Develop Bugs

Total GPS/Car charging kit - $11.37!

So I went onto monoprice.com and was able to get a complete car kit that included a cigarette to USB adapter, 3ft USB to 5-pin microUSB cable, and universal car mount, all for a total of $11.28 $11.37 including shipping!
the individual items are:
cigarette to USB
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10826&cs_id=1082602&p_id=3523&seq=1&format=2
USB to 5-pin MicroUSB
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10303&cs_id=1030307&p_id=4867&seq=1&format=2
Car charger
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WRBGK6/ref=oss_product
Universal GPS car mount
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10840&cs_id=1084001&p_id=5272&seq=1&format=2
I hope this helps anyone who is looking for a cheap but effective mounting system for their car
EDIT
The adapter did not charge the phone correctly, so my phone would drain faster than it would recharge. I went to amazon.com and bought a car charger that should work great, and only ends up making the total a few cents higher

Wow. Good price there.

The output of the car charger is 1000ma, the stock wall charger is 700ma I believe. You think it'll hurt it? If anything, I think the phone will just get warmer than normal when plugged in.

that's the car mount I use. Picked it up from there, really cheap but you get what you pay for. Its an ok car mount but not great.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

speoples20 said:
that's the car mount I use. Picked it up from there, really cheap but you get what you pay for. Its an ok car mount but not great.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
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Well hey, it'll work right? Lol.
As for the charger, I'm not sure. I don't think I'll do anything bad really.

dam thats not a bad price!

Just a FYI
Even though the car charger is rated at 1000mA, it does not have the D+ and D- pins shorted together. This causes the phone to think it is connected to a data only device (and not a power supply). Because of this, it only draws 500mA, which when using with Navigation actually causes more drain than what the charge is.
It's a simple fix though. Just pull apart the charger, and solder the middle pins together (look on the underside of the board, and solder together the two middle solder points). The proper way to do it, and the way I did it, was to bridge it using a 200ohm resistor.

Ask that kinda sucks. Well I'll see how it works before I try anything. Is there a canker on that site that will work correctly? Or is the problem with the car to usb rather than the usb cable itself?

I bought one of these chargers for my duaghter before this thread and it does not work with her Vibrant. Guess I will have to mod it.

jinx8402 said:
Just a FYI
Even though the car charger is rated at 1000mA, it does not have the D+ and D- pins shorted together. This causes the phone to think it is connected to a data only device (and not a power supply). Because of this, it only draws 500mA, which when using with Navigation actually causes more drain than what the charge is.
It's a simple fix though. Just pull apart the charger, and solder the middle pins together (look on the underside of the board, and solder together the two middle solder points). The proper way to do it, and the way I did it, was to bridge it using a 200ohm resistor.
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Click to collapse
You have to be a hard core tweaker to break down an solder a $2 cable. I wasted more than $2 worth of time just reading the post about it.

Ok, so it didn't work. The phone just said that the usb had been plugged in, but it didn't charge. I took a pic of what the charger looks like torn apart, can you tell me where I need to souder? Am I going to have to tear open the usb casing, or is it something I can do without tearing it apart any further?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

So I grabbed another car-to-usb thing, and now it says It's charging but It's apparently draining faster than it is charging :-( it doesn't even seem to be slowing down the drain. Do you guys think that a different cable might affect things, or should I just get a new charger/adapter?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

freekyfrogy said:
So I grabbed another car-to-usb thing, and now it says It's charging but It's apparently draining faster than it is charging :-( it doesn't even seem to be slowing down the drain. Do you guys think that a different cable might affect things, or should I just get a new charger/adapter?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
I don't have this charger, but try using the cable that came with the phone. If its the same, then try to exchange it or using a different cable.

I also bought mine from monoprice and it does not charge. It only drains .
Will look for alternatives.

Pneumatic said:
You have to be a hard core tweaker to break down an solder a $2 cable. I wasted more than $2 worth of time just reading the post about it.
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I just did a few quick searches, because like a few others have said, it drains faster than it charges when using navigation. Not good if you're on a long trip.
Also, it is not the cable itself it's the charger that is not correct. I used both a monoprice wire and the oem one that came with phone. Just as an update, I have noticed that while soldering the points helped a little, it is still not pulling as much as even the stock wall charger (which is only rated at .7A). I found this out by going to the file /sys/class/power_supply/battery/batt_chg_current.
-While plugged into the wall ithe value is showing 1050 on average.
-Plugged into usb it shows 850 on average
-On the modified car charger around 900 on average.
So even with the mod it still doesn't pull the full amp and still drains a bit quicker than the charge
freekyfrogy said:
Ok, so it didn't work. The phone just said that the usb had been plugged in, but it didn't charge. I took a pic of what the charger looks like torn apart, can you tell me where I need to souder? Am I going to have to tear open the usb casing, or is it something I can do without tearing it apart any further?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
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You can try the fix and see if you get better results than me. If you look at the port that you would plug in the usb cable, (from the angle you took the picture) you will see four pins "bend" down into the pcb board. These are the four pins I am talking about. The outside two are for power. The middle two are your D+ D- (data) pins. if you flip over the board you will see the 4 factory solder points, just add a dab of solder to the two middle points.

I bought this combo as well and the charger works fine for my usage: pandora on my one hour commute. I can't get navigation to work right (and I know how to get to work so I have not tested that.
Only flaw so far is that the audio cable from my phone placement on the windscreen to the aux-jack in for my stereo is an inch too far than my cable can reach. Time to get a longer cable.

I just went ahead and bought this on amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WRBGK6/ref=oss_product
This should do the trick, and when coupled with the gps mount is only a couple cents more than buying the adapter+cable
it would make the total package... $11.37

what do you guys think about this one?
http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Char..._21?ie=UTF8&s=wireless&qid=1282314027&sr=1-21
suppose to replace car / wall charger as a one unit...

The new car charger works great when my phone is asleep it will fully charge in under an hour! The only thing is, with my screen all the way up using gps it still drains a lot faster than it charges. When I turned the screen down, it didn't seem to go down at all in the 5 or 6 minutes of driving I did. Does this screen really suck THAT MUCH power??? Are there any chargers out there capable of charging this phone well enough to allow for full screen brightness while using the gps functionality?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

freekyfrogy said:
The new car charger works great when my phone is asleep it will fully charge in under an hour! The only thing is, with my screen all the way up using gps it still drains a lot faster than it charges. When I turned the screen down, it didn't seem to go down at all in the 5 or 6 minutes of driving I did. Does this screen really suck THAT MUCH power??? Are there any chargers out there capable of charging this phone well enough to allow for full screen brightness while using the gps functionality?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
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I'd like to know the same thing.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk

So why is my battery draining while charging?

I've noticed this happening any time I tether via USB or use GPS navigation while plugged in. Even though I'm connected and charging, I slowly but surely discharge. This weekend I used Google Nav for 2 hours and lost 20% of my battery while charging! On Juice Plotter, I notice the green charging glow at the bottom is a more transparent shade of green (as opposed to solid green when solely charging). Any ideas what causes this or how to avoid it? It seems to be recent.

TheBiles said:
I've noticed this happening any time I tether via USB or use GPS navigation while plugged in. Even though I'm connected and charging, I slowly but surely discharge. This weekend I used Google Nav for 2 hours and lost 20% of my battery while charging! On Juice Plotter, I notice the green charging glow at the bottom is a more transparent shade of green (as opposed to solid green when solely charging). Any ideas what causes this or how to avoid it? It seems to be recent.
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Let me guess, you're charging off a USB port in your laptop, or using the data cable that came with the phone in your car charger?
Not all USB sources (or cables, for that matter) are created equally. Most PC/laptop ports put out 500mAh, half of what the Evo is designed to take (the factory AC adapter, the wall plug, is 1000mAh, aka 1amp).
Since it's only getting half the draw it can't quite keep up with how much power you're sucking away from the battery. This is usually only present when using the device heavily, such as with the screen on and GPS or WiFi/3G actively running.
The charging indicator (at least on Sense) indicates if it's getting the full "AC" charge (1amp) or if it's getting a reduced current charge. Sounds like that's what you're noticing.
My wife's Samsung Moment charger is 700mAh/0.7amp, and it can keep my Evo steady during use (it's powering it for 3G+WiFi tether right now), but it doesn't really charge fast at all, basically it just keeps it from depleting.
I've been meaning to try one of the USB Y-cables that join 2 standard USB ports to one female port for combined power of 1amp, but I'm not sure it will work as I hope. Anyway, I'll report back if I get around to it.
Otherwise, use an actual 1amp AC adapter whenever possible. Shop on eBay, chargers are stupid cheap. Just look for one that says it can do 1amp/1000mAh. If you're using the phone at work and want to have a convenient charging source, get one of the $20 docking cradles with an AC adapter on eBay. If it's in your car, any 12v USB charger should work, as long as you use a proper pass-through charging micro USB cable and not a "data cable". There's a slight difference in how the pins are wired inside. The Rocket Fish brand of micro USB cables are known to work (that's how I charge mine at full power in my car).

Way to go GT. Are you a student? I'm an ME phd student.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

sprocket87 said:
Let me guess, you're charging off a USB port in your laptop, or using the data cable that came with the phone in your car charger?
Not all USB sources (or cables, for that matter) are created equally. Most PC/laptop ports put out 500mAh, half of what the Evo is designed to take (the factory AC adapter, the wall plug, is 1000mAh, aka 1amp).
Since it's only getting half the draw it can't quite keep up with how much power you're sucking away from the battery. This is usually only present when using the device heavily, such as with the screen on and GPS or WiFi/3G actively running.
The charging indicator (at least on Sense) indicates if it's getting the full "AC" charge (1amp) or if it's getting a reduced current charge. Sounds like that's what you're noticing.
My wife's Samsung Moment charger is 700mAh/0.7amp, and it can keep my Evo steady during use (it's powering it for 3G+WiFi tether right now), but it doesn't really charge fast at all, basically it just keeps it from depleting.
I've been meaning to try one of the USB Y-cables that join 2 standard USB ports to one female port for combined power of 1amp, but I'm not sure it will work as I hope. Anyway, I'll report back if I get around to it.
Otherwise, use an actual 1amp AC adapter whenever possible. Shop on eBay, chargers are stupid cheap. Just look for one that says it can do 1amp/1000mAh. If you're using the phone at work and want to have a convenient charging source, get one of the $20 docking cradles with an AC adapter on eBay. If it's in your car, any 12v USB charger should work, as long as you use a proper pass-through charging micro USB cable and not a "data cable". There's a slight difference in how the pins are wired inside. The Rocket Fish brand of micro USB cables are known to work (that's how I charge mine at full power in my car).
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I'm using the included charging cable. Doesn't that have full capacity? I also use a standard USB adapter in the car. It seems like that would be able to output the correct amount of volts.
gtkansan said:
Way to go GT. Are you a student? I'm an ME phd student.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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3rd year CmpE.

I had the same problem until I noticed how hot my phone was using the nav. 13 hour drive. I purchased a vent cradle for the car and so that it can stay cool while in use and charging. While the other guy may be right theoretically, its not right practically. The evo will shut off its mini usb hub once it starts getting dangerously hot so that it won't damage your phone. Long story short make sure your phone is at safe temps no need to buy another charger for your evo. keep at cool temps so that phone won't cut off power supply will even shut your phone down if its way to hot, happened to me in atlanta not fun.
"Insert Fancy Quote"

TheBiles said:
I'm using the included charging cable. Doesn't that have full capacity? I also use a standard USB adapter in the car. It seems like that would be able to output the correct amount of volts.
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When you say "included charging cable" do you mean the wall plug that came with the Evo or just the cable with a USB connector on one end and a micro USB on the other end? Because THAT cable is pinned as a data transfer cable and designed to relay only half voltage no matter what you plug it into. I know, because it only charged my Evo at slow speed when plugged into my USB car charger. Once I replaced it with the Rocket Fish cable it charged at full speed.
kwilbur3 said:
I had the same problem until I noticed how hot my phone was using the nav. 13 hour drive. I purchased a vent cradle for the car and so that it can stay cool while in use and charging. While the other guy may be right theoretically, its not right practically. The evo will shut off its mini usb hub once it starts getting dangerously hot so that it won't damage your phone. Long story short make sure your phone is at safe temps no need to buy another charger for your evo. keep at cool temps so that phone won't cut off power supply will even shut your phone down if its way to hot, happened to me in atlanta not fun.
"Insert Fancy Quote"
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See above. While I agree that heat will kill the battery and possibly trigger a shutoff, I don't think that's his problem. If you use the wrong cable or charger you will only get half charging current.

sprocket87 said:
When you say "included charging cable" do you mean the wall plug that came with the Evo or just the cable with a USB connector on one end and a micro USB on the other end? Because THAT cable is pinned as a data transfer cable and designed to relay only half voltage no matter what you plug it into. I know, because it only charged my Evo at slow speed when plugged into my USB car charger. Once I replaced it with the Rocket Fish cable it charged at full speed.
See above. While I agree that heat will kill the battery and possibly trigger a shutoff, I don't think that's his problem. If you use the wrong cable or charger you will only get half charging current.
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I mean the USB cable that comes in the box with the EVO that plugs into the AC adapter. Maybe I will look into a new cable then. Hmm.
Edit: Those Rocketfish cables that you mentioned seem to be ungodly expensive. No way in hell am I going to pay more than $5 for a USB cable. Any alternatives?

TheBiles said:
I mean the USB cable that comes in the box with the EVO that plugs into the AC adapter. Maybe I will look into a new cable then. Hmm.
Edit: Those Rocketfish cables that you mentioned seem to be ungodly expensive. No way in hell am I going to pay more than $5 for a USB cable. Any alternatives?
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This is the one I got: http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKETFISH-MOBI...ARGING-CABLE-/350384355972?pt=PDA_Accessories
$3 shipped
And there are 2 USB cables that came with the Evo (mine anyway), a thick one that was bundled with the wall charger and a thin one that's intended just for data sync. The thin one doesn't seem to charge at full speed.
If you're using the other one and it's STILL draining then maybe there is an issue with heat or something, like the other guy said. Is the phone SUPER hot at the base, where the kickstand is, when this happens?

OP - I am having the same problem. I'm 95% sure it's caused by something wrong in CM6 regarding how it handles USB charging. Past few nightlies I have been leaving my phone on the charger doing NOTHING overnight and it goes dead.
This CANNOT be due to lack of charging strength:
#1 the same exact charger worked perfectly in the past, before I flashed a certain nightly - not sure which one exactly it started in
#2 if it was charging, but slowly why in the world would the battery drain when I have it underclocked to 245 mhz and the phone is sleeping with screen off?
On my standard charger that came with the phone it is working fine even though it's a USB that plugs into an adapter - not sure why this doesn't work with my other one that I had from another phone since it worked perfectly before. Something is definitely odd with CM6 and USB charging.

sprocket87 said:
This is the one I got: http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKETFISH-MOBI...ARGING-CABLE-/350384355972?pt=PDA_Accessories
$3 shipped
And there are 2 USB cables that came with the Evo (mine anyway), a thick one that was bundled with the wall charger and a thin one that's intended just for data sync. The thin one doesn't seem to charge at full speed.
If you're using the other one and it's STILL draining then maybe there is an issue with heat or something, like the other guy said. Is the phone SUPER hot at the base, where the kickstand is, when this happens?
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That's odd, because my EVO only came with the one cable for the adapter. Phone stays cool.
berardi said:
OP - I am having the same problem. I'm 95% sure it's caused by something wrong in CM6 regarding how it handles USB charging. Past few nightlies I have been leaving my phone on the charger doing NOTHING overnight and it goes dead.
This CANNOT be due to lack of charging strength:
#1 the same exact charger worked perfectly in the past, before I flashed a certain nightly - not sure which one exactly it started in
#2 if it was charging, but slowly why in the world would the battery drain when I have it underclocked to 245 mhz and the phone is sleeping with screen off?
On my standard charger that came with the phone it is working fine even though it's a USB that plugs into an adapter - not sure why this doesn't work with my other one that I had from another phone since it worked perfectly before. Something is definitely odd with CM6 and USB charging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also noticed lately that my phone will charge insanely fast. Like from 30% to 90% in half an hour.

Sprocket - stupid question here... do these Rocket Fish charging cables also handle data transfer just as well as the stock micro-usb cable that came with the phone or would someone want to have one JUST for charging and keep their stock cable for data transfer purposes?

TheBiles said:
That's odd, because my EVO only came with the one cable for the adapter. Phone stays cool.
I've also noticed lately that my phone will charge insanely fast. Like from 30% to 90% in half an hour.
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Sorry I was unclear - the other cable I have that is the problem is one from another phone but the same type, and up until recently it worked perfectly.

Tab is going into MTP mode and wont charge.....

This is hooked up to the Samsung charger , I have-no idea what the heck is going on..... anyone else?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium

pdxrealtor said:
This is hooked up to the Samsung charger , I have-no idea what the heck is going on..... anyone else?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium
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if you turn off the tab and then plug it in, does the battery screen come on and does the device charge?

pdxrealtor said:
This is hooked up to the Samsung charger , I have-no idea what the heck is going on..... anyone else?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium
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My guess - faulty resistors in the charger or one of the wires in the cable is dead.
The Tab expects to see USB D+ and D- shorted together and floating at 1.2 volts, set by a resistor divider in the charger.
Does the cable work fine for USB data transfer?

I think the user has possibly used the wrong wording. If he's seeing the MTP mode come on that means that he's just got it plugged into a USB port on a machine whilst the tablet is on (whilst using the "charger" cable).
Simple answer if that's the case. The tab doesn't charge that way as there isn't enough power coming through the port to keep the tab on and charge. If you however switch off the tab, you should find it charges from the USB port
If not, let us know.

Actually the tab is going into MTP mode while plugged into the outlet, using the supplied Samsung power adapter and supplied 30 pin cable.
I think i need to call Samsung for replacement... although after really thinking about what I just typed I think might be simpler to just buy a new cable online.
Or is it the actual power adapter that's faulty....

Well that is quite odd then. Does the tab charge if you switch it off and then plug it into the outlet / pc?

Chiribo said:
I think the user has possibly used the wrong wording. If he's seeing the MTP mode come on that means that he's just got it plugged into a USB port on a machine whilst the tablet is on (whilst using the "charger" cable).
Simple answer if that's the case. The tab doesn't charge that way as there isn't enough power coming through the port to keep the tab on and charge. If you however switch off the tab, you should find it charges from the USB port
If not, let us know.
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Click to collapse
No, his wording was explicit enough to indicate that the tab is falsely detecting the factory charger as a USB host. This will happen with iPad/iPod/iPhone chargers, and would happen with the factory charger if the cable were faulty (D+ or D- open) or if the charger were faulty.
Again, to the OP: Does the cable work for syncing to a PC to transfer data? If it doesn't work at all, that's a sign that D+ or D- of the cable is open.

Meh, some people use words such as charger and cable interchangeably in terms of their truer intended meanings at times.
I was simply trying to cover that base.

Not sure if the cable works for data ....as I do everything over the air. The cable was giving me troubles at the tab end, (loose connection) but lately has been working OK.
I also haven't been charging and using at the same time lately either. I really needto contact Samsung and talk to them about a warranty replacement, but I have a feeling I'd be better off just buying a new one off Amazon or the like....
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium

Wrong section n00b!!!!

akarol said:
Wrong section n00b!!!!
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Thanks for that...
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

pdxrealtor said:
This is hooked up to the Samsung charger , I have-no idea what the heck is going on..... anyone else?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium
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I have the same issue. Check that with different cables. So cable and charger is not the reason

If you're running a ROM with Pershoot's kernel, you can "Enable Charge From ANY USB" (see link in my signature). If you're running something else, you can make yourself a "DIY Universal Charging Inline Cable" that will trick the Tab into charging off anything (again, see the link in my signature).
But before you go out spending money (even if it's just a little bit of $$$) you should see if the cable works for data transfer between your computer and the tab.
If the cable works, then the "DIY Universal Charging Inline Cable" will keep you going until Samsung sends you a replacement charger.

I had this problem and didn't know what was wrong for a while. It turned out the the charger wasn't plugged in all the way in the outlet. I guess it wasn't getting all the juice it needed.

Am suddenly getting this problem tonight also it sometimes turns my tablet off but won't let me turn it on till I pull the charger out.I've also noticed that if I plug it in when the tab is off the battery sometimes comes up saying it's charging
just plugged the usb lead in to 2 laptops and they both show a usb error

I started having the same problem 2 days ago. All of a sudden i plugged in the wall charger and it went into MTP mode. It will charge if turned off but I've noticed it takes a much longer time to charge. From 3% it took almost 24 hrs to completly charge. Thinking that I'll have to buy a new wall charger.

Please help
Another one about charging...
My 10.1 P7510 takes tooooo long to charge, even beeing off. If I connect it to my notebook data transfer is correct but battery keeps draining, or at least not charging. If I turn it off (either connected to PC or charger) the charging icon appears correctly. I must say that cable (and charger) are not the original ones
Is it a problem of the Tab, or cable, and/or charger ?

I think the charger did not have enough current to charge the tab while still using it. The stock charger should be rated at 5V 2A. I tried another charger with only 1A and it still worked. Anything lower than 1A will end up showing that MTP mode.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

I've got the same problem myself except I had to clean the charger clean of marinade sauce (it's a long story, don't ask!) and I took the device back to my local Vodafone store (I got it on a Mobile Broadband contract) as I thought it was faulty. They claimed the device was working fine although they used their own cable and not mine. They also claimed that if it was the cable, I should be easily able to buy one.
I tried buying one in every store I could think of, including the phone repair shops and they didn't sell them at all!
It's just a shame that a tablet like this which could have been a great tablet is crippled not only with no MicroSD slot, but also using a crappy proprietary socket whereas all the other Tabs have a MicroSD slot/uses a Micro USB port.
(I've already ordered a replacement cable from Amazon UK in any case for a reasonable price)

mtp-connected and media scanner running
I bought. My Tab 8.9 last November, only started having this problem since last night. There is red cross and mtp-connected,also,"media scanner running". I am using original cable and adapter that come with the Tab. Has anyone here found a solution?

[Q] Car charger recommendations

Hello. I'm trying to pick a car charger that would work with the galaxy nexus. from what I've read so far the samsung CAD300UBEB/STD model seems to do the trick but a few review says that the battery discharges faster than the charger can charge it back under heavy usage. can anybody confirm or deny this?
and also, I would like to know if that same charger would work for a galaxy S2. I'm looking for a charger than can be used with both models because I have both phones. the listing of models in amazon website doesn't list the nexus or the S2. so I want to make sure before buying it. thanks!

I'm also interested. I was just looking at this discussion on Reddit taht goes a little more in depth
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/nwerk/why_is_my_galaxy_nexus_losing_power_while_plugged/

KidCuda said:
I'm also interested. I was just looking at this discussion on Reddit taht goes a little more in depth
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The motorola charger listed there seems work well for the nexus and also for the S2 according to amazon reviews.

I went with one of these and a USB cable, and it seems to work just fine. Also gives me a spare USB port for additional charging.

mb_3000 said:
The motorola charger listed there seems work well for the nexus and also for the S2 according to amazon reviews.
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I have the Motorola one already (the one with the blue LED) when I had my Droid 3, now it can't keep up with the Nexus' power drain. Just using it moderately on 3G only in the car today had it drain 3% over 40 minutes.

TheKaz said:
I went with one of these and a USB cable, and it seems to work just fine. Also gives me a spare USB port for additional charging.
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not according to this guy
I have a galaxy nexus cell phone which requires probably around 1.5 Amps when using GPS. The phone does not come with the car charger. It only comes with a 2A wall charger. My temporary solution has been to use a car power inverter that has house-type outlets on it (which I already had) so that I can use the wall charger in the car. This has been working fine, but for obvious reasons, is not my desired long-term solution.
Enter this piece of crap. Now, the phone and only requires a little over 1 A with GPS. With the real two amp wall charger, I am able to both run GPS and charge the battery pretty darn fast. But, with this charger, not only can I not use GPS without draining the battery, but even when not using anything special, the battery charging times are horrendous.
Stay far, far away.
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mb_3000 said:
not according to this guy
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Wow... granted, I am not using a GPS, but I never really checked the charge times. I don't rely on it for a fast full-charge.. usually just plug it in on the trip home and charge as much as it can until I plug it in at home.
Thanks for the heads up.. I am gonna have to keep an eye on it now.

TheKaz said:
Wow... granted, I am not using a GPS, but I never really checked the charge times. I don't rely on it for a fast full-charge.. usually just plug it in on the trip home and charge as much as it can until I plug it in at home.
Thanks for the heads up.. I am gonna have to keep an eye on it now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've researched this pretty thoroughly, and the key question is whether or not your GN shows "AC" when you check the Battery status, or if it shows "USB."
With most car chargers, it is seen as "USB" as if it's plugged into a computer, and will draw minimal current, generally not enough to keep up. I had 2 different chargers in my cars, none of which showed as "AC". I bought and then returned the Griffin PowerJolt Dual USB Micro Charger - it also showed as only "USB."
Finally, in one of the other Android forums I've been monitoring on this issue, somebody came across this one:
HTC T-Mobile myTouch 3G Car Charger
$3.12, free shipping. Mine came yesterday, plugged it in, and finally my GN showed charging as "AC".
Hope this helps!

When your smartphone shows your charger as ''USB'' this means that the USB data lines in the charger are not short-circuited. Then smartphone reduces its charging current to avoind any problems with USB laptop power sources
I made some experiments to check this point : see http://78michel.unblog.fr/?p=184.
I also opened a car charger and short-circuited the data lines on USB the plug . That way I have solved my previuos charging problem in my car during long trip.

DLCPhoto said:
I've researched this pretty thoroughly, and the key question is whether or not your GN shows "AC" when you check the Battery status, or if it shows "USB."
With most car chargers, it is seen as "USB" as if it's plugged into a computer, and will draw minimal current, generally not enough to keep up. I had 2 different chargers in my cars, none of which showed as "AC". I bought and then returned the Griffin PowerJolt Dual USB Micro Charger - it also showed as only "USB."
Finally, in one of the other Android forums I've been monitoring on this issue, somebody came across this one:
HTC T-Mobile myTouch 3G Car Charger
$3.12, free shipping. Mine came yesterday, plugged it in, and finally my GN showed charging as "AC".
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It helped indeed, thanks for the link!

this is what i bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S5Q9CA/ref=oh_o03_s00_i00_details
i've used it now 4 times, twice on a trip from south florida to orlando.
It charges the phone just as fast, if not faster than my home charger. On the way back, my phone was at 35%, within 2 hours it was back up to 100%. No GPS and a couple phone calls.
on the way up, GPS on and it never dropped below 97%.
so i can tell you without any doubt what-so-ever that this charger works perfectly with the galaxy nexus and will charge it with Navigation and phone calls running.

TheKaz said:
I went with one of these and a USB cable, and it seems to work just fine. Also gives me a spare USB port for additional charging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought a charger very similar to this one and it works great in my car. I make sure any charger I get is rated 5V DC at 1000mAh at least.

I have 2 USB 2.5A dongle chargers, one by Belkin and the other by Kingston. Both register as charging via "USB mode" and do not provide sufficient power while the phone is in use(loses charge usually). I also have that Motorola Rapid charger but the way the cable is designed it tugs on the USB port and comes loose often. I ended up just using the normal USB cable that comes with the phone and a 140W power inverter. Granted, it's not the most compact of devices, but it works well. I got it from Walmart for $20. Here's a link to it:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher-XI14-Power-Inverter/15140199?findingMethod=rr
(and yes, using a power inverter will have the phone registering as "charging AC" and give a full proper charge.)

I'm using a Scoshe (sp?) dual USB port charger I picked up from Staples. It has a 1amp port and a 2.1amp port and I just use the micro usb cable the GNex came with

neok44 said:
this is what i bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S5Q9CA/ref=oh_o03_s00_i00_details
i've used it now 4 times, twice on a trip from south florida to orlando.
It charges the phone just as fast, if not faster than my home charger. On the way back, my phone was at 35%, within 2 hours it was back up to 100%. No GPS and a couple phone calls.
on the way up, GPS on and it never dropped below 97%.
so i can tell you without any doubt what-so-ever that this charger works perfectly with the galaxy nexus and will charge it with Navigation and phone calls running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! that's what I wanted to hear. I'm getting this one. it works for both Nexus and GSII

trueislander said:
I'm using a Scoshe (sp?) dual USB port charger I picked up from Staples. It has a 1amp port and a 2.1amp port and I just use the micro usb cable the GNex came with
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it charge as USB or AC with the scosche? I'm looking for a dual USB car charger that will work properly with the GN.

jhuynh said:
Does it charge as USB or AC with the scosche? I'm looking for a dual USB car charger that will work properly with the GN.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was another thread, I think in the General that discussed all of this, what people came up with was the best combination if you want a dual port usb charger is to make sure you have a "charging only" USB cable. This cable will not make your phone think it is connected to a computer. You can tweek a data/charging cable to work but some people messed that up so it is probably worth just spending the $4 on a cable that works.
Here is my combination that works great. With this set up I can have on my navigation going with the screen on the whole time and stream Pandora over Bluetooth into my car and the battery still charges really quickly.
Dual USB Port with a 1 amp port and a 2.1 amp port (2.1 amp port is for tablets or power hungry devices - like the phone while navigating). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056VNVV8/ref=oh_o01_s00_i01_details
Charging Only USB cable:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VYBCAY/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details
This combo has me as "Charging AC" whenever I am in the car and I still have a port open to charge another one of the 27 or so different electronic devices that seem to clutter my life!

Some details on the changes I made on my car chargers
Text is in french but photographs speak by themselves http://78michel.unblog.fr/?p=212

jhuynh said:
Does it charge as USB or AC with the scosche? I'm looking for a dual USB car charger that will work properly with the GN.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just like bmolly said, it works as AC is you use a "charge only" cable

bmolloy said:
There was another thread, I think in the General that discussed all of this, what people came up with was the best combination if you want a dual port usb charger is to make sure you have a "charging only" USB cable. This cable will not make your phone think it is connected to a computer. You can tweek a data/charging cable to work but some people messed that up so it is probably worth just spending the $4 on a cable that works.
Here is my combination that works great. With this set up I can have on my navigation going with the screen on the whole time and stream Pandora over Bluetooth into my car and the battery still charges really quickly.
Dual USB Port with a 1 amp port and a 2.1 amp port (2.1 amp port is for tablets or power hungry devices - like the phone while navigating). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056VNVV8/ref=oh_o01_s00_i01_details
Charging Only USB cable:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VYBCAY/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details
This combo has me as "Charging AC" whenever I am in the car and I still have a port open to charge another one of the 27 or so different electronic devices that seem to clutter my life!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this. It's been driving me mad how car chargers and cables are so inconsistent. Pun intended.
Seriously, why can they come up with a standard and call it a day?
I have a had a few GPS/Pandora runs. Even while it says AC charging and my charger is rated for 1A, it drains the battery by 300-400ma.

Charging current

Is there an app or widget that will display the charging current that is charging the battery? I have a car charger that is supposedly 1A but it seems to charge much more slowly than my 1A home charger and would like to compare them more directly.
Thanks.

Had the same issue here .. looking in to my account and check my posts the answer is there ... shipped from us to UK in a week in my case and I can see huge difference ....
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

jonnythan said:
Is there an app or widget that will display the charging current that is charging the battery? I have a car charger that is supposedly 1A but it seems to charge much more slowly than my 1A home charger and would like to compare them more directly.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want you can see which charging method your phone is using. Settings>battery. If it says charging(usb) the most you are drawing is .5 amps. If it says chargin(AC) then you can pull up to an amp. If you are getting usb charging from a car charger, you don't have the data pins shorted. if you short the data pins, it tells the phone that your charger is a 1a wall charger.

It did say USB. I cut open the cable I was using and shorted the white and green together. Now it says AC. Let's see if it can keep up with BT streaming and navigating.
Thanks.

Unfortunately there's no way to see charging current on this phone like many HTC phones have. But you want it to say ac not USB else its only pulling half the current its capable of.

Worked like a charm. I turned the brightness up, streamed music over BT, and left navigation on during my commute this morning. The battery actually charged instead of drained. Good stuff.

Glad I could help

Great info. Been wondering about this myself. Thanks!