Develop Bugs

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.
Click to expand...
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

Anything special about the USB cable included in box?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

StarTech USB Y Cable *Double your charging speed*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[TECH DISCUSSION] Is it possible to have a Dash Charge power bank?

So I'm in my junior year of electrical engineering and seeing the incredible things done with smartphones is something I really would like to be a part of one day. I wanted to discuss, considering the limits of current technology, if it would be possible to create a safe Dash Charging power bank for this device? For those who don't know how dash charging works I'll post a few links and my understanding of how it works and if I'm wrong at any point feel free to correct me.
Dash Charging - The Technology
The way dash charging works, as I understand it, is that the USB-C cable wires are made wider in diameter to accommodate a larger amount of current being passed through to the battery. The charger plugged into the wall takes on the burden of the extra voltage pushing the current through the wire and keeping it away from the phone's internal battery (which is brilliant). That means that the charger takes on the extra heat which isn't a problem because passive components are often more tolerant of heat than batteries are.
Links:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/How-it-works-Dash-Charge-fast-charging-on-the-OnePlus-3_id82646
http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-dash-charge-oneplus-3
The Issues
A dash power bank could be charged up exactly like the phone; with the dash charger it could fill extremely fast. However, using the battery pack to charge the phone means that the internal Li-Ion batteries of that charger will be taking on the extra heat from within the case which could:
a) shorten the power bank's life span
b) Possibly lead to unsafe power banks if it got too hot
I also see there being limitations with the power bank's ability to maintain a full speed charge similar to wall charging along with what types of batteries would be needed to provide the power output similar to the dash charger.
The Solutions
So in my limited knowledge I think that the biggest enemy here is heat generated in the power bank. I feel like the rest could be overcome with a fairly large bank of 18650 batteries. It is possible to have a passive cooling system built into the power bank for heat dissipation but that might make the battery bank difficult for users to hold on their Pokemon Go outings. Also, reducing Dash Charging specifications just a little, decreasing the speed at which it could charge the device, would alleviate some of the concern. So while you might not get 60% in 30 minutes from the wall, perhaps aiming for 45-50% charge in that amount of time would increase the power bank lifespan and total amount of charges.
What do you all think? I'll readily admit I don't understand completely how current battery bank internals work to limit over-current and over-voltage scenarios as I've never taken one apart. If anyone wants to educate me and say whether they think Dash Charging is possible I'd love to hear about it. This is the kind of stuff I imagine the OnePlus engineers are sitting around working on every week.

i think that would be too expensive to make for consumers, u figure if a dash charge block is almost $30.00 this thing would be well over $500.00 which would be too much for a regular consumer to purchase just to have a portable charger, maybe in about the 3rd or 4th generation of this technology we could see one in about 5 years, they would rather make a ton of 30.00 purchases and have you buy their charge block opposed to very little purchases of about 500.00 for power bank

It's actually already there in the market,
named "OPPO VOOC Powerbank"
attached is mine, working fine with OP3 Dash,
Price is around $45-50 - 6000mAH
Charging rate is 3,5A
and it DOES charge my device up to 60-70% in 30 Minutes
it heat up though, especially near the plug (USB C end)
this is why i use the metal based USB C adapter, so it release the heat faster

otonieru said:
It's actually already there in the market,
named "OPPO VOOC Powerbank"
attached is mine, working fine with OP3 Dash,
Price is around $45-50 - 6000mAH
Charging rate is 3,5A
and it DOES charge my device up to 60-70% in 30 Minutes
it heat up though, especially near the plug (USB C end)
this is why i use the metal based USB C adapter, so it release the heat faster
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no idea that even existed. I'm going to look into the specs of that device and see what it has under the hood. Thanks for letting me know about it!

AlkaliV2 said:
I had no idea that even existed. I'm going to look into the specs of that device and see what it has under the hood. Thanks for letting me know about it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here,
the information page from the maker itself :
http://www.oppo.com/en/accessory-vooc-power-bank
and where to get it :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/OPPO-VOOC-Flash-Charge-Power-White/dp/B00SINEEXA

I'm going to build power bank using Dash Charge car charger. The power banks higher voltage (12V if using car charger) means less current for individual cell while charging. I have bought battery holder case 10 x 1,5V for AA batteries. http://r.ebay.com/vpShFJ (I already have plenty of Eneloop AA batteries for other accessories.) Each Eneloop has at least 1,5Ah (1500mAh) capacity while retaining voltage at or over 1,2V. http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/CommonAAcomparator.php I'm going to attach 12V socket to the battery holder case so I can use my car charger both in car as well while at camping.
Battery bank consisting of 10 x AA Eneloop has a total capacity of: 12V*1,5Ah=18Wh.
Dash chargers input is rated at 12V/2.5A so each individual Eneloop would have about 250mAh discharge rate.
My old Galaxy Note 3 had 3,8V 3200mAh battery and the capasity was ~12,2Wh. I don't know the nominal voltage of OP's battery but I would estimate it's about the same as Samsung's so the capacity should be lower than in Note 3. Maybe around: 3,8V*3000mAh=11,4Wh.
10x Eneloop batteries has a capacity to give energy for charging OP3 from 0% TO 100% at least. (18Wh/11,4Wh = ~1,6)

I think in India it's not available
Sent From My One Plus 3

https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/new-product-survey-dash-charge-power-bank.457920/

Squabl said:
I'm going to build power bank using Dash Charge car charger. The power banks higher voltage (12V if using car charger) means less current for individual cell while charging. I have bought battery holder case 10 x 1,5V for AA batteries. http://r.ebay.com/vpShFJ (I already have plenty of Eneloop AA batteries for other accessories.) Each Eneloop has at least 1,5Ah (1500mAh) capacity while retaining voltage at or over 1,2V. http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/CommonAAcomparator.php I'm going to attach 12V socket to the battery holder case so I can use my car charger both in car as well while at camping.
Battery bank consisting of 10 x AA Eneloop has a total capacity of: 12V*1,5Ah=18Wh.
Dash chargers input is rated at 12V/2.5A so each individual Eneloop would have about 250mAh discharge rate.
My old Galaxy Note 3 had 3,8V 3200mAh battery and the capasity was ~12,2Wh. I don't know the nominal voltage of OP's battery but I would estimate it's about the same as Samsung's so the capacity should be lower than in Note 3. Maybe around: 3,8V*3000mAh=11,4Wh.
10x Eneloop batteries has a capacity to give energy for charging OP3 from 0% TO 100% at least. (18Wh/11,4Wh = ~1,6)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're going to need a hardware XDA for people like you. I never would have thought to string together Eneloops to make an external charger since most of your power banks contain 18650 with overcharge protection and stuff built in. The wall dash charger is spec'ed to run 5V at 4A and the car charger loses half an amp to land in at 3.5A max. Car charger voltage varies between 3.4~5V from what I can tell probably based on the car's cigarette lighter specs.
What kind of case are you using with the eneloops and what are you using for overcurrent/voltage protection?

otonieru said:
It's actually already there in the market,
named "OPPO VOOC Powerbank"
attached is mine, working fine with OP3 Dash,
Price is around $45-50 - 6000mAH
Charging rate is 3,5A
and it DOES charge my device up to 60-70% in 30 Minutes
it heat up though, especially near the plug (USB C end)
this is why i use the metal based USB C adapter, so it release the heat faster
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So... can you tell me if a normal VOOC charger block charge the OP3 as fast as the original dash charger in package?
I saw it is the same current rate, but the technology, is it interchangeable?

Just wait oneplus is planning to release a dash charge powerbank with 10000mAh so stay connected no need to buy oppo 6kmAh one

AlkaliV2 said:
The wall dash charger is spec'ed to run 5V at 4A and the car charger loses half an amp to land in at 3.5A max. Car charger voltage varies between 3.4~5V from what I can tell probably based on the car's cigarette lighter specs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, the car charger uses lower current and is probably a bit slower. When I receive my car charger I will do some testing and will report back.
The voltage variation is needed on all chargers. When the battery is almost full the charging voltage drops.
AlkaliV2 said:
What kind of case are you using with the eneloops and what are you using for overcurrent/voltage protection?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have ordered a case like this: http://r.ebay.com/vpShFJ
The car charger has been designed to be used as it is. The charger itself does not require additional overcurrent protection but in case of a short circuit a 5A fuse is needed to protect the wiring and Eneloops. Overvoltage is not a problem as the maximum voltage with Eneloops is going to be under 15V.

DouglasDuZZ said:
So... can you tell me if a normal VOOC charger block charge the OP3 as fast as the original dash charger in package?
I saw it is the same current rate, but the technology, is it interchangeable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it is. I've posted it in another thread as eell. Just check through my post history.
This is pure logical, since Oneplus is just a subsidiary company of OPPO, so they surely can share few technologies between each other, and VOOC/DASH is one of it,
Just make sure your usb c adapter quality is good when you decide to use it with VOOC charger.