKM8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312842851&sr=8-1
http://cgi.ebay.com/Car-AC-Charger-...758129?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item588f078a71

Thanks a lot.

ANY charger that puts out 1000mA will work with it. Motorola makes "travel" wall chargers that sometimes go on sale for a buck, and have the plug folding into them so it takes less space in a bag. As long as it has a micro-USB plug or takes your USB cable, it will work, does not have to be specific for the phone.
The whole idea of microUSB chargers is part of a larger EU plan to allow for standard chargers with microUSB tips, so you can replace your cell phone but "never" have to replace the wall wart for it.
Just check the power output, most of the Motorola chargers put out 1000mA now because some phones with big batteries (like the Atrix) can use that power to charger quickly. Lower power rating, longer charge times.

You read my mind,
It was just the info I wanted to know.
Thanks.

Bear in mind though, not all micro usb chargers work on atrix. I have a few that dont work but work fine on my other stuff. Im not sure why though. I have an external battery that worked with my nexus one but not my atrix.
I voided my warranty.

Rred said:
ANY charger that puts out 1000mA will work with it.
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Click to collapse
The one that comes with the phone in the US is 800ma actually. But as you said, 1000ma would charge it faster.

My atrix charger died so I'm currently using a blackberry charger with 750ma output. The iphone charger works too but it's a slower charge.

Whaddayaknow. The one supplied with my phone says 850mA, the one supplied with my bt earbud is 1000mA. Maybe someone at Motorola is paying attention to profits.<G>
But this is all part of why he industry is moving to standard chargers and why "all" standard chargers should work with standard phones. If a charger doesn't work with this phone, odds are it is too low power or simply a cheap piece of Chinese quality control which has one or more broken contacts in it.
I've gotten USB cables that have the same problem, charge or data not both. that isn't by design but at least one of the four wires in them was broken. Cheap cables is cheap cables--and I've seen cheap cables shipped as OEM from brand names.
Like cables from WD and possibly Moto that have the USB log on the wrong side of the plug--which means they are not entitled to use the logo at all, and the maker does not understand the USB spec.

If you live near a hotel, walk in and say that you left your phone charger in one of the rooms. They usually have boxes of forgotten chargers.

Thanks all for your help.
I started using lg micro USB charger which gives 700 ma.
Will get original one as well.
Thanks again.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

Go to monoprice.com and grab a dual USB / 3 port electrical outlet for like 3 bucks. Then stock up on 6-10ft micro USB cables for a buck a piece.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

Nice idea.
Will surely check out monoprice,
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

Charging the E4GT with non oem adapter

The original Samsung charger outputs 5V---1000ma, I have an extra blackberry micro usb charger that outputs 5V---750ma.
I want to use my old blackberry charger in my office, will this different current output affect my battery long term or short term?

edlivian said:
The original Samsung charger outputs 5V---1000ma, I have an extra blackberry micro usb charger that outputs 5V---750ma.
I want to use my old blackberry charger in my office, will this different current output affect my battery long term or short term?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the immediate side effects will be that your phone will take a longer time to fully charge your battery.
If I helped you out in any way please thank me. Thanks.

Not sure how the blackberry chargers are. I know some of the Motorola chargers are accepted by the phone for high current charging (any charger that doesn't puts the phone in low current mode).
I charge my phone every night on my old 700mah Samsung charger and while it does take longer youd hardly notice unless you were trying to get as much charge in say an hour as possible. So as long as the phone doesn't limit it you should be good. <500mah is very noticeable.

I know it will take longer to charge. But Im not as familiar with appropriate charging output for li-ion as i am for ni-mh Sanyo eneloops for example that ideally should be charged at 220ma to maximize cell life.

edlivian said:
I know it will take longer to charge. But Im not as familiar with appropriate charging output for li-ion as i am for ni-mh Sanyo eneloops for example that ideally should be charged at 220ma to maximize cell life.
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Click to collapse
The rule still applies the less current used to charge the better the lifespan. The phone was paired with a battery with the intention of using a 1 amp charger. The phone will only allow high current charging mode if it thinks the charger is Samsung. Shorting the data pins is a way to fool it and many aftermarket chargers already do this.
With your phone on and the phone in low current mode (320 mah i believe) you will have a hard time charging the phone if anything is wake locking the phone even screen off. You will even have trouble charging and using the phone at 500mah depending on whats going on.
The phone will be eating some amount of power from the charger, the battery is not always seeing as much current as you might think. I always stick by the practice of not deep discharging it, LiION would rather be topped off then not charged (geeze remember NiCad laptop batteries.... lol). I feel this battery will be the shortest lifespan of any phone or laptop I have ever had. Just due to how much use it sees.

Charger
Any micro usb charger should work. I've had a dozen or so different gadgets that all use micro usb from Blue Tooth headsets, to speakers. I use all chargers interchangeably with one noteable exception. My wife's Nook Tablet will only charge using the provided Nook charger. Found that out the hard way.
I have also found that not all micro usb cables will provide data transfer for all phones. I'm guessing different pin-outs? For instance when I was trying to root my ET4G, I forgot my OEM cable at home so I tried to use my EVO cable. That dind't work well at all.

My old blackberry chargers seemed to work fine but I started seeing some strange jumping around of the battery while using. For instance it would all of a sudden jump up to 100% charged then if I unplugged and plugged back in it would go back to 70% or whatever. I went back to only samsung or just charging off usb. I use my pc, printer, cable box etc to charge my phone.

I charge mine with either the stock charger that came with my E4GT, or an old 700MAh charger that came with my old Samsung Rant. Occasionally I use the charger that came with my HTC Evo 4G. I really can never tell a difference. Although, like someone above said, it seems as if non-Samsung usb cables will not charge when plugged into a computer. That's how it is with the HTC cable, and I've also tried an LG usb cable and got the same results.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

BBJon said:
I have also found that not all micro usb cables will provide data transfer for all phones. I'm guessing different pin-outs? For instance when I was trying to root my ET4G, I forgot my OEM cable at home so I tried to use my EVO cable. That dind't work well at all.
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Really? I rooted and always use Odin using an HTC cable...

EggosEvo said:
I charge mine with either the stock charger that came with my E4GT, or an old 700MAh charger that came with my old Samsung Rant. Occasionally I use the charger that came with my HTC Evo 4G. I really can never tell a difference. Although, like someone above said, it seems as if non-Samsung usb cables will not charge when plugged into a computer. That's how it is with the HTC cable, and I've also tried an LG usb cable and got the same results.
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I had the exclaim, the replacement to the rant and thats where my 700mah charger came from.
All of my other Micro USB cables except the one are non samsung and I use them all for charging, data and they charge while connected to pc. But none of them are from other phone manufacturers or anything. The Micro USB spec is what these phones are using there is no difference.
The difference that matters most of the time is tolerances. Its easy to end up with cables that will work well in one port but not another. The rest of the cable may also be out of spec and not work well or at all for certain purposes.

I've ruined two batteries because of non-OEM chargers on the ET4G. (Actually, ruined two, and made a third battery just render terrible performance.) I definitely don't have the problem with other devices I own, and it's definitely happened with two separate ET4G's I've owned.
So, "be very careful using alternate chargers" is all I would advise.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't electricity the same no matter the source?
If the phone is looking to pull 1A and your charger is rated for .7A I'd be worried about the charger not the battery, which technically is a cell not a battery.
Tolerances were mentioned before and I think that is most of the problem with certain cables working fine for some people and not others. All connectors and cabling are supposed to meet the USB spec and many cheap ones don't. Also the supposed 10,000 insertion rating for micro USB is a bit optimistic imo. I replace cables after a couple months max because of loose connections.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

dberend said:
Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't electricity the same no matter the source?
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Not really because these chargers are doing AC to DC conversion and voltage regulation is a huge factor in its job. With a bad charger design not only can charging be affected, possibly even hurt the battery. Since the phone will consumer charger power to run while on the charger the phone can become unstable. Not talking a defective charger, just bad and cheap designs.
dberend said:
If the phone is looking to pull 1A and your charger is rated for .7A I'd be worried about the charger not the battery, which technically is a cell not a battery
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Click to collapse
I think about that alot actually. Coming from PC power supplies you never want to overload the unit. But I know for a fact I have devices that demand more from chargers than can be given, and do not have the low current and high current modes like this phone.
I am no electrical engineer and am only familiar with AC to DC and DC to AC circuits and various voltage regulation techiniques. But it is possible to current limit as well right? You design a half amp charger, with the data pin short to put the Samsung into high current. You limit the current to 500 mah but over build the components just a little to increase lifespan.
Anyways, I bought a 2.1 Amp RCA wall charger from walmart last night on a wim. 9 bucks, might come in handy when i get a tablet. Has a 1 Amp side and a 2.1 Amp thats shared with the 1 Amp. Phone didn't show any ill will to it and I had my Schosche GoBatt on the 1 amp end. If the phones drawing too much current could be bad in the long run but its working so far. Charged at the normal speed of the stock charger.

RainMotorsports said:
Not really because these chargers are doing AC to DC conversion and voltage regulation is a huge factor in its job. With a bad charger design not only can charging be affected, possibly even hurt the battery. Since the phone will consumer charger power to run while on the charger the phone can become unstable. Not talking a defective charger, just bad and cheap designs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you on bad and cheap designs. How many tv's and other electronics have been rendered useless by a few substandard capacitors that saved the manufacturer $.02 per unit?
I try not to use any charger that doesn't have HTC, Samsung, etc on the label. I figure if they were willing to back it warranty wise for the original device it should put out clean enough power.
I'm far from being engineer but I do quite a bit of hardware hacking and learned a little bit about electronics when I was at Ft Gordon. So I'm not completely lost around a multimeter
I would imagine that there is some protection built into the charging circuit of the phone itself. How effective or what kind of tolerance Idk suppose I could look for datasheets if anybody really cares.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

Best wall charger

Hi everyone,
I have a problem with my original wall charger that came with the phone. There seems to be something wrong between the cable and the connector you are plugging into the phone. I need to have the cable in a specific position for the phone to be able to recharge.
The question is, is there any better charger than the original samsung one? I could probably get it replaced as it still is in warranty, but I don't like how slow it recharges the phone. If I am running a 3D game the phone is slowly DISCHARGING even when plugged in to a wall charger.
I noticed the charger has only 500-700 mA output. I had an older htc charger which had 1000 mA output. Would a charger like this recharge my phone faster? I have seen some posts about non-samsung chargers not being able to recharge the battery fast as there is some kind of protection built into the phone.
I would also consider buying a wireless charger if it was available for a reasonable price.
Are you all using the stock chargers?
Thanks in advance for any help.

you can read this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1721677&highlight=charging
Just to make sure it is the charger's fault, does the phone charge normally if connected to a computer, from the USB port?

Thanks for the link.
Yes, phone charges and transfers data from USB without any problem, so it should be fault on the charger.
Reading through that thread, I guess there is no point in buying a more powerful charger.

as i said there, i use a nokia 1200mAh charger and the charging time is more than 2 hours, so we have to deal with it. The thing you should care of is the quality of the charger to avoid the touchscreen known problems

Imho you don`t need better (more powerfull) charger because of the hardware limitations. What you should do is to try any other microUSB charger just to see if that solves your problem. So if any of your friends of family have other samsung or nokia etc. phone, thats charging with microUSB, plug it into your phone to see if it solves your problem. You will know what to do next if it does

al3x_xct said:
as i said there, i use a nokia 1200mAh charger and the charging time is more than 2 hours, so we have to deal with it. The thing you should care of is the quality of the charger to avoid the touchscreen known problems
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do I check the quality of the charger?

Car Charger - Slow Charging

Hello,
I'm trying to find a car charger that will work right with my One. So far I've tried two different 2-USB port car chargers and both 2.1A chargers and I've gotten an error of "Slow Charging" on my one. I've tried various chargers I had from before when I had an iPhone and they are giving me the same warning. Is there a charger that is known to work well with the One?
Thanks,
Tim

Try using a different USB cable as some of them have different pin configurations. I am using http://www.amazon.com/Anker%C2%AE-Output-Simul-Port-Charger-Built-/dp/B0080AWCTY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1373316550&sr=8-4&keywords=anker+car+charger this Anker car charger and I have never got any messages. Although every charger does charge the One slowly. If you leave the screen on and use the phone (like ingress or navigation) the phone looses charge while charging.

Hi, i'm using this one for myself
Two USB ports and charges pretty fast
Also works at home
http://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Vehicle-Battery-Charger-Travel/dp/B0050FDFQQ/ref=pd_sim_sbs_cps_1

I just went through this as well and have solved it by buying the HTC vehicle charger. You can check your phone charging in the car by going into "Settings" and then to "Power". When the phone is plugged in it will indicate charging either by USB (slow) or AC which is faster.
I have several car chargers including 2.1 amp models and every single one would only go to USB charging mode. Another quick way to tell if you're in USB charge mode is that the screen will turn on when you plug in the charge cable. In AC charge mode the screen stays blank when you plug in.
I picked up the HTC single port USB charger online at Amazon for around $10 bucks. Plugged it in with my existing USB cable and boom, AC mode. Model of the charger I believe is C200 (pn 25531) and it comes with a coiled charger cord as well. They also have a dual port charger which is the C300 but I haven't tested that one.
I also feel a little more comfortable using the HTC charger as I know it's tested and sanctioned by HTC. Not that I haven't used a lot of really good in-car USB chargers by other manufacturers but in this case, the HTC charger is doing the job and was inexpensive. Cheers!

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out. I like having two USB ports, but it's pretty rare I charge both my Blackberry and One at the same time so I'll probably just get the single port. I see it on Amazon for less than $6, whereas the dual port is $25!

linedpaper said:
Thanks for the info, I'll check it out. I like having two USB ports, but it's pretty rare I charge both my Blackberry and One at the same time so I'll probably just get the single port. I see it on Amazon for less than $6, whereas the dual port is $25!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using that one and i charge my one and an iphone without any issues

darkriff said:
I'm using that one and i charge my one and an iphone without any issues
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Click to collapse
You're using the two port one? I just didn't want to pay so much extra to have a two port charger when I can get the one port for so cheap. Also, I did just discover that while running ARHD GE I don't get the error, so it seems to only be the Sense related error, but either way I ordered the HTC charger from Amazon, thanks!

joudbren said:
I just went through this as well and have solved it by buying the HTC vehicle charger. You can check your phone charging in the car by going into "Settings" and then to "Power". When the phone is plugged in it will indicate charging either by USB (slow) or AC which is faster.
I have several car chargers including 2.1 amp models and every single one would only go to USB charging mode. Another quick way to tell if you're in USB charge mode is that the screen will turn on when you plug in the charge cable. In AC charge mode the screen stays blank when you plug in.
I picked up the HTC single port USB charger online at Amazon for around $10 bucks. Plugged it in with my existing USB cable and boom, AC mode. Model of the charger I believe is C200 (pn 25531) and it comes with a coiled charger cord as well. They also have a dual port charger which is the C300 but I haven't tested that one.
I also feel a little more comfortable using the HTC charger as I know it's tested and sanctioned by HTC. Not that I haven't used a lot of really good in-car USB chargers by other manufacturers but in this case, the HTC charger is doing the job and was inexpensive. Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The official htc one car charger in the htc website is only one works for me. 24.00but worth it.
Sent from my HTC One

these duel USb chargers from just wireless charge 1A per port in AC mode ... can pick them up at walmart or target
http://www.target.com/p/just-wirele...sku=14365620&gclid=CNq_yZzcrbgCFZBAMgodwnkAvw

I use Avantek. This little guy did an excellent job. With its combination of power ports and USB plugs it works perfectly for everything from iPads to radar detector. Charges my phone as fast as my home charger and always gives full charge to my One when I'm using the navigation app. FYI I found it on Amazon.

I buy from Amazon

Only have had my phone for 3 months but I have only used the HTC charger and cable one time. The charger got extremely hot when I charged my phone, since that first time I have used a samsung galaxy tab charger and samsung galaxy tab 6' usb cable. I have a 2.1 amp dual charger from pepboys in my truck. Phone charges quickly and does not overheat or any of the other issues i've heard of on here. I just chalk it up as samsung having good chargers and usb cables.

See my post regarding fast charging for specifics on the electrical damage in a car and the value of having a good charger:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=55802702
Is a fast USB car charger harmful?
On that note. Monoprice.com offers great chargers at a great price. Guaranteed to charge at stock speeds. Great internal parts and quality control at near eBay pricing. I've bought many many of their products over the years and never has it once failed in me.
Alternatively, and unpractically, buy stock chargers.
Sent from my One

The best car charger that I've found is from TechMatte. They have a black one and a white one, and I use the black one. It charges pretty quickly, and was only $8 to purchase, which was not bad at all for a high quality charger.