StarTech USB Y Cable *Double your charging speed* - Galaxy S III Accessories

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
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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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.

Related

Compatibility with Nokia fast microUSB chargers

The Samsung charger adapter which comes in the box is very slow in nature. It take more than 2 hours to charge my phone. I was wondering if I can use the following Nokia brand chargers which are fast chargers?
Nokia Charger Adapter CA-146C
Nokia Fast Micro-USB Charger AC-10
It won't make any difference the phone decides what current it draws from the charger, so it'll take just as long to charge.
Are you really sure about this? Can you link me to some articles which confirm this.
Even I was thinking about purchasing AC-10 charger from Nokia.
How fast is the nokia charger?
0-10% -> 100% in an hour or less?
Joey2o11 said:
It won't make any difference the phone decides what current it draws from the charger, so it'll take just as long to charge.
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Click to collapse
I'm not sure about this. I have a friend with a Blackberry Playbook and he reckons his phone charges much faster if he uses the charger from that.
The "stock" S2 charger is 700mA - it doesn't take a genius to work out that for a 1650mAh battery this will take about 2.5 hours to fully charge the battery under ideal conditions (phone off) or anything from 3-6 hours with the phone on, depending all what's running or if you're using the phone while it's charging.
Which is all pretty ridiculous - ok we're comparing apples and oranges when we compare a S2 to the likesw of a Nokia, but I do miss the days when I could charge my phone in an hour and have it last two or three days. I thought my Blackberry was bad but at least I can usually squeeze a full day out of it...
The only wall wart I had lying around that was more than 700mA was a 5V 2A supply. I've tried with that which works, but the phone chokes with a "battery overtemp" warning after about 10 minutes - which tells me I AM pumping more into the battery than it can handle. This would suggest that there IS a happy medium where we can optimize the battery charge time - I'm bust looking for a 1A supply...
I have TWO AC-10Xs, and am using it with the Ninphetamene kernel (which comes with increased charge input mods to 800ma) fine. Charges to full in about 2.5-3 hours.
I've never gotten overcharge errors either.
Hi,the usage of more powerful charger will eventually reduce lifespan of your battery. This comes from basic physics, materials and so... Higher mA means faster current, which wear the material of the capacitor - battery.
I have capdase 2 USB car charger that was used for my old iphone device.
It outputs 1A.
is it safe to use it?
I tried to charge with it for 10-15minutes or so, and didnt recognize any suspicious warmups...it reached 41~degrees while at the moment im charging and using it as a hotspot and its on 38 degrees.
DobermanS said:
Hi,the usage of more powerful charger will eventually reduce lifespan of your battery. This comes from basic physics, materials and so... Higher mA means faster current, which wear the material of the capacitor - battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone (specifically, the kernel) limits charge coming in, and there MUST be hardware limiters on the batteries and the phone themselves (which, in some cheapo batteries DON'T WORK and results in them frying themselves and the phone in process) and the batteries are replaceable anyway.
eranyanay said:
I have capdase 2 USB car charger that was used for my old iphone device.
It outputs 1A.
is it safe to use it?
I tried to charge with it for 10-15minutes or so, and didnt recognize any suspicious warmups...it reached 41~degrees while at the moment im charging and using it as a hotspot and its on 38 degrees.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use htc wall charger rated at 1A and having no proplem with ,a pc USB port is capable of 1A and we all know there are no problem ,even so there are no visible improvement in charging time because as someone said the charging current is automatically regulated
ledavi said:
i use htc wall charger rated at 1A and having no proplem with ,a pc USB port is capable of 1A and we all know there are no problem ,even so there are no visible improvement in charging time because as someone said the charging current is automatically regulated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good to know that the current is regulated by the device.
Is there a software to see what is the current taken by the phone?
As long ad the temperture isn't higher than 45degrees is it ok?
By the way, Im pretty sure that usb outputs 0.5A and not 1A
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
battery monitor widget
It seems logical to be able to use all chargers as smartphones all have micro usb .
(I 'm not sute that's mean something in english, sorry)
Great widget! thanks.
I really like the data it gives!
Sadly, while charging with my .7A original charger & meanwhile giving a hotspot to my laptop, it shows that only 76mA comes in!
hehe, gonna take forever to charge the battery this way.
i doubt this. i'm still worried about the compatible problem~~~
After two days with the battery monitor widget Im affraid itself it drains the battery.
could it be it affects the battery?
settings are regular, it monitors changes every 60seconds
Let's see if I can help make things a bit clearer. Feel free to correct where I may be off.
The Nokia thing, it's not a charger. It's a power supply.
The "charger" is built into your phone, hardware-wise.
How can I prove it?
Take the Samsung supplied cable, plug it into your computer. You'll see that your phone is charging too. No, the cable is not a charger. Do you think your computer is a special built charger for your phone? Hardly.
The charging circuit is within the phone, and thus charging the battery when there's available power.
Ok, so we have the charger (i.e. the mobile phone), we have the battery, we need the power. Where do we get power from? The wall adapters (or computers). So what are the wall adapters? Ratings of 1000mah means that the wall adapter can provide up to 1000ma per hour.
However, your charging circuit will determine how much current to actually draw. For example, drawing 800mah for 10 min may raise the temperature to 55 degrees, so after 10 min the charging circuit drops the charging current to 500mah.
Of course, if you're using el cheapo cables, some cables may not be able to support the current draw and you may find that even with 20000000mah power supplies your phone can only draw 100mah.
The SGS2 heats up pretty easily, and it doesn't quite draw beyond 700mah. The circuit built into the phone doesn't allow it to, if i'm not wrong. If your phone is overheating while charging, you better change your case as it's going to cause your phone to overheat sooner or later.
Using a 20000000mah power supply isn't an issue, because the charging circuit within the phone will be able to draw only a certain amount.
Me, I plug my SGS2 into a 2Ah charger every night to charge, and yes it's perfectly fine. I'm only upset that after buying an expensive 2A charger, I realised that the phone is not able to draw high currents (phone even heats up to 55degree Celsius when charging).
Charging the phone on a ice pack (which lowered the phone temperature to 16 degrees while charging) didn't increase the amount of current drawn by the phone, even on a 2A power supply.
My humble advise is, stick with the stock power supply, or at most get a 1A version. No need to splash for a 2A power supply. If you really need faster charging, get a battery charging dock.
eranyanay said:
After two days with the battery monitor widget Im affraid itself it drains the battery.
could it be it affects the battery?
settings are regular, it monitors changes every 60seconds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes of course it does. It consumes a certain amount of ma per hour, doesn't it?
Personally, there's a app called watchdog, look for it, IMHO it helps to catch rouge apps better, and manage battery better.
I thought the whole idea of having a universal micro USB charging connection across most good brands was so you could use other chargers!
moooxooom said:
yes of course it does. It consumes a certain amount of ma per hour, doesn't it?
Personally, there's a app called watchdog, look for it, IMHO it helps to catch rouge apps better, and manage battery better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I just like the widget, which shows me also the battery temperture
I hope it doesnt takes too much

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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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

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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
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

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

6 Volt Charger

Recently bought a camping lantern that runs on a built in 6v 4.5 AH lead acid battery. It also has a USB connector which is for charging cell phones. I initially thought that the USB would be giving off a safe 5v but on testing it turns out that it is 6 volts straight from the battery.
Is this safe to use occasionally while camping? Will that extra 1 volt kill the battery or is there some mechanism inside the phone to regulate that voltage to a safe level?
Good question....hope someone has the answer for you.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
executionist said:
Recently bought a camping lantern that runs on a built in 6v 4.5 AH lead acid battery. It also has a USB connector which is for charging cell phones. I initially thought that the USB would be giving off a safe 5v but on testing it turns out that it is 6 volts straight from the battery.
Is this safe to use occasionally while camping? Will that extra 1 volt kill the battery or is there some mechanism inside the phone to regulate that voltage to a safe level?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course there should be.You get more than 6v in a power socket around the house.
Gkikas said:
Of course there should be.You get more than 6v in a power socket around the house.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one plugs their phone directly to the wall socket :/ Thats what the charger is for, it only gives 5v to the phone. Just need to know if it can regulate that 6v to a safe level.
*edit. I think no one here would know about the hardware aspects of a phone. Can someone point me to a forum or anywhere where they may know the answer to a question like this?
May I asked how you measured this?
I'd love to check what output my 12v chargers are outputting
TieNN89 said:
May I asked how you measured this?
I'd love to check what output my 12v chargers are outputting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A multimeter and a stripped usb cable
executionist said:
A multimeter and a stripped usb cable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah yeah
My brain has already flicked off for the day LOL
if you use IRC, try the freenode server in the ##electronics channel. they should help you out there. pretty nice ppl in general there.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
?
I'm interested as well. Will 6 volts @ 500mAh fry the phone?
Ok, I am an electronic engineer so a few comments.
I have no idea what kind of charging circuit is in our phones, could probably look it up but ..... in my opinion only 10% above 5V is to be considered safe.
Now you are talking about a 6V battery. That battery is not always 6V. A nice example is the 12V battery in your car which is 12.8V when fully charged. Another example are the cells inside our phones which have a nominal Voltage of 3.7V but are charged to 4.2V.
The Voltage they put on those things is the nominal Voltage.
I would check if there is no electronic circuit in that lamp since I would not connect anything directly to a battery at all.
If you go camping I would check this thing coolook pb-2000. Insert 4 x 18650 batts and you can do a couple of recharges. Very good box for the price and you can salvage 18650 from broken laptop batt packs ... but google and youtube a bit before you do that to make sure you do it the right way.
I'm also interested, any news?
You can see the specs of this type of batteries here. The 6V is nominal, as already mentioned above. The maximum noted is 6.9V and TBH, i would be rather reluctant to test is my SGS3 charging circuit likes the idea of being fed with 40% higher voltage than usual.
Are you sure there is nothing in the lantern that would limit the voltage under load? Could be something as simple as 2 diodes in series, in this case measuring the voltage on the open circuit, totally unloaded, with a DMM that barely draws microamps from it, would show the battery voltage. Try drawing some current from it (use a resistor, a USB LED lamp, etc) while measuring. I seriously doubt a self-respecting vendor would setup a USB port on that thing that would potentially output 40% more than specs, really.
PS: if the port is, indeed, fed straight from that battery, i would rather avoid hooking my SGS3 to it. Even though, it would probably survive.
---------- Post added at 07:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 PM ----------
lukesan said:
I have no idea what kind of charging circuit is in our phones...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MAX77686. Good luck finding the datasheet. And good luck trying to guess if there is anything else potentially fed straight from the USB connector. The bottom line is - i wouldn't dare
Solder this to red wire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_diode
OFC you need 5V model
GR0S said:
Solder this to red wire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_diode
OFC you need 5V model
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not if it doesn't have a resistor in series. And wait. if the battery is at 6.8 Volt and you have a 5.1 Volt zener and it is charging at 1 Amp so you will need a power resistor. You will have a lot of loss of energy because it will go away in heat.
You could use a dc-dc convertor but believe me forget about it and get one of those charging banks where you can put in your own cells.
lukesan said:
Not if it doesn't have a resistor in series. And wait. if the battery is at 6.8 Volt and you have a 5.1 Volt zener and it is charging at 1 Amp so you will need a power resistor. You will have a lot of loss of energy because it will go away in heat.
You could use a dc-dc convertor but believe me forget about it and get one of those charging banks where you can put in your own cells.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about how practical it would be to be cutting usb cables and wiring zener diodes just to use this lamp....
I think I had a charger that supplied too much voltage (I'm not positive I didn't measure the voltage output or anything), but I can say that the phone did not like it. It would eventually charge somewhat, but the touch screen wouldn't work and would go bezerk if touched lol.
Again I'm not sure how much V it supplied, but I would assume it was more than 6V. It didn't really damage the phones either, I would try it.
Here's your answer, definitively:
6v at the source (the lantern in this case) will probably be 5v or less at the phone because of the resistance in the USB cable itself. The longer the cable is the higher the resistance will be and thus the more voltage you lose to it. Also, the cheaper the cable (the thinner the wires) the more voltage you will lose per foot.
Here's some specs you can plug into THIS VOLTAGE CALCULATOR:
The USB definition specifies up to 5.3v.
Most USB cables will use 30awg wire or maybe 28awg for the better ones.
Depending on which of the sources I've read, some USB cables/chargers use one pair of wires for charging, and some will use two pairs. You can see that using two pairs of conductors drastically improves the voltage transmission but even still, at 28awg over a 6foot cable you're still losing .75v which puts you at 5.25v and well within the USB spec.
So the lantern is fine to use with your phone with your average 6-foot USB cord.
If you're like me and prefer 10-15 foot USB cords in some places you would actually benefit from a 6v or even 7v power supply at the wall. I've found that even on the OEM Samsung wall charger, when I use a 10-foot cable I don't get enough juice to actually charge my S4. With the screen on the battery charge level still drops. The Galaxy Charge Rate app shows something like 500ma charge rate and that's because there's not enough voltage / too much voltage-drop across the long cable. (Radio Shack sells a modular, adjustable voltage wall-wart power supply as well as USB and micro-USB adapters for it. I'm starting to experiment with it and the long cables.)
USB voltage vs charging current
This is an old thread, but I can confirm that my moto G charges at 6v. Apparently the original Motorola charger outputs 5.75v. I hooked up a variable power supply to my phone. The data lines are shorted together to indicate a high current power source is present. The moto G will test load the power supply before settling on a stable charging current. One that does not cause the voltage to sag excessively. When I applied 5v the charging current was approximately 600 mA. At 6v the charging current was approx 1200 mA. The charging current was measured directly on the phone using an app called ampere.
So I conclude that Motorola use this tactic to ensure their phones charge fastest with their chargers. On the up side, its fun watching my phone go from 40% to 100% in 45 minutes

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