Help In Car Charging

[sheriffjoe]

I've recently started using my phone as an in car camera so have just purchased a lead to charge the phone from the cigar lighter whilst driving/filming.
A. Am I likely to do any damage to the phone ?
B. I can't remember whether I read plug charger into cigar lighter before starting the car or after starting the car. (Something about a 'surge')
Any ideas please. Many thanks.

 

[fdbryant3]

I never take the charger out of the socket and haven't had problem and when I am in the car the phone is on the charger, no reason it should cause any damage.

 

[hatredg0d]

Car chargers have fuses for a reason, if there is a surge the fuse will do its job (not to mention the cig lighter is on its own fuse too). Cars are actually designed for power surges, ever jumped a car? If the cars built in surge protection broke your phone would be the last thing you are worrying about. Using the phone heavily while charging is considered bad for the battery and can shorten its lifespan. Overall this effect is minor and should not be a concern.

However there is something you will notice! Recording video is a very intensive process, think of all the things the phone is using; camera sensor, sd card, screen, cpu. All of those are using electricity and producing heat. Then you factor in charging which will produce even more heat. Assuming you are using this as a dash cam it will also be in direct sunlight, yup even more heat. Your power draw from recording will be using most of the power from the charger, basically it will be charging super slow.. Now after say 10 mins of producing all of that heat mentioned above, the phone will slow down the charge rate because of the battery temp. Now your phone is using power faster than its charging.