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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 >.>
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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 >.>
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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
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it's.. 24 bucks ... for a charger..
lol fml
Dmw017 said:
it's.. 24 bucks ... for a charger..
lol fml
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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.
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...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
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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!
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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
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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
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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
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?
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One of the immediate side effects will be that your phone will take a longer time to fully charge your battery.
If I helped you out in any way please thank me. Thanks.
Not sure how the blackberry chargers are. I know some of the Motorola chargers are accepted by the phone for high current charging (any charger that doesn't puts the phone in low current mode).
I charge my phone every night on my old 700mah Samsung charger and while it does take longer youd hardly notice unless you were trying to get as much charge in say an hour as possible. So as long as the phone doesn't limit it you should be good. <500mah is very noticeable.
I know it will take longer to charge. But Im not as familiar with appropriate charging output for li-ion as i am for ni-mh Sanyo eneloops for example that ideally should be charged at 220ma to maximize cell life.
edlivian said:
I know it will take longer to charge. But Im not as familiar with appropriate charging output for li-ion as i am for ni-mh Sanyo eneloops for example that ideally should be charged at 220ma to maximize cell life.
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The rule still applies the less current used to charge the better the lifespan. The phone was paired with a battery with the intention of using a 1 amp charger. The phone will only allow high current charging mode if it thinks the charger is Samsung. Shorting the data pins is a way to fool it and many aftermarket chargers already do this.
With your phone on and the phone in low current mode (320 mah i believe) you will have a hard time charging the phone if anything is wake locking the phone even screen off. You will even have trouble charging and using the phone at 500mah depending on whats going on.
The phone will be eating some amount of power from the charger, the battery is not always seeing as much current as you might think. I always stick by the practice of not deep discharging it, LiION would rather be topped off then not charged (geeze remember NiCad laptop batteries.... lol). I feel this battery will be the shortest lifespan of any phone or laptop I have ever had. Just due to how much use it sees.
Charger
Any micro usb charger should work. I've had a dozen or so different gadgets that all use micro usb from Blue Tooth headsets, to speakers. I use all chargers interchangeably with one noteable exception. My wife's Nook Tablet will only charge using the provided Nook charger. Found that out the hard way.
I have also found that not all micro usb cables will provide data transfer for all phones. I'm guessing different pin-outs? For instance when I was trying to root my ET4G, I forgot my OEM cable at home so I tried to use my EVO cable. That dind't work well at all.
My old blackberry chargers seemed to work fine but I started seeing some strange jumping around of the battery while using. For instance it would all of a sudden jump up to 100% charged then if I unplugged and plugged back in it would go back to 70% or whatever. I went back to only samsung or just charging off usb. I use my pc, printer, cable box etc to charge my phone.
I charge mine with either the stock charger that came with my E4GT, or an old 700MAh charger that came with my old Samsung Rant. Occasionally I use the charger that came with my HTC Evo 4G. I really can never tell a difference. Although, like someone above said, it seems as if non-Samsung usb cables will not charge when plugged into a computer. That's how it is with the HTC cable, and I've also tried an LG usb cable and got the same results.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
BBJon said:
I have also found that not all micro usb cables will provide data transfer for all phones. I'm guessing different pin-outs? For instance when I was trying to root my ET4G, I forgot my OEM cable at home so I tried to use my EVO cable. That dind't work well at all.
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Really? I rooted and always use Odin using an HTC cable...
EggosEvo said:
I charge mine with either the stock charger that came with my E4GT, or an old 700MAh charger that came with my old Samsung Rant. Occasionally I use the charger that came with my HTC Evo 4G. I really can never tell a difference. Although, like someone above said, it seems as if non-Samsung usb cables will not charge when plugged into a computer. That's how it is with the HTC cable, and I've also tried an LG usb cable and got the same results.
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I had the exclaim, the replacement to the rant and thats where my 700mah charger came from.
All of my other Micro USB cables except the one are non samsung and I use them all for charging, data and they charge while connected to pc. But none of them are from other phone manufacturers or anything. The Micro USB spec is what these phones are using there is no difference.
The difference that matters most of the time is tolerances. Its easy to end up with cables that will work well in one port but not another. The rest of the cable may also be out of spec and not work well or at all for certain purposes.
I've ruined two batteries because of non-OEM chargers on the ET4G. (Actually, ruined two, and made a third battery just render terrible performance.) I definitely don't have the problem with other devices I own, and it's definitely happened with two separate ET4G's I've owned.
So, "be very careful using alternate chargers" is all I would advise.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't electricity the same no matter the source?
If the phone is looking to pull 1A and your charger is rated for .7A I'd be worried about the charger not the battery, which technically is a cell not a battery.
Tolerances were mentioned before and I think that is most of the problem with certain cables working fine for some people and not others. All connectors and cabling are supposed to meet the USB spec and many cheap ones don't. Also the supposed 10,000 insertion rating for micro USB is a bit optimistic imo. I replace cables after a couple months max because of loose connections.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
dberend said:
Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't electricity the same no matter the source?
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Not really because these chargers are doing AC to DC conversion and voltage regulation is a huge factor in its job. With a bad charger design not only can charging be affected, possibly even hurt the battery. Since the phone will consumer charger power to run while on the charger the phone can become unstable. Not talking a defective charger, just bad and cheap designs.
dberend said:
If the phone is looking to pull 1A and your charger is rated for .7A I'd be worried about the charger not the battery, which technically is a cell not a battery
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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.
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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
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.
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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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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.
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Click to collapse
this was exactly what I was looking for.. Thanks a lot.. I also has Siyah kernel, and many USB 2 ports available at work, and like to keep my AC charger at home.
This cable won't give you 1A. I guess the second USB plug has no data connection (how could it? ) and without a registered USB device a USB port gives only a few mA of power.
It does work with 2.5" harddrives that need more power than one USB port can deliver. Why shouldn't it work with the s3?
But why would you need that when you are charging your phone at work? It's not like you're in a hurry. It can sit there all day.
And I wouldn't try to charge it with 1A or more just to save a little time. The charger you get with the s3 an the s3 itself are made for 900mA. That's why the kernel is limited to 900mA aswell. You might damage your phone by charging it with a higher current. Sure, there is a safety margin build in but going to the limit seldom is a good idea.
weisselstone said:
This cable won't give you 1A. I guess the second USB plug has no data connection (how could it? ) and without a registered USB device a USB port gives only a few mA of power.
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Click to collapse
This was correctly answered back in August (above). What does data have anything to do with current? It simply has 2 plugs so that it can draw more current (mA).
shamez23 said:
It does work with 2.5" harddrives that need more power than one USB port can deliver. Why shouldn't it work with the s3?
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This.
shamez23 said:
But why would you need that when you are charging your phone at work? It's not like you're in a hurry. It can sit there all day.
And I wouldn't try to charge it with 1A or more just to save a little time. The charger you get with the s3 an the s3 itself are made for 900mA. That's why the kernel is limited to 900mA aswell. You might damage your phone by charging it with a higher current. Sure, there is a safety margin build in but going to the limit seldom is a good idea.
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Click to collapse
No, you can't damage it that way. Electronic devices DRAW current, which means that they only take as much as they are able to. You can plug your phone into a 5A charger and it wouldn't damage it. Too much voltage WILL fry it though.
Are you sure about that?
I've read more than once on tech sites that for example the 2A charger of the iPad will charge other devices that come with weaker chargers faster but that they advice against doing that on a regular basis.
I do use industrial Li-ion batteries (18650) on several other devices and the charger I use for those has a switch with witch I can decide if I want to charge them at 500mA or at 1000mA. Reading in forums that specialize on devices that use those batteries and that have users that seem to know quite a bit about batteries and do extensive testing with sophisticated equipment, the general opinion is, that using lower Amps will prolong the lifetime of your batteries and that too high currents can potentially damage them as of course will overcharging them.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/ultra_fast_chargers
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
I don't know much about battery technology so I might be wrong. I always had problems to wrap my head around anything that has to do with electricity and electronics in general and have to use analogies to understand and explain how things work in that area. Those analogies don't always apply completely.
The one I have in this case is the following:
I decide how much I can eat. I can eat at a normal pace until I'm full but I can also stuff myself and eat a lot more than I would normally do in a short period of time. I know that the later is a bad idea and won't do me much good but it is possible.
If you are correct with what you said, batteries could draw a higher current than what the original charger is delivering, up to their limit but that could still be too much and harm them.
I don't know. Now I'm confused.
shamez23 said:
Are you sure about that?
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You have a point. I guess it depends on how well the charging circuitry (in the phone) is designed.
The battery itself won't limit the voltage/current (*). It's the charging circuitry that does this. For instance, if you connect the battery directly to a power supply and give it too much juice, it WILL damage the battery. Similarly, if the charging circuitry supplies too much to the battery, then this could also happen. However, it SHOULD be designed with appropriate tolerances and safety margins in mind. Therefore, it depends on how much you trust the hardware.
In that way, I guess charging at 500 mA would be considered safer. That being said, I'm happy plugging my phone into the wall charger every night, whether it's 900 mA or 1A.
(*) I know that Lithium batteries usually have built-in circuitry for safety measures, so they MIGHT have something that limits voltage/current, but I'm not sure.
900mA should be save. After all that's what Samsung gave us.
It's just that some people tweak their kernels to 1.25mA or even more. That's quite a bit higher than the specs and probably close to the safety margin.
It won't even charge your batterie faster that way. At least not when you talk about fully charging it. It will get faster to about 80% charge but after that it will take just so much longer to get to 100% that in the end it takes the same amount of time.
I'll stick to the original Samsung charger or the charger of my old HD2 that I have lying around. Makes me feel safer.
Lately I've noticed something odd. Depending on the USB cable I use the charge rate seems to vary substantially. In fact, in some cases under heavy phone usage, I've seen the battery decrease while on the charger. Now, I know what you're thinking: Some USB cables have the D+/D- pins shorted which switches from USB (500mA) to AC (1A) charging mode. I'm using a really cool CTC-2USB-5V2A charger which seems to show up as AC on all cables (including the ones that barely charge it). The two cables I know are charging it well are the one that came with my HP Touchpad and the one that came with my Kindle Fire HD 7, the ones that didn't have been el-cheapo eBay cables. Since its showing up as AC for all the cables, I'm assuming the only difference can be that the eBay cables use thinner wires which take more voltage drop.
Have people seen this before? Is this the problem? Does anyone know where to get some quality 2 meter / 6 ft cables cheap?
If you want to verify that one cable is allowing more current through than another, I would suggest getting "Battery Monitor Widget" by 3c (in the play store)
Put the apps widget on your screen, plug our phone in and wait for widget to update. Do the same for each cable and compare
CNexus, I am absolutely convinced one is charging faster than another.I was using the battery monitoring that came with the phone (or at least the one in Blazer ROM). You can plug one cable in and update the graph and the slope of the battery state is much higher on one cable than another. I installed battery monitor widget and I do not see anything that shows how much current is going into the phone.
But this really doesn't address the question of why one cable is charging faster than another, is it the wire gauge? Is there something else going on I don't know about?
hpmaxim said:
CNexus, I am absolutely convinced one is charging faster than another.I was using the battery monitoring that came with the phone (or at least the one in Blazer ROM). You can plug one cable in and update the graph and the slope of the battery state is much higher on one cable than another. I installed battery monitor widget and I do not see anything that shows how much current is going into the phone.
But this really doesn't address the question of why one cable is charging faster than another, is it the wire gauge? Is there something else going on I don't know about?
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I can absolutely verify that this is true. It's usually that the pins in the micro sd port are running thin from normal use. Usually normal wear and tear, or possibly the cable has gotten crimped somewhere on it Respectively, the same Non- charging cables are likely to corrupt data transfer as well, making it difficult to do development, or transfer your favorite videos or songs.. Someone recently stole my new cable and all the files I'd transferred to my phone from the computer or vice versa from my older cable were corrupted. Especially ROMS, KERneLS, and Video. This could be a potential huge problem for someone in a sticky situation needing to ODIN, or make an ABD shell connection. I suggest tossing those cables and buying new ones. I know they're expensive, but it might be the difference between having your phone soft bricked till next payday or not.
Timmetal, just to be clear I am comparing multiple identical eBay cables to the Touchpad/Kindle Fire cables.... Sounds like you are saying it is a manufacturing defect in the cables (presumably all of them) that are not necessarily related to the wire gauge. Regardles...
A 6 foot 28 gauge cable would drop about 800+ mV (which is a lot, since a fully charged battery is probably around 4.2V and USB is 5V).
A 6 foot 24 gauge cable would be about 400 mV drop.
A 6 foot 22 gauge cable would probably be 250-300 mV drop.
Monoprice has 3 styles of cable:
1) the 28/28 economy cable (which I presume means 28 gauge on all wires) for 81 cents the
2) the 24/28 cable (presumably 24 gauge on power and ground, and 28 on the others) for $1.40
3) the "premium" cable which they don't give any info on, for $2.96
Newegg has a 22 gauge for $4
Price isn't that big of a deal one 1, but I'll probably buy 10 which starts to make a difference (although prices go down a bit with quantity on all of these). Sounds like the 24/28 Monoprice might be the best bet.
Battery monitor widget is an app, after you download it long press on your home screen > widgets > and there should be one for the "battery monitor widget" app, so basically put the "battery monitor widget" widget on one of your homescreens
And im not saying this is to see whether one is charging more than another, because you can just see that clearly
This is to see how much more it is because this app shows you the mA coming through the cord
The phone software controls the charge rate based on what it thinks it is plugged into. I think it limits its draw to 500ma if it senses a USB port on the other end (since the USB standard limits it to 500ma anyway), it charges at 700ma if it senses a wall-wart type charger. Not sure how it senses the difference, but you will notice on the lock screen it will say either Charging (USB) or Charging (AC).
Questions and help issues go in Q&A
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poit said:
The phone software controls the charge rate based on what it thinks it is plugged into. I think it limits its draw to 500ma if it senses a USB port on the other end (since the USB standard limits it to 500ma anyway), it charges at 700ma if it senses a wall-wart type charger. Not sure how it senses the difference, but you will notice on the lock screen it will say either Charging (USB) or Charging (AC).
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Sorry if I didn't make this clear, the phone is claiming it is an AC charger in both cases, but one cable versus another makes a big difference in charging speed. Anyway, I ordered 9 of the $1.40 Monoprice cables. We'll see if they work.
poit said:
The phone software controls the charge rate based on what it thinks it is plugged into. I think it limits its draw to 500ma if it senses a USB port on the other end (since the USB standard limits it to 500ma anyway), it charges at 700ma if it senses a wall-wart type charger. Not sure how it senses the difference, but you will notice on the lock screen it will say either Charging (USB) or Charging (AC).
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Sort of off topic but Interesting. My lock screen just shows charging. USB port on computer, USB cable plugged into wall charger or dedicated 700mah Blackberry wall charger, it makes no distinction as to how it's being charged. It does charge faster using a wall charger obviously but I've never noticed a difference in rate between using different cables.
Just wondering because I don't want to mess up my battery but would rather not have to buy another car charger if I don't have to.
fatmando2 said:
Just wondering because I don't want to mess up my battery but would rather not have to buy another car charger if I don't have to.
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I would use it personally, but hopefully someone in the know can give a better answer.
I would compare the amp against the charger.
if it's less which most car chargers are, than you are ok..
only prob. you'd have is if a charger was putting out too much amp and toast the battery.
my 2 cents
take with grain of salt.
I believe it's actually the other way around. You can use a more powerful charger on a device that requires less, because the device will only draw the power it needs.
However don't use a charger that doesn't have enough power to charge the device, as the device could draw more power than the charger can provide and you risk catching the charger on fire.
This is how MacBook chargers work anyway. For example you can use an 85 watt charger to charge a 45 watt MacBook but you should not use a 45 watt charger to charge an 85 watt MacBook. (I have a few MacBooks that's why I used that reference).
I would assume cell phone chargers are the same concept.
Sent from my HTC One.
josh995 said:
I believe it's actually the other way around. You can use a more powerful charger on a device that requires less, because the device will only draw the power it needs.
However don't use a charger that doesn't have enough power to charge the device, as the device could draw more power than the charger can provide and you risk catching the charger on fire.
This is how MacBook chargers work anyway. For example you can use an 85 watt charger to charge a 45 watt MacBook but you should not use a 45 watt charger to charge an 85 watt MacBook. (I have a few MacBooks that's why I used that reference).
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Yep. A device will only pull the current that it needs, so high-powered PSUs on low-current devices is fine and dandy. The only difference in electrical output that would fry the phone would be voltage, but since all USB chargers "are supposed to" put out 5VDC, you're safe.
As for using chargers with less than sufficient current, I can only speak to my experience. Personally, I've never had an issue charging any of my more beefy devices (Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus, or HTC One) off of an old 500ma charger that came with my Galaxy S (or a car charger with that same output, for that matter). The devices just charge slower. The PSU gets noticeably warm, but I'd never say it got hot to the point where the threat of combustion was even remotely possible. And as for the comparison to the MacBook charger, you're talking a difference of 40 watts, whereas these little USB chargers have a difference of maybe 2.5 watts (from the 500ma to 1A models). Not a lot of power there, really.
That said, if I were to buy a new one, I'd definitely get a charger that has the output spec to match or exceed the device's OEM charger.
I have been using the Moto charger (both USB and car, borrowed from previous Razr Maxx) and they both work great. No issues.
Your phone will regulate the power so you will have nothing to worry about with almost any charger. I plug my phone into my tablets charger all the time which is 2.1a and have never had a problem. My HTC DNA was the only one that had an issue, it would say it's not the proper charger and it's enabling slow charging. Long story short, you should have no issues