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GPS drains battery

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chaz4

Lurker
My Galaxy S3 is very useful as a GPS device in the car. I've bought a little mount for it on the dashboard, and the Google Maps software is very good at finding addresses and planning trips.

The big problem is that when I perch the device on the dashboard and leave it going, it sucks the battery dry in very short order. I tried getting a car charger, so it would be plugged in the whole time, but it just takes a little longer to go to zero.

Does anybody know of a charger that would have enough juice to keep the phone going? Or some other solution?
 
Is it a samsung charger? Samsungs are weird, if it detects it isnt plugged into the wall it drasticly drops the charge current. Same sometimes if its on a non samsung charger. Its the way the charger is wired. Maybe someone can confirm if a samsung car charger charges at the full 1A current (?) (Which would charge your phone even with GPS and screen on)
Or how to modify the one the guy has?

Either way. Buying a more powerful charger (shouldnt) make any difference.
The maximum your s3 will let in is 1A
 
I got a car charger rated 2 amps, and it didn't make any difference. Then I got one rated 3 amps, and still the same.
 
As long as I plug my GS3 into my charger, it will charge the phone, even if I am running Google Maps or Nav or some other GPS application like Waze. It may charge slower, but the battery % is going up and not down. In my car I use a 1A Samsung car charger with no problem.

For home use, I have an old 0.7A Samsung Travel adapter charger (model ATADU10JBE). Right now I can plug that charger into my phone, turn on Google Maps, KeepScreen (to keep G-Maps on) turn on GPS, 4G data, and sync, set the screen at about 25% brightness, and watch the battery percentage % move up, not down. Same thing when I plug the phone into my Win XP's computers USB 2.0 port. I'm watching the battery % move up as I type this.

Maybe something else is draining your battery? Does your battery discharge normally when you are NOT using G-Maps or GPS software?

Last weekend I used Google Maps and Nav and Waze to navigate two hours to the casino, and I arrived there with a full charge!
 
chaz4 said:
I got a car charger rated 2 amps, and it didn't make any difference. Then I got one rated 3 amps, and still the same.
Click to expand...

As i said, a stock gs3 is limited to 1A (or i think 400mA for USB charging)
So a bigger charger wont help. remember i asked is it a samsung car charger? :beer:
Its much more about how the charger is wired than the output current
 
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