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1000 mA not enough for GPS?

OK, want to hear the best of all worlds?

I got a cheap one from Monoprice that seemed to work.

I then got the Griffin Technology: PowerJolt Dual Universal - Car charger for USB devices from a local Walmart. It powers both my Motorola T505 and my DROID, and when doing Nav and Pandora, it doesn't lose any charge. If I do Pandora alone, it gets charged easily.

Another thing I have learned to do is to temporarily remove the car dock holder from the mount and hold it in front of my AC vents for about a minute or two, depending upon the current temp reading, and certainly if it goes past 50C
 
I bought on ebay two different noname retractable-cord car chargers for my and my wife's Droids; mine works just fine with the GPS and music on, but my wife's charger barely keeps the unit working with the GPS on during longer drives. The conclusion: Not all chargers are created equal...
 
TonyG said:
I bought on ebay two different noname retractable-cord car chargers for my and my wife's Droids; mine works just fine with the GPS and music on, but my wife's charger barely keeps the unit working with the GPS on during longer drives. The conclusion: Not all chargers are created equal...
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+1.

hm. this is interesting.
 
I've seen the same issue, long trips with nav or maps running the battery charge drops. I've been meaning to work on a new mount, want to move mine avobe my mirror instead of below, maybe I'll build a mount out of aluminum to sink the heat away. Or even mount a small peltier to it :)
 
true. but for now (as in a long trip tomorrow), i'm still going to use the windshield air conditioning. that will be the big test, since i'll start driving in the morning and stop at night.
 
Eugene said:
I've seen the same issue, long trips with nav or maps running the battery charge drops. I've been meaning to work on a new mount, want to move mine avobe my mirror instead of below, maybe I'll build a mount out of aluminum to sink the heat away. Or even mount a small peltier to it :)
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The Peltier idea sounds fun. Get one of these and plug your phone into one of the ports and the Peltier can go into one of the other ones. Since Peltiers are powered off 12VDC, you don't even need to do anything besides wire it up to a cigarette lighter plug (just cut it off some old car charger for something you never use anymore).

The problem, of course, is that Peltier junctions aren't exactly efficient. You'll probably be pulling 8-10 amps from the battery just to cool your phone. Fans would be more efficient in the end. But less fun. ;)
 
I have a cheap $2.25 USB plug adaptor for my cig lighter and a $1.98 micro USB plug - both off eBay. Never had this issue. Never even considered or looked the mA when I bought.

In fact, I have gotten into the car at below 100% charge and used Navi and maps extensively and still get charged back up to 100% and stays at 100%.

I wonder if this is a car plug output issue for those having issues.
 
It is - anything less than 1000 mA will not be sufficient for phones that have a lot of apps running in the background, plus Nav and other high-bandwidth apps (think Pandora).
 
TonyG said:
I bought on ebay two different noname retractable-cord car chargers for my and my wife's Droids; mine works just fine with the GPS and music on, but my wife's charger barely keeps the unit working with the GPS on during longer drives. The conclusion: Not all chargers are created equal...
Click to expand...

Doesn't mean anything unless you can provide us proof also that your phone and her phone are identical in every way. Apps installed, apps running, build make, battery charge upon connecting to dock, ambient temperature....

I am not saying that you're wrong outright- just that your assumption that the different charging levels is related only to the chargers is fallacious.

Those of us with DROIDs since D-day also know that not every DROID is the same as another one.

Some people have Physical KBs that easily slide open, mine is tight. Some people have had to go through 3-5, or even more, DROIDs; mine is the same one I bought 6 Nov 2009....

etc. etc. ad nauseum
 
johnlgalt said:
Doesn't mean anything unless you can provide us proof also that your phone and her phone are identical in every way. Apps installed, apps running, build make, battery charge upon connecting to dock, ambient temperature....

I am not saying that you're wrong outright- just that your assumption that the different charging levels is related only to the chargers is fallacious.

Those of us with DROIDs since D-day also know that not every DROID is the same as another one.

Some people have Physical KBs that easily slide open, mine is tight. Some people have had to go through 3-5, or even more, DROIDs; mine is the same one I bought 6 Nov 2009....

etc. etc. ad nauseum
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not to mention the car. this reads as, and one would assume, 2 different cars. That alone calls this assumption into question as well.
 
johnlgalt said:
I took for granted that they were sitting side by side in the same car....
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how many cars you know have 2 cig lighter chargers up front :) though I suppose, like mine, 1 could use the cig charger and the other a USB plug in a center console.. IF they have such a setup. But if they did, seems they technically would not have the exact "same" charger.

I bet it was 1 for his car, 1 for her car
 
Umm, unplug from one phone and plug into the other...that would be the easiest, and fastest, way to check if something is working without moving around to another car and adding another variable (or 10) to the equation.

Plus, I have a Griffin dual USB cigarette lighter adapter...

see Griffin Technology: PowerJolt Dual Universal - Car charger for USB devices

So, it's pretty easy to test sitting in the same car side by side. The first method doesn't allow for simultaneous testing, but the OP never said they were testing simultaneously.

The second method allows for simultaneous testing.

Make sense now?
 
The only test of any duration I've been able to do so far is to connect my phone overnight to a jump start battery pack and leave Google Maps running with GPS on. With the generic charger and the (short) Moto USB cable, the phone phone had a full charge in the morning. With the generic charger and the 15' USB cable, the phone also had a full charge in the morning.

During shorter trips I've been able to take in the cars lately, I haven't been able to reproduce the problem.

In both vehicles where I use my Droid, the windshield mount is located high, next to or above the rear view mirror, leaving little or no exposure to direct sunlight. Two times before my last post, I did notice that the phone was very warm when removed from the car dock. This also hasn't happened since.

One other thing I should add is that in one vehicle, where the problem was most noticeable, I have a 3-port "splitter" connected to the CLA, and a TomTom charger connected to one of the other ports. The TomTom itself was not connected (it was out for replacement, which is why I was using the Droid in the first place).
 
johnlgalt said:
Make sense now?
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if your talking to me, it always made sense. heck, it is not rocket science.

I was agreeing with you it was a bad assumption on the OP's part and besides your points, I added that they were not likely even in the same car.

so... we were always on the same page, we only differed as you assumed they were in same car and I assumed they were in 2 diff cars.
 
johnlgalt said:
...I have a Griffin dual USB cigarette lighter adapter...

see Griffin Technology: PowerJolt Dual Universal - Car charger for USB devices...
Click to expand...

I picked up one of these at Walmart this afternoon, after looking at the web sites fr both the manufacturer and Walmart, and neither one had any specs on the device. It turns out that the documentation inside the sealed packaging states that each of the two ports will output a MAXIMUM of 5.2v @ 500mA.

I'm currently testing it with both my TomTom and Droid connected, and with the Droid running Maps with GPS enabled. This is on a stationary 12v power source.
 
Glad I found this string. I had a similar problem on a trip from Seattle to Spokane & return this week. In each case, after approx. 5 - 6 hours on the road, my battery was down to 40%. I am using the stock Motorola vehicle charger (MICUSBVPC), with the Droid in a windscreen dock. The Honda lighter socket has more than enough current available, so it's probably limitations in the stock cord, if it is, in fact, limited to 850ma. Or, heat remains a possibility, as has been stated.

Glad to see, however, that it's a widespread issue, and not limited to just my Droid. Who woulda thunk...?
 
jackburnt said:
Heating sounds like the most probable, and unfixable, solution.
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I've run into that once myself since my first reply. It was pretty obvious that the Droid was too hot when I touched it. Luckily, the fiancee had her Droid so we just swapped it into the mount and let mine cool off. :D

vico512 said:
I am using the stock Motorola vehicle charger (MICUSBVPC)
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That's a Verizon charger, not a Motorola charger. Does it have specs printed on it?
 
Yeah, I noticed that it is the standard Verizon charger -- I googled it, looking for current specs, but could not find any references. Nothing annotated on the charger cord, and I didn't keep the package.

I did notice that the Droid runs pretty warm when in the GPS mode while in the cradle, but it was mostly cloudy/rainy, so the direct sun wasn't an issue.
 
Alrighty, I think I've figured it out on my phone at least... maybe.

I just took a 860 mile trip fron NY to KY the week before last, then back again on Saturday. On the ay there, from the beginning, my phone started with 80%. I was navigating and streaming pandora. While doing this, my phone actually charged to 100% and stayed there for the whole trip. I was running the vanilla FRF57 ROM with P3s 1.25 GHz (that was actually a 1.1 GHz - labled wrong) kernel.

On the way back, a few things had changed besides the car and charger. My phone started the trip with 90% and eventually discharged to 30%. It actually randomly rebooted once in the first 90 mins of the trip. But I think it overheated. After I got back to the home screen, SetCpu widget said my battery was at like 125F (can't remember C., do the conversion). I was also running an extra app on top of navigation and Pandora called Instamapper that would send my GPS coordinates out every 5 secs so my wife/mom could track my location in real time. I was also running NexBeast v0.1.1 (FRF57 based) and Chevys 1.1 GHz LV kernel.

So all that changed was my ROM, kernel (that should have been using less power on the way back) and I was running an extra app that sent out my location every 5 secs. Oh, and I got rid of my Engadget widget on the way back to lessen network usage (was using the most according to spare parts while I was visiting there).

Luckily, 5 hours into the trip, I started calling people to keep me company (and alert, ironic, eh? Hah, it was via BT in-car hands free though :p). During my 2 hours of talking, my phone charged from 30% to 100% since it wasn't using 3G constantly for Pandora and Instamapper (navigation still worked perfectly while talking though, cached map data FTW :D). Then it stayed at 100% for the rest of the trip.

So, with all that, I think I can conclude that TEMPERATURE was the big factor that decides how well you battery charges/discharges while in use. I say this mostly because after my phone calls on the way back, my battery stayed charged while using it exactly the same way as I did when I started the trip (using navigation, Pandora and Instamapper) and NOTHING had changed besides temperature in the ccar. When I started back, it was like 95F out and I had the AC on in the car, but the vent wasn't pointed at it and it was in direct sunlight at that time (when it rebooted too). After the random reboot, I pointed a vent at it and it was good the rest of the trip (still discharged until night time when I made the phone calls though).

Car is a 2005 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE (not really relevant, I don't think, but can't hurt to say) and charger is a Motorola Charger (the one with a clear plastic circle with the Moto logo on it that glows blue). I would link to it, but I'm typing this on my Droid (lol, yes, typed this short story on my phone :D) and don't feel like looking it up and hyperlinking it :p. Last I checked, it was on Amazon for just a few dollars.

Someone chime in on this and let me know if you agree with me or if I'm missing a variable or something about it.
 
vico512 said:
Yeah, I noticed that it is the standard Verizon charger -- I googled it, looking for current specs, but could not find any references. Nothing annotated on the charger cord, and I didn't keep the package.

I did notice that the Droid runs pretty warm when in the GPS mode while in the cradle, but it was mostly cloudy/rainy, so the direct sun wasn't an issue.
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Anyone know the mA of the verizon charger? I cant find it anywhere.
 
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