Develop Bugs

Charger Concerns

I see that the wall charger for the Galaxy Nexus outputs 5V and 1A. Unfortunately, none of the extra chargers I'd like to use as additional chargers have this output. Some of them are 5.1V, and some of them all put out under 1A.
From what I understand, using a charger w/ a higher voltage could potentially damage the phone. I know that this unlikely considering it's only an extra .1V in my case, but I don't want to risk it.
As for the amps, I believe that using lower amps isn't dangerous, but may result in charging taking longer than normal.
Are these two assumptions correct? Also, does anyone know of any cheap chargers that put out 5V/1A? If you put in "phone charger" in Amazon, the second hit is a Samsung OEM charger that puts out 5V/0.7A, but I'd rather get one that is going to be an exact match.

700-800mah are fine and acceptable for charging. But if wanting to play games on a charger and still get some kind of charge, go with a 1000 mah charger. 1000 mah charger is also best to use while using mhl so you can hopefully not lose battery charge while streaming video over hdmi.
Sent from my samsung gt i9250 which is in the wrong country.

Speaking of the charger... anyone found a cheap charger adapter for the Nexus? I don't like the massive brick of a "international adapter" Handtec packaged with the phone >.>

Dmw017 said:
Speaking of the charger... anyone found a cheap charger adapter for the Nexus? I don't like the massive brick of a "international adapter" Handtec packaged with the phone >.>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Micro-Travel-Charger-M540/dp/B002HJBM04
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Travel-Charger-Adapter-MicroUSB/dp/B0049IE70I

Dmw017 said:
Speaking of the charger... anyone found a cheap charger adapter for the Nexus? I don't like the massive brick of a "international adapter" Handtec packaged with the phone >.>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using a Griffin charger for the iPhone (1 amp)... it's very small and the plug blades fold up, making it very pocketable. Give the included iPhone cable to a friend.
http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-NA231...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1322795627&sr=1-33

alee said:
I'm using a Griffin charger for the iPhone (1 amp)... it's very small and the plug blades fold up, making it very pocketable. Give the included iPhone cable to a friend.
http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-NA231...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1322795627&sr=1-33
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's.. 24 bucks ... for a charger..
lol fml

Dmw017 said:
it's.. 24 bucks ... for a charger..
lol fml
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, it's a nice charger.
If you don't get that one, do get a charger that does at least 700mA... or ideally 1A. Some of the cheaper chargers don't put out a lot of power and it will take a long time to charge your phone.

alee said:
Haha, it's a nice charger.
If you don't get that one, do get a charger that does at least 700mA... or ideally 1A. Some of the cheaper chargers don't put out a lot of power and it will take a long time to charge your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...you say it folds too huh :/ ....
but for that price, i wonder if there are any samsung chargers that are just as good if not better..
that is Apple, after all
hey isnt http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Techn...al-USB-Charging/dp/B004EYH5WY/ref=pd_sim_e_10 the same product , it says it does 5 volts at 5 watts ... thats the same right?
edit: some people are reporting that the charger only charges at 0.5A instead of the full 1A on [some] android devices. if you have the charger, can you confirm your nexus charges at the full 1A watts

I've been doing fine with just plugging it into my computer like I always do with every other phone.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Dmw017 said:
hey isnt http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Techn...al-USB-Charging/dp/B004EYH5WY/ref=pd_sim_e_10 the same product , it says it does 5 volts at 5 watts ... thats the same right?
edit: some people are reporting that the charger only charges at 0.5A instead of the full 1A on [some] android devices. if you have the charger, can you confirm your nexus charges at the full 1A watts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same one.
Good question on whether it's putting out a full 1A. I guess what I do is check the charge times tomorrow with a few different 1A chargers to see if it measures up.

I use this for home:
http://www.amazon.com/Cellet-Charger-Retractable-Cable-myTouch/dp/B004XVM1T0
And this for the car:
http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Powerjolt-Dual-Universal-Micro/dp/B0042B9U8Q
Both are dual-USB and put out 1amp. Charges my GNEX and iPhone 4 (work) at the same time without issues.

Just feel like to chime in here for another question.
I know typical USB port from a PC outputs 0.5A while the wall charger outputs 1A, so besides charging time, is there any particular advantages to use wall charger over USB from PC?
I've read somewhere else states that despite the longer charging time using a USB port from a PC, it provides more thorough charges hence is better for the battery than using a wall charger, is this true?
Thanks!

assisterah said:
Just feel like to chime in here for another question.
I know typical USB port from a PC outputs 0.5A while the wall charger outputs 1A, so besides charging time, is there any particular advantages to use wall charger over USB from PC?
I've read somewhere else states that despite the longer charging time using a USB port from a PC, it provides more thorough charges hence is better for the battery than using a wall charger, is this true?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read that the wall charger drops the battery down to 90ish % after it hits 100% and just goes between the two levels until you unplug your charger
While a USB charge is slower and charges your device up to a "fuller" charge
...I may be unfathomably wrong though
---------- Post added at 10:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 PM ----------
man that little Apple charger is so damn cute ... lol , ill probably end up buying it once the 1A volt charge is confirmed
edit: just bought it lol, oh well.. it will probably maybe more or less somewhat possibly work like it should at 1A :}

assisterah said:
Just feel like to chime in here for another question.
I know typical USB port from a PC outputs 0.5A while the wall charger outputs 1A, so besides charging time, is there any particular advantages to use wall charger over USB from PC?
I've read somewhere else states that despite the longer charging time using a USB port from a PC, it provides more thorough charges hence is better for the battery than using a wall charger, is this true?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not an expert on the subject but I was under the impression that cycles (charge + discharge) were a bigger factor on battery life than something like this. The longer a current is running through the battery (charge or discharge) is detrimental to it's life span.
Leaving a laptop plugged in all the time ruins its battery is my source on this one. I would say it's because it has a constant charge running through the battery.

qreffie said:
I've been doing fine with just plugging it into my computer like I always do with every other phone.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That takes a lot longer vs plugging it into the wall

rashad1 said:
That takes a lot longer vs plugging it into the wall
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Click to collapse
True dat. Unless it has changed , USB only outputs 500mA.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[hfm] said:
True dat. Unless it has changed , USB only outputs 500mA.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
500mA is the max before the PC will disable the port. So your actually get less current.
There are some ports, depending on the motherboard that have a option of outputting more power for charging devices, and also have the port powered when the computer is off. But a normal usb 2.0 port is limited to 500mA max per spec... so a normal usb 2.0 port charging a phone is drawing less then 500mA, or it would get and over current condition and disable the port.

I design electronics and work with USB and batteries often, so let me clear some stuff up in no particular order:
- PC ports are limited to 500mA so will only ever output a max of 500mA
- You can use a wall charger that outputs 1000mA but on most devices the data pins on the micro USB need to be shorted to tell the phone it can try to draw more than 500mA. This is true for HTC devices for example. That means if you get a cheap charger that doesn't short the data pins, when you plug your standard micro-usb cable into it, it will still only charge your phone at 500mA.
- The charging controller is actually in the phone. It decides based on temperature (there's a sensor in the battery), current, voltage across the battery (current charge) and characteristics of the type of battery to figure out how much current to allow into the battery. Although its true that a 500mA charger may have different affects than 1000mA chargers, there usually is very little perceivable difference. Which is (slightly) better really depends on the charging controller and how it decides when to stop charging.
- When the battery is full, the phone continues to 'trickle charge' for a period of time. This isn't a bad thing. Overcharging a Lithium battery can be extremely dangerous, so normal charging occurs at a high speed and then slows down at a safe limit below the 'true' 100%. After that the phone continues to trickle charge to top up the battery. This is the reason you read in phone manuals you should charge the phone for 8 hours or overnight for its first charge.
- When charging at 500mA, the battery does not get as hot. This usually means you get closer to the true 100% before 'trickle charging' starts. With a 1000mA charge the battery heats up a lot more so charging may switch to trickle much sooner. Here's an example with made up figures.
Lets say you charge your battery with a 500mA charger, and it takes 2 hours. When the phone shows 100% it may actually be at 99%, and trickle charging. Leaving it for another 30 mins may take it to its full capacity.
Now, lets say you charge your battery with a 1000mA charger, and it takes 1 hour. When the phone shows 100% it may actually be at 98%, and trickle charging - It stopped sooner because the battery was hotter. Leaving it for another 30 mins may take it to full capacity.
Conclusion.. the 500mA charger took 2.5 hours, while the 1000mA charger took 1.5 hours. However if you unplugged both when the phone showed 100%, the 500mA charged battery may last longer, and so you think the 500mA somehow resulted in a more thorough charge!
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter which you use. the absolute charge cycles is what counts. Charge to 100%, then dont charge till its 0 for best battery care. Constantly plugging into a charger or dock all day on and off is bad. But having said that, your phone is there to be used, so a sensible balance of the two is the best bet.

Thank you so much for the detailed response, kam187. Would you recommend avoiding using a 5.1V charger, considering the phone came with a 5V charger?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I wouldn't use it. The 0.1v probably won't make any difference, but it may not be regulated. Chargers with these odd values sometimes don't have any regulator inside them. That could damage your phone as the voltage could shoot up and down as the current draw changes.
Just search amazon/ebay for any MicroUSB charger, and pick one from a reputable manufacturer like Motorola, HTC, Samsung etc. Since all phones now use MicroUSB, there's loads of these chargers around from previous phone models etc.
Here's just one I saw on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Trave...E70I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322808220&sr=8-3

Anything special about the USB cable included in box?

I just got my S2 5 days ago. All this time I been wondering why it takes around 5 hours to charge from 20% to 100%. At first, I been using my G2X charger, it was rated at the same 5V 1A output so I thought it wouldn't matter. Then I used the included Samsung charger with same LG cable, no difference. Now when using the Samsung cable, it only takes about 2 hours to charge from around 15% to 100%.
Is this just coincidence? Is my phone too new and just needed a few cycles? I'll test again tomorrow, or when my phone reaches below 20% with the LG cable.

There's been known issues with using chargers other than stock..mine gets stuck at 100% until I reboot if I use any charger other than the OEM that came with it.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

the OEM cable
it'll be your life line in case of emergency like this one
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1561432

From my experience you're going to always want to use the charger and cord that came with the phone. I bought my Galaxy S II off the streets and it did not come with the cord, so originally I tried using my OG Droid charger since it's micro USB too but it wouldn't even accept it at all (I'm pretty sure because it was too under-powered for the Galaxy S II (My speculation)). I tried using an older LG micro USB cable too (I think it was even older though) it didn't work either, so now I use my Vizio TAB micro USB cord which seems to work fine.
But also at my work we have a 3rd party micro usb charger too but it's universal, but if I charge my phone on there, not only does it take longer to charge it doesn't hold the battery as long.
So what I've figured out is you're gonna want to use your own charger the phone came with to achieve maximum battery life, also unplug the charger right away when it hits 100%.

shilent said:
I just got my S2 5 days ago. All this time I been wondering why it takes around 5 hours to charge from 20% to 100%. At first, I been using my G2X charger, it was rated at the same 5V 1A output so I thought it wouldn't matter. Then I used the included Samsung charger with same LG cable, no difference. Now when using the Samsung cable, it only takes about 2 hours to charge from around 15% to 100%.
Is this just coincidence? Is my phone too new and just needed a few cycles? I'll test again tomorrow, or when my phone reaches below 20% with the LG cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow lol I post the same thing every second day on some forum or other xD
The usb is special in the sense it has a nice rubber feel and cool plastic iphone style caps on the end..
Its a MICRO-USB male to USB male cable, nothing more, seeing as it is still a standard USB cable it has a max current of 5v (5.25 I do believe..), plugging it into a USB to AC converter over 5v can screw up the device and cable, sscond point.
Standard charger is 5v AC, using a charger below wont cause harm, but using one above can screw up your phone and battery and not ground it properly..
3rd point, keep in mind the mAh on the charger when charging, some (for like bluetooth headsets) are only 500mAh)
mAh is an acronym for ampere an hour, and in short, for chargers measures the current sent to the device at an hourly rate, for batterys (such as lithium ion) measures the actual charge capacity of the cell, using one with a higher mAh then the stock battery (1850mAh) will only charge it quicker and is recommended.
Fourth and final, remember with USB to AC adapters that some only have +5 and ground enabled (2 outer pins), ising the device its meant for on a ac adapter with all 4 pins enabled will make the device try to establish a connection and can again, make it not ground properly. I think ours has the 4 pins enabled though so ignore the last point..
*edit
Lmfao at above few posts (your theories have no basis, allow me to explain)
When you plug your charger in, regardless if its connected or not, its "live"
That being said, the every cellphone (keyword: cell) uses a lithium-ion battery,
That cell has a control board with a chip with a bit of information, some variable, the device has READ access to this board, and collects informagion such as max mAh, current mAh, and min mAh, the device then calculates from that, a percentage,
It then displays that information to the user, the minimum (displays 0-1%), is usually a value around ~100mAh if the cell dies to 0mAh, this can reset the control board and drasticly reduce the batterys expectancy and overall life.
Also, the actual chip on the phone, is simply for, when the battery is full, (current mAh meets max)
Said device drops connection to the cell and resumes on AC, leaving battery fully charged.
Unless you use a charger outside above said specifications, its literally impossible for a charger or file on said device (referring to batterystats n00bs who dont research) to adjust or recalibrate a lithium ion battery.
Hows that for a response I kept it clean

doug36 said:
Wow lol I post the same thing every second day on some forum or other xD
The usb is special in the sense it has a nice rubber feel and cool plastic iphone style caps on the end..
Its a MICRO-USB male to USB male cable, nothing more, seeing as it is still a standard USB cable it has a max current of 5v (5.25 I do believe..), plugging it into a USB to AC converter over 5v can screw up the device and cable, sscond point.
Standard charger is 5v AC, using a charger below wont cause harm, but using one above can screw up your phone and battery and not ground it properly..
3rd point, keep in mind the mAh on the charger when charging, some (for like bluetooth headsets) are only 500mAh)
mAh is an acronym for ampere an hour, and in short, for chargers measures the current sent to the device at an hourly rate, for batterys (such as lithium ion) measures the actual charge capacity of the cell, using one with a higher mAh then the stock battery (1850mAh) will only charge it quicker and is recommended.
Fourth and final, remember with USB to AC adapters that some only have +5 and ground enabled (2 outer pins), ising the device its meant for on a ac adapter with all 4 pins enabled will make the device try to establish a connection and can again, make it not ground properly. I think ours has the 4 pins enabled though so ignore the last point..
*edit
Lmfao at above few posts (your theories have no basis, allow me to explain)
When you plug your charger in, regardless if its connected or not, its "live"
That being said, the every cellphone (keyword: cell) uses a lithium-ion battery,
That cell has a control board with a chip with a bit of information, some variable, the device has READ access to this board, and collects informagion such as max mAh, current mAh, and min mAh, the device then calculates from that, a percentage,
It then displays that information to the user, the minimum (displays 0-1%), is usually a value around ~100mAh if the cell dies to 0mAh, this can reset the control board and drasticly reduce the batterys expectancy and overall life.
Also, the actual chip on the phone, is simply for, when the battery is full, (current mAh meets max)
Said device drops connection to the cell and resumes on AC, leaving battery fully charged.
Unless you use a charger outside above said specifications, its literally impossible for a charger or file on said device (referring to batterystats n00bs who dont research) to adjust or recalibrate a lithium ion battery.
Hows that for a response I kept it clean
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly my point. Shouldn't all micro USB cables be the same? I been charging all my other smartphones with many different micro USB cables and they all charged normally. Now with this phone, it takes over 5 hours to charge with my LG branded cable, this is with the stock S2 charger. Now with the Stock S2 cable, it charges in about 2 hours.
I'm gonna have to test again with the LG cable, as others reported long charging times within the first few days.
BTW, the current rating on a charger is NOT the hourly rate (ah). Also charging a lithium ion battery at a rate of 1850mah or higher should not be recommended.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

shilent said:
That's exactly my point. Shouldn't all micro USB cables be the same? I been charging all my other smartphones with many different micro USB cables and they all charged normally. Now with this phone, it takes over 5 hours to charge with my LG branded cable, this is with the stock S2 charger. Now with the Stock S2 cable, it charges in about 2 hours.
I'm gonna have to test again with the LG cable, as others reported long charging times within the first few days.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its never gonna be a linear charge or drain.
Simply put its an OS, As all OS's they have services that can start at different points, and also open different apps, also using rhe device, applications still in the ram, connection strength will all effect this its impossible to check 2 differenf charge methods accurately enough to get a definitive answer without 2 identical systems, apps, data, kernal and all, one on top of the other, plugged in simultaneously, in sleep mode, to the same outlet :/

Haha well I may be in trouble. I use several different friends, co workers chargers everyday.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

JaZart said:
Haha well I may be in trouble. I use several different friends, co workers chargers everyday.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 3 chargers I use for this and haven't had no issues, there is no way using a different charger (unless its outside above said specifications) that it can do anything to your device including screw with the charge level.. people just don't like to research.

Just an update, it took 2 hours and 25 minutes to charge my S2 from 25% to 75% using my LG cable (same stock S2 charger). I'm gonna test with my Palm micro USB cable next.

shilent said:
Just an update, it took 2 hours and 25 minutes to charge my S2 from 25% to 75% using my LG cable (same stock S2 charger). I'm gonna test with my Palm micro USB cable next.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One, if you want an accurate trst with one device, kill to zero percent and plug it in, eithout turning on time to 100%, run same test eith another cable
**EDIT
shilent said:
BTW, the current rating on a charger is NOT the hourly rate (ah). Also charging a lithium ion battery at a rate of 1850mah or higher should not be recommended.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampere-hour
Link for you to check your **** before correcting people
Using one equal to or higher then battery capacity IS recommended..
To save you the trouble of reading **** WAY over your head:
The Faraday constant is the charge on one mole of electrons;
approximately equal to 26.8 ampere-hours. It is used in
electrochemical calculations.
An ampere-hour is not a unit of energy. In a battery system, for
example, accurate calculation of the energy delivered requires
integration of the power delivered (product of instantaneous
voltage and instantaneous current) over the discharge interval.
Generally, the battery voltage varies during discharge; an average
value may be used to approximate the integration of power. [3]
In summary, the higher the mAh, the longer the battery will last.

One, if you want an accurate trst with one device, kill to zero percent and plug it in, eithout turning on time to 100%, run same test eith another cable
**EDIT
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampere-hour
Link for you to check your **** before correcting people
Using one equal to or higher then battery capacity IS recommended..
To save you the trouble of reading **** WAY over your head:
The Faraday constant is the charge on one mole electrons;
approximately equal to 26.8 ampere-hours. It is used in
electrochemical calculations
An ampere-hour is not a unit of energy. In a battery system, for
example, accurate calculation of the energy delivered requires
integration of the power delivered (product of instantaneous
voltage and instantaneous current) over the discharge interval.
Generally, the battery voltage varies during discharge; an average
value may be used to approximate the integration of power. [3]
In summary, the higher the mAh, the longer the battery will last.
For chargers, the higher mAh sends a larger current of the same voltage to the device, charging it faster, lower mAh can and will cjarge slowly.. I'm not sayin go use a 5v 50k mAh charger for the battery and charge it in a split second here.
Wtc! I hit edit! Mod plz merge these...

Charge rate of 1C = the capacity of the battery, in our case, 1C = 1850mah. It is not recommended to charge over 0.7C when it comes to lithium ion batteries. If a charge rate of 1850ma is recommended, then why do all chargers top out at 1A?
I collect high performance flashlights, most of them use lithium ion cells. I know about charging and discharging li-ion otherwise I could lose my hands.
Anyway, the point of this thread was about the stock USB cable vs other cables. The only thing I can think of at the moment is that my LG cable has more resistance than the Samsung cable, which is why it charges slower. Though that's hard to believe is the charging time is more than double.
doug36: I've seen you post in other threads, all you like to do is insult people, or at least try to. This is the last time I'm gonna post in this thread, you keep posting irrelevant information. Next, you're going to try to insult me, I'm not going to respond, and you're going to think you won or whatever, I don't care.
If anyone wants more info, or has any questions, please send me a PM.

JaZart said:
Haha well I may be in trouble. I use several different friends, co workers chargers everyday.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eww... everyone hits and quits it? XD

I've noticed that the charger that comes with the S2 has a special hook on one side and looks distinctly different than other usb micro cables.
Personally i think it's really dumb.. wasn't the point of micro Usb to be uniform across all phones?!
Sounds like a good way for Samsung to make some extra bucks.

JhonKa said:
I've noticed that the charger that comes with the S2 has a special hook on one side and looks distinctly different than other usb micro cables.
Personally i think it's really dumb.. wasn't the point of micro Usb to be uniform across all phones?!
Sounds like a good way for Samsung to make some extra bucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was curious about this two. What makes the included charger official...the brick or the cable out both
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

I have no idea, all I know is that i tried to use my charger for my G2X and the SGSII wouldn't go past 95% charged? I used the Samsung charger and it charges perfectly?

Well lately my stock samsung charger has been terrible.
Even when I plug it into the wall it charges so slowly that if im below 15%; it will die
When left alone or charging while off for about 45min it will have up about 2-5%; so there's a major problem here.
But using a different charger and it charges at a faster(normal pace); 5% to 65% in appox 1 hour.

JaZart said:
Well lately my stock samsung charger has been terrible.
Even when I plug it into the wall it charges so slowly that if im below 15%; it will die
When left alone or charging while off for about 45min it will have up about 2-5%; so there's a major problem here.
But using a different charger and it charges at a faster(normal pace); 5% to 65% in appox 1 hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's normal? :O mine takes about 4 hours from red battery.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Has anyone noticed that if you turn the phone off..or let the battery die to 0% and then turn itself off. If you then plug it into an LG usb cable it will put the phone into download mode.
This works every single time with my g2x cable.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk

StarTech USB Y Cable *Double your charging speed*

I haven't seen anybody mention this yet here on the forum, so I went ahead and bought one and tried it myself.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0047AALS0/ref=asc_df_B0047AALS09152658?smid=A1AUCPBF2P18HS&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22218&creativeASIN=B0047AALS0
This is a USB Y cable. Two USB type A plugs to increase charge capacity from 500mA to 1A.
I use Siyah kernel with STweaks to change USB charge capacity from 500mA to 900mA, I am currently looking for a way to increase this to the full 1A.
Only £3.99 from Amazon. Tested using CurrentWidget. Charging now at 900mA.

danieljamie said:
I haven't seen anybody mention this yet here on the forum, so I went ahead and bought one and tried it myself.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0047AAL...de=asn&creative=22218&creativeASIN=B0047AALS0
This is a USB Y cable. Two USB type A plugs to increase charge capacity from 500mA to 1A.
I use Siyah kernel with STweaks to change USB charge capacity from 500mA to 900mA, I am currently looking for a way to increase this to the full 1A.
Only £3.99 from Amazon. Tested using CurrentWidget. Charging now at 900mA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't you just buy a 1mA output charger. I have chargers that will fully charger my phone in about 1hr and 30min.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

smark72 said:
Can't you just buy a 1mA output charger. I have chargers that will fully charger my phone in about 1hr and 30min.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's designed for PC's and Laptops which only output 500mA on their USB ports.

Would work really well with the KiDiGi Cover-mate Dual Desktop Cradle, too bad it is a tad to expensive seeing that it is just a cable

Hey i have this cable which came with my 2.5 HDD external case. In some places i need to connect both cables to power the HDD so you think it will work same with S3? Also will it not damage it?

Exactly what I was looking for
danieljamie said:
I haven't seen anybody mention this yet here on the forum, so I went ahead and bought one and tried it myself.
This is a USB Y cable. Two USB type A plugs to increase charge capacity from 500mA to 1A.
I use Siyah kernel with STweaks to change USB charge capacity from 500mA to 900mA, I am currently looking for a way to increase this to the full 1A.
Only £3.99 from Amazon. Tested using CurrentWidget. Charging now at 900mA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this was exactly what I was looking for.. Thanks a lot.. I also has Siyah kernel, and many USB 2 ports available at work, and like to keep my AC charger at home.

This cable won't give you 1A. I guess the second USB plug has no data connection (how could it? ) and without a registered USB device a USB port gives only a few mA of power.

It does work with 2.5" harddrives that need more power than one USB port can deliver. Why shouldn't it work with the s3?
But why would you need that when you are charging your phone at work? It's not like you're in a hurry. It can sit there all day.
And I wouldn't try to charge it with 1A or more just to save a little time. The charger you get with the s3 an the s3 itself are made for 900mA. That's why the kernel is limited to 900mA aswell. You might damage your phone by charging it with a higher current. Sure, there is a safety margin build in but going to the limit seldom is a good idea.

weisselstone said:
This cable won't give you 1A. I guess the second USB plug has no data connection (how could it? ) and without a registered USB device a USB port gives only a few mA of power.
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Click to collapse
This was correctly answered back in August (above). What does data have anything to do with current? It simply has 2 plugs so that it can draw more current (mA).
shamez23 said:
It does work with 2.5" harddrives that need more power than one USB port can deliver. Why shouldn't it work with the s3?
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This.
shamez23 said:
But why would you need that when you are charging your phone at work? It's not like you're in a hurry. It can sit there all day.
And I wouldn't try to charge it with 1A or more just to save a little time. The charger you get with the s3 an the s3 itself are made for 900mA. That's why the kernel is limited to 900mA aswell. You might damage your phone by charging it with a higher current. Sure, there is a safety margin build in but going to the limit seldom is a good idea.
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Click to collapse
No, you can't damage it that way. Electronic devices DRAW current, which means that they only take as much as they are able to. You can plug your phone into a 5A charger and it wouldn't damage it. Too much voltage WILL fry it though.

Are you sure about that?
I've read more than once on tech sites that for example the 2A charger of the iPad will charge other devices that come with weaker chargers faster but that they advice against doing that on a regular basis.
I do use industrial Li-ion batteries (18650) on several other devices and the charger I use for those has a switch with witch I can decide if I want to charge them at 500mA or at 1000mA. Reading in forums that specialize on devices that use those batteries and that have users that seem to know quite a bit about batteries and do extensive testing with sophisticated equipment, the general opinion is, that using lower Amps will prolong the lifetime of your batteries and that too high currents can potentially damage them as of course will overcharging them.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/ultra_fast_chargers
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
I don't know much about battery technology so I might be wrong. I always had problems to wrap my head around anything that has to do with electricity and electronics in general and have to use analogies to understand and explain how things work in that area. Those analogies don't always apply completely.
The one I have in this case is the following:
I decide how much I can eat. I can eat at a normal pace until I'm full but I can also stuff myself and eat a lot more than I would normally do in a short period of time. I know that the later is a bad idea and won't do me much good but it is possible.
If you are correct with what you said, batteries could draw a higher current than what the original charger is delivering, up to their limit but that could still be too much and harm them.
I don't know. Now I'm confused.

shamez23 said:
Are you sure about that?
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You have a point. I guess it depends on how well the charging circuitry (in the phone) is designed.
The battery itself won't limit the voltage/current (*). It's the charging circuitry that does this. For instance, if you connect the battery directly to a power supply and give it too much juice, it WILL damage the battery. Similarly, if the charging circuitry supplies too much to the battery, then this could also happen. However, it SHOULD be designed with appropriate tolerances and safety margins in mind. Therefore, it depends on how much you trust the hardware.
In that way, I guess charging at 500 mA would be considered safer. That being said, I'm happy plugging my phone into the wall charger every night, whether it's 900 mA or 1A.
(*) I know that Lithium batteries usually have built-in circuitry for safety measures, so they MIGHT have something that limits voltage/current, but I'm not sure.

900mA should be save. After all that's what Samsung gave us.
It's just that some people tweak their kernels to 1.25mA or even more. That's quite a bit higher than the specs and probably close to the safety margin.
It won't even charge your batterie faster that way. At least not when you talk about fully charging it. It will get faster to about 80% charge but after that it will take just so much longer to get to 100% that in the end it takes the same amount of time.
I'll stick to the original Samsung charger or the charger of my old HD2 that I have lying around. Makes me feel safer.

Combo USB wall receptacle, 700mA or 2.1mA?

I was thinking about putting a new receptacle with USB and one outlet somewhere on my kitchen counter. Problem is the two better companies have two very different amperage's. Cooper is .7a and Leviton is 2.1a, both have two USB ports and one outlet. The charger for our E4GT is 1a and I also have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 that would need the higher amp version, but many have said to NOT use a higher amp charger than the one our phones came with, which is 1.
So what do you think? Is it really that bad for our phones/battery to charge it using a higher amp source? I know our charger cube is small but I also need it in various locations at home or at the office so having an outlet like this in my kitchen would be awesome.
I hate how slow USB charges our phones, so I assume .7 would still be kinda slow and not charge my tablet either.
http://www.amazon.com/Cooper-Wiring-Devices-TR7740W-K-Combination/dp/B007NC5GI4
http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-T5630...F8&qid=1350409796&sr=1-1&keywords=leviton+usb

My vote is for the 700. It will be better for your batteries over time.

Interesting thing that I have learned is that the Leviton version only pushes the higher amps on one of the USB ports. There is no where that states how much the one that gets less does though and I have read that if you plug in a device that does not need the extra amps that USB somehow puts out less amps and it charges slower.
I need to do more investigating though.

revamper said:
My vote is for the 700. It will be better for your batteries over time.
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I agree to an extent.
I feel that it really depends on how long you keep your usb charged devices. Battery degradation may not be an issue if you upgrade often or are the type that never has anything older than the 2nd, sometimes 3rd, newest model device on the market. Also, a lot of the newer devices require higher amps to charge at a reasonable time. This transitions into charging habits. On the 0.7A charger, you may find yourself leaving devices on chargers over night potentially hours longer after fully charging. This is arguably also damaging to the battery.
Either way you go, you may find yourself with a bunch of 6' microUSB cables from devices taking forever to charge or battery degradation. :silly:

Your phone is only going to use as many amps as it can. Say a GS2 charges at 450ma USB and 650ma AC. The phone will recognize if its USB or ac and allow it to charge according to that. Its not going to charge faster on a 1a charger unless you root your phone and hack those parameters. Doing that is what will cause battery life problems, if not cause a complete failure of the battery and/or the device.. The higher you you set the charging amperage, the more likely you are to have problems.
And phones now (especially any model of GS2) have circuitry to prevent overcharging. Leaving your phone charging overnight is not going to cause any problems.
I don't know if USB wall outlets act like USB or a/c (think about a USB cable with a wall adapter) but plugging into the USB outlet and checking in the battery info in the settings menu or a battery app can tell you.
Sent from my SGH-I777

What's next wireless charger outlets?

Get the higher-amperage Leviton.
Your device will only draw the amps it needs. The GS2 will draw < 1amp. But if you have a big tablet, they can pull the full 2.1 amps.
Since you're doing a 'permanent' wall installation, you're somewhat future-proofing yourself.

Good info, thanks all. I did not know that our phone will only pull the amps it needs, so that is good to know. I may get the higher amp version because I have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 that needs higher amperage.

USB wires, right and wrong ones?

I have a 2meter USB to MicroUSB cable(EBAY) plugged into mains which does Not charge the phone when screen is on. In fact it Loses charge when watching films .
But when l plug in the one that came with the phone (1 meter) it charges the phone no problem, regardless of what you are doing.
Anybody have any ideas for why this is happening?
Length of wire? or just bad quality of wire? But l have tried a few different 2m ones. Same drain.
(Also same results with different roms)
Cheers me dears
(Was getting no traction in accessories)

DaffyOnLSD said:
I have a 2meter USB to MicroUSB cable(EBAY) plugged into mains which does Not charge the phone when screen is on. In fact it Loses charge when watching films .
But when l plug in the one that came with the phone (1 meter) it charges the phone no problem, regardless of what you are doing.
Anybody have any ideas for why this is happening?
Length of wire? or just bad quality of wire? But l have tried a few different 2m ones. Same drain.
(Also same results with different roms)
Cheers me dears
(Was getting no traction in accessories)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might have noticed that smaller the phone, the larger the charging cable comes with it.
and the larger phone, and tablets have decreasing charger cable lengths. Also, the charging cable become thicker as the device becomes more power hungry.
This all comes down to a simple explaination that longer and thinner cables have more impedance, and thicker and shorted cables have less resistance...
This is to cover up for the amount of power the device will consume in order to get charged, and hence, result in a different "quality" of charge.
Also, some cable, like that of Nokia, do not run on touchscreen samsung phones. This may also be because of the difference in power output, as they may not fulfill the requirements which the latter needs.

Ok, so how about getting a beefier longer wire? I've seen a brand one for 10 £ claiming to be grippier blah blah. Obviously no claim for what it's able to charge and how fast.
Will this change anything?
I'm guessing im doomed to be always leaning in to the wall if wanting to use the phone and getting it charged.
And thanks for explaining things, sadly that is what I feared.

DaffyOnLSD said:
Ok, so how about getting a beefier longer wire? I've seen a brand one for 10 £ claiming to be grippier blah blah. Obviously no claim for what it's able to charge and how fast.
Will this change anything?
I'm guessing im doomed to be always leaning in to the wall if wanting to use the phone and getting it charged.
And thanks for explaining things, sadly that is what I feared.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not definitely that beefier and shorter wires will charge quickly/better. They need to have correct power ratings and other j7mbo mumbo, which is most definitely best in the stock charger you get

Just buy a usb extension cable with plug and socket on each end. You have to use the Samsung charger AND the Samsung USB> MiroUSB cable. Beetween you place the extension cable.
The reason is, in the Micro-USB-Plug of the Samsung-Cable, i think there is a Resistor between pin 4 and 5 that makes the Phone change into high-charging Mode (AC-charging).
Otherwise on USB-Charging you have only 500 mA. That is not enough for the Note 2, if the Screen is on. The Phone will not charge.
regards

Thanks. .. should of tried that. Forgot I've loads of them.

DaffyOnLSD said:
Thanks. .. should of tried that. Forgot I've loads of them.
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Please let us know, if it works now how it should. Thanks...

Same here, with random internet cables it just doesn't charge fast, but yes with the original.
I was looking for some good cables to use it but I didn't see any info to know what are the faster ones for charging.

Right, some bad news regarding USB extenders, I used a 2 meter extender with the white stock Samsung cable.. screen on, torrent app downloading, did NOT charge at all. But did not lose anything either.
I then found a 0.3 meter USB extender with stock Samsung. And it is charging, but I would say it isn't as fast(very close to normal), but the main thing it is slowly charging. Make what you will of this.
My USB extenders are from ebay crap

I have a s2 original charger
Output 0.79 takes 7 hrs to charge note2
Original note 2 charger is fast charger
Output 2.00 tkes 4 hrs to charge the phone
So it depends upon the uotput of the charger as i use the s2 usb to charge wt note 2 charger and again used the note 2 usb to charge 5he phonr at both time the chargin time was same
So i think the length or thilness of the cable dosent matter only thing matters is the charger output
Secondly if u use nonoem cables or chargers the usb port may give off or ur phone freezes while chargin so pls avoid nonoem cables
U can use oem cables of sony , htc, blackberry, even micromax and spice in india which r runnin androud but dont use first copy of chargers ir cables as they would harm ur phone