Database Users

Charging via USB

Had my Ameo connected to may Laptop via USB for several hours without much usage.
However, when checking battery status the battery went even worse. I had only 20% remaining battery power.
Update: Battery power went to 10% now while connected to Laptop...seems to me that USB power is insufficient to charge the Ameo. That means it is impossible to work for a longer period with connected Ameo because the battery runs out of power !!!!!!
Who has made any other experience ?
Dieter

I see the same issue, although not as severe as for you. When I'm connected through the USB cable I don't gain nor lose battery power. I have had it connected for mopre than 12 hours in a row and see no change in battery power.
Not sure how you could resolve this.

Must be the case. Mine does charge (USB 2.0 - how 'bout yours?), but, it can take 12-15 hours or more to charge from 30% to 90%. Never seems to get to 100%

Yes me too. it's such a dramatic different when comparing it with Universal. Much faster charging.

I think this is mentioned in some other posts, wonder if there was a way to sort this out?
It appears the Athena uses more power than the USB can replenish. Strange. Ive had a universal and alot of other HTC devices and they were fine like you said.
mmm! strange

May be by using a powered USB Hub would make it charged. I'm going to try it tonight and will post the outcome soon.

cayotte said:
May be by using a powered USB Hub would make it charged. I'm going to try it tonight and will post the outcome soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking that would be the solution but I don't have a hub.
If it works with yours I might need to buy one.

rating
The supplied adapter is 1A, USB nominal is, i think 500mA so half the adapter current. On the two pc's I've tried mine on they sustain but not really charge the athena or if they do its a very slow charge.
With backlight up and wireless on I don't think they even keep pace.
From wikipedia:
"The USB specification provides a 5 V (volts) supply on a single wire from which connected USB devices may draw power. The specification provides for no more than 5.25 V and no less than 4.35 V between the +ve and -ve bus power lines. Initially, a device is only allowed to draw 100 mA. It may request more current from the upstream device in units of 100 mA up to a maximum of 500 mA."

After charging using powered USB Hub I can confirm that my device does get charged. The result is better than just using standard USB port, but worse than using the supplied adaptor.

The power consumption is because of the MD and the screen (which is much larger than on the Uni, hence the slower charging with the same amount of power).
You can't turn the MD off. However (if you don't have a powered hub), you can turn the brightness of the screen down whilst on external power and, hey presto, it will charge faster.

apd said:
The power consumption is because of the MD and the screen (which is much larger than on the Uni, hence the slower charging with the same amount of power).
You can't turn the MD off. However (if you don't have a powered hub), you can turn the brightness of the screen down whilst on external power and, hey presto, it will charge faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this sounds like a problem we had before with the universal. Turning off wifi and backlight after a few minutes of inactivity; turning brightness down to very low (next to lowest level) on external power, improves it. In fact, my ameo is now fully charged on usb. Not very fast though.
I did get a scenario using TTN 6 when it did go off in the car. The battery charger didn't seem to be doing much good. So for long distance navigation, I'd recommend fully charging your device before you leave.

I have a Veripart Car Charger mini usb that I use in my car when I use TomTom. I have the brightness at maximum, UMTS on, Push-mail on and I make phone calls. And still is has more power when I reach my destination.

QAN said:
... I have the lightning at maximum....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a stormy ride!

apd said:
The power consumption is because of the MD and the screen (which is much larger than on the Uni, hence the slower charging with the same amount of power).
You can't turn the MD off. However (if you don't have a powered hub), you can turn the brightness of the screen down whilst on external power and, hey presto, it will charge faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi apd
What is MD? Cheers

cayotte said:
May be by using a powered USB Hub would make it charged. I'm going to try it tonight and will post the outcome soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will not do better - already tested....
dieter

dieterpapa said:
will not do better - already tested....
dieter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May be you should use a better powered USB Hub (1 A perhaps).

Using a 6V 2100mA...
However, this may be depending on the usage of W-Lan. Seems to me that W-Lan needs a lot of power when switched on.
Wit W-Lan "On" there is nearly no charging at all.
Dieter

dieterpapa said:
Using a 6V 2100mA...
However, this may be depending on the usage of W-Lan. Seems to me that W-Lan needs a lot of power when switched on.
Wit W-Lan "On" there is nearly no charging at all.
Dieter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about charging while turning off the W-Lan? No charging at all too? Mine get charged. Only it's not as good as compared to using supplied power adaptor.

docraj said:
Hi apd
What is MD? Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MD is MicroDrive.
But I think the Microdrive should sleep itself when unused though. I would be surprised if MD in Athena is continuously spinning.

jlingo said:
MD is MicroDrive.
But I think the Microdrive should sleep itself when unused though. I would be surprised if MD in Athena is continuously spinning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks jlingo, appreciate your clarification.

Unsufficient charging

Hi commumity,
was using my Ameo today in my car. BT and phone activated, screen maximum brightness.
I have a 12V / 230V converter installed providing 160W continously. While using phone and contacts throughout the day, battery power dropped more and mmre though my device was connected to power supply. In the afternoon it ran out of power starting with loosing the connection to vodafone.
Who has similar experiences, who has a better way of charging in car?
best regards
dieter

My old car charger which works fine with all my old WM devices does not supply enough power for my Ameo.
My Brodit powered holder does.

Confucious said:
My old car charger which works fine with all my old WM devices does not supply enough power for my Ameo.
My Brodit powered holder does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that. This has been discussed numerous times - you need to check the ampage of your charger. If it's niot supplying enough, turn the screen brightness right down.

Well i guess its time for a little electrical networks lesson.
this phone consumes, under typical use about 300mAh, so if you have the screen on bright and the phone on with bluetooth your going to be using more than that and don't forget you still need to charge the battery and to top it all off your device will start to get hot and nothing kills a battery more than heat.
Solution: you need to make sure that you get a car charger that has an output of at least 1A... remember it will work with less but it won't charge as fast. usually but not always, you can find this information somewhere on the charger.
hope this helped

Output of 1A is one thing, but it seems that HTC devices (the Athena for one) more ways for charging. The orignal car charger from HTC does power the device fast(I have the charger for a few days now and can confirm that). There is also adapter cable available that allows fast charging. See the following post and post. It looks like the original HTC connectors use different pins on the connector for fast/powerfull charging

dpbakker said:
Output of 1A is one thing, but it seems that HTC devices (the Athena for one) more ways for charging. The orignal car charger from HTC does power the device fast(I have the charger for a few days now and can confirm that). There is also adapter cable available that allows fast charging. See the following post and post. It looks like the original HTC connectors use different pins on the connector for fast/powerfull charging
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you're right. The original car charger does charge very well my Dopod with the screen turns to maximum, phone, bluetooth and GPS all are turned on.

Would anyone please care to post a direct link to a fast 1A car charger in the UK? I tried looking at the HTC ones at expansys but wasn't sure which were official and which weren't. Thanks

Yeah, a link for a good charger in The Netherland would be apriciated as well!
Thank in advance.

The official HTC car charger
for NL: http://www.expansys.nl/p.aspx?i=145177
for UK: http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=145177

yaughan said:
Would anyone please care to post a direct link to a fast 1A car charger in the UK? I tried looking at the HTC ones at expansys but wasn't sure which were official and which weren't. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Brodit mount has car charging built in and is also extremely sturdy. Available from Brodit dealers

dieterpapa said:
Hi commumity,
was using my Ameo today in my car. BT and phone activated, screen maximum brightness.
I have a 12V / 230V converter installed providing 160W continously. While using phone and contacts throughout the day, battery power dropped more and mmre though my device was connected to power supply. In the afternoon it ran out of power starting with loosing the connection to vodafone.
Who has similar experiences, who has a better way of charging in car?
best regards
dieter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen the ameo using over 1.2A
Device turning to hot to handle...
But then again mineis back with T-mobile for repairs...
Wich sucks bigtime
had the device 1 week
T-mobile has it 3 weeks
Told me it would take 2-3 weeks, now they say they don't know when it will be ready

Interesting. AC charging better then USB??

Hrm.. This is interesting.. I used to always charge my G1 with AC power. However past couple days, I was lazy and used my laptop USB to charge it. I noticed those days however the battery life was HORRIBLE! I mean I couldnt even get past lets say 9 hours without the battery being at 15-30% and this is without doing anything major. On AC I always got home with 50%.
Has anyone else noticed this? I am using the power profiler mode, so unless something goes out of whack on USB power mode, which I dont see why it would...
(Also I did turn off phone and back on to reset anything just in case) but its just a interesting thing that it seems USB charges suck?

Yes I noticed the same thing, used the computer USB to charge and only lasted about 6 hours of the day. I use the Wall charger and get about 9 hours consistantly. Not sure why but I have noticed this several times........
Mark

Every Tmobile rep I've talked to always say the AC charger does a better job of charging the phone.

Hrm, is this info on a G1 Wiki yet? Would be good info to pass around. My logicial guess is that USB charging can only allow the voltage on the battery to charge to "x" max. While AC power being stronger could bring the battery up more. I cant say thats fully the case.. but since the USB cannot supply the power max a AC could.. its possible.

I've got and idea for a little test, would be helpful to see a lot of different users results as well..
Get Battery Graph, run your phone dead, plug in usb charger and graph. then take a screenshot of the overall charge time, clear graph
Run it dead again, plug in AC charger #1 and and repeat
Repeat the process for each additional recharging apparatus
The reason I mention additional apparatuses is because I think my car's DC charger does better than both ac and usb (tho this will be hard to get a full accurate graph of) , also I use my gf's moto charger from time to time (i know bad mojo)..
This will probably take a few days as charging will take place at sleep time for me but this should give us an over all view of how things are working if we all get pretty consistent results..

Mysticales said:
Hrm.. This is interesting.. I used to always charge my G1 with AC power. However past couple days, I was lazy and used my laptop USB to charge it. I noticed those days however the battery life was HORRIBLE! I mean I couldnt even get past lets say 9 hours without the battery being at 15-30% and this is without doing anything major. On AC I always got home with 50%.
Has anyone else noticed this? I am using the power profiler mode, so unless something goes out of whack on USB power mode, which I dont see why it would...
(Also I did turn off phone and back on to reset anything just in case) but its just a interesting thing that it seems USB charges suck?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had 4 different miniUSB charging phones and all of them have had this same behavior. I'm sure that the voltage coming through the USB isn't as strong as AC.

I have the same issue too...!!!

No offense.. but EVERY phone charges better w/AC versus USB .. This is not just a G1 issue .... lol

jamaicansolja said:
No offense.. but EVERY phone charges better w/AC versus USB .. This is not just a G1 issue .... lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed.
Also, USB charges at 500 mAh, while the AC gives double if i remember correctly.

jamaicansolja said:
No offense.. but EVERY phone charges better w/AC versus USB .. This is not just a G1 issue .... lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im wondering, if I use my usb while plugged into my laptop (for tether wifi app) will this hamper my battery life? I have the extended battery (2200mah) and I get far better life from it and to be honest I like the bigger size because the g1 felt too much like a toy to me before.
What do you guys think will this mess it up? I dont have wifi at home so the tetherwifi app is the only way I have net on my laptop unless I go somewhere where they have wifi. Cursed neighrbors and there password protected networks!

Might using a USB stepup voltage converter help? I've used it to charge my Nokia phone on usb in the past so it would reach the battery is full message.
The argument is usually that laptop usb don't output adequate voltage.
Its cheap and works for me on the nokia phone, Haven't tried it on the G1 yet though, can anyone find the ac charger's output info?
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2649

yea this goes for alot of devices.. my ipod/psp charge pretty slow compared to wall outlet, however i didnt really see strength difference.. never tried USB charging my g1

I think it's worth noting I have the G1, My girlfriend has a HTC Touch(Elfin)
Both use Mini-USB Charging, both have 5V 1A Batteries (can't remember mA rating though)
Through a wall charger, my phone seems to charge quicker, but I get no longer out of it, the same behaviour is exhibited with the Touch. Both USB and the Wall charger are rated at 5V (It would/coul destroy componants methinks if it was any higher).
USB's Specifications say that unless a device has special permissions, It can only draw 500mA, with a maximum of 1000mA and a very rare (as in, one maybe two things use it) 2000mA.
Also, I have a custom made USB charger, that takes 3 AAA batteries (1.5x3 = 4.5)
It causes the phones internal battery to mess up, but does actually charge it (just a lot longer than other methods). It's more of an extended battery however, as it says it is charging, yet the battery life slowly degrades.

It's simple really and it has already been explained.
The USB port on a computer is limited to 500mA for most devices where as AC chargers like
The G1's can rpovide up to 1 Amp, even more/less depending on the chargers.
It doesn't depend on the voltage but on the current delivered. Less current equals
More time to charge and viceversa,
There is no myth.

how to enable high power usb charge

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?

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.