Develop Bugs

Highest output car charger

Is this the highest?
http://www.seidioonline.com/product-p/pmc.htm
Post links if you know of higher ones, thank you.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

There are 2.1A usb adapters, but I don't think microUSB can take advantage of it. The one you linked is a 1A, which is the same as the wall charger HTC gave with the phone. I'm currently using a 1A usb adapter in my truck.

Ok that's probably what I'm looking for then. Are there wall chargers greater than what came with the phone that I can take advantage of?

Your best bet would be to try the USB adapters made for iPads. The Apple products can utilize the 2.1A chargers with their sync cables, but I'm not sure if a microUSB cable can though. I have some 2.1A wallchargers from some of my Apple products, I'll test them later and let you know what I find out.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...ryDetails&archetypeId=12299&accessoryId=46370

I just got an Enercell from Radio Shack with dual usbs. Max output is 2.5A divided between the two ports.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11329448
on sale now for only $14.99. Seems to be of good quality.

The Motorola rapid chargers rock.

Guys, unless you mod the usb adapter 5V spec, you aren't doing squat with a "high power" adapter. The device has an input impedence that will draw a certain amount of current at 5v., and that's it.
Standard battery: 1400 mAh
Time to charge: 4 hrs (according to manual)
That's 1400/4 = 350 mA.
Most adapters on the market spec more than that, they're usually 500 mA or above. And again, unless you boost the volts, you're not going to be able to push more than 350 mA or so.
So don't waste you're money.
On the other hand, if your going to share a car outlet with another device like mp3 or ipod, then yeah, you'll need a higher output, two port, adapter.
Edit: It just occurred to me that if you're using the phone heavily while charging, then yeah you may need more than 500 mA. My currrent widget shows the phone can draw another 250 mA or so during use. That plus the charge totals to around 600 mA. But depending upon design, the phone may not be able to pull in all 600 mA. A test with a current meter would be real interesting.

The charger shipped with the Thunderbolt is a 1 Amp charger.
If I use a 500 mA charger the Current Widget shows a +450mA charge current. However if I use the 1A charger, I get a charge current of about +850mA.
Given that the google navigation gobbles over 400mA when running, you need a car charger with greater than 500mA capacity of you want the phone to charge at the same time.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

boingboingbilly said:
The Motorola rapid chargers rock.
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Good to hear, I ordered one today for $11 on ebay. I had heard other people say they liked that one too.

Ecomaniac said:
Guys, unless you mod the usb adapter 5V spec, you aren't doing squat with a "high power" adapter. The device has an input impedence that will draw a certain amount of current at 5v., and that's it.
Standard battery: 1400 mAh
Time to charge: 4 hrs (according to manual)
That's 1400/4 = 350 mA.
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Click to collapse
You're making the incorrect assumptions that the charging rate is constant, and charging is 100% efficient. Li-ion batteries can be charged at up to a 1C rate (i.e. 1.4A for a 1400 mA cell). Add the power drawn by the phone itself, and a 1.8 Amp charger might not be unreasonable (1.8 A is the specified limit for micro USB connectors). Whether the phone will actually do a maximum rate charge, I don't know.
This, from a TI Application Note (Google for SLAA287, board won't let me post links):
A Li-Ion battery charging process consists of three stages:
· Slow Charge: Pre-charging stage using current of 0.1C
· Fast Charge: Constant current charging stage using current of 1C
· Constant voltage charging stage
During the slow charge stage, the battery is charged with a constant low charge current of 0.1C, if the battery voltage is below 2.5V. The slow charge stage is rarely used during the charging process of a Li-Ion battery.
The fast charge (constant current) and constant voltage charging are the most important stages during a recharge process. Most Li-Ion batteries have a fully charged voltage of 4.1 or 4.2V.
The battery is first charged with a constant current of 1C until a battery voltage reaches 4.1 or 4.2V. The firmware continuously checks the charging current by sensing the voltage at the current sense resistor (Rsense) and
adjusts the duty cycle of PWM output from the MCU. The battery's voltage is checked frequently.
Whenever found the battery's voltage reaches 4.1 or 4.2V, the charger will switch to constant voltage charging mode. The battery is then charged with a constant voltage source at a fixed battery voltage of 4.1 or 4.2 V...When the charging current falls below 0.1C, the charging process must stop.
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Monoprice has Cig to USB(1A) chargers and the USB to Micro cables in multiple lengths(I ordered 6' ones) for far cheaper than you will find anywhere else

mike.s said:
You're making the incorrect assumptions that the charging rate is constant, and charging is 100% efficient. Li-ion batteries can be charged at up to a 1C rate (i.e. 1.4A for a 1400 mA cell). Add the power drawn by the phone itself, and a 1.8 Amp charger might not be unreasonable (1.8 A is the specified limit for micro USB connectors). Whether the phone will actually do a maximum rate charge, I don't know.
This, from a TI Application Note (Google for SLAA287, board won't let me post links):
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Click to collapse
very useful, thanks!

walbuls said:
Monoprice has Cig to USB(1A) chargers and the USB to Micro cables in multiple lengths(I ordered 6' ones) for far cheaper than you will find anywhere else
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I second monoprice.

I tried bunch of cig to usb car charger and none matched advertised output... They all showed Charging (USB). I now use AC inverter and it charges just like a wall charger.

eccenpix said:
I tried bunch of cig to usb car charger and none matched advertised output... They all showed Charging (USB). I now use AC inverter and it charges just like a wall charger.
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I suspect you need to find one which properly follows the USB Battery Charging Specification. That link is to the most recent version, which came out on 7Dec2010 (remember Pearl Harbor!). Version 1.1 is easier - a Dedicated Charging Port is indicated by shorting together the data lines (the two middle conductors on a full sized USB connector. By doing so, it indicates the device may try to draw up to 1.8 A of current (although a dedicated charging port is allowed to limit the current to less than that, it must provide at least 1.5 A).
I bought a cheap USB hub with 5 ports, used an exacto knife to cut the traces going to the data lines (the middle two) on all the ports, and then shorted them together on each port. It's now no longer a USB hub, but a USB charger with 5 ports I can used to charge stuff (phone and Bluetooth, quite often). The AC adapter which it came with does 2 Amps. My Thunderbolt says "Charging (AC)" when plugged into it.
So, if you can open up one of your adapters, just solder a jumper between the middle two contacts (make sure they're not connected to anything else).

Just got the Rocketfish premium microUSB at Best Buy and it has a captive coiled cord and a USB port. TBolt says "AC plugged" and reads +670 mA.

Good choice on the Motorola Rapid Charge - I've burned through 3 other cheap car chargers trying to keep my phone alive while using Google Nav and this is the first one to work!

i have the rapid motorola one on amazon

lippstuh said:
i have the rapid motorola one on amazon
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+1 Works great! Battery widget usually shows about +800mA while only charging. Real close to the wall charger

[Q] Rapid Chargers - Not Really Rapid?

i bought that Motorola Rapid Car charger recent and have been using it about a week now. i've noticed that it doesn't seem to charge my Thunderbolt any faster then it did when i was using the Thunderbolt's USB cable with this USB car charger adapter.
so, my question is, why is it called "rapid" if it doesn't charge any faster?
and i suppose secondly, is there an actual microUSB charger that will charge the Thunderbolt faster?
they make one for the iphone that will fully charge it in 30 minutes so i know they are out there.

voxigenboy said:
i bought that Motorola Rapid Car charger recent and have been using it about a week now. i've noticed that it doesn't seem to charge my Thunderbolt any faster then it did when i was using the Thunderbolt's USB cable with this USB car charger adapter.
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Maybe you should try this one.

Install the battery monitor widget. Monitor the battery for about 20 minutes while charging. Tell us what the charge current is.
Does the Motorola charger include a cable? If not, you may just have a weak cable. I have seen cheap cables with wire so thin that the charging current is no better then charging off a weak USB port.

My experience has been that the phone typically recognizes car charges as USB charging and uses a different charging profile. My solution to that is use a wall charger through an inverter or a kernel that doesn't use radically different charging profiles for A/C and USB.

loonatik78 said:
My experience has been that the phone typically recognizes car charges as USB charging and uses a different charging profile. My solution to that is use a wall charger through an inverter or a kernel that doesn't use radically different charging profiles for A/C and USB.
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No need for that.
Cut a small piece of aluminum foil. Carefully place it where it shorts the two center conductors in the charger. Plug the USB cable into the charger. Make sure the foil stays in place over the two center conductors.
It is now a high rate charger. (assuming it can put out 1 amp.)

The limiting factor is typically the usb cable itself. Most usb cables can't support the 1amp that is provided to it. Since you used the original usb cable that came with the thunderbolt (that's been "shorted" as mentioned above" ) it will be just as fast as the moto car charger. the 1amp charging rate that the moto charger charges at (i have one) and that the original one charges at are already "rapid". if you plugged a normal usb cable from somewhere else into the other usb car charger, it'd be much much slower

squeakyl said:
The limiting factor is typically the usb cable itself. Most usb cables can't support the 1amp that is provided to it. Since you used the original usb cable that came with the thunderbolt (that's been "shorted" as mentioned above" ) it will be just as fast as the moto car charger. the 1amp charging rate that the moto charger charges at (i have one) and that the original one charges at are already "rapid". if you plugged a normal usb cable from somewhere else into the other usb car charger, it'd be much much slower
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The stock charger is what shorts the connections. The cable is NOT shorted on the two inner pins because they are the data connections used for connecting your phone to a computer.

doodlebro said:
The stock charger is what shorts the connections. The cable is NOT shorted on the two inner pins because they are the data connections used for connecting your phone to a computer.
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To meet the USB charging spec (which the TB uses), the two inner (data) contacts should be shorted with no more that 200 ohms.
But, the cable can also be an issue for rapid charging. The voltage drop for a 1A/5V source, across only .5 M of 28 gauge copper is ~220 mV. If you use a longer cable, there's more voltage drop. The TB likely current limits itself when the voltage drops below a certain threshold. Best to buy 24 gauge USB cables, if you can, especially if getting longer ones (monoprice has them).

voxigenboy said:
i bought that Motorola Rapid Car charger recent and have been using it about a week now. i've noticed that it doesn't seem to charge my Thunderbolt any faster then it did when i was using the Thunderbolt's USB cable with this USB car charger adapter.
so, my question is, why is it called "rapid" if it doesn't charge any faster?
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I think its a matter of rated output current. BUT on the other side, the phone must be capable of drawing/using that much current. If the adapter is rated for more current than the phone can charge, the "extra" current wont be supplied.
Initially, Moto's standard car chargers output 5V and up to 550ma max (just like a standard PC USB port) so they didn't charge phones all that fast. Moto then came out with chargers that had higher current output, so they were capable of charging the phones "faster" than the original car chargers (but on par with the home/travel/AC chargers) and called them "rapid car chargers"..
Today, the current output on the Moto SPN5400A car charger is 0-950mA, and I've seen it sometimes referred to as "Rapid Car charger."
But as far as I know, Moto no longer makes/sells the lower current car chargers, and their web site only shows one MicroUSB and one MiniUSB car charger for sale, both of which appear to be of the 0-950mA output variety.
voxigenboy said:
and i suppose secondly, is there an actual microUSB charger that will charge the Thunderbolt faster?
they make one for the iphone that will fully charge it in 30 minutes so i know they are out there.
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Just because someone makes such a charger for the iPhone, doesn't mean one must exist for the TB, or other phones, does it? I know the iPad uses a 2A charger. What happens if you connect an iPhone to that? will it charge faster? I guess that depends on if the iPhone is capable of drawing more than 1A to charge it.
I've not seen a "home" or AC charger that can charge the TB any faster than the Stock 1A charger. Does such a thing exist?
A proper car charger with 950mA to 1A output should charge the TB at almost exactly the same rate as the stock 1A wall/AC charger.
And btw, the Moto SPN5400A car charger DOES charge my TB in about the same amount of time that it takes me to charge my TB at home with the stock HTC charger. So while its not "rapid" compared to the stock home/travel/AC charger, its "rapid" compared to PC USB Port charging, or a plain lower current car charger.

KidJoe said:
I've not seen a "home" or AC charger that can charge the TB any faster than the Stock 1A charger. Does such a thing exist?
A proper car charger with 950mA to 1A output should charge the TB at almost exactly the same rate as the stock 1A wall/AC charger.
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I made a charger for my motorcycle. I use it as a GPS, screen on MAX, phone active with marginal signal. And I wanted to actually charge the battery at the same time. I did a lot of experimenting with the Thunderbolt. It would not exceed a pull of about 850ma from the supply, even at 5.5 volts. IMHO, you are wasting time looking for any charger over 1 amp.
Also, even with about 850ma in, not much over 500ma is getting to the battery. So a totally dead battery is still going to take between 2 and 3 hours to charge, no matter what charger you have. And twice that long if the charger looks like a PC USB port.

worwig said:
I made a charger for my motorcycle. I use it as a GPS, screen on MAX, phone active with marginal signal. And I wanted to actually charge the battery at the same time. I did a lot of experimenting with the Thunderbolt. It would not exceed a pull of about 850ma from the supply, even at 5.5 volts. IMHO, you are wasting time looking for any charger over 1 amp.
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I was asking because of the OP's statement about knowing "they must exist" because they are out there for the iPhone.
I'm perfectly happy with my Moto car charger, and how fast it charges my phones.

QI Charger in car. With data & GPS ?

No
Can a qi charger charge the nexus 5 when data and GPS is being used ?
Will it charge or will the battery drain?
Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013) KitKat 4.4.2

Power consumption during data and GPS use varies depending on what apps are used, signal strength ect... so there is no definite answer. In general, I notice slight battery drain when using navigation when on wireless charging. Google's nav app uses more power than the 500 mah the Qi charger provides but the drain is much slower than on battery alone..

rikudo said:
Power consumption during data and GPS use varies depending on what apps are used, signal strength ect... so there is no definite answer. In general, I notice slight battery drain when using navigation when on wireless charging. Google's nav app uses more power than the 500 mah the Qi charger provides but the drain is much slower than on battery alone..
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Sorry, but what Qi charger are you using that only provides 500mA?
Even my $15 generic ebay Qi charger gets 751mA.

mmmmBACON said:
Sorry, but what Qi charger are you using that only provides 500mA?
Even my $15 generic ebay Qi charger gets 751mA.
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500 mA was an estimate, individual results vary. Take into account wireless charging has an efficiency of 70-80%, so a charger with a 751mA output would effectively charge at 600-526mA. Add a phone case and/or imperfect alignment charging efficiency drops even lower. In real world use my 750 mA qi charger charges at about the same rate as a 500 mA USB port.

rikudo said:
500 mA was an estimate, individual results vary. Take into account wireless charging has an efficiency of 70-80%, so a charger with a 751mA output would effectively charge at 600-526mA. Add a phone case and/or imperfect alignment charging efficiency drops even lower. In real world use my 750 mA qi charger charges at about the same rate as a 500 mA USB port.
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Oh yeah, I took that into consideration already, which is why I gave such an exact number. I got 751mA from a 5V/1A output rated Qi charger.
I've done a bunch of tests of charge rates with stock, higher amp chargers, and my generic Qi charger.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48856141&postcount=18
As long as the Qi charger you buy is rated as 5V/1A output (which is almost all of them out there, including the official nexus wireless charger, tylt vu, etc.), you should get around the charge rate I mentioned if it's maxed out fully. So people buying the expensive Qi chargers, are not getting any speed improvement over the cheap one I bought. Might look a little nicer sure, but I'll gladly keep the $20 - $50 in my pocket instead. If you want to read my whole post, I linked it.
Here's just the data portion.
Stock 1.2A LG wall adapter: 1053mA
2A USB wall adapter: 1053mA
Built in USB input on power bar: 1053mA
USB 3.0 port (desktop computer): 446mA (surprised it was so low for a USB 3.0 charge port)
USB 2.0 port (desktop computer): 334mA
Generic Qi charger (2A input/1A output)/Built in USB input on power bar: 751mA
Generic Qi charger/Stock LG adapter: 751mA
Generic Qi charger/2A USB adapter: 751mA
Generic Qi charger/USB 3.0 port: 696mA (interesting compared to directly plugging into USB 3.0)
Generic Qi charger/USB 2.0 port: 502mA (low, but again higher than direct cable)
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That's why I was just wondering what Qi charger you had and why you were saying 500mA because that is less than half the charge rate of the stock wall charger.

mmmmBACON said:
Oh yeah, I took that into consideration already, which is why I gave such an exact number. I got 751mA from a 5V/1A output rated Qi charger.
I've done a bunch of tests of charge rates with stock, higher amp chargers, and my generic Qi charger.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48856141&postcount=18
As long as the Qi charger you buy is rated as 5V/1A output (which is almost all of them out there, including the official nexus wireless charger, tylt vu, etc.), you should get around the charge rate I mentioned if it's maxed out fully. So people buying the expensive Qi chargers, are not getting any speed improvement over the cheap one I bought. Might look a little nicer sure, but I'll gladly keep the $20 - $50 in my pocket instead. If you want to read my whole post, I linked it.
Here's just the data portion.
That's why I was just wondering what Qi charger you had and why you were saying 500mA because that is less than half the charge rate of the stock wall charger.
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This is strange, I used the "Current Widget" app as well. . I'm currently using an Anker Powerbank, it's a 6000 mAh battery with a built in Qi charger which shows an average 500 mA charge rate. I also have an official Nexus 5 Qi charger that also shows about 500 mA charge rate. When connected directly to the Nexus qi charger wall adaptor I get a 1560 mA charge rate. Thanks for your data, this makes me wonder how accurate "Current Widget" app actually is since our results differ so much.

rikudo said:
This is strange, I used the "Current Widget" app as well. . I'm currently using an Anker Powerbank, it's a 6000 mAh battery with a built in Qi charger which shows an average 500 mA charge rate. I also have an official Nexus 5 Qi charger that also shows about 500 mA charge rate. When connected directly to the Nexus qi charger wall adaptor I get a 1560 mA charge rate. Thanks for your data, this makes me wonder how accurate "Current Widget" app actually is since our results differ so much.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I used CurrentWidget as well, it's a pretty close estimate, but it won't be 100% accurate. I just didn't want to tear things apart and use a multimeter to take readings. Make sure your CurrentWidget update interval is set to 1 so it gives you live updates. Then you just have to give it a few minutes to stabilize (it will always fluctuate though) and watch for the consistent highest reading over a period of 5 to 10 minutes to be as accurate as you can. For my readings, 751mA kept popping up over and over again but never higher, so it was reasonable to say that was the max my Qi charger was capable as long as it was receiving ample power itself.
The charge rate will also vary depending on where in the battery charge cycle you are recording. At the beginning and end of the charge cycle, it will not charge at full speed and will slow down the charge. This is to protect the phone and the battery. For best range of recording, try to take your readings when your battery is charging around the 25 - 65% full mark, that way you can be pretty confident that your phone/battery is allowing the charger to charge at full speed.
What is your Anker Powerbank output rated as?
Also, was that 1560mA a consistent reading, or just a spike?

Most likely it'll go down if the screen is on, if the screen is off, it may stay or go up extremely slow.

Thanks for the replies.
If the charge will go down when screen, data and GPS are on.. Then it's not really a suitable for a sat naval replacement.
Looks like I'll need to go with a cable.
Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013) KitKat 4.4.2

Look at those car cable mods, they'll meet your needs and will give you an idea on how to hide the cables
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

The qi chargers I tried in the car slowly drain the battery with navigation and streaming music. Do I went back to the cord in the car.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2

Don't forget with GPS and other things on your temperature will go pretty high and could reach 45C where wireless charging practically turns off and your charger will only try and maintain the current battery percent. At least this happens to me monitoring it using battery widget.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I haven't gone so far as to install current widget, out even better battery stats, but I have taken some long trips with navigation and music streaming, screen on the whole time, and with the cheap Chinese 'c1' car mount, I always arrive with more charge than I left with. Maybe this is because I live in a cold climate, and the charger does not stop because of excessive heat.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

mmmmBACON said:
Yeah, I used CurrentWidget as well, it's a pretty close estimate, but it won't be 100% accurate. I just didn't want to tear things apart and use a multimeter to take readings. Make sure your CurrentWidget update interval is set to 1 so it gives you live updates. Then you just have to give it a few minutes to stabilize (it will always fluctuate though) and watch for the consistent highest reading over a period of 5 to 10 minutes to be as accurate as you can. For my readings, 751mA kept popping up over and over again but never higher, so it was reasonable to say that was the max my Qi charger was capable as long as it was receiving ample power itself.
The charge rate will also vary depending on where in the battery charge cycle you are recording. At the beginning and end of the charge cycle, it will not charge at full speed and will slow down the charge. This is to protect the phone and the battery. For best range of recording, try to take your readings when your battery is charging around the 25 - 65% full mark, that way you can be pretty confident that your phone/battery is allowing the charger to charge at full speed.
What is your Anker Powerbank output rated as?
Also, was that 1560mA a consistent reading, or just a spike?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Powerbank Qi output is rated at 500 mA. The 1.8A wall adaptor gives a fairly consistent reading above 1500 mA.
I set faster update interval and found the following averages. (Battery @ 50%)
Nexus Qi 1.8A wall adapter: 1500-1605 mA
Nexus 5 stock wall adapter: 900-1000 mA
Nexus Qi charger plate: 450-740 mA
Qi Powerbank 500 mA: 300-476 mA
PC 2A USB port: 550-750 mA
It seems the Current Widget rates the summarized magnitude of draw from the battery. For example having the screen on and higher brightness will subtract from the measured charge. To negate this I placed the phone in airplane mode, screen off and set sampling to 5 s. Then after 10 s turned the phone on to view the last sample taken with the screen off.
Looks like you were right, a 750 mA rated charger factors in transmission losses. The Official Nexus Qi plate puts out 750 mA max. The Powerbank puts out 500 mA as labeled. The 1.8A wall adapter was surprising though. Anand's article stated the max charge rate was 1.2A but the 1.8A adapter clearly exceeds this rate.

rikudo said:
The Powerbank Qi output is rated at 500 mA. The 1.8A wall adaptor gives a fairly consistent reading above 1500 mA.
I set faster update interval and found the following averages. (Battery @ 50%)
Nexus Qi 1.8A wall adapter: 1500-1605 mA
Nexus 5 stock wall adapter: 900-1000 mA
Nexus Qi charger plate: 450-740 mA
Qi Powerbank 500 mA: 300-476 mA
PC 2A USB port: 550-750 mA
It seems the Current Widget rates the summarized magnitude of draw from the battery. For example having the screen on and higher brightness will subtract from the measured charge. To negate this I placed the phone in airplane mode, screen off and set sampling to 5 s. Then after 10 s turned the phone on to view the last sample taken with the screen off.
Looks like you were right, a 750 mA rated charger factors in transmission losses. The Official Nexus Qi plate puts out 750 mA max. The Powerbank puts out 500 mA as labeled. The 1.8A wall adapter was surprising though. Anand's article stated the max charge rate was 1.2A but the 1.8A adapter clearly exceeds this rate.
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That is interesting. My finding mirrored that of Anandtech. I used both the 1.2A stock adapter, and a 2A adapter and I was not able to increase my charging speed at all. It stayed at 1053.
Can you check the plug to see the voltage of the Nexus 5 Qi adapter. Is it 5V?

How fast is Qi charging?

I received the Nillkin Magic Disk charger I ordered a few days ago.
It's the first wireless charger I have owned or tried. I have the disk connected to what is supposed to be a 5V / 2A adapter.
It took 7 hours to fully charge my Nexus 5 from 6% with the Magic Disk. This seems like way to long to me and if it's normal, this severely limits the usefulness of wireless charging. Neither the charger nor the phone seemed to get warm at all during charging
How fast is wireless charging supposed to be? Does this vary between different types of Qi chargers?

Felchy said:
I received the Nillkin Magic Disk charger I ordered a few days ago.
It's the first wireless charger I have owned or tried. I have the disk connected to what is supposed to be a 5V / 2A adapter.
It took 7 hours to fully charge my Nexus 5 from 6% with the Magic Disk. This seems like way to long to me and if it's normal, this severely limits the usefulness of wireless charging. Neither the charger nor the phone seemed to get warm at all during charging
How fast is wireless charging supposed to be? Does this vary between different types of Qi chargers?
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Should be much faster than that, about half an hour longer than stock wired charging with the Nexus 5 adapter/cable.
~2.5 to a little over 3 hours depending on the charger.
If you are using a decent 2A adapter with your charger, it may be your USB cable. Some cables out there are quite crap and despite using a high amp adapter will keep the settings as USB (as if you're plugged into a computer port) and charge at around 500mA max if you're lucky.
In your case, the USB cable may be doing that, and severely underpowering your Qi charger, which will end up charging your phone at like 300 - 350mA. Stock wired by the way charges at ~1050mA by comparison. This could explain why your charge times are over 3x as long.
If you have your stock USB cable that came with your Nexus 5, try testing it with that to see if there is an improvement.

Mine charges at 600mA.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

bradputt said:
Mine charges at 600mA.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
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My Nexus 5 charges at roughly 1000mA with its wall charger. So I guess wireless will be 40% less efficient...

hOrnizuka said:
My Nexus 5 charges at roughly 1000mA with its wall charger. So I guess wireless will be 40% less efficient...
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Click to collapse
Depends on the Qi charger and its output. Efficiency is generally around 70 - 75%.
I have a few 1A Qi chargers, and they charge at roughly 740 - 760mA when charging at full speed.

Slow QI charging

Ordered a QI charger off Amazon (the same Lerway Chinese brand one everyone seems to get) and it's charging incredibly slow. Not sure if the app I'm using to record the charge rate is incorrect or I'm not reading it correctly but it says it's charging at only +200mA max sometimes as slow as <50mA.
Anyone else experience this?

skusa93 said:
Ordered a QI charger off Amazon (the same Lerway Chinese brand one everyone seems to get) and it's charging incredibly slow. Not sure if the app I'm using to record the charge rate is incorrect or I'm not reading it correctly but it says it's charging at only +200mA max sometimes as slow as <50mA.
Anyone else experience this?
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What kind of power source you use to power the charger and what kind of cable do you use?
If you connect the charger to computer USB port it will not provide enough power for the charger. Same with cheap cables, like the ones mostly included with the generic QI chargers. You need a premium USB cable.
Also if you have a thick case on your phone it will diminish the charging current received by a coil in your phone.
Firstly check how much power and what current your charger gets, so instead of plugging the QI charger, plug your phone and check what amperage you get (I use Current Widget). If it's less then 1600mA (maximum amperage that N5 will allow from direct charging through cable) your charger is underpowered and you need to change socket charger to 2A one. If you're using 2A socket charger and still get under 1600mA then your micro USB cable isn't good enough.
Properly and fully powered Qi charger should charge your bare phone (without a case) at about 700-800mA.

Znamir81 said:
What kind of power source you use to power the charger and what kind of cable do you use?
If you connect the charger to computer USB port it will not provide enough power for the charger. Same with cheap cables, like the ones mostly included with the generic QI chargers. You need a premium USB cable.
Also if you have a thick case on your phone it will diminish the charging current received by a coil in your phone.
Firstly check how much power and what current your charger gets, so instead of plugging the QI charger, plug your phone and check what amperage you get (I use Current Widget). If it's less then 1600mA (maximum amperage that N5 will allow from direct charging through cable) your charger is underpowered and you need to change socket charger to 2A one. If you're using 2A socket charger and still get under 1600mA then your micro USB cable isn't good enough.
Properly and fully powered Qi charger should charge your bare phone (without a case) at about 700-800mA.
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Thanks for the info I thought I was going crazy.
No case so that isn't an issue.
I have the phone connected direct to a 3A charger currently and am only getting 995mA charge rate with the screen on and it looks like full 1.5A with the screen off. Maybe a defective QI charger?

Nope. Everything is normal. You just need a better cable that will manage to transfer 2A of current.
QI charger needs 2A input to give 1A output on a coil. Giving about 70-80% efficiency rate, your phone would be getting about 700-800mA.
Since your charger gets only about 1A input it gives about 500mA output. Therefore giving that efficiency rate, your phone should be getting about 350-400mA tops. It is possible that your charger has lower efficiency rate (some have about 50-60%), so the values that you're getting are pretty normal unless you use a premium micro usb cable, preferably with thicker, like AWG24 or lower (the lower value the better) power wires.

Might want to try these cables, a lot of people have had great luck with using them on Qi chargers. Don't know which length you would need, they have 3 and 6 foot cables. For the price, I'm ordering 6 6ft cables.
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030307&p_id=9762&seq=1&format=2