• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Car Charger that can actually charge

brinky

brinky

Well-Known Member
So every day I put my HTC One X (AT&T) into the car charger and launch waze while driving to/from work. The problem is that all the car chargers I have tried don't charge the phone, only slow the discharge. Normally I drop about 8% on the 30 minute ride to work.

I have tried chargers from Motorola, Samsung, blackberry, sprint, verizon and even bought a 2.1 amp charger from amazon. But nothing I have tried provides enough juice to chargr or at least keep my HOX from losing power.

Does anyone know of a specific charger I can buy that will not drain the battery while using navigation apps?

Thanks!
 
First step, you should have a look in Settings, Power, Battery Status ... while the phone is charging.
With the wall charger which came with your One X you will see "Charging (AC)"
What do you see with your car chargers?
If you see "Charging (USB)" you would need a car charger which will show "Charging (AC)" like your wall charger.

"Charging (AC)" means up to 1000mA charging current.
"Charging (USB)" means up to 500mA charging current, not enough if the phone runs a powerfull navigation app.

The car charger HTC C300 will charge the One X with status "Charging (AC)".

Okay, if you already have "Charging (AC)" with your actual car chargers, try running only navigation and no other other app in the same time. And you might use the shortest USB cable which you are able to connect.

Harry
 
Harry2 said:
First step, you should have a look in Settings, Power, Battery Status ... while the phone is charging.
With the wall charger which came with your One X you will see "Charging (AC)"
What do you see with your car chargers?
If you see "Charging (USB)" you would need a car charger which will show "Charging (AC)" like your wall charger.

"Charging (AC)" means up to 1000mA charging current.
"Charging (USB)" means up to 500mA charging current, not enough if the phone runs a powerfull navigation app.

The car charger HTC C300 will charge the One X with status "Charging (AC)".

Okay, if you already have "Charging (AC)" with your actual car chargers, try running only navigation and no other other app in the same time. And you might use the shortest USB cable which you are able to connect.

Harry
Click to expand...

I knew I left something out of my original post. :) The Kensington charger I bought shows AC for both the 2.1 and the 1.0 port on the plug and I did try only running navigation, but it still drops.

I will try a shorter cable and see if that gets me anything better. Thanks!
 
umm, using navi vs. charging in car, i think navi will win the fight.

When charging my phone over usb through a laptop, there are some heavy data apps that win the battery battle as well. I think charging-in car is probably similar. Although i cant technically confirm for sure.
 
Casanunda said:
This reminds me of a discussion in the Desire forum about modifying a USB charger to charge the phone in high current A/C charge mode in the car. It might be worth a read of it, as it could be relevant, I'm not sure. Anyway, here it is : -

http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/75062-charging-usb-ac-differences.html
Click to expand...


Remember that as well. Thought that guy was nuts! No way should you be sticking any sort of jury rigged power source into your phone.

Wonder if that was what happened to that s3 in Ireland that blew up in the car?
 
Just thought of something else. I wonder if it would be worth charging your phone, unplugging it then running the navigation for a while without it being plugged in. If you then check battery use, this will tell you what has been using the battery the most since last unplugged. You can then focus on that.
If it's the screen for example - do you have it on auto brightness? Maybe try as dim a setting you could safely see?

The cable is important. I had one of those multi-tipped cable jobbies from a USB wall socket charger I bought years ago. When I plug that into my phone, it will say ac charging, but it charged it slower than using a USB port!

There is supposed to be an update from HTC in the near future which will help with performance and battery. Not much help just now though!
 
@brinky, an other thought.
Becomes your One X very warm in the car while navigating and charging?

If the phone's battery temperature rises above 50-55C the charging will be stopped (red/green blinking LED) until the battery temperature will drop below again.
This protect the battery, because Li-Ion batteries are not intended to be charged at temperature above 60C.

This might be also a reason that the battery level wasn't rising on your trip.

I've mounted my One X over the car's air vent :)

Harry
 
coos lick said:
Remember that as well. Thought that guy was nuts! No way should you be sticking any sort of jury rigged power source into your phone.

Wonder if that was what happened to that s3 in Ireland that blew up in the car?
Click to expand...

Heheh, where's your sense of adventure?! :p
 
I have never noticed it getting really hot. It tends to not be in the direct sunlight, because then I can't see the screen.

For fun I switched back to my S2 and it actually gained about 7% charge in the same time the HOX would lose about 8%.

This is pretty much the deal breaker for me. There are so many little things that bug me about the HOX, but I can't have it not charge while I am driving. Since I only have a few days left to return it, it is going back. I think I might just get a Nexus and be done with the carriers and manufactures screwing around.

Thanks all for your help and suggestions.
 
Yes it is confirmed that :-
The car charger HTC C300 will charge the One X with status "Charging (AC)".
So no problem if your navigation map is on.
 
Crossover said:
Yes it is confirmed that :-
The car charger HTC C300 will charge the One X with status "Charging (AC)".
So no problem if your navigation map is on.
Click to expand...

The car charger I was using gave the status of "Charging (AC)" but that didn't keep my phone from losing juice. So have you used the HTC C300 with navigation and confirmed it doesn't lose charge or just basing it on the "Charging (AC)" which doesn't mean anything? I'm not trying to be a smartass, I am really curious if that charger actually can charge the HOX.
 
Yes, "Charging (AC)" just means, the phone has sensed (the charger's jumped data pins), that it could charge with a current up to 1000mA.

But also important is the phone's incoming voltage.
And the voltage could be different if chargers are weak and cables are thin with more electrical resistance as cables of good quality.

Without a phone connected, every charger, even weak chargers will provide the USB voltage of 5V.
But when it comes to charge a phone with higher current, this 5V of a weak charger (together with a thin charging cable) could drop to 4.5V and lower as incoming voltage of the phone, when the phone will be connected.

EDIT:
The discharging current of my HOX in stand by is more as two times higher as this of my HTC Desire.
So I think, the HOX will be a challenge of every combination of charger and carging cable :D

Harry
 
brinky said:
The car charger I was using gave the status of "Charging (AC)" but that didn't keep my phone from losing juice. So have you used the HTC C300 with navigation and confirmed it doesn't lose charge or just basing it on the "Charging (AC)" which doesn't mean anything? I'm not trying to be a smartass, I am really curious if that charger actually can charge the HOX.
Click to expand...

Have tested it with my Sygic on for navigation, and it has maintain the battery percentage level with no draining noticed
 
Just got the proper HTC car dock - absolutely brilliant. Holds the phone well, without a case, with no vibration even on bumpy Welsh roads. 20 mile trip to work this morning using GPS and internet radio and still had 100% charge when I got there
 
I run CoPilot and music at the same time and my charger still does what its supposed to... It never drops charge from what ive seen in a 2 hour journey :-\

I just have a dual port thing I plug into my ciggy lighter thing and a short usb cable...

Oh and Brinky... Hows the White House treating you?
 
You just need to make sure the specs of your charger say 1000mAh (1Amp), that is the maximum you'll get charging in the car because most cigarette sockets only output at 1A anyway. Also, make sure you only use the cable that comes with it, standard USB cables won't allow this amount of amps.

Most cheap car chargers will be about 500-750mAh which isn't enough. I went in many many phone shops asking for a decent charger and they were all useless, I eneded up with the HTC one which works fine with BT, GPS etc on all the time while driving.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom