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Car Chargers

R

Rusty Knives

Lurker
I am looking for a good car charger for my V that can keep the phone going with constant gps/navigation use. Perhaps throw music(mp3/pandora) in that mix too.

I will be going on a trip here in a few weeks and want to use this to find my way around without killing my battery.

The car charger I have been using is a griffen charger that I found a year or two ago (Griffin Technology: PowerJolt for iPhone (original black) - Charge your iPod or iPhone in your car) and it will charge the phone, just slowly and not with all that stuff runninghttp://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powerjoltiphone.
 
I got a generic car-to-USB plug and a retractable micro-USB cable. Total cost on eBay: about $6. That way I can take the cable with me if I need to charge my phone on a computer somewhere. And, I can use the plug to charge my iPod too, or anything else that charges via USB.
 
Grab a Motorola SPN5400A rapid-rate charger from Amazon. At ~$6, it's as cheap as the Chinese knockoff brands but you're getting a name brand with a warranty. I can confirm that it works well charging the phone even when drawing a lot of power with GPS and music.

Here's a quote from one of the reviews that convinced me to forgo the knockoffs:

The "ideal" voltage for a USB charger of any type if 5V. And most chargers for home use are rated right at 5V. But car chargers work in a noisier environment and thus you have the range. This is where a cheapo charger can really do damage, as some of them are poorly regulated and can provide voltages that are WAY out of spec. Again, when you can get a name brand charger from a seller you can trust (Amazon) for such a reasonable price, it's very foolish to consider the cheapo no-names.
Click to expand...
 
Stay away from the small & stubby Belkin labeled ones from eBay.
Bought two - neither one really stays in, easily wiggles loose.
Does not deliver 1A as labeled. Charging rate is just marginally better than a regular USB port (0.5A)
 
Primergy said:
Stay away from the small & stubby Belkin labeled ones from eBay.
Bought two - neither one really stays in, easily wiggles loose.
Does not deliver 1A as labeled. Charging rate is just marginally better than a regular USB port (0.5A)
Click to expand...

I just stay away from doing anything on Ebay,buy from Amazon never any issues,or scams
 
I learned a neat trick about this over at XDA forums. If you tie pins 2 and 3 together with some solder or a jumper your phone will charge at 1 amp. This is how Android knows that you are plugged in to a wall charger and not a computer. It is a protection for some computer usb plugs that cannot supply 1 amp. Cool huh.
I deliver stuff at my other job so I am always using GPS, Pandora, leaving the screen on all the time and it still charges my battery faster than I use it.
I understand that the words of a electronics technician like myself carry little value by itself so please let me show you this link to validate what I am saying.
[FAQ] Charger mod, howto USB fast charge. - xda-developers

It is just one of several post like it over there.

And one more thing. It has been my experience that the power coming from most newer cars (post 1995) it pretty well filtered because of the computer in the car so there is not much need to condition the incoming dc at the accessory jack. You may want to choose a higher quality plug for one reason or another but my $2 chinese charger has been fine for several years.

Just my two cents. Don't get pissed I just want to help the OP. And possibly save a few people some dollars. Data plans ain't cheap.
 
Oh, and one more thing about that . ...
You can verify the charging type if you download Spare Parts from the market.
then go to battery status>power plug and if you did it right it will say AC instead of USB
 
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