Faster USB charging? - Nexus One General

Just got a new motheboard which has high output USB charging for iPhones, pads etc.
Can this work on N1 ?
http://gigabyte.com/MicroSite/185/on-off-charge.htm
edit: driver link is at the bottom for all the hackers. Hopefully its just changing string from apple to android hehe

kazprotos said:
Just got a new motheboard which has high output USB charging for iPhones, pads etc.
Can this work on N1 ?
http://gigabyte.com/MicroSite/185/on-off-charge.htm
edit: driver link is at the bottom for all the hackers. Hopefully its just changing string from apple to android hehe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hopefully not, I dont want my nexus one to be iphone.
But as you know nexus one is using qualcomm motherboard.
But aslong cyanogen and fm transmitter is working there is no problem wiith your phone.

Dear lord what a crappy reply. Stick to disney mate.

It should, it basically just converts the USB port from .5 amps to 1 amp, like a wall charger.

elkyur said:
Hopefully not, I dont want my nexus one to be iphone.
But as you know nexus one is using qualcomm motherboard.
But aslong cyanogen and fm transmitter is working there is no problem wiith your phone.
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Click to collapse
WTF??? May want to lay off the halucinogenics

elkyur said:
Hopefully not, I dont want my nexus one to be iphone.
But as you know nexus one is using qualcomm motherboard.
But aslong cyanogen and fm transmitter is working there is no problem wiith your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol I seriously hope this is a joke!
I agree with JCopernicus, it should definitely work.

I installed the software in the first post but it still charges very slow compared to wall outlet

Slightly OT, but I've got a USB adapter that plugs into the wall that came with my iphone and when I plug the N1 USB cable into this to charge the N1, it still charges very slowly compared to using the proper wall adapter, why is this? Does this iphone adapter restrict the voltage or something?

Generally, "charger detected" is a circuit that has USB data pins shorted together. So when the phone's USB device probes the lines and detects them shorted, it knows it's connected to a power supply.
But since USB max current spec is 500mA, the current draw is restricted - either by the phone or by the supply.
There might be some other connectivity trick that allows the phone to know it can draw x2 current from the socket and won't damage anything. Most phones probably don't limit the current draw and count on the board to do it. Some boards don't limit the current output, or limit it higher. And the fast chargers provide pulsing voltage - which isn't like USB.
So for the board to be able to charge the device, it needs to detect a device that can use pulsing voltage, and enable such voltage on the socket. It doesn't detect Nexus as such a device, I believe, and that's why the charging is slow.

Faster charging with USB
Building on Jack_R1's response, I believe that the phone is limiting the charge rate. You can make the phone "realize" it is connected to a charger rather than a data connection by shorting the 2 middle USB pins together. I have done this in several car chargers, and the N1 About/Status shows charging (AC), which is the faster charge mode. While you can short the pins in the larger end of a dedicated USB cable, if you can disassemble the connector, I found it much easier to open the charger itself to short the pins.

i also have a gigabyte mobo that has this feature but i havent gotten around to test it out yet. I dont think it would work because the feature is software based and will only bump up the voltage if the program detects an iphone connecting to your computer. Gigabyte doesnt want to be liable if they bump up voltage on every device you plug in and fry something.
btw I have tried charging my n1 from my computer and its extremely slow. started charging at around 5pm on sunday and at 11pm it went from about 23%-97% lol.

Yes, USB charging is very slow. It's actually good for the battery, though.

Maybe someone with some know how can look at the driver files for this 3x tech and see how it checks if its an Apple device. Then fool the check and presto!
Shame I don't know how to do any of this

There is a simple hardware (don't worry, it's on the cable) mod for faster charging; however, make sure the phone has good air vent (it means NO CASE when charging).
1. modify your microUSB cable, disconnect the data connector the A (host) plug, then shorten the data connector to the B plug. (This can charge N900 properly, and speed up n1 charging).
2. modify your powered (with AC adapter plugged) USB hub. Simply shorten the #2 and 3 connectors on USB jack. Make sure you cut the copper strip going to the chip or malfunction may occur.
These modification can greatly speed up the charging, but phone will produce a lot of heat (that's why you must have the phone "naked").

I don't understand this. If the phone + battery are capable of being charged at 1000 mAh from the wall charger then why need extra cooling when asking for 1000 mAh from a PC USB socket?
Mine's still defo getting only 500 mAh from the PC USB despite it being able to give up to 2700 mAh for iPad!!! All I want is my 100 mAh charge.

Because what he suggests isn't a proper charging but rather removal of slot power control, and will damage the battery / phone, if succeeds.
Proper charging at 1000mAh requires pulsing voltage - his hack doesn't provide that. Your MB does, but it requires SW intervention to turn it on.

So can someone brew the intervention ?

martinl1030 said:
i also have a gigabyte mobo that has this feature but i havent gotten around to test it out yet. I dont think it would work because the feature is software based and will only bump up the voltage if the program detects an iphone connecting to your computer. Gigabyte doesnt want to be liable if they bump up voltage on every device you plug in and fry something.
btw I have tried charging my n1 from my computer and its extremely slow. started charging at around 5pm on sunday and at 11pm it went from about 23%-97% lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are not doing anything to the voltage, simply allowing more current to pass.
And as said in this thread, any typical data USB cable will charge very slowly. And most standard USB ports charge well less than the max specced 500mAh, in fact my subnote at work I found charged my old phone at around 150mah one time when I was dead and needed to top off and it's all I had available.

i'm not sure of the pinout on the micro USB port but i'm pretty sure that that the Mini USB-B port that was used on phones like the G1 used shorting the -Data pin to the unused 5th pin (actually pin 4 on the connector pinout) to activate AC charge mode. some devices actually require a resister of a certain value to be placed across them to work(i know older motorola phones did like IDEN's)
one thing people often forget but should not forget is that current is drawn from the device using power. its not forced on the device. voltage is forced on a device and while a variance is usually ok for devices depending on how they were designed generally its not a good idea to exceed +1.5v on any low power DC device. 120V AC devices are designed to actually work in a much wider range like 100-130V but thats because of the power supply/nature of AC power. it always varies and in japan they use 100v 60hz AC so many electronics power supplies are designed to work in the full range to save costs and only have to make 1 unit for all (same deal with 220-240 switches on PC power supplies)
the reason why you don't want to do this mod is you could damage you PC's motherboard by pulling too much current from its circuits. USB spec is 500ma. performing this type of mod on a power adapter (car or AC) that does not get recognized as an AC charger by the phone is a safer way to go. worst case senario is you break the charger (unless you mess up on the pinout then you could damage you phone too though)

Related

[Tut] Make car charger behave as "charger" instead of "computer"

As probably several other users, I have set my hd2 to NOT charge when connected to pc, as I often plug the cable to transfer pictures, cabs and the likes. This is useful when I actually plug it to the PC, and it regularly charges with stock/compatible cable if connected to mains charger.
Problems could arise when you connect the microusb cable to the standard carlighter plug with an adapter having a female USB connector in it. It gets recognized as a "pc" and thus the device won't charge unless you re-enable charging when connected to PC.
In case you experience this, as per link found in second post of this thread, you can short the two middle contacts of the USB connector (the data pins) so the phone recognizes the charger as a proper one instead of mistaking it for a PC.
http://www.pocketpc.ch/htc-hd2-sons...en-hoehere-ladestroeme-akku-laed-im-auto.html
desribes modification of car charger, sorry but it´s german. HD2 detects via USB data pins, if it´s connected to PC or charger. If USB data pins are connected like described in above, it will be charged by the car adapter as well. To achive this you´ve to modify your adapter as described.
Regards
Georg
Thank you! Google translate is helping me... and believe me or not, it seems that what I was guessing is actually true: you need to short the data pins of the usb cable... could you confirm please kleiner_onkel? I am not quite so sure of what I am reading with google, as that kind of english is quite far-fetched
n that case I could also avoid messing with the insides of the usb-lighter adapter, and just short the cables inside an external USB hub
EDIT: I just tested it, syhorted the middle data pins of the usb-a plug inside a cheapo usb1 hub, it works and charges the phone when "charge from pc" is disabled.
Will meddle to clean the job and then will update first post
Can you please, for the sake of the slow minded such as I, explain why you would not want to charge from PC/USB?
pa49 said:
Can you please, for the sake of the slow minded such as I, explain why you would not want to charge from PC/USB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for why not.never understood why it would even be an option.I could understand if we still used nickel batteries, but not with li+
Shorting the data pins also tells a device that it can use up to 1.85A of current (versus the 500mA of USB2). Your car charger will have circuitry (of varying complexity, depending on the model) to drop the 12V from the car to something usable by your phone (5V). If the components in your charger can't handle the 1.85A current, you could land up with a pretty hefty repair bill. Be careful out there....
Edit: Need a worst case scenario to see how bad it could be? In the most basic case there'll just be a resistor in the car charger. That resistor is likely 1/4 watt, 1/2 watt tops. Put 1.85A through it and it can pop, potentially going closed (short) circuit leaving your phone with 12V to deal with. The extra current that comes with that means you fry part of your charging circuit at best, your battery (possibly explosively) somewhere in the middle and the entire phone at worst.
samsamuel said:
+1 for why not.never understood why it would even be an option.
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Click to collapse
I do see a use, if you're on a laptop running on batteries, you don't necessarily want to empty your laptop batteries faster by recharging the phone if you don't need to. But that's the only one.
Aterlatus said:
Shorting the data pins also tells a device that it can use up to 1.85A of current (versus the 500mA of USB2).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More like 0.85 actually, like what it draws from the original charger.
Aterlatus said:
In the most basic case there'll just be a resistor in the car charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then that car charger would NOT work and would fry every device connected to it...
Car chargers have voltage regulators, which have overcurrent and overheat protection, linear ones for older ones, DC/DC switching ones for everything you find today.
I believe there's actually still an extra step from this mod to the phone knowing it is on the original charger. I have both a Chinese USB charger and a car charger, rated at 650mA and 800mA respectively. On both (with soldered pins), the HD2 will charge at 600mA, not 800-900 like with the original charger. But 600 is of course already better than 450.
kilrah said:
More like 0.85 actually, like what it draws from the original charger.
Then that car charger would NOT work and would fry every device connected to it...
Car chargers have voltage regulators, which have overcurrent and overheat protection, linear ones for older ones, DC/DC switching ones for everything you find today.
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Click to collapse
From: ht tp://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml
Dedicated charger mode:
A simple USB charger should short the 2 data lines together. The device will then not attempt to transmit or receive data, but can draw up to 1.8A, if the supply can provide it.
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Click to collapse
It's in the spec, and a car battery won't have any problem supplying the current. A cheap (read: chinese off ebay) charger might well employ just a simple resistor. Sure, any decent charger will use a voltage regulator or a buck converter to maintain the correct voltage. That doesn't mean that ALL will, hence the warning to take care.
"If the supply can provide it" is the key. The USB device will see if the supply can't give that much and its voltage starts to drop.
And anyway the HD2 would never draw 1.8A or it would damage its battery.
I noticed much the same thing by accident as reported in this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=638007
Beware that if your HD2 is set up to detect it, it will turn on Navipanel when plugging in this type of cable
pa49 said:
Can you please, for the sake of the slow minded such as I, explain why you would not want to charge from PC/USB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
samsamuel said:
+1 for why not.never understood why it would even be an option.I could understand if we still used nickel batteries, but not with li+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may be the slow minded here. BUT
1) Everyone having had even third-person experience with laptops knows that using one with a battery inserted and "most of the time" attached to the external power unit, makes the battery die pretty soon, and all laptop batteries are Li-Ion based since quite a while; sure, part of that damage comes from the heat generated on the battery both from the charging and the laptop being turned on, but all the rest is caused by the "unnecessary" repeated charges (confront the "battery university" website for this)
2) I often plug/unplug the cable from the pc to move several small files, I just don't feel comfortable doing it if everytime the battery gets a "charging hit", for the aforementioned reasons
3) I want to be able to charge the device when I choose to and not just everytime I plug it somewhere
4) enabling the car charger as "proper charger" lets the device take up more current and charging faster
5) I've always behaved, with all my Li-Ion powered devices, in a way that I would charge the battery when it got to ~20-30% and not before, reducing the number of times I actually charged it; the definition of "recharge cycle" is not the easiest one here, and "battery university" has an interesting one; but since my behaviour until now has given its good results, I'll just keep doing that
Aterlatus said:
Shorting the data pins also tells a device that it can use up to 1.85A of current (versus the 500mA of USB2). Your car charger will have circuitry (of varying complexity, depending on the model) to drop the 12V from the car to something usable by your phone (5V). If the components in your charger can't handle the 1.85A current, you could land up with a pretty hefty repair bill. Be careful out there....
Edit: Need a worst case scenario to see how bad it could be? In the most basic case there'll just be a resistor in the car charger. That resistor is likely 1/4 watt, 1/2 watt tops. Put 1.85A through it and it can pop, potentially going closed (short) circuit leaving your phone with 12V to deal with. The extra current that comes with that means you fry part of your charging circuit at best, your battery (possibly explosively) somewhere in the middle and the entire phone at worst.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As kilrah stated, 1.85A may be the max specification, yet the HD2 is NOT going to get that much from a recognized charger. The german thread pointed from the second post of the thread is also specific about it, the intook currents are higher, but not that higher... plus I've peeked inside the car lighter charger, and it's got no single resistor Also, the max 2A is useful when you plug several other things to it for charging purposes other than the HD2, and that's why I connect the HD2 to a USB1 hub connected to the carlighter charger
For a briefly useful reference, my iPaq 214 only took max 200mA from the miniusb plug no matter the charger capacity not the charger "nature", so devices do have a regulator, and it would be reasonable to think that a multihundred euros phone has one, and pretty efficient at it
So aside from hacking the USB cable, is there any other way to make the car usb charger act like a car charger? Or I should save my time and just buy an actual car charger, instead of a universal usb one....?
Thanks!
atagent said:
So aside from hacking the USB cable, is there any other way to make the car usb charger act like a car charger? Or I should save my time and just buy an actual car charger, instead of a universal usb one....?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
solder together the central pins on the charger output port, it's the exact same principle
Even thought hacking a cable is "safer", as you're playing with a ~2USB asset instead of a ~5USD one, and you have to connect a usb cable to the car charger anyway in order to charge the phone

USB Fast Charging?

Came from a TP2 and I could charge via USB at around 900 mA using fast charge driver.
Since I am a complete Android n00b, and an EVO n00b I have two questions.
1. Are there any apps out there that can show you how fast the battery is charging and discharging? I had one called Battery Monitor in WM, and I want an Android version of that.
2. It appears that USB charging is quite slow. Can anyone confirm the speed at which this phone charges via a USB port?
3. Is there a way to make this faster?
TIA!!
1. Are there any apps out there that can show you how fast the battery is charging and discharging? I had one called Battery Monitor in WM, and I want an Android version of that.
2. It appears that USB charging is quite slow. Can anyone confirm the speed at which this phone charges via a USB port?
3. Is there a way to make this faster?
A 1. I don't believe there is one (someone correct me if wrong), but there are apps to monitor your battery percentage.
A 2. Not sure, shouldn't be too long, how long is it taking yours?
A 3. I don't believe so.
Hero's Hero said:
1. Are there any apps out there that can show you how fast the battery is charging and discharging? I had one called Battery Monitor in WM, and I want an Android version of that.
2. It appears that USB charging is quite slow. Can anyone confirm the speed at which this phone charges via a USB port?
3. Is there a way to make this faster?
A 1. I don't believe there is one (someone correct me if wrong), but there are apps to monitor your battery percentage.
A 2. Not sure, shouldn't be too long, how long is it taking yours?
A 3. I don't believe so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks...Not sure how long it takes as I havent had the phone too long. I know while plugged into my computer last night it wouldn't charge very well.
Computers have much lower power than a wall socket. If you want to charge the EVO fast use the wall plug. Anyone who uses a Mac and the wired keyboard should know what I am talking about.
Please search before posting...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=591041
A USB port provides 500ma of power, you can get micro USB cable that will Y off and plug into two USB ports, providing 1000ma of power.
Grims said:
A USB port provides 500ma of power, you can get micro USB cable that will Y off and plug into two USB ports, providing 1000ma of power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every computer I owned charged my TP2 at around 800-900 mA as long as the fast charge driver was on the phone.
So I know for a fact that it's possible. It's limited by the phone, not the USB port. Appreciate the reply, but did you read Negrito's link?
And Negrito, I did search... This forum.... No hits. I see the link you provided was in the Hero forum. I didn't realize that the fast charge USB issue was affecting other Android phones as this is my first.
supdawg said:
And Negrito, I did search... This forum.... No hits. I see the link you provided was in the Hero forum. I didn't realize that the fast charge USB issue was affecting other Android phones as this is my first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad broseph, totally forgot im still subscribed to Hero threads. I just switched to the Evo Launch day.
Its not really an issue per se as that's how all phones normally operate. On WinMo we just got spoiled my No2Chems hack. Anyone know if No2Chem made the jump to Android?
I have seen a lot of familiar names on the Evo forum, like OMJ, and Caulkin!!! I cant wait until someone comes up with an untethered root option and how to bypass the NAND cause I know the ROMs are just going to be simply amazing.
Was digging around in the custom menus, can't remember which one, but one of the ones that you type ##numbers# and enter your MSL and there was a check box for USB charging. Mine was unchecked for some reason. I left it alone but wonder if that makes a difference?
I've tested a few charging scenarios and can tell you that using a wall charger that outputs 1000 ma will help speed up the charge.
These from Monoprice work very well:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10311&cs_id=1031106&p_id=6767&seq=1&format=2
want the same thing for the car?
try this one.
Here's the link to a micro usb cable at monoprice for $1.20.
There's a nice Rosewill 4 port charger, that will output 2000 ma IF you have only one device plugged in. With two devices plugged in, it falls back to 1000 ma (still really good). I have this in the kitchen for the kids to jack their various usb things in for charging.
The thing to remember is that the phone will pull as much as it can (most recent phones can pull between 750 and 1000 ma.) What will cause it to charge slower is not usually a software setting, it's having a port that will only put out 500 ma or less...which is what many computers output.
Sean
there is an option in settings /devolopment for usb charging doesnt ssy what it does though
I don't think mine has taken more than 4-5 hours to fully charge and signal strength isn't the greatest at my house so that probably has an impact on it as well... I've no idea if that's normal for a smartphone or if it's considered slow, I don't think my Sony Ericsson feature phone was any faster but the battery indicator on that thing was wildly inaccurate anyway.
My EVO seems to charge just as fast w/the included HTC adapter as with a generic Philips one I had, as well as one of those retractable cables. I was afraid that cable wouldn't be very well shielded and it wouldn't charge right but it seems fine, I'll only be using it when I travel anyway.
Negrito said:
My bad broseph, totally forgot im still subscribed to Hero threads. I just switched to the Evo Launch day.
Its not really an issue per se as that's how all phones normally operate. On WinMo we just got spoiled my No2Chems hack. Anyone know if No2Chem made the jump to Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one has seen nor heard from No2Chem in months... Some people think he may have died
I could charge my Touch Pro 2 in about an hour or two using a standard usb plug on any computer I owned.
Might I add the Touch Pro 2 and the EVO share the same identical battery. The EVO obviously draws more current..... I found while using my EVO while plugged into a computer, it barely charges at all. My guess is its discharging while charging at a very similar rate.
Contrary to what most of you are saying, the ma rating of the charger really makes no difference as the phone (and prior htc phones) will pull <500ma if they detect they are plugged into a computer or non-official charger and 1a if they detect an htc charger (which can even damage 500ma chargers). The way this is detected is through grounding of one of the microusb pins in the official charger (and indeed many generic chargers but not all will be detected this way). Absent this grounding (I forget which pin), it will charge at a slower speed. I know of cheap 500ma chargers which have been caused to smoke by attaching a cable with that grounding fooling the phone into thinking it is an oem charger. Many chargers labeled 1a will charge at the 500ma rate as well.
Also, modern computers are fully capable of outputting 1a of power through the usb port. While the spec indeed is 500ma, with a proper cable (or the fastcharge driver for windows mobile), you can force a 1a power draw without any issues. Cheap usb hubs or cheap usb power ports may run into issues.
I'd love to see a solution for android but I don't think one exists.
Actually the HTC battery Widget will show you if you are on AC (1A) or USB (500ma) charge. You can get this widget from the market (not sure why it is not included in the phone in the first place).
I think that the grounding pin is likely the trick and I will be searching the web to see if I can locate it. I have an older battery pack from APC that can output 1.6A but the only way to get the EVO to charge as if it was on "AC" is to use the HTC plug, and then quickly, before the charge light goes out switch to my alternate source. This seems to trick the EVO into thinking that it is still plugged in to the official charger.
This is of course trickier with my car charger, which has been very frustrating - using the phone for navigation and plugged in via usb usually has the battery draining rather than charging!
I wish there was an easy way to fix this, my old phones always attempted to pull as much current as they needed.
My friend uses a 2A charger for his HTC touch pro 2, and it uses the same battery as the EVO if u guys didnt know.
i havent tried it on my evo, but being its from htc too (and uses the same battery)... id expect it to work with that much current.
I currently use a 900mA one in my car, and i do notice that if i use something less than that i tend to get feedback from the audio jack that connects to my cassette player
Found a discussion on this on the android forums relating to the HTC Desire:
<Too new of a user, system won't let me post the link>
I opened a car charger and shorted pins 2 and 3, and the phone did show charging over AC (2 and 3 are the data pins, 1 & 2 are power). My multimeter was acting up, so I am not sure whether the EVO is actually pulling more current - it does appear to be charging faster.
If you try this make sure of 2 things:
1. You charger is capable of 1A.
2. If you choose to short the pins on a USB cable make sure this cable never gets plugged in to your PC.
Rennat said:
Computers have much lower power than a wall socket. If you want to charge the EVO fast use the wall plug. Anyone who uses a Mac and the wired keyboard should know what I am talking about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what you mean! Haha
supdawg said:
Came from a TP2 and I could charge via USB at around 900 mA using fast charge driver.
Since I am a complete Android n00b, and an EVO n00b I have two questions.
1. Are there any apps out there that can show you how fast the battery is charging and discharging? I had one called Battery Monitor in WM, and I want an Android version of that.
2. It appears that USB charging is quite slow. Can anyone confirm the speed at which this phone charges via a USB port?
3. Is there a way to make this faster?
TIA!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For your Q #1 search the market for Battery Indicator, great simple app that gives you a battery percentage and how long you have been plugged in or unplugged.

Bricked Desire HD - power issues!

My battery discharged while I was travelling - it went to <10% and shut off by itself. I left the original HTC microusb over seas and so I used my old Motorola microusb to try to charge the phone. After leaving it overnight a number of times I thought the battery was dead. I ordered a new battery (from Mugen) and tried to charge that.
All I get is a flashing orange/red light. The phone does not turn on.
I have tried charging on both the AC charger and via PC usb port.
Are all MicroUSB cables universal? I can't get a straight answer about this from HTC's customer support. Every time I call someone gives me a different answer which leads me to believe that they have no clue what they are talking about.
Is there anything I can do to remedy this?
The HTC AC charger is rated at 5V 1A, while my old Moto charger is rated at 5.1V 850mA. Could I get a charge by using slightly higher voltage with lower amperes?
I really would like to avoid sending it back to manufacturer warranty so if there is any other alternate route I can take please let me know.
I have some cheap MicroUSB cables and they seem to charge very slowly compared to the HTC one. There may be a difference, but I suspect the cheap cables are just plain cheap.
No the Motorola charger wont have done it any harm, 0.1volt wont make a difference, and charging at a lower current is less likely to cause damage.
Could I have damaged the phone by using a different companies' cable?
Is there a chance that the phone is FUBAR? Should I be able to turn it on if its plugged into a power source even if the battery is dead?
please excuse the bump
need to know
*bump*
I've actually tried all the different combinations of charging and they all seem to work fine
I've tried a cheap microUSB cable with the official charger, official microUSB cable with iPhone charger, cheap microUSB cable with PC, another cheap microUSB cable in my friend's car, and even a Nokia microUSB cable in all the mentioned combinations
They all just gave different current readings (from CurrentWidget) but in the end they all worked well. I'm not sure if a Motorola microUSB would have modifications that cause incompatibilities though
I also tried different Micro-USB Cables and my DHD still works normally.
me too have the same problem. I got a total of 3 diff USB cable. One give me 330mA, one give me 120mA and one gave me only 50mA. i do not mind spending the money if i know how to choose a USB cable which can give me 330mA everytime i charge. Anyone knows how to spot the correct ones?
Neurosis said:
me too have the same problem. I got a total of 3 diff USB cable. One give me 330mA, one give me 120mA and one gave me only 50mA. i do not mind spending the money if i know how to choose a USB cable which can give me 330mA everytime i charge. Anyone knows how to spot the correct ones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any Blackberry USB cable should work..
used Motorola cable many times. No issues.
Might be a fluke that u busted ur phones charging system.
The USB cables are all the same and have no effect on charging current. The charging current is determined by how the two data lines within the cable are terminated in the charging device. If the data lines are left open ciruit, the phone interprets this as being a USB charger and will therefore only draw a maximum of 500mA to prevent damage to a PC's USB port. Chargers that are capable of delivering more current (such as a wall charger) connect the two data lines together. The phone then interprets this as being a charging device which is capable of delivering a higher current and will draw greater than 500mA. If you look at "Menu - Settings - About phone - Battery" it will state either "Charging (USB)" or "Charging (AC)" depending on what you are charging from.

PC USB charging a dead-battery Atrix.. Impossible?

I woke up this morning and the battery of my Atrix was completely dead. Since I was in a hurry to get to work I thought I'm going to charge using the computer in my office with the supplied USB cable.
It appears that the phone won't charge from 0% turned off! I had to borrow a Blackberry wall charger from a college and jump start the Atrix before plugging it to my computer's USB and start charging.
My iPhone 3GS would come back to life if plugged to the USB port after a complete discharge.
Is there a solution for the Atrix? Are there other android devices you know of with the same issue?
Thank you
my milestone also have this prob
The moto wall chargers run at 800+ma. This is more than the usual ~400-600ma that other chargers run at. Computer USB ports only supply 500ma MAX. The atrix doesn't seem to like anything under ~600ma and prefers 800-1000ma for some weird reason.
If you've got a well powered USB port, it will charge the phone. If it's underpowered, the phone won't even take the charge.
Yes, from a dead batt, the phone wont even wake up the charge circuit for anything under 600ma. I've experienced it as well.
Thank you. What about USB 3.0? I have that in my home PC. But it still sucks how I can't wake up the phone if the battery completely drained with all the USB around me at work or wherever when a wall-charger is not within reach.
Shouldn't the phone preserve the last drops of the battery before shutting down so it allows us time to start it up again and charge by USB 2.0?
I think it wouldn't hurt if Motorola made it shutoff at like 2% allowing us to charge the device and get it up using USB 2.0. Or maybe a dev can get around it as an optional tweak for users?!
That also made me think of something else. Would the alarm go off if the battery completely died while you were asleep? I know iphone, Nokia and probably many other smartphones does that (preserving last drops for this purpose).
all usb has the same voltage specs, 3.0 ports wont charge better than 2.0 ports on the same system, the only thing that will make a difference is the build quality of the hardware and the voltage regulation from the power management.
A powered usb hub would be your best bet if you can't get to a moto charger
diedemus said:
all usb has the same voltage specs, 3.0 ports wont charge better than 2.0 ports on the same system, the only thing that will make a difference is the build quality of the hardware and the voltage regulation from the power management.
A powered usb hub would be your best bet if you can't get to a moto charger
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it's better to bring up this thread instead of opening a new one since I've been investigating the same issue.
We all know that Android phones and widgets especially can drain the battery unexpectedly.
I PM'ed kennethpenn if there's a way to automate a shutdown when the battery reaches a certain level so it can charge and wake up connected to a computer USB 2.0 port (As in if it can be implemented in his ROM). Kenneth replied that he's not sure, and I've been looking for an app that can do that.
Now before we go more on that, I wish to have your opinion on how important you think it is to sacrifice the last little drops of the battery in favor of being to charge/wake up your devices when you're on the go and may not have access to wall charger?
If there's an app that can allow it then I'm welling to do the tests and find the sweet spot of when to shutdown and if it would actually charge to wake up.
Thank you
I had the same problem yesterday, I only have the USB cord with me and I thought my phone was dead for real or defective. Thanks god for XDA ... The user manual did not say anything about computer usb power not being powerfull enough.
CyberPunk7t9, there is (a few) threads dedicated to improving Atrix battery life full of usefull tricks. I did not try it yet, but SetCPU might be of a great help too.
Remeber, the Atrix requires the Motorola usb drivers to be installed to charge the phone off a port. If the phone is off, your computer is not reconigizing that it was plugged in, so the drivers do not start. *I could be wrong* Happen to me last night though
it's a hardware issue on the computer side. without the moto drivers there telling the USB port to up the current coming out, your phone won't charge on it. most computer-based USB ports do not run high current for power purposes unless enabled. it cannot be solved with an app and mandating a shutdown at 2% is most likely going to cause more problems than solve. the solution is to not run your battery down, honestly. you shouldn't be for LiPo batteries anyway.
diedemus said:
all usb has the same voltage specs, 3.0 ports wont charge better than 2.0 ports on the same system, the only thing that will make a difference is the build quality of the hardware and the voltage regulation from the power management
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not voltage that matters, it's current.
I have a gigabyte board which has 'rapid charge' technology, meaning it supplies extra amperage to the usb ports...my battery was close to dying when I saw this thread so as a test I let it completely die and then I tried charging from usb.
Result: It worked.
I still don't get as quick of a charge from USB as I do from the wall but at least there is enough amperage to charge from a completely dead state.
diedemus said:
all usb has the same voltage specs, 3.0 ports wont charge better than 2.0 ports on the same system, the only thing that will make a difference is the build quality of the hardware and the voltage regulation from the power management.
A powered usb hub would be your best bet if you can't get to a moto charger
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get your facts straight!..............USB 3.0 IS a powered USB port!
USB 3.0 will charge more devices, quicker
Not only will USB 3.0 cables facilitate faster transfer speeds, but they’ll carry more power, too. The USB-IF recognizes the growing number of portable devices that charge via USB (cellphones, MP3 players, digital cameras), and have bumped the power output from about 100miliamps to 900 milliamps. That means not only will you be able to power more than 4 devices from a single hub, but the increase current will let you charge up heftier hardware as well.
Maximum PC
<edit> Also, my Atrix charges fine off the 3.0 ports on my HP laptop.
dcarpenter85 said:
I have a gigabyte board which has 'rapid charge' technology, meaning it supplies extra amperage to the usb ports...my battery was close to dying when I saw this thread so as a test I let it completely die and then I tried charging from usb.
Result: It worked.
I still don't get as quick of a charge from USB as I do from the wall but at least there is enough amperage to charge from a completely dead state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a gigabyte UD7 in my PC. I wanted to use the rapid charge feature for a while. Still planned. Also the On/Off Charge feature to charge the iphone/ipod while the computer is turned off. I will probably assign some time to test those tomorrow.
CaelanT said:
Get your facts straight!..............USB 3.0 IS a powered USB port!
USB 3.0 will charge more devices, quicker
Not only will USB 3.0 cables facilitate faster transfer speeds, but they’ll carry more power, too. The USB-IF recognizes the growing number of portable devices that charge via USB (cellphones, MP3 players, digital cameras), and have bumped the power output from about 100miliamps to 900 milliamps. That means not only will you be able to power more than 4 devices from a single hub, but the increase current will let you charge up heftier hardware as well.
Maximum PC
<edit> Also, my Atrix charges fine off the 3.0 ports on my HP laptop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have USB 3.0 in my PC too. But as someone stated here, USB 3.0 does not provide more voltage than USB 2.0. Just more consistency I think.
But what matters, Can any of those solutions charge and start a completely dead Atrix?
Thank you for participating guys.
USB ports can only source 100mA unless the host and client agree to a higher current. If as mentioned the Atrix needs more then this to wake-up the phone with a dead battery then it can never request the higher current. This is also why the Moto drivers need to be installed to get the higher current.
CyberPunk7t9 said:
I have USB 3.0 in my PC too. But as someone stated here, USB 3.0 does not provide more voltage than USB 2.0. Just more consistency I think.
But what matters, Can any of those solutions charge and start a completely dead Atrix?
Thank you for participating guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you need a port or power source that will supply enough current to the phone. period. if your computer's ports don't do it, it won't work. go find a higher amp USB port.
Maybe try the usb 2 to 1 cable? So you plug it into 2 usb ports and than into the atrix
CaelanT said:
Not only will USB 3.0 cables facilitate faster transfer speeds, but they’ll carry more power, too. The USB-IF recognizes the growing number of portable devices that charge via USB (cellphones, MP3 players, digital cameras), and have bumped the power output from about 100miliamps to 900 milliamps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually USB 2.0 can supply 500 mA, but as someone said to get more than 100 mA, the host and device have to 'negotiate' which I think means driver support of some kind.
I have noticed in Device Manager says that my SGS plugged into my laptop as a mass storage device is only taking 100 mA, but it doesn't charge much slower than it does from a wall charger (which is actually pretty slow, almost 3 hrs for a full charge). Still if I do the math to charge 1500 mAh at 3.7V with 5v in 3 hours would take about 370 mA (assuming 100% efficiency, so the actual current draw must be higher).
If anyone knows a more accurate way of determining the current a USB port is supplying, since Device Manager seems to be wrong, that would be interesting information.
What's interesting here is that at 0% the device isn't even on and can't power up to negotiate a higher current draw. If it can't turn on with 100 mA from the charging port it's stuck, which I suspect is the problem here with the Atrix.
USB 3.0 has the potential to charge at 900mah but yes it’s still 5vdc, the phone will not pull more than 500mah unless it detects the data lines are bridged. This is a safety feature so it doesn't blow your usb2.0 ports as the phone wasn’t built with usb 3.0 spec in mind. If you have a 3.0 usb port you can make a fast charge cable with the data lines cut and bridged, make sure you cut them and they aren't still connected to the host side or you might kill your port.
callen81 said:
USB 3.0 has the potential to charge at 900mah but yes it’s still 5vdc, the phone will not pull more than 500mah unless it detects the data lines are bridged. This is a safety feature so it doesn't blow your usb2.0 ports as the phone wasn’t built with usb 3.0 spec in mind. If you have a 3.0 usb port you can make a fast charge cable with the data lines cut and bridged, make sure you cut them and they aren't still connected to the host side or you might kill your port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mA, not mAh
dLo GSR said:
mA, not mAh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm so used to talking about batteries I guess I left the "h"ours in, haha.

Impossible to charge sg2 in car

Hi all, just came 3 days ago from an htc hd2, and so far I am more than happy with it.
I have only one complaint and maybe you guys will help me sharing your experience : I can't charge this phone in my car while using gps.
It seems that the power adapter is not powerful enough to charge the phone screen on.
The car charger has a 5v 1000ma output, more than the regular wall charger provided by Samsung and it was working well before with my HD2 so I have no clue about this problem.
Did you experience that issue too, else can you share what car charger do you use?
try to buy new standard car charger with micro plug.. 13 eur and you will be saved..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Charger doesn't matter unless the phone is dropping into USB charging mode - phone limits to around 600-650 mA by default.
Custom kernels can bump this limit up for I9100 users. I777 users are screwed - we've got a crippled charger chip.
I had the same problem, I used the samsung one, useless, so I used my iPad charger, which is 2A, and charges the iPad quick, still useless. We drove from Bathurst NSW, down to Melbourne, about 10 hour drive, plugged in all the way using GPS, and about an hour from home, the connect to charger warning came on!! So once I stopped GPS, it started taking charge. Looks like when the phone is in use, it draws more then it takes charge, plus I read somewhere on here the phone is limited on the charge it takes, so using the 2A does nothing different then the stock 500mA charger.
I always had this problem with my Nexus One, although they are different phones, the problem is the same, uses more power then it can recharge in USB mode.
After trying 3 or 4 different charges I remember that I found one ultra-cheap 'made in taiwan' from a street seller that worked very well.... so it's kind of a lucky shot!
good luck!
Im using a genuine Samsung SGS2 charger and I can charge and run Sygic just fine. I started my journey with 80% and 40mins later I was up to 91% when I stopped and got out. (not in aeroplane mode..)
Very interesting feedbacks... So that confirm that is clearly not a matter of output amperage power.
It is now the same problem on the galaxy tab 10.1, for quickly charge this tab you need the Samsung compatible usb adapter.
It can be likely with a tab bringing a proprietary plug, but I didn't thought it will be the same with a Samsung phone bringing a regular micro usb plug. Quite frustrating and disappointing!
I will search around a micro plug car charger as suggested by redzion, but actually I don't clearly see the difference with my usb charger + a micro usb cable.
Double post, sorry.
If I use the usb cable from my cd player I have the same problem but if I use the official Samsung car charger Ithe only problem I have is the phone getting stupid hot
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Oh Samsung, when you will understand?!
Samsung DOES follow the USB charging standard - it goes to its highest current setting when a charger that follows the standard is connected.
Note that iPad/iPhone chargers do NOT follow the standard - Samsungs will treat these as USB hosts and limit to 450 mA instead of 600-650.
Modified kernels can increase both of these values on I9100s.
The only thing Samsung really did **** up is counting screen/CPU current usage against the charge current limits - that's just stupid.
So the charger has smarts. On the i9000 factory chargers, the data pins were bridged. Bridging these pins manually on a USB cable when connecting to a USB source (such as a PC) enabled full current charging. You can see this in Settings -> About; it will say either USB or AC charging.
Do you think this is the case with the i9100?
I don't condone testing this theory on your i9100. Increasing the max current via custom ROM may be a safer solution.
I had the same problem. Two things fixed it for me:
1) I bought this charger: Sony Ericsson AN300 Micro USB 10€
2) I am using a custom kernel now
Any charger that is rated at 1000mA or more (per port) will do just fine. The problem is the cable - you need a quality microUSB cable, or it won't provide all the juice you need. I had the same issue, and I swapped three chargers until I found the real culprit.
Try with the charger you have now and the mUSB cable that was in the phone box - it should work well with that one.
I just press the power button to turn the screen off. when i need the sat nav i press the power and it still tracks you so there is no delay. With the screen off it does charge.
same problem
Duffman19 said:
I just press the power button to turn the screen off. when i need the sat nav i press the power and it still tracks you so there is no delay. With the screen off it does charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, but even if it is better than nothing the charging time is still a big problem.
Yesterday I drove for at least 40mn phone off. Arrived to destination, I turn the device on: it charged only from 0 to 5%
I would like to test the mariusi theory concerning the Samsung micro usb cable, unfortunately on my SgsII box I just have a wall charger, no a microusb-usb cable.
Entropy512 said:
Samsung DOES follow the USB charging standard - it goes to its highest current setting when a charger that follows the standard is connected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a way to know before buying if the charger respect this charging standard?
I have some cheap usb chargers here and no one is a fast as the one provided by Samsung.
Entropy512 said:
The only thing Samsung really did **** up is counting screen/CPU current usage against the charge current limits - that's just stupid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe for safety purpose? Gps phones can become very hot behind the car glass.
Samsung are trying to "encourage" you to buy only their official accessories. To do this they've wired something differently in their chargers and cables. This "problem" exists on the Galaxy Tab too and can be solved with this adapter...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-car-w...ccessories&hash=item2c5c07736b#ht_3084wt_1163
It's cheap and turns a trickle charge into a full charge. I don't know the specifics of what they've done, but their USB charging just isn't the same as most others manufacturers.
Archer said:
It's cheap and turns a trickle charge into a full charge. I don't know the specifics of what they've done, but their USB charging just isn't the same as most others manufacturers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great find.
Pretty sure it just bridges the data pins.

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