Nexus 5X, sometimes it fast charge, sometimes not, why? - Nexus 5X Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi all,
If I use the standard charger it always fast charge my phone.
If I use one of my two Anker Powercore+ 10050 quick charge 3 I have strange behaviours.
Sometimes the phone says charging and sometimes it says fast charging.
I don't understand why. It is not something related to the current charge of the battery.
Do you have some info in this regard?
Thanks

No one can help here ?

It also happens to me. I found out that high quality usb type-c cables will always fast charge, provided you use a fast charger. Medium or poor quality cables will fast charge only occasionally.

I have high quality cables at home and no one charges this thing correctly.

I NEVER was able to get a steady fast charge with a third-part charger.
I tried a Raw Power with high quality cables, and, even if the charge is flagged as "quick", the "Current Monitor" app shows me that it goes never past 1500mA, while the original charger can get double that amount.
I guess the Nexus 5x is just REALLY picky with third part chargers and cables

I would go as far as to say that even the original charger only delivers >2 amps of charging under 20-30% charge. After that it bumps down to 1.8 amps. over 70-80% it goes down to 1.2-1.5 amps. Over 90% it drops below 1 amp while still saying it's "fast charging".
Get an app like ampere and monitor the charging proces. If it keeps above 1,5 amps up till 80% charge you're not missing out on much charging time as compared to the original charger. Don't be fooled by the phone saying it's not fast charging.

Related

[Q] How can I determine the amperage my phone is charging at?

I just bought a generic USB wall charger and it's taking much longer to charge than the htc charger that came with my EVO.
I'd like to determine the amps/ma the charger is actually putting out. I don't have a multi-meter, so I am hoping there is a hidden menu or app which will tell me what the phone sees.
Any suggestions?
You can download aLogcat and watch for the current usage, it should post it every so often. It should also say on the charger somewhere too, the stock wall charger is 1000mA
I tried this and found nothing showing charge rate, only the battery percent.
A standard usb wall charger should equal how long it takes to charge if you were plugged into you pc. If it is taking longer than that then you got a super el cheapo charger that puts out less than 500ma (milliamps).
I would be carefull too, cheap usb wall chargers are not know to output clean power and have killed devices. By overvolting/charging them.
I have been doing some testing lately with the htc charger and a pc and have come to the conclusion that the htc wall charger pushing 1 amp (1000ma) charges the battery too fast and doesnt allow for a "strong" charge. Meaning your battery will drain faster. The htc charger is, i believe not meant to be your everyday charger, only a boost charger to get you charged back up quickly.
This is common battery knowledge when it comes to charging... you can charge a battery too fast, and a slower; 500ma "trickle charge" is much cleaner and better for your battery.
Some maybe argue this, and thats ok, these are just my personal findings.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I'm not seeing that info in the log either.
The charger had a weird range of 250-1000ma.
Yeah I think I'll invest in a better charger just to be safe.
Thank you both for your replies.

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

Highest Charging Current for One X

Hi all:
I just did a test on the maximum charging current of the One X using current measurement equipment, and it shows that the One X does not draw above 460mA of current while charging.
With this value, i suspect that the One X limits max charging current at 500mA, which means 3 things:
1) Using any previous generation USB charger (750mA or 850mA or 1A) is good enough. Attempting to use the iPad's charger (rated at 2A) WILL NOT get you faster charging time.
2) When using battery draining applications, the charging current may not be enough for you to both CHARGE and USE the Phone. Thus it might be a better idea to give your One X some dedicated charging time.
3) Some computer USB ports may specify 500mA of output current, but there are many times the available current is less than that. On my USB port, the charging current is only about 300mA at times. So it is better to use a dedicated charger if you have it available. Having that said, however, it is still ok to charge the One X with a USB port at 300mA, just that charging will take longer.
That's all I have to report. Useful information for all.
limestone said:
Useful information for all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Useful indeed. Thanks
Sent from my HTC Vivid using XDA app
I've had mine charge at 780mAh+ before. 1amp HTC charger. Charge rate slows down at the last 20-30% or so. So from 70%-100% battery, charge rates normally slow to about 450mAh.
limestone said:
Hi all:
1) Using any previous generation USB charger (750mA or 850mA or 1A) is good enough. Attempting to use the iPad's charger (rated at 2A) WILL NOT get you faster charging time.
Useful information for all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks a lot, i can confirm the statement above because my stock charger is broken and i'm using the ipad's one.
bye
i tried to use the charger for htc chacha and hd2..
both does not work.. red light will light up but after a while it will go off and the phone does not charge..
Charging my HOX while the phones working hard eventually (after say, 5 mins), causes the charge LED to flash green/red. I've had this twice now, once while playing a 720P HD film, and once when playing Glowball.
Both times the phone was very hot, so i'm not sure if the LED thing was to indicate that the battery was too hot to charge, or that the charger could not supply enough power to charge and power the phone at the same time.
fi3ry_icy said:
i tried to use the charger for htc chacha and hd2..
both does not work.. red light will light up but after a while it will go off and the phone does not charge..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using my HD2 charger at work every day. It charges at about 400/500mA.
Original charger gives me 650/750mA (lowers at the end)
chaps said:
Charging my HOX while the phones working hard eventually (after say, 5 mins), causes the charge LED to flash green/red. I've had this twice now, once while playing a 720P HD film, and once when playing Glowball.
Both times the phone was very hot, so i'm not sure if the LED thing was to indicate that the battery was too hot to charge, or that the charger could not supply enough power to charge and power the phone at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the charger cannot cope with the discharge from the game, a pop up message actually appears. If it's blinking means it's too hot. Try not to do anything intensive the last 20-30% remaining (meaning at 70-100% battery).
Nice info thanks
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
fi3ry_icy said:
i tried to use the charger for htc chacha and hd2..
both does not work.. red light will light up but after a while it will go off and the phone does not charge..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here... I am using the Atrix 4G (US) charger, it does not charge the phone. The charger gives output of 850mA. It does charge when plugged into the laptop, but I think it will take very long that way.
*edit for posterity*
after a while (I did it when battery had charged to 20%), I could connect the Moto US charger, and it would show as "AC". It would not want to charge through it when the battery was really low (2%), but it would charge via USB in that case. Weird behavior, IMO.
USB limited to 500. AC limited to 1A.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
If you want maximum speed of charging (AC charging) you need:
1A charger with shorted D+ and D- pins (eg, original HTC charger).
iPad charger probably doesn't have these pins shorted, so in this case phone will see it as USB charging (you can check it in settings->battery) and will limit charging current to 500mA. Also lot of aftermarket car chargers will work only in USB mode despite they are able to supply 1A.
Here you can find some info on USB Charging Ports (shorted D+- pins):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Charging_ports_and_accessory_charging_adapters
When charger is "USB", it will not draw more than 500mA from the charger, and usually it will not charge at all (because the current draw with screen on is higher than 500mA).
When charger is AC, it seems to draw 1000mA - but this is still too low to charge while phone is doing anything, as it will draw 700mA and charge ~250mA top.
I hope this can be tuned in kernel, because it sucks, I also hope that power source can be AC (and not battery - look in dmesg when charger is connected), because battery gets too hot when under load...
colin_ktp said:
If you want maximum speed of charging (AC charging) you need:
1A charger with shorted D+ and D- pins (eg, original HTC charger).
iPad charger probably doesn't have these pins shorted, so in this case phone will see it as USB charging (you can check it in settings->battery) and will limit charging current to 500mA. Also lot of aftermarket car chargers will work only in USB mode despite they are able to supply 1A.
Here you can find some info on USB Charging Ports (shorted D+- pins):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Charging_ports_and_accessory_charging_adapters
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you post a potential list of car charger which are working at 1mA according to you?
I've only tested few devices:
Extrememac external battery for iPhone/iPad (max 2A) had pins not shorted - USB charging mode on One X (500mA).
Some cheap car adapters - max 1A (according to spec) - USB charging mode on One X.
To fox this problem you should prepare a USB extension cable or micro-usb cable with shorted D+ and D- pins and it should be recognized as AC adapter. I think that also some old HTC phone chargers might come with shorted pins in cable already, but don't know which...
What about the official HTC car charger?
MickyMax said:
What about the official HTC car charger?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that one will charge at the full rate.
There is no list of known good chargers - it's down to luck or a recommendation from someone who found one. You can be sure that any charger advertised as "iPhone, iPad or iPod" compatible will NOT charge your One X at the full rate.
I found one recently in a local petrol station shop. It was £5. I took it apart to have a look and the D+ and D- pins are correctly connected together (via a low value resistor) so it charges at the full rate.
So, I might suggest you look for the cheapest Chinese car charger you can.
USB charging not OK inside a car
zvieratko said:
When charger is "USB", it will not draw more than 500mA from the charger, and usually it will not charge at all (because the current draw with screen on is higher than 500mA).
When charger is AC, it seems to draw 1000mA - but this is still too low to charge while phone is doing anything, as it will draw 700mA and charge ~250mA top.
I hope this can be tuned in kernel, because it sucks, I also hope that power source can be AC (and not battery - look in dmesg when charger is connected), because battery gets too hot when under load...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bingo. I also noticed that when I have the screen on at 100% brightness, GPS and Bluetooth on, i.e. in the car, the USB charger cannot even keep up with the battery drain.
On top of that, the battery gets really hot.
I did not have any of these issues with my SGS2, and frankly, I think it's very disappointing. One should at least be able to stay on the same battery level while doing nothing too fancy and on USB inside a car.
A380 said:
Bingo. I also noticed that when I have the screen on at 100% brightness, GPS and Bluetooth on, i.e. in the car, the USB charger cannot even keep up with the battery drain.
On top of that, the battery gets really hot.
I did not have any of these issues with my SGS2, and frankly, I think it's very disappointing. One should at least be able to stay on the same battery level while doing nothing too fancy and on USB inside a car.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a lot of factors in the charging current. When you charge, the battery will heat up during the process, especially towards the end of the charging cycle. If you are using your phone at the same time and cause even more heat and charging may slow down to prevent overheating. Also, as mentioned prior, charging slows down as capacity is reached. 100% brightness, GPS, and Bluetooth all on has always walked the fine line of just barely keeping up on my past phones on a 500 mA USB charger. On top of that, this phone is a lot more powerful than an SGS2 and the T3 and big screen produce more heat which may be slowing your charging more.
The problem is a lot of cheap chargers that the phone thinks are USB chargers, not AC chargers, thus causing them to only charge at 500 mA. If you have a proper charger, or a properly modified charger, you should get more like 1A, assuming conditions are right.
In the past I've used Battery Monitor Widget from the Play store to show my charging current on a widget, as well as track and graph battery use, charging current, temperature, etc. Might want to give it a try if you're more interested in charging details.
Im using my htc desire charger and cable (the one that splits in two). It works fine for me but it does take a while to get a full charge. Should i use the charger and cable that came with the phone?

[Solved] Car charger suggestions

Until now, I be been using whatever cheap 1A car chargers I found on eBay. They show up as AC on the phone, and charge acceptably fast, definitely better than USB, but worse than the original AC charger.
With GPS usage (sygic, 3d acceleration, full backlight, GPS, speaker, and mild CPU usage) the battery actually drains while charging. Starting a 4 hour trip with 100% charge resulted in 40% of battery, even if it was charging on the whole duration of the trip.
So, this summer I'm going to do some bigger road trips. I need a car charger that gives enough power to charge while doing the GPS usage described above. I suppose I'm going to need a charger that gives close to actual 2A, not only in theory. Any suggestions?
kourampies said:
Until now, I be been using whatever cheap 1A car chargers I found on eBay. They show up as AC on the phone, and charge acceptably fast, definitely better than USB, but worse than the original AC charger.
With GPS usage (sygic, 3d acceleration, full backlight, GPS, speaker, and mild CPU usage) the battery actually drains while charging. Starting a 4 hour trip with 100% charge resulted in 40% of battery, even if it was charging on the whole duration of the trip.
So, this summer I'm going to do some bigger road trips. I need a car charger that gives enough power to charge while doing the GPS usage described above. I suppose I'm going to need a charger that gives close to actual 2A, not only in theory. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is due to the fact that your phone only requests 500mA from the car charger (while your phone uses more)
are you using a custom kernel?
I use ElementalX, which has the option to enable fastcharge, which boosts it to 900mA (enough to charge with everything on)
Zorkman said:
that is due to the fact that your phone only requests 500mA from the car charger (while your phone uses more)
are you using a custom kernel?
I use ElementalX, which has the option to enable fastcharge, which boosts it to 900mA (enough to charge with everything on)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any downside to enabling fast charge. No sure if there isn't why every kernel doesn't enable it by default.
fitz420 said:
Is there any downside to enabling fast charge. No sure if there isn't why every kernel doesn't enable it by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because in theory USB ports of e.g. laptops only give 500mA. I've used it on a lot of car chargers, USB hubs, desktops and laptops and never had any problem.
Even if something were to break, it will be your car charger, because your phone can handle a lot more than 900mA, and if your car charger is rated for 1A that will suffice.
Actually the N5 stock has Fast charging enabled. The problems usually are most commonly from poor USB cables and sometimes bad chargers that don't output what they say. If you are dropping battery charge that quickly from a 1A charger most likely you have a problem with one of the 2 I mentioned above. DL CurrentWidget from the play store. Set the Update Interval to 1 sec and then plug in the charger. IF it is a 1A charger you should get just under 1A maybe about 900mA or so. Since you are losing battery life while charging and using the above things you mentioned I would imagine that it is getting about 500mA or less.
Try the test with your OEM cable from the N5 since it is more likely to be better at handling the higher current charge rate. That way you can figure if it is the cable or the charger itself.
Here are ones that MmmmmBacon suggested in his Cheap Charger thread. I am probably going to grab one myself.
http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Dual...=1399909516&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+car+charger
http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Dual-P...=1399909109&sr=8-2&keywords=anker+car+charger
I use this and it's brilliant and actually charges the battery while using navigation -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=436834887&pf_rd_i=468294
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Ohgami_Ichiro said:
http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Dual-P...=1399909109&sr=8-2&keywords=anker+car+charger
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Highly recommend this. It can charge two N5s at full speed with no issue.
Sorry for the late reply... I didnt have time to even read the replies till now.
I never believed that a cable could make that much of a difference, but testing right now with the original LG AC charger and misc USB cables the difference is immence. Best performance I managed to get was from the included cable of my Anker powerbank. its around 980-1010mAh constantly, vs the 400-600 most cables do.
I will test in the car ASAP.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/301013129424
http://www.scosche.com/chargers/ipad-usb-car-charger-two-port
My combo for the most compact charging solution. Same speed as the stock charger.
http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Du...er+car+charger
That is one of the best car chargers I've found, I use to charge my Nexus 5 when I'm on the go.
This Anker charger solved it.
It gives a steady 1000mA that is enough to charge and use GPS.
I have to give a huge thumbs up to Anker, because together with the car charger i also bought the Astroslim 3 6000mAh powerbank, which charges two devices the same time, at a steady 1500mA each!!! I loved bothe the car charger and the powerbank, definitely worth their money.

Any indication that Quick Charge 2.0 is active?

Is there any kind of indication on the phone that Qualcomm quick charge 2. 0 is active when it is connected to a certified charger?
I bought both in AC and DC certified charger. both were very highly rated on Amazon. The AC charger for example is made by Anker.
The app Ampere reports a low milliamp rating of around 250mA when I am using either of these two chargers.
When I connect two different chargers that are not quick charge 2.0 certified then Ampere reports a charging current of upwards of 1800mA.
I suppose the issue could be Ampere, that it doesn't know how to measure when the quick charge technology is present. Does anyone have any direct experience with this to know what the issue is?
When I use my 2.0 Charger I can go from dead to full in about an hour. So yeah i'd say it's active!
Even with a QC 2 charger, you won't see high charge rates unless the battery is low. All chargers will slow down as the battery charges. That's just how they work. I have also seen cables make a difference. I have some right and left angle cables from Star tech that will only charge at one amp. Samsung and HTC OEM cables will allow charge rates above one amp. Finally, most programs display the charge rate after subtracting the power that the phone is actively using.
Ex, your charger is 1.5 amp, the phone is awake and playing a game taking 800 milliamps, at full power you phone can only charge at 700 milliamps as that is the charger's maximum output.
Deleted, issue sorted.
The charger supplied with phone is not quick charge compatible.
(At least in UK )
HTC do sell a quick charge 2.0 compatible charger as an accessory.
Sent from my HTC One M9 using XDA Free mobile app

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