I am going away for a little while and I don't have my mains charger for my universal. Both my parents have Motorola Razrs, which charge via mini-USB from a mains plug. On that mains plug it says it is 5.0v, 550mA. Could I use it to charge my universal?
Yes you can, but you must turn off the Universal before connecting the charger.
I use it in my car.
How do you mean turn off? Press the power button so the screen isn't on? Or do you mean turn it off completely? If the latter, how does one do that?
Is it a Motorola Razr charger you use in your car?
Thanks for the response.
I use one motorola charger in the car with my universal. If you connect the charger with Universal switched on then dont start charge. Press the power button and switch off the universal, connect the charger and charge start.
Ah, that explains some quixotic behavior I observed. I thought my chargers were bad. Also, I notice that some chargers specified as compatible with the HTC Universal say they put out 12vdc. I queried the vendor from whom I bought one, and they assured me that the device would only take the voltage it needs (i.e., 5vdc). Furthermore, an output of 5vdc might not be enough to keep the device charging when, for example, navigating with GPS software, but a higher capacity charger will do so (most car chargers output 5vdc, but some output 5.5vdc, or even 12vdc).
Can anyone confirm that the higher voltages are indeed acceptable to the Universal? Since I discovered this disparity AFTER recharging, it appears to be the case, no damage was done. Cheers,
Thanks for the replies here, I did indeed use the motorola charger to juice up my device overnight, using the method suggested.
Yes, you can do that
Hi,
I use Motorola Razrs charger few month, it's good.
gibhenry said:
Ah, that explains some quixotic behavior I observed. I thought my chargers were bad. Also, I notice that some chargers specified as compatible with the HTC Universal say they put out 12vdc. I queried the vendor from whom I bought one, and they assured me that the device would only take the voltage it needs (i.e., 5vdc). Furthermore, an output of 5vdc might not be enough to keep the device charging when, for example, navigating with GPS software, but a higher capacity charger will do so (most car chargers output 5vdc, but some output 5.5vdc, or even 12vdc).
Can anyone confirm that the higher voltages are indeed acceptable to the Universal? Since I discovered this disparity AFTER recharging, it appears to be the case, no damage was done. Cheers,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ATTENTION!
Any higher voltage that you apply to any most of electronics devices is almost surely going to damage your device.
Most modern devices are designed to withstand some kind of "abuse" but 12V are 2.4 times 5V, almost a sure firework.
Electronic voltage regulators are widely used in electronic equipment, but unless you know exactly what are you dealing with, you cannot know the maximum specs of any device, one little example.
I sold my first PDA in Ebay, the person who bought it (I don't know how) changed the power supply (5V, 2A) with a 9V one, result? Burnt PDA, me with lots of troubles to repair it and a baaad feeling about all the situation.
So, be aware.
By the way, I also have used a moto charger to charge my universal (also several card reader mini usb cables), works ok, rule of thumb, be sure that it is a 5V type, 500mA at least (to be in within safe margins) more current they supply is better, unlike voltage, if you have more current available it will only be "used" as much as is needed, this is true for these devices, not for all.
Related
I have a mini usb lead with me but not the exec charger. Can I just plug this into an IPOD or Blackberry charger and will this charge it?
I think you can without problem...
However, there is a small issue:
The usb standard specifies a maximum 500mA current for the usb supply (over 5V), but to charge the Universal in a reasonable amount of time more is necessary (The supplied one is 1A)
I succesfully charged the battery using a motorola psu, and in the same way you can charge it leaving it attached to the PC usb port.
I am pretty sure there is no risk for the phone but it is possible to overload the power supply - you better check it does not run too hot. Also, put the phone in flight mode and turn it off, to minimize the amount of total power used
I think you can without problem...
However, there is a small issue:
The usb standard specifies a maximum 500mA current for the usb supply (And 5V), but to charge the Universal in a reasonable amount of time more is necessary - The supplied one is 1A - I succesfully charged the battery using a motorola psu.
I am pretty sure there is no risk for the phone but it is possible to uverload the power supply - you better check it does not run too hot. Also, put the phone in flight mode and turn it off, to minimize the amount of total power used
ciaranfo said:
I have a mini usb lead with me but not the exec charger. Can I just plug this into an IPOD or Blackberry charger and will this charge it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure which ipod charger you talking about, personally i use the original one from apple (white with the USB plug) and it wks fine. The original charger for universal also has the same current rating of 1A @ 5V so I guess it shouldn't overload it.
Yes, I charge my Universal with a BlackBerry charger from time-to-time.
Keep in mind what TheDayOfCondor said about the original charger putting out 1 amp while the BlackBerry charger is only rated for 0.5 although I haven't had any issues.
right, that's good to know. thanks.
anyone knows?
possibly need to write a custom oem_misc.dll. if some one can, then we can have TV out too ...
i heard it is just a reg change
anyone knows pls?
Don't know the reg change in this case, but guess won't really work.
For instance, for enabling FM radio without headset, changing the headset state in reg won't work. I would be happy to be proven wrong though
leobox1 said:
anyone knows pls?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi leobox1,
Not sure that there is a way to enable this. Charge rate is determined by battery voltage and available current from the charger, not by software (other than the simple battery management chip in the battery). So if your battery is low and you have high power USB connection, it will take as much charge transfer as the battery will accept, provided the supply voltage can keep up. I don't think that the charger circuit can recognise the difference between low power USB, high power USB, or charger USB connection.
mike.waters said:
Hi leobox1,
Charge rate is determined by battery voltage and available current from the charger, not by software .... I don't think that the charger circuit can recognise the difference between low power USB, high power USB, or charger USB connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think so. When HD is on, the current consumed at a given battery level of charge for a given (same) voltage is higher with wall charger than computer USB. Don't have the values that I measured once... But this doesn't seem to be the case when HD is switched off.
So there has to be some kind of monitoring going on by the CPU.
The charger has the two data pins connected together so the handset knows it is receiving power from the charger and not a USB port. The device will then charge with as much power as the charger will allow, up to 1000mA
The amount of USB power definately changes the speed at which this recharges. I purchased a 3amp car charger and it will charge my Touch HD in half the time it charges from the wall charger. My laptop puts out a small USB power supply and it take all day to charge my phone. My old Pocket PC had the selection for fast or slow charge, this one seems to handle it on it's own.
hmm so in short it is beyond our control?
leobox1 said:
hmm so in short it is beyond our control?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In short - Yes
backdoc94 said:
I purchased a 3amp car charger and it will charge my Touch HD in half the time it charges from the wall charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3 Amps? Are you sure, I don't know if I would want to connect my Touch HD to a 3A supply. Where did you buy it from?
Picked it up from ebay. It works really well, no overheating. The phone only takes what it needs, the charge is controlled by the phone not the charger.
Oh, I know the phone will only pull the power it wants, that is not the issue. A 3 amp power supply would cost quite a bit if it was a decent regulated one, and I would not use anything but a regulated power supply.
So I was guessing you were using a 3A unregulated supply. Which is something I would be very wary of, the risk of a voltage spike is going to be higher than with a lower amperage.
the only reason that the phone charges faster using the htc charger is so that people like us spend more money on official htc accessories.
its not just htc that do this.
why do you even think they have this extusb instead of a normal usb port?
a normal usb port on a pc is rated to give out 500mA (half an amp) of current.
that doesnt mean that a normal usb socket cant accept more than that though. just think back to the old htc devices that charged much faster.
wake up guys
http://www.nuerom.com/BlogEngine/
I think theres something interesting there
chrisque1 said:
http://www.nuerom.com/BlogEngine/
I think theres something interesting there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what is it for?
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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
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.
Click to expand...
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)
Is there a special usb cable where I can connect one mobile phone to another device to charge it?
For example, charge the HTC Touch HD using a HTC Touch2?
I also have mp3 players with same port, so it could be very useful when on the road.
Many thanks.
providing the source device has output power from the usb, you would just need a mini-b to mini-b use cable, in theory it should work
Tested
I have tried this before with my touch HD and Kaiser and it didn't work. Though a device that gives out the same power output as say a laptop would work.
Good luck
BJ
You need power source with 5V to charge your device, if voltage is less than 5V (when you're connecting other phone to yours) curent won't flow into your device so basicly you can't charge. Voltage of Blackstone battery is between 4.2V and 3.7V and imagine situation when other device isn't charged and you connect them together. Week phone will suck power from stronger one because he thinks that phone is a charger So one phone is charging and other is getting weak. It doesn't make sense to me...
I guess it works that way...
Thank you for the input, was worth a try.
This thread can be closed.
I have two options for you: first, google product find an "ENERGIZER XP4001 Power pack". There are other similar portable power packs available but I like the Energizer one the best. It comes with different power tips that should match up to your phone or other portable devices. You can see it here:
http://www.frys.com/product/6103309?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
I bought mine for $20 on sale at Fry's several months ago. You should be able to find one on eBay for about the same price if you watch their auctions.
The other option if you have a removable battery is to google product a "universal lithium charger". I have an old cell phone that I keep in my truck for emergency 9-1-1 calls. I lost the ac adapter but found a company in China that sells those lithium universal battery chargers for $2.80 (postage included). Basically, the charger has two poles or posts that you mate up to the charging points on your battery. The chargers run off ac or USB. Because I have two of these phones that has a flashlight which I keep in case of power or brown outs, I got the charger. There's one that looks like a penguin whose eyes light up when you've made contact between the posts and charging points. I chuckle when I see the penguin do its thing.