[Q] Fast charge? - myTouch 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I just flashed an ICS rom and noticed something called fast charge.
Just so I am clear on what it does.
It tricks the phone into thinking it's charging from an AC outlet thus it won't allow me to mount or usb storage why plugged into a usb cable.
Am I correct on this?
any long term effects, damage, etc?

From the reading I did when my stock battery went bad fast charge is better for the battery. The down side is it may not hold the charge as long. As far as I know you should still be able to mount the SD card at the same time but I'm not sure I have used fast charge on GB ROM's and never had a problem with SD card mount.

If the Kernel u are using doesn't support fast charge u may fry ur battery and charging port
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium

Does this only work when you are charging your phone through an AC outlet (or in a car)? Does it not work when plugging into a computer? If so, how does it make a difference considering the USB port has a limited amount of power it can provide?

Dragonswithin said:
The down side is it may not hold the charge as long.
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Whats the point of using it then? I dont think one can spare any battery time with our power-hungry phones ...

I would think it is all about the trade off, how much time you are getting to the charge. If you charge if for half the time but get 75% of the battery life it is well worth it. I would love to see what the actual math on it is.

Related

Warm Battery when charging with AC adapter

If this was mentioned before I'm sorry about bringing it up again but with my lack of knowledge on li-ion batteries I figured I'd check with you guys to make sure nothing is amiss here. When I was charging my n1 I noticed the back getting quite warm so I installed spare parts and saw that my battery temp was nearly 38 degrees Celsius.
Is this a bad thing or is it completely normal and I shouldn't think to much of it?
Again I'm sorry for the noob question.
Completely normal.
its normal, the wall charger charges at 1A, while USB charges at 500mA. If you want a faster charge wall charging is the way to go. I use USB because im not in a hurry and high temps are not good for any device (although im not saying you shouldnt use a wall charger, its just my personal preference).
It's normal, mine behaves the same way...
melterx12 said:
its normal, the wall charger charges at 1A, while USB charges at 500mA. If you want a faster charge wall charging is the way to go. I use USB because im not in a hurry and high temps are not good for any device (although im not saying you shouldnt use a wall charger, its just my personal preference).
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Click to collapse
Actually, the battery is designed to be charged optimally at .98 amps. I recall someone saying that charging with the adapter is better for battery life, and charging with the USB cable should be done sparingly.
Cool that's good to hear, I just wanted to be a bit on the cautious side.
uansari1: so it's better for the battery to charge it with the power adapter? Offhand do you know what kind of drawbacks would occur if we were to use the usb cable instead? I'll try to do some research on it a bit later, if using the adapter means keeping the battery healthier I'd be all for it.
amlwaycooljr said:
Cool that's good to hear, I just wanted to be a bit on the cautious side.
uansari1: so it's better for the battery to charge it with the power adapter? Offhand do you know what kind of drawbacks would occur if we were to use the usb cable instead? I'll try to do some research on it a bit later, if using the adapter means keeping the battery healthier I'd be all for it.
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What we were told, and this was in the G1 forum, was that the battery life and capacity is maximized when using the charger, and over time if you only charge with the USB cable, the capacity can go down...meaning it loses calibration over time.
Don't worry about the battery getting warm... the phone is designed for it, and so is the battery.

[TIP] battery swap without power down

I have a couple of spare batteries and tried a hot swap of battery without powering down while connected to a charger, and it worked to my surprise.
handy for charging spare batteries, or popping on a fully charged one if you're on the way out somewhere or even keeping open apps in a running state.
I guess this may be common knowledge for some people, I never tried before with my N1 as I am sure I had tried it on other phones and they did not stay booted.
If it makes any difference I am running Cyanogen 6.0 rc3.
scote said:
I have a couple of spare batteries and tried a hot swap of battery without powering down while connected to a charger, and it worked to my surprise.
handy for charging spare batteries, or popping on a fully charged one if you're on the way out somewhere or even keeping open apps in a running state.
I guess this may be common knowledge for some people, I never tried before with my N1 as I am sure I had tried it on other phones and they did not stay booted.
If it makes any difference I am running Cyanogen 6.0 rc3.
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Don't know if it's the same, but on the back of my laptop battery, it says being connected without a battery may cause damage to your system.
Not sure about that, but just sharing.
thatguyzx said:
Not sure about that, but just sharing.
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Think batteries offer an extra degree of filtering.
I have tried this before, it did not work for me. Phone shut off as soon as I took the battery out. Was connected to USB at the time.
Tried it with a car charger and it turned off lucky!!!
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Appears not to work for everyone - I was using an HTC mains charger, maybe it has something to do with the type of charger or what ROM/kernel you are using?
As far as laptops are concerned, i am sure I read somewhere that it is beneficial not to have the battery connected if you use them on mains most of the time due to the heat degrading Li-Ion batteries over time, but I can see the point about the battery filtering and providing protection against spikes and brown outs
xm0is3sx said:
Tried it with a car charger and it turned off lucky!!!
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
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Your car charger probably only provides 450mAh then.
i wouldn't be surprised if it only worked with the htc charger plugged in. as long as the power is stable (aka won't dip in voltage when something high power like the vibrator turns on) then the phone will be fine. The phone knows if it's an htc charger, a computer usb power, or some 50c knock-off charger and it's understandable that it would protect itself by changing its behavior based on the power it can reliably draw.
macbooks, for example, will downclock their cpu when the battery is removed to make sure the silly little apple transformer can keep the voltage up.
Batteries provide voltage stabilization from wall power, so it's definitely safer to leave them in...but a few moments of wall-only power won't hurt. If you're really worried about it, hook up your charger to a power conditioner.
Works for me via USB but only when ADB is running... if I kill the ADB server the phone shuts down...

[Q] USB plugged in all day

Is it alright to have the SGT plugged into a USB port all day (approx 9hrs) ? I'd like to have it keep its charge (maybe even gain a little) while I'm at work so I can have a decent amount of juice for the trip home and until i go to bed. Or is this a good way of burning out my battery real quick? Thoughts?
Oh and as a side note on USB charging, I was able to get from 15% to 99% in 7hrs with the screen off the whole time.
Is it a slow-charging USB port? Or is it a powered hub? If I'm not mistaken, slow-charging a lithium-ion based battery pack is actually better for its life as opposed to rapid charging.
Its the regular port on the PC not even high speed usb so i guess it isn't powered.hmm guess the charging part is OK..but what about leaving it plugged all day even if the battery is at 100%?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
All usb ports are powered by definition. They can supply up to 500ma (half an amp). Dont worry about leaving your tab plugged in, devices are smart enough these days not to overcharge the battery.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
TheCoda said:
All usb ports are powered by definition. They can supply up to 500ma (half an amp). Dont worry about leaving your tab plugged in, devices are smart enough these days not to overcharge the battery.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
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Coda is right, technically they all have power . If not, how would any device charge? I guess I really meant to say USB ports charge at a higher MA or something for rapid charging (wall-socket USB adapters?).
Also, Coda is right again. Devices these days are fairly smart. I typically leave my HD2 plugged in all the time with no problems.
itll be just fine plugged in!
ive been part-charging mine at random intervals (sometimes for 20 mins at a time a few times a day) and leaving it charging over a day from both powered hub and charger over about five months... though i have had two or three near total discharges
the battery has got better, which is what you would expect from the tech - sammy even provides a nice notification telling you the device is fully chraged
i wonder if they put that in there to account for unexpected battery problems down the line? in any case, ive read that low-powered charging, even unregistered by the battery, will increase the lifetime of the battery and also charge at approximately the same rate... ive seen this with my phones charging over pc usb
Great! Nothing to worry about then. The tab would look really cool on my office desk sporting the same screensaver as my PC ..'the Matrix' scrolling code.
I think it is OK. I bought a 2d adapter, one for the office. Since Sammy is selling docks, it also means that it can be powered all times. On the other hand I remember my Archos which I used to leave it on its dock all times... battery was killed in a short time. When you sell multimedia charging docks it means that you can leave it there, no? Not in the case of Archos.

Slightly better battery life.

So I realized that if I charge my phone using the USB ports on my laptop, the phones batter lasts much longer than if I charged it through the power outlet in the wall.
I didn't take any screenshots because I didn't think of it at the time, but through the laptop I got about 2 days and 14 hours with moderate use and I had 18% battery left.
Through the wall charger, I get about 18 hours with moderate use.
Can anyone else confirm?
Not sure, but i do feel that it charge slower on the USB port of my laptop. Maybe it have something to do with your theory.
Centranly!
USB port can give max 500mA but the wall charger can supply with 700mA (+40%!!!)
I have a charge-only cable that charges over my MBP's USB faster than any AC adapter I've tried. Charges last about the same regardless of power source though...
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
emandt said:
Centranly!
USB port can give max 500mA but the wall charger can supply with 700mA (+40%!!!)
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USB 2.0 will provide up to 500mA while USB 3.0 can provide 800mA. Stock Atrix wall charger I have is 850mA.
How do you verify what mA you're using? Is there a good tool for that?
CaelanT said:
USB 2.0 will provide up to 500mA while USB 3.0 can provide 800mA. Stock Atrix wall charger I have is 850mA.
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IIRC, these are minimum specs for the standards. Could be wrong, but I believe that true output varies card to card/port to port.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Plasmamuffins said:
So I realized that if I charge my phone using the USB ports on my laptop, the phones batter lasts much longer than if I charged it through the power outlet in the wall.
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Click to collapse
I've heard this theory before, but didn't see noticeable difference on my phone to back this claim.
I do agree with OP that charging the phone connected to a laptop USB port would give longer battery life. I have noticed this on several occasions already. I also agree the charge process would be much slower. With my phone, with 5% charge or less, the battery icon randomly doesn't animate while being charged.
That a side, I'm also sure something is broken in Atrix design, be it hardware, battery, or both but something is not right. I can't even charge my phone from a power point with the supplied cable and the plug [UK].
I know Motorola won't admit neither fix this problem in Gingerbread but might do, quietly, in ICS. One other possibility I can think of is that the supplied plugs are the culprit.
Today i charged the phone from my laptop, and im not feeling any difference at all. Its discharging at my usual pace. :/
Sent from my MB860 using XDA
Furthermore to my previous post, I have finally found the opportunity to test my phone with a Blackberry charger and it started charging the phone from the power point. That means the Motorola UK plugs I have are broken.
I'm arranging to purchase a Blackberry charger now. Don't want waste my time and money with Motorola anymore.

Charging while in use

If I have the screen on while plugged in, my battery % continues to drop and the device itself feels kind of hot. Could I have a problem or is this normal?
My battery life has also not been so great.
perigee said:
If I have the screen on while plugged in, my battery % continues to drop and the device itself feels kind of hot. Could I have a problem or is this normal?
My battery life has also not been so great.
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Click to collapse
Are you using the OEM charger?
perigee said:
If I have the screen on while plugged in, my battery % continues to drop and the device itself feels kind of hot. Could I have a problem or is this normal?
My battery life has also not been so great.
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Click to collapse
Mine doesn't it keeps going up, though I haven't tried playing games. It does depend on what you are doing with the device, if you are running applications that max out the processor it will possibly drop.
The GSII would drain while plugged in if the screen was on. You would see a noticeable drain while using GPS and Music and driving. The only way to make it work was to turn the screen off on the device, the GSIII has a better charging chip in it, and it isn't limited to 650maH (from what I can tell since it is charging when using GPS)
I noticed it while using a usb car cigarette adapter as well as a usb port on my laptop. the car adapter is a 2 amp charger capable of charging a tablet. I will see how it performs with the oem wall charger.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA
Yeah I was charging my phone earlier using a car was adapter with the oem micro usb cable and they phone got very hot.
What do you guys think? Is this a cause for concern? Do I need to buy a manufacturer approved adapter?
Is it safe to leave the phone plugged in overnight? I usually charge the phone when I go to bed, but I've the this might damage some batteries.
hyped89 said:
Is it safe to leave the phone plugged in overnight? I usually charge the phone when I go to bed, but I've the this might damage some batteries.
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I'm curious about this myself....I'm leaning towards not leaving mine plugged all night. I 2 have done this in the past with other phones and can't be certain but maybe this is a rEason I had horrible batt life despite efforts to Better it. So I'm gonna stick with charging/topping off when I can. Gonna start just charging when I wake up while I'm getting ready for work. I did notice that when battery is completely charged a message comes up telling u so and to unplug. So I'm gonna follow directions haha.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA
All modern smartphones have chips that control power, and cycle charging appropriately to not abuse the battery. Many phones monitor the temp of the battery and such to ensure a good and safe charge. You can leave it plugged in overnight just fine..
It definitely doesn't like 3rd party adapters. I'm hoping it will at least accept the tab adapter with samsung's cable so that I can charge it at work without buying a dozen chargers, but...
(One charger I used is understandable - turns out its only 300ma. Whoops! But using full 1A chargers wasn't helping either, it went up maybe 1% every 15 mins. The stock charger ran it up fast enough that it was charged from 70% in under an hour.)
I use SetCPU and have a setting to reduce the clock when it exceeds a temperate parameter. You could also set a max clock for when it is plugged into a USB (Computer/Car charger). That could help it stay cooler and charge faster while not plugged into the wall.
I charged from empty to full this morning when plugged into the wall in about 3 hours. I haven't tested on my computer yet.
I went through this when I first got my Evo 4G. I did not realize at the time that the 500mA charger I was using with my Blackberry Storm (horrible device) would not charge my Evo while doing anything power intensive (like using GPS) and I quickly drained it on a car trip.
I went on Amazon and bought a $20 Schosche iPad charger that claimed to provide 2.1A which should be plenty. On that charger the phone would charge while using GPS but very, very slowly.
After some more research I found that some chargers caused the phone to switch into "USB" charging mode and others would switch it to "AC" mode which would draw much more power and charge faster.
This is the charger I ended up with and it works great:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10826&cs_id=1082602&p_id=6766&seq=1&format=2
My Evo charges just as fast as it does on the OEM wall charger. I don't have my SIII yet (thanks Verizon for being the LAST in the US to ship them out...) so I can't yet say if this holds true for the SIII but I assume it will. At $1.22 it's not much of a gamble.

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