Database Users

will a Razr wall charger work with a wizard?

They have the same connection dont they? What about current, amperage and all that good stuff?

We can deduce from the fact that they both can charge on your pc USB slot that their individual chargers are of same polarity and COULD be interchangeable. A quick check on my collection of chargers that charge also on USB is: K-Jam 5v 1.0 amp max, Atom 5v 1.0amp max, Jabra 800 6v 205mAmp 8) Check with your razr charger and interchange the chargers at your own risk :lol:
Victor

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Don't do it, I had somebody who had been charging there Compact with a razr car charger and now it won't charge at all. There appears to be some difference somewhere. Don't even risk it.

It wasn't the fact that the car charger was for a RAZR, the problem was, it was probably a generic charger. I fried a brand new iPAQ with a car charger I bought on eBay. I learned my lesson...
The *OFFICIAL* Motorola RAZR charger is rated less than the Wizard. Both the RAZR and the Wizard can charge via the USB. Both have the same pin outs. If the RAZR charger were rated higher than the Wizard, you should be concerned.
I've been using a RAZR charger since I got my K-Jam in (when was the very first shipment?) and it charges fine every time.
The ratings on my Motorola V3 charger:
Input: 100v-240v ~ 50/60Hz 0.2A
Output: 5.0V - 550mA
If someone can explain how why the RAZR charger is bad on the Wizard, I'd love to know why.
In fact, Nokia sells two different chargers. On some phones, they come with a standard charger. But you can buy a "fast" charger for the phone and the only difference is a higher AMP rating. I used to work for Cingular and have seen personally the same phone ship with both chargers...
-Mc

for grins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus
Power supply
The USB connector provides a single nominally 5 volt wire from which connected USB devices may power themselves. In practice, delivered voltage can drop well below 5 V, to only slightly above 4 V. The compliance spec requires no more than 5.25 V anywhere and no less than 4.375 V at the worst case; a low-power function after a bus-powered hub. In typical situations the voltage is close to 5 V.
A given segment of the bus is specified to deliver up to 500 mA. This is often enough to power several devices, although this budget must be shared among all devices downstream of an unpowered hub. A bus-powered device may use as much of that power as allowed by the port it is plugged into.
Bus-powered hubs can continue to distribute the bus provided power to connected devices but the USB specification only allows for a single level of bus-powered devices from a bus-powered hub. This disallows connection of a bus-powered hub to another bus-powered hub. Many hubs include external power supplies which will power devices connected through them without taking power from the bus. Devices that need more than 500 mA must provide their own power.
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The max that the USB port can put out is 500mA. The V3 charger is between the USB port and the official HTC charger.
USB: 500mA
RAZR Charger: 550mA
HTC: 1A
Don't buy a generic charger. Buy a name brand charger...
Also, for more details about the USB pinouts than one man can digest in one sitting, read that entire Wikipedia article. I did... wish I hadn't.
-Mc

the same discussion is going on over at hofo or ppcdubai, forgot which one, but thers several posts with "I know someone that...." or "my friend did..." and devices ended up being fried. well i'm telling you from first hand experience. about a year ago I bought a belkin razr car charger from walmart and i've been using it on my jam and now my k-jam and my battery and device aren't damaged. I don't know the rating on it but I suggest u check the rating of anything before u plug your device into it.
also that car charger didn't charge my sp3i, just to let ya'll know.

That discussion at HOFO was a question that *I* originally asked back in December. I just posted the same information over there about 5 mins ago.
Buying chargers for 4.99 on eBay will kill your device every time. I learned the hard way. If you buy a name brand product, your fine.
Specs says it's OK. Experience with a name brand charger (your belkin and my Motorola) says it's OK.
But like I said above, if someone can point out a hole in my logic, please tell me. I've been wrong before but I don't think I am on this one.
-Mc

Works for me...
Motorola branded AC charger, rated for 550mA current
Generic car charger for mini-USB, made in China eBay, no specs.
Both work fine with my Razr V3 and my Qtek 9100. Bit of a risk to use the car charger, but it's worked well with the Razr. Agree completely with McHale, your logic works fine. If your AC converter and DC power source are up to USB spec, you should in theory be able to charge both devices.
The unknowns are the custom circuitry the cheap converters use to "prevent" overcharging. Some have simple diode rectifiers, some have weak op amp current sinks, etc. Basically, some of these overcharge circuits don't work at all and you get a fried device. You get what you pay for, usually.

Hi
I have 2 phones - an O2 XDA Mini S (a K-Jam) and a Motorola Razr V3. I use the Motorola chargers, both wall charger and car charger, every day for both phones and have done so, without problems for months.
Shaun

nope, doesn't work. Simple as that.
I have both, I tried - used one at the office, the other (razr) bedside. The charge light comes on, then goes out in five seconds.
Every once in a while, it actually would charge... finally gave up and got rid of the razr charger.

Hi
It definitely works for me - I have actually never used the O2 charger; I use the Motorola wall charger at the weekends and the Motorola Blue Car charger every morning.
That is the only way I charge my O2 XDA Mini S - so it obviously works in my case!!
Regards
Shaun

I have been using my Razr charger (car and home) since I got my KJam a few months ago. I had a surge and my official charger was fried in a surge.
The only problem I have had was when I completely drained my battery (GPS software that prevented power down) I was not able to bring my KJam back to life with the RAZR or USB charger.
I connected my KJam to a friends official charger for a couple of minutes and it was fine.
I bought a new charger from Expansys, but I still use my RAZR chargers as well.

I don't understand the reasoning, but you can not charge the phone via the USB unless it is on. Since the RAZR charger is basically the exact same specs as a USB port, same rule applies.
If the battery is dead, there's no way to turn it on for it to work.
At least that's my uneducated guess.
But like I said, I've been using the RAZR charger since the end of December and have never had a single discharge or any other problems.
-Mc

Not charging when connected with PC

I recently bought new tab, it is getting charged normally when plugged in power socket. But when i plug it in laptop USB port or any PC port, it would not charge instead I can transfer data etc. I am using the original USB cable which came in box. Does any one has faced same issue?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

charging
Samsung have engineered it so you have to even use their mains charger. Car chargers and wall chargers have to be Samsung tab brand. Not sure but there is talk of AVUSB charge cable being released. Pretty sure this has already been covered.

Turn off the screen and wifi and data network and it will charge very slowly over usb.
Sent from my SGH-T849 using XDA App

The fact of the matter is the tablet requires more/not the right amount of power that your USB port can deliver.
We always here all these theories about why.. but here is the simple and only reason why.
To keep the techinical stuff short and simple, Li-Poly and other batteries have a predetermined lifetime and one of the determining factors to how long they last is the rate of charge (charge rate) time and the exact amount of mHa capacity of the battery.
This is NOT a Samsung marketing scheme as it is exactly the same reason the iPad cannot be charged through USB.
I'll give you a quick example:
If you buy rechargable batteries, Ni-Mh that state they can be charged at 2500mHa (capacity/rate) and you charge them on a 15 minute charger that delivers the right amount of power (1.2 volts) and not the correct rate (lets say they are rated for 2500 and you use a charger thats rated for more) this causes the battery life to be deminished drasitcally.
If you charge the same 2500mha batteries with a lower rating charger, they will take a lot longer to charge completely since it is at a slow mHa, but also this slower charging will provide a longer battery life.
Therefore their charger (and this is the reason why you must use their charger or any charger with the same mHa rating) is made to provide the optimal amount of charge rate (mHa) giving you the best battery life vs charge time.
In conclusion the Tabs hardware will limit the rate of charge through USB in order to:
a) Not overload the power on your USB, given that all this varies according to each system configuration (although it should not! but reality is.. it does)
and
b) In order to not improperly charge your tab, reducing your battery life.
I know the technical parts are vaguely/poorly explained but I work with Li-Po and other types so this is the simplest way to explain all this without causing too much confusion.
Hope this made sense
Cheers

tj1984 said:
Samsung have engineered it so you have to even use their mains charger. Car chargers and wall chargers have to be Samsung tab brand. Not sure but there is talk of AVUSB charge cable being released. Pretty sure this has already been covered.
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Not true.
Samsung is using standard chargers that are wired to identify themselves as high current chargers. A non Samsung charger / external battery will likely have the same wiring because this wiring is part of the usb-specification.
The Tab will even charge from your usb-port but only slowly and if you turn off the screen since usb-ports only have 500mA (the charger has 2A).
So all the Tab does is check for this high-power-wiring. If it detects it it shows you the charge-icon, if it doesn't it assumes a usb-connection to your computer and does not pretend to charge (even if it does).

Interesting! So then a generic car cig lighter accessory with a standard USB port on it should charge it as a high output conection, right?

I am able to charge my Tab using usb connection to my PC by turning the device off. Same with an Energizer XP8000 external battery. Leaving the device on will take a long time to charge or not at all if you are using it while charging.

USB/AC Charging Discussion

Decided to make a seperate thread for this. Maybe a mod could move those posts over...
scoob8000 said:
This is very interesting.. Gonna order one of those adaptors. I have another possible source that I'll call and see if they can get them.
Dx rocks but I lack the patience to wait for overseas shipping.
Food for thought..
I have a cheapo 4 port usb hub on my night stand for charging all my devices. It is limited to 500ma per port. Ive noticed it won't charge my atrix. Guessing 500ma isn't enough..
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Rred said:
scoob-
"It is limited to 500ma per port. Ive noticed it won't charge my atrix. Guessing 500ma isn't enough.."
No, physics doesn't work like that. If the VOLTAGE from your USB device is above the charging voltage for the phone, even a 100mA charger would be enough to charge the phone up. It would just take a long time, perhaps 22-24 hours to do so.
The normal Moto chargers are about 1000mA and they charge the phone quickly, usually two hours or less. But Moto has been making very generous chargers for years, they even supplied a 1000mA charger with my bt earpiece, which doesn't need that much power at all.
If a 500mA charger hasn't fully charged your phone in 4 hours, there's something else wrong. Bad wire, bad contact, not plugged in tight...or the "Made in China" effect.<G>
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_Dennis_ said:
No you are wrong sir. The phone will not charge on a 500 ma charge. It will use less battery but 500ma charger is not sufficient to both power the device and charge it. Also the charger supplied it 750ma charger and if you are running 1.2.6 the phone will refuse 1a chargers. Just because something provides voltage in the correct range does not mean ut provides enough energy to charge something else. Voltage is potential current is actual power. Just plug your phone into a USB socket without the computer having drivers (there by limiting the socket to 500ma) it won't charge.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
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scoob8000 said:
Sorry OP for the threadjacking..
I'm familiar with Ohm's law, where I was headed is I think the phone may be doing one of two things. (purely guessing )
It may just be adhering to USB specs. It realizes the hub is a USB device and not just a charger. Since there is no computer on the other side, to negotiate more than 100ma it just doesn't charge.
Or the voltage drop @ 500ma (my hubs max per port) is just too high to enter charging. Worth noting, is when the battery is >90 and I plug the hub in, the notification led lights, but the battery still discharges.
I need to hack up a usb cord to take some voltage/current measurements. Maybe I'm just being OCD, but I like to "slow charge" my devices while I sleep.
[edit] I think I'm going to try making a charge only USB cable... That might answer some questions
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Rred said:
Dennis?
"It will use less battery but 500ma charger is not sufficient to both power the device and charge it."
Powering the phone, and charging the phone, and simultaneously doing both, are three different things.
The 500mA is sufficient to CHARGE the phone, that's all I said. I have no idea how much power it takes to POWER the phone with all four radios (BT, GPS, Wifi, cellular) active and music or Angry Birds playing at the same time. The power drain for each of those may be significant.
But since the phone has a ~1900mAh battery, you can establish the phone's power drain by turning on "everything" and letting the battery drain from full charge. If it takes four hours to go dead...yes, the phone may consume 500mA all by itself, leaving nothing to charge the battery. Again, that's physics, and it applies the same way to every laptop and phone on the market, and other devices that use adapter/chargers.
I stand by what I said: 500mA will fully recharge the battery in about 4 hours. I did NOT say it would power all four radios and play music as well as charging the phone at the same time. You'll have to do your own math to find that out, but the physics remains the same. My phone usually charges while I sleep, and a 500mA source will do that very nicely, with just the cellular radio enabled, and not in conversation.
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So I just made a little USB breakout cable so I could do a little investigation..
Oddly, even with the stock charger and the data lines disconnected the Atrix will not charge. I'm supecting most AC chargers must supply power on the data lines as well, or do something with them that triggers the device to charge.
As for the voltage, my hub and oem charger both throw out 5.12v with no load. When I plug the phone in, there is no drop at all.
From what my googling turns up, I may need a 180ish ohm resistor between the data lines. The phone looks for that to enter charging mode. Apparently this is why the drivers are needed for charging on some computers. Instead of resistance, it gets the charge signal from the pc.
So anyway out of curiosity I also took a few load readings:
Battery at 40%, screen off, phone idle: 600~ma
The most I could get it to pull was with battery at 40%, streaming last fm over a BT headset, and running quadrant. I saw around 690ma at peak.
Voice calls don't seem to make much of a difference. 10-15ma.
I'm going to check again with a full battery once it's charged. That ought to tell us what the phone itself is using.

I'm using a 550ma 5v charger because it has a longer reach. I stream music, cruise the net, watch videos and it charges my phone no problem.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

So with a completely full battery:
Idle, screen off: 100~ma
full load (same as before): 400ma at peak

Either I am lucky and got a better one, or everyone else is wrong on the standard charger. Mine is 850ma. Also, my phone will charge on USB 2 (500ma) if screen is off and I do not use the phone. It's slow but it charges. On USB 3 it charges about half the speed it does on mains.
Sent from WinBorg 4G via XDA premium app

scoob-
"As for the voltage, my hub and oem charger both throw out 5.12v with no load."
Were you using a lab calibrated voltmeter? <G>
Most digital multimeters have a stated accuracy something like 1/2 to 1% on the DC voltages, and then they also have a "float" of 2-4 LSD meaning, the least significant digit (the rightmost one on whatever scale) may float by 2-4 digits.
So on a typical meter where you have a choice between a 2.000 volt scale, and a 20.00 volt scale, "_5.00" on the display could just as easily read "5.05" if it is was 1% off, within the limits of accuracy. And then 5.05 could read 5.09 or 5.00 as the digits float. The errors sometimes cancel out, sometimes accumulate.
I've seen much worse as they get old and out of calibration, where a "12.00" volt reading on one meter was 12.3 on another.
Which is just to say that 5.12 might actually be 5.00, or whatever the USB spec actually calls for. (It doesn't have to be 5.00 exactly.)
I had no idea they needed a signal voltage (available from the data lines on microUSB but not miniUSB) to enter charge state. That "should" mean that you can't use a miniUSB charger with a micro adapter for simple charging. I'll have to try that to see what happens. [ [LATER] Nope, something's not right about needing the signal resistor, because I just charged my Atrix using a miniUSB charger (no data signal possible) with a mini-to-micro power tip adapter, which "should" not be presenting any signal, just passing through the 4 old style connections. ]
There will still be simple--if unpublished or poorly documented--rules of physics governing what happens. Battery charging isn't rocket science, although battery chargers are sometimes "smarter" than rockets are.<G>

CaelanT,
Mines also 850ma..
Rred,
I actually splurged on a very (I think) good meter a few years ago. It's a Fluke 187. They claim .025% DC accuracy. Granted, I've had it a few years and never sent it back in for calibration.
I actually found two sides to having a resistor in the connector.
One story starts with Motorola trying to enforce people using only "genuine" chargers. Link
The other points to the data lines being shorted to indicate to the device that it is a dedicated charging device. Link Skip to the last paragraoh on this page. It's very long winded.
I actually tore apart a old car charger, in the mini usb plug there lied a small resistor between the data pins. I didn't believe how simple it was until I saw it.
Pretty interesting stuff. For us geeks anyway.

scoob, a Fluke is like a Rolls-Royce, except it is more reliable.<G>
The resistors are documented as part of the microUSB spec, they are what are often called "pull-up resistors", i.e. the voltage they provide to the fifth wire "pulls up" the voltage on that line and the tiny brains see that as a signal to do something specific.
Even the Palm Treos used this system. Not on the power line, but on the audio jack. they use a single 3-wire 2.5mm standard minijack and depending on the impedances that they see on it, they will provide mono audio, stereo audio, or mic input plus mono audio, so that three types of devices all plug into the same plug--but all three are sensed and work differently. As Arthur Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic."
There's no Moto conspiracy to the resistors, the new microUSB spec provides magic and the industry just doesn't want to bother our pretty little heads by talking about it in any detail.
Now, why Moto omitted the call audio routines from the library on these phones...THAT'S probably a conspiracy.<G>
I'm not reading all 480+ pages of the final USB3 spec, but it appears to refer to standard devices as consuming one "unit" of power at 150mA, with a maximum of six "units" or 900mA, and a maximum voltage of "5" which would mean that if Moto is supplying 5.12V @ 1000mA...they've exceeded the spec and aren't entitled to use the USB logo.
But if they'll fix my call audio library, I won't tell a soul about that.<VBG>

[INFO] Some quick notes about charging

Hey guys, while this information may be redundant to some, this is my first 2A charging phone having come from a GS2. A few note's i thought i'd share about fully utilizing the maximum charging of this phone. Using Elixer app, i was able to determine a few tips when charging
CABLE LENGTH MATTERS
I went out and bought some nice long monoprice cables, 10' and 15', i hated the feeling of being sucked to the nearest wall when you wanted to charge and use your phone. Plugged it into my nice new S4 wall port with a 10' cable, and checked the amperage being sucked in, to my surprise it was no where near the 1900mA max i should be getting. Went to the 15', even lower current (duh, for those who weren't able to put that together), went back to my 6' cable, boom, back up to 1900mA.
TLDR: 6' max for maximum charging
PAY ATTENTION TO 3rd PARTY SPECS
often times these specs are misleading on amazon and such. Often times you will see a 2A car charger with two ports! Awesome, but sadly each port is usually rated for 1A each. This will not be enough to output a full 1.9A (1900mA) for your device. You need to look for 3.1A rated two port items (2.1A and 1A port), or 2/2.1A output for single port chargers, or for true dual charging, a 4.2A rated with each port rated for 2.1A. They do exist.
Also, pay attention to whether the device is iPAD (or any dumb iDevice) certified or marketed to the iCommunitiy. Often times even though the dual port chargers with the 2.1 and a 1 amp port, the 2.1 amp port does NOT have the correct data ports shorted out. What this means is how the phone detects the power source. When you hook your phone up to a computer, there are channels in the USB cable that tell the phone it will be using data, this then limits the amount of power it will draw. The iPAD chargers are set up this way where the data ports are not shorted out, so your phone will not suck the full amount of power. To bypass this, you either need 'CHARGING ONLY' USB cables, which short out this channel for you, or you need to mod the charger with some light soldering. Often times i find this iPAD issue on the ones rated for 2.1A, the 2A chargers generally do not have this issue (just a generalization on the marketing of the chargers, not a fact)
do some reading on the spec's before you blast the product, i hate it when people bash it when they buy the wrong thing and it's their own fault for not taking the time to research it. And if it's not clear, don't buy it!
Ok, that's all i have for now, hopefully this helped some people out there. make sure you do your reading before you write up posts about your phone charging slow, or bash a product you bought because you didnt understand what it was truly designed for.

[Q] Installed Wireless QI Chrager- how do I see exactly how fast it is charging?

I just installed a QI charger for my new LG G2. I got a few QI charging pads as well. I want to see how fast it is charging, or the charge rate (500mah, 750? ect) as the receiver is supposed to do the following charge: DC 5V/500mA-1000mA .
Ive tried a few apps, but I cant find one that specifically says what the charging rate is. Anyone know the best way to figure that out?

Two questions:
1) When you say you "installed a QI charger for my new LG G2" exactly what do you mean there, and I do mean exactly: are you referring to getting a Qi charging pad (which you mention) or do you mean you got some kind of part that you physically installed in or on your G2 - the Verizon G2 is the only one that supports wireless charging out-of-the-box so, that's why I'm asking.
2) With respect to actual charging, the output of the Qi wireless charging pad is directly related to the amperage/current supplied by the actual AC adapter or USB charger you're using with it. If it's about 1A (the AC or USB charger) then you're going to lose quite a bit of power in the actual charging process because wireless charging is pretty severely inefficient most of the time, give or take you'd get 400 to 500mAh going into the actual device from the charging pad.
What I'm saying is if you have a Qi wireless charging pad, you'd be best served using as high an amperage/current charger for the pad itself so that the pad can then transfer as much as possible to the device itself. Anything less than a solid 2A charger attached to the Qi wireless charging pad and you're basically wasting a lot of it in the process and might be better off actually just using the USB port on a computer or something (about 500-550mAh max anyway).
Basic rule of thumb: the Qi wireless charging pad can use all the amperage/current it can get, with at least the factory LG 1.8A charger being what I'd call the bare minimum (and with that you'd probably be able to push about 900 to 1000 mAh (aka 1A) to the device. Qi hardware is roughly 40% efficient so, you're going to lose a lot in the process as stated; the more you start with the more that gets to the device even accounting for the inefficiency.
As far as measuring the current, you can try CurrentWidget on the Play Market, it may provide you with some info in terms of the charging rate.

br0adband said:
Two questions:
1) When you say you "installed a QI charger for my new LG G2" exactly what do you mean there, and I do mean exactly: are you referring to getting a Qi charging pad (which you mention) or do you mean you got some kind of part that you physically installed in or on your G2 - the Verizon G2 is the only one that supports wireless charging out-of-the-box so, that's why I'm asking.
2) With respect to actual charging, the output of the Qi wireless charging pad is directly related to the amperage/current supplied by the actual AC adapter or USB charger you're using with it. If it's about 1A (the AC or USB charger) then you're going to lose quite a bit of power in the actual charging process because wireless charging is pretty severely inefficient most of the time, give or take you'd get 400 to 500mAh going into the actual device from the charging pad.
What I'm saying is if you have a Qi wireless charging pad, you'd be best served using as high an amperage/current charger for the pad itself so that the pad can then transfer as much as possible to the device itself. Anything less than a solid 2A charger attached to the Qi wireless charging pad and you're basically wasting a lot of it in the process and might be better off actually just using the USB port on a computer or something (about 500-550mAh max anyway).
Basic rule of thumb: the Qi wireless charging pad can use all the amperage/current it can get, with at least the factory LG 1.8A charger being what I'd call the bare minimum (and with that you'd probably be able to push about 900 to 1000 mAh (aka 1A) to the device. Qi hardware is roughly 40% efficient so, you're going to lose a lot in the process as stated; the more you start with the more that gets to the device even accounting for the inefficiency.
As far as measuring the current, you can try CurrentWidget on the Play Market, it may provide you with some info in terms of the charging rate.
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Firstly, thank you for taking time to write such a great response. I really appreciate it!
1) Yes I installed a universal sticker. I used this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MN3RR7Q/ which is supposedly supposed to do 1000mA. People in the reviews seem to say they are getting good results. I wish the ATT version had wireless out of the box, but then if it did I would be stuck with PMA charging. I installed an actual NFC/PMA sticker in my G3. PMA kind of sucks...anywho.
2) This is the pad I am using: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H9B7ALK/. 1.5a input and 1a output. On this one, I am averaging about 3% per 10 minutes or 30% an hour. So roughly 3 hours and 20 minutes to full charge. I can try the the stock LG. Oh, my Dell Venue 8 Pro is a 2a one. I can try that as well. Can the paid take the 2a in even though it was built for 1.5a in?
I will try current widget. Ive been using battery monitor to log as well.

1) Neat, I didn't even know such a thing existed, I may have to give that a shot with my G2 at some point (if I decide to keep it, that is).
2) As stated before, using a higher amperage/current charger or power supply is preferred, sure. It should help get the charging done faster and again the device (meaning the charger) will pull what it requires and nothing more.
Basic electronics 101 here: two things that matter with respect to smartphone chargers (or most any device, to be honest) - amperage aka current and voltage.
Voltage is pushed from a power supply meaning it will always be the same amount, give or take micro-variations. If it's a 5VDC power supply (of any kind) it's designed to provide 5VDC constantly. If it's some other value, say 9VDC, 12VDC, and so on, that's how much it pushes - if you were to connect a 9VDC charger to a smartphone or other device that's designed for a 5VDC input, you'd fry the electrical circuits in the device because it would be flooded with more power than it's designed for.
Amperage aka current is pulled from a power supply and only what is required is what's actually taken. With respect to smartphones, most of the higher end devices these days can make use of roughly 1.2 to 1.8 A (read as Amps) when it comes to charging. This means if you had a charger that output 5VDC (from what I just said above that's the standard worldwide for such devices as smartphones) but could theoretically provide 5A of current, the smartphone technically would not be damaged because it would only pull roughly 1 to 1.8 Amps at most - if you do use CurrentWidget and you plug in the G2 and look at the reading while it's charging, you'll note that the level of amperage/current being pulled from the charger fluctuates like crazy - voltage stays constant (give or take a microvolt here and there) but the current will jump all over the place, especially if you enable the "Smart Charging" feature of the G2.
The reason this happens is because when a LiIon battery is pretty low on a charge, say down to 10-15%, it's "gone deep" as the saying goes and the charging circuit will pull the max amperage/current that the charger is capable of producing and that can be measured/seen using CurrentWidget. As the battery gets into the 90% full range, the amperage/current draw will reduce (again, especially with the Smart Charging enabled) as the battery gets towards being totally full. This is a good thing in most every respect and it keeps the LiIon battery in good shape too - if it pulled the max current till it was 100% it wouldn't necessarily be so good and would heat the battery up more than necessary and LiIon batteries are very sensitive to temperature variations.
Hence, phones get fried by "cheap Chinese chargers" a lot of times because of voltage issues and faulty voltage regulators, not from amperage/current problems. It's actually kind of difficult to kill a device with amperage/current, but screwing around with the voltage will destroy a device almost 100% of the time and quite fast too.
Also, this is the reason why you'll see a phone charge relatively quickly to the 99% point then it seems to take even longer to get that last 1% to finish it off at 100% - it's the way LiIon charging technology works and helps the battery lifespan (meaning how long the battery is useful for measured in years and not "battery life" in terms of how long it can run before you have to charge it again measured in hours). The charging process "slows down" as it gets close to being full which works great for this kind of technology.
Hope this info helps...

br0adband said:
Basic rule of thumb: the Qi wireless charging pad can use all the amperage/current it can get, with at least the factory LG 1.8A charger being what I'd call the bare minimum (and with that you'd probably be able to push about 900 to 1000 mAh (aka 1A) to the device. Qi hardware is roughly 40% efficient so, you're going to lose a lot in the process as stated; the more you start with the more that gets to the device even accounting for the inefficiency.
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Okay let me see if I understand this correctly. The OUTPUT of the qi charging pad could be 1000mAh, but since the wireless QI hardware is only 40% efficient, the actual charge rate will be more around mAh to 500mAh? Im recording an actual charge rate of 500mAh and my phone states it is on AC power and not USB.
If the receiver on the phone states it can do up to 1000mAh, what I need to find is a charger that outputs a lot more like 2000mAh and at 40% efficiency I might be able to get around the 1000mAh?

That pretty much sums it up, yep - as long as you account for the inefficiency of the Qi charging technology, you can get faster charge times and still use it without having to plug in/unplug, etc the old fashioned way.
It works, it's just not nearly as fast or efficient as the old fashioned way so, give the Qi pad plenty of current and you'll be fine - since it will pull what it needs, using a 1.8A or 2A or even more won't hurt it, but it will make it pretty damned warm to the touch when it's charging so keep that in mind. As the G2 would be sitting on top of the Qi pad, if the pad gets warm or even hot then obviously the G2 will as well by heat transfer and heat/high temps are bad for LiIon batteries as I mentioned earlier.
It's a trade-off more than anything else but again, it does work as long as you're understanding the hows and whys to make the best of it.

br0adband said:
That pretty much sums it up, yep - as long as you account for the inefficiency of the Qi charging technology, you can get faster charge times and still use it without having to plug in/unplug, etc the old fashioned way.
It works, it's just not nearly as fast or efficient as the old fashioned way so, give the Qi pad plenty of current and you'll be fine - since it will pull what it needs, using a 1.8A or 2A or even more won't hurt it, but it will make it pretty damned warm to the touch when it's charging so keep that in mind. As the G2 would be sitting on top of the Qi pad, if the pad gets warm or even hot then obviously the G2 will as well by heat transfer and heat/high temps are bad for LiIon batteries as I mentioned earlier.
It's a trade-off more than anything else but again, it does work as long as you're understanding the hows and whys to make the best of it.
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I ran the battery down to 70% and I have it on the charger with a 2a wall adapter. I will see how fast it charges. But it seems like I will get roughly 1/3rd the charging speed of a wall adapter. Which means in the car using gps with the screen on and QI chrarging will probably mean a negative overall power situation.
Im also going to try a high speed, charging only cable like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009W34X5O/ between the wall adapter and the charging pad to see if there is any difference.

Don't waste your money, that thing is no better than a "Gold Plated 56K Modem Cord," seriously. Gold plating, "high speed," all that stuff is marketing BS and means absolutely nothing in the long run - it's a microUSB cable, nothing more.
In 20+ years of using USB cords of all kinds I've yet to see one that's corroded so, that gold plating is not gonna matter anyway.
Any microUSB cable you can find today is more than capable of handling ~2A without a single issue and it's well known that the G2 can max out at 1.6A draw for charging anyway so any cable is more than adequate for doing it.

br0adband said:
Don't waste your money, that thing is no better than a "Gold Plated 56K Modem Cord," seriously. Gold plating, "high speed," all that stuff is marketing BS and means absolutely nothing in the long run - it's a microUSB cable, nothing more.
In 20+ years of using USB cords of all kinds I've yet to see one that's corroded so, that gold plating is not gonna matter anyway.
Any microUSB cable you can find today is more than capable of handling ~2A without a single issue and it's well known that the G2 can max out at 1.6A draw for charging anyway so any cable is more than adequate for doing it.
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Hah! I already have one I use in the car

shaxs said:
I ran the battery down to 70% and I have it on the charger with a 2a wall adapter. I will see how fast it charges. But it seems like I will get roughly 1/3rd the charging speed of a wall adapter. Which means in the car using gps with the screen on and QI chrarging will probably mean a negative overall power situation.
Im also going to try a high speed, charging only cable like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009W34X5O/ between the wall adapter and the charging pad to see if there is any difference.
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Okay I was able to maintain neutral power with the screen on and running gps. Let it go for almost 2 hours and it was at the same percentage as when I started. Im good with that for car use.