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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?
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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
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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
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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.

Faster USB Charging?

I remember on my WinMo phones there was a program to speed up the charging through a USB port. Anyone know of a similar app, hack, what have you for our Heros?

all that ever got me was an overheated phone. and defective batteries

Negrito said:
I remember on my WinMo phones there was a program to speed up the charging through a USB port. Anyone know of a similar app, hack, what have you for our Heros?
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you could try a wireless charger, or use the normal wall charger or get a 3rd party battery.
I use a 3rd party battery, and my phone charges from Dead, to full in under 2 hours. i think my brand battery is a radioshack one but i dont remember, and im too lazy to look lol

If the phone detects that it's hooked to a USB port, it'll charge more slowly because the typical computer port will only output 500 mA. A wall charger typically does a full amp.

codelockdown said:
you could try a wireless charger, or use the normal wall charger or get a 3rd party battery.
I use a 3rd party battery, and my phone charges from Dead, to full in under 2 hours. i think my brand battery is a radioshack one but i dont remember, and im too lazy to look lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No thank you, i dont need something else to carry around. I work next to a computer. it just sucks that if my phone is near dead in the am when i arrive to work it will have to be tethered to the computer most of the day to fully recharge.
kynetx said:
If the phone detects that it's hooked to a USB port, it'll charge more slowly because the typical computer port will only output 500 mA. A wall charger typically does a full amp.
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yes, thank you. i know. that's why i am asking for a program to trick the device into believing its always the wall charger while its plugged into anything with that program running.

Negrito said:
yes, thank you. i know. that's why i am asking for a program to trick the device into believing its always the wall charger while its plugged into anything with that program running.
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Click to collapse
There is no point in "tricking" the device to think it's the wall charger because what you want is the phone to charge up, not to beleive it's charged up when it's not. The usb port will not output more than 500mA. The phone will only charge as fast as 500mA will get you, no matter what tricks we try to pull on them.

daveli said:
There is no point in "tricking" the device to think it's the wall charger because what you want is the phone to charge up, not to beleive it's charged up when it's not. The usb port will not output more than 500mA. The phone will only charge as fast as 500mA will get you, no matter what tricks we try to pull on them.
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Actually, most USB 2.0 ports can unofficially support up to 1000mA (which is indeed out of spec), with the only limitation from the device itself which when in spec will not draw more than 500mA. This is why no2chem's Fastcharge worked on WinMo phones, by increasing the maximum limit on the device.

Rootwind said:
Actually, most USB 2.0 ports can unofficially support up to 1000mA (which is indeed out of spec), with the only limitation from the device itself which when in spec will not draw more than 500mA. This is why no2chem's Fastcharge worked on WinMo phones, by increasing the maximum limit on the device.
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Thanks for the clarification, It's good to learn something new every day

Rootwind said:
Actually, most USB 2.0 ports can unofficially support up to 1000mA (which is indeed out of spec), with the only limitation from the device itself which when in spec will not draw more than 500mA. This is why no2chem's Fastcharge worked on WinMo phones, by increasing the maximum limit on the device.
Click to expand...
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Thank you so much for this post, i couldnt remember no2chem's nick to save my life. I wonder how he feels about dev in android.

daveli said:
There is no point in "tricking" the device to think it's the wall charger because what you want is the phone to charge up, not to beleive it's charged up when it's not. The usb port will not output more than 500mA. The phone will only charge as fast as 500mA will get you, no matter what tricks we try to pull on them.
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I don't know where you're coming from, but the phone will indeed pull more current when it detects it's on a wall charger. I specifically remember seeing it in the manual.

Has anybody heard anything new on this matter, I really hate not being able to charge at 1A from a computer USB anymore. 500mA is pretty much useless, especially in constant usage, it pretty much just maintains the current %.

from less than 10% to 100% in about 30 minutes when plugged into the wall...turn your phone off while charging!! itll charge so much faster!!

This was specifically about usb....

I seem to remember hearing you can tweak some usb wires (I guess remove the data pins) so the phone thinks it's on AC but I'd want to have connectivity as well as the swift charging. Otherwise I'd have to have two cords on me, though I wonder if the phone charges "AC speed" while off (since there's no mind to talk to the PC's OS)

Negrito said:
I remember on my WinMo phones there was a program to speed up the charging through a USB port. Anyone know of a similar app, hack, what have you for our Heros?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup, i remember that too, it was called fast charge.

iviyth0s said:
I seem to remember hearing you can tweak some usb wires (I guess remove the data pins) so the phone thinks it's on AC but I'd want to have connectivity as well as the swift charging. Otherwise I'd have to have two cords on me, though I wonder if the phone charges "AC speed" while off (since there's no mind to talk to the PC's OS)
Click to expand...
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I know this does't work, as I have a cable with no data pins (it's a cheapy charge cable only) and it's still slow on a pc to charge.

Get a USB 3.0 port.

swears11 said:
Get a USB 3.0 port.
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ummm... you mean you would have to buy a whole new mobo with usb3.0 support.

I have a belkin travel power surge protector with 3 outlets and 2 usb ports on it. The phone, when plugged into it, doesn't detect that it is plugged into AC power and just charges at USB speeds. Anybody know why? Will it only charge at AC speed if it detects the HTC supplied Ac adapter?

danaff37 said:
I know this does't work, as I have a cable with no data pins (it's a cheapy charge cable only) and it's still slow on a pc to charge.
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I have a cheapy cable too and that might be why it's still slow. I don't use the cable anymore because my TP used to charge at like 200mAh with it.
swears11 said:
Get a USB 3.0 port.
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Click to collapse
But the problem here is with the software not hardware lol, all someone has to do is change the value of "when connected to computer: Charge 1A" instead of "when connected to computer: Charge 0.5A" (simplified of course)
gunnyman said:
I have a belkin travel power surge protector with 3 outlets and 2 usb ports on it. The phone, when plugged into it, doesn't detect that it is plugged into AC poer and just charges at USB speeds. Anybody know why? Will it only charge at AC speed if it detects the HTC supplied Ac adapter?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it was a stupid idea to ever limit the charge speed. lol
If only I knew how to program or to edit code, I'd so fix this for all of us >_<

Faster USB charging?

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
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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.
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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.
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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)

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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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mA, not mAh

dLo GSR said:
mA, not mAh
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Great find.

Pretty sure it just bridges the data pins.