Battery widget

[Mincer]

HTC Battery Widget reports that it is "charging(AC)" even when it is DC - in my car.

What's going on?

 

[Kicksilver]

Maybe it can't distinguish the current state, only that it's charging/not charging.

 

[Harry2]

HTC Battery Widget reports that it is "charging(AC)" even when it is DC - in my car.

What's going on?

"Charging (AC)" means the charging is like that with the HTC wall charger: Rapid charging with up to 1000mA.

Connected to a PC's USB (or a weak car charger) the widget would show "Charging (USB)", which means just slow trickle charging with up to 500mA.

So in this case, AC doesn't stand for Alternating Current, but it stands for Advanced Charging

Harry

 

[Kicksilver]

"Charging (AC)" means the charging is like that with the HTC wall charger: Rapid charging with up to 1000mA.

Connected to a PC's USB (or a weak car charger) the widget would show "Charging (USB)", which means just slow trickle charging with up to 500mA.

So in this case, AC doesn't stand for Alternating Current, but it stands for Advanced Charging

Harry

Good to know about this.

 

[jerofld]

"Charging (AC)" means the charging is like that with the HTC wall charger: Rapid charging with up to 1000mA.

Connected to a PC's USB (or a weak car charger) the widget would show "Charging (USB)", which means just slow trickle charging with up to 500mA.

So in this case, AC doesn't stand for Alternating Current, but it stands for Advanced Charging

Harry

I think it actually is that the phone looks for a computer at the other end of the USB cable. If it talks to a computer through the data lines in a USB cable, it knows it's charging off of a USB port, and reports it as USB.

If it doesn't talk to anything, it'll assume it's an AC wall charger because HTC doesn't provide a car charger with every phone (or any phone that I know) in the box.

If that software is coded to expect higher or lower currents depending on the source, I don't know. But I'd assume no because the phone would pull as much current as it could.

 

[torieomufnill]

The device must be in a position to detect the type of power supplied to it

 

[Harry2]

The device must be in a position to detect the type of power supplied to it

Yes, most phones will detect if they can use "AC" charging at the instant when they are put to the charger.
They'll detect this when the charger's connector has an indication.
And most phone manufacturers do code the microUSB connector of their wall chargers and car chargers with that indication.

But when the phone connects to a "smart" USB host like a computer, it is able to talk with the computer's USB host controller about the charging conditions (Enumeration).

Harry