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Charging: USB and AC differences

speedycolzalez said:
I'm off to buy a genuine HTC car charger and if it don't power bluetooth and GPS its going back :)
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So, I bought the HTC car charger from the HTC Accessories site (expensive but guaranteed genuine - the site is run by Expansys btw) and having installed JuicePlotter tried it on a short trip today.

Charge went from 76% to 85% in 40 minutes while running GPS and Bluetooth with the screen on full brightness.

Well worth the extra money to get the genuine item imho.

:D
 
Hi everyone.

I like others have been following this thread for a while and have come to the conclusion: get a proper HTC car charger.

There USB to AC converter from maplins that requires the soldering for example is circa
 
Im having a right mare getting this thing working.
Purchased an official HTC charger, fitted it in paralell with the existing cig lighter. Worked for 10mins then stopped working.
Took the center console apart, and apart from the connector on my cig splitter being broken, it now seems that the brand new HTC charger i got is broke! Not a clue how thats happed to be quite honest. It cant have blown surely?
 
nacatomi said:
EDIT... Answered my own question by having a proper search.... looks like no :(

I wonder if anyone can help

I'm thinking of buying one of these Micro DC to USB Adaptor : InCar Power Adaptors : Maplin as I like the fact you can leave it in the 12V socket all the time. Has anyone else tried one and if so does it show as Charging AC??

Thanks...
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You can have mine. I just need to fish it out of the bin.

You need to join the centre pins for it to show Charging AC. Even then it doesn't supply enough current to charge when running bluetooth and gps.

Far better to spend the money on the official HTC charger imho.
 
speedycolzalez said:
You can have mine. I just need to fish it out of the bin.

You need to join the centre pins for it to show Charging AC. Even then it doesn't supply enough current to charge when running bluetooth and gps.

Far better to spend the money on the official HTC charger imho.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply... I think I probably will end up with the official HTC charger. I just liked the design of this one as it could be left in because my socket is down near the handbrake and gear stick so anything too big gets knocked about.
 
OK I signed up to this forum simply because I am having the same difficulties, and the situation is driving me crazy. Here is my story so far;

Had a cheap 500mA car charger. When using navigation I got the message about insufficient charging current.
Learnt about charging current over USB, and that 1A is required (as supplied by the mains wall charger) to charge phone whilst running thirsty apps.
Bought a (cheap) 1A USB car charger from ebay.
It showed up, I plugged the phone in.....it still said USB charging.
I thought it was a fault of the cheap Hong Kong tat I had bought from ebay. (Wouldn
 
nacatomi said:
Well it's arrived and I've tried it. Still shows as charging USB but seems to hold the charge about level when driving and using copilot. I might try and modify a cable for use in the car cos I really like the charger.
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I've actually since shorted the data pins and it still showed as charging USB but I was using a crappy
 
OK sussed it. Yes, I was being special.

The Belkin car charger DOES NOT have the data pins shorted like I originally thought. I re-tested last night and I reckon my test probes were shorting out on the outer metal of the USB plug giving me a false reading.

I opened up a spare USB cable, peeled back the screen, and clipped and twisted together the white and green cables at the phone end. Left them alone at the other end.

Charges AC now! Will be leaving this cable in my car so I do not forget and plug it into a pc. Mind you, the bright yellow insulation tape I have used to patch the cable back up should help serve as a clue!

Battery temp when charging never got above 30 degrees on my 30 minute drive into work, and charge went from 70% to 90%.

That'll do.
 
speedycolzalez said:
I'd ordinarily say that's weird but having had problems with cheap eBay cables myself I'm not surprised.

It might show AC charging but make sure its delivering sufficient current to keep the Desire charged. I ditched my Maplin's charger and went for the official HTC one because which it was showing AC Charge the Desire was still losing charge with GPS and Bluetooth on.
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It's definitely good enough to put charge in. Not really used BlueTooth much yet but as I said I have used it while running CoPilot and Spotify (Streaming & Offline) at the same time which previously killed my battery but now it increases charge at a fair old rate. 10-15% increase in my 15-20 min car journey to work. And seeing as it now permanently sits in my 12V socket as its so small I'm very happy, much better than one of the ones that stick out loads. I mentioned before the 12V socket on a 307 is not in the best place to not get in the way when changing gears and using the handbrake.

Now just need to pretty up the cable run ready for when I get me xcarlink system and brodit mount.

I'll know more about all the above + Bluetooth as well after I've fitted all that.
 
This thread has been abundantly helpful in clarifying some of the mysteries of Desire charging for me - but I realised something else was factoring-in with my car.

The Vectrashed I drive (98) will charge my Desire as 'AC' if I'm driving along BUT if I park and take out the keys it reverts to just 'Charging' (showing a different colour on the battery graphing software too).

This is the same with 2 diff. Lighter/USB adaptors and 2 diff USB cables (including the HTC supplied one).

It's not uncommon for cars to supply lower current when the ignition is off (to avoid draining the battery I guess))???
 
It's not a 'nice designed feature', lol. Your battery's probably knackered, or getting close. When the engine's running it produces a voltage generally higher than the battery (so that current can flow into the battery and charge it). When the engine's off then all you've got is the battery voltage, which sounds like it's low enough to trigger the Desire to decide to draw less current.

Try your phone/charger in another (decent, lol) car to confirm, then get another car. ;)
 
ru' said:
It's not a 'nice designed feature', lol. Your battery's probably knackered, or getting close. When the engine's running it produces a voltage generally higher than the battery (so that current can flow into the battery and charge it). When the engine's off then all you've got is the battery voltage, which sounds like it's low enough to trigger the Desire to decide to draw less current.

Try your phone/charger in another (decent, lol) car to confirm, then get another car. ;)
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Nothing wrong with the car (alternator and battery are near-new) - I've seen this in other cars too, devices which work OK when the engine is running, don't work with the engine off.

The plethora of crap people insert into the cig. lighter these days (fans, under-dash lighting and allsorts) clearly caused many a dead battery, hence the diff. voltages.

I tested the Desire in a 'slightly nicer car' and got the same result BTW - the 'slightly nicer car' was a Bentley Continental GT and it's battery is fine too :)
 
great work with the usb cables have enjoyed reading it. usually i would strip usb cables down to make them work correctly in my car but im gonna buy the proper htc charger thanks to the links ive seen posted on here. been good reading though enjoyed very much.
 
KlaymenDK said:
But what you to are saying is that the cable should be modified the other way around, then?
Code: 
car      phone
1------------1
2--       ,--2
3--       '--3
4------------4
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Yes, that's exactly what I did, it works just fine.
If you do not want to open your car charger, you can always create a male to female adapter that shots D+ and D- on the female side like the one in the attached picture
 

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