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Help Nexus 1 can't keep charged while using Navigation

bmolloy

Lurker
I have done a search and could not come up with anything about this so I apologize if there is a 50 page thread on this somewhere I could not find. I have had the N1 for a few weeks now and just did my first long trip using the Navigation function. I knew where I was going but figured since it was there I should use it. I am glad I did because I found something very interesting out.

When using Navigation my car charger can not keep up with the demands of the phone and the phone actually looses charge. To me this is absolutely ridiculous. I loose about 1% every 5-10 minutes. This is a new car and a new phone so I see no reason, other than a faulty phone, that this should be happening. Does anyone else have the same issue? I know it is the screen that hogs all of the energy but what kind of designer makes a screen taht can not be supported by a 12v charger?

Just as a side note, I really feel like this is a pretty buggy phone. It crashes at least once a day and I am not doing anything insane. I have very few additional apps on the phone and have not side loaded anything, nor have I rooted it. I really want to love this phone, but it keeps giving me reasons to just "like" it.
 
I notice the cheapo car charger I have is registered as charging via USB by my N1, presumably due to having a low output. My guess is that yours is the same.

I would look for a car charger that specifically states it can supply 1A/1000mA.
 
I have done a search and could not come up with anything about this so I apologize if there is a 50 page thread on this somewhere I could not find. I have had the N1 for a few weeks now and just did my first long trip using the Navigation function. I knew where I was going but figured since it was there I should use it. I am glad I did because I found something very interesting out.

When using Navigation my car charger can not keep up with the demands of the phone and the phone actually looses charge. To me this is absolutely ridiculous. I loose about 1% every 5-10 minutes. This is a new car and a new phone so I see no reason, other than a faulty phone, that this should be happening. Does anyone else have the same issue? I know it is the screen that hogs all of the energy but what kind of designer makes a screen taht can not be supported by a 12v charger?

Just as a side note, I really feel like this is a pretty buggy phone. It crashes at least once a day and I am not doing anything insane. I have very few additional apps on the phone and have not side loaded anything, nor have I rooted it. I really want to love this phone, but it keeps giving me reasons to just "like" it.


I use the standard HTC Car Charger. It charges the N1 whilst running CoPilot Live without issue.
 
I had not considered the car charger being the issue. I will get a new one and see if that is the issue.

Thanks for the input
 
My phone rarely crashes now that it is rooted, but you should not have to root a phone to prevent it from crashing...

Oh well, looks like root is the answer if you are able/willing to do the messing around..
 
Yeah, you need 1000ma with a modern smartphone or else you tread water or fall behind. Be careful about picking up something like a dual usb charger that says 1000 but that total is combined, each one alone is only 500.

I would look at the apps you have downloaded which have running background processes and delete them one at a time and see if you find yourself a bandit.
 
I've got 2 amp USB chargers and a selection of leads, some of which identify on the phone as USB charging, others as AC charging. So far none of them have been able to keep up with the demands of the phone when running sat navigation. The phone does seem to do current limiting when charging via the USB port, the official car dock uses alternative contacts.
 
I had issues with my car charger until I trashed it and bought a new one.
My old one couldn't handle navigation & music going. Everything is good now that I got one that could push more power.

About your stability issues, I never had huge problems with the stock 2.1 but after rooting, flashing a new rom/kernel I haven't had a single crash.

Not only that but I can get by with my battery MUCH MUCH longer now. I'll never go back.
 
With Brodit powered cradle, Copilot 8 running with GPS on and bluetooth connected to my car kit my N1 charges - albeit slowly. Maybe you need to invest in a better cradle/charger.
 
You could probably modify your existing charger to supply more current, short the 2 data pins (2 middle pins) together and it'll register as a dedicated charging port.

Will be doing it to mine (as it wont matter much if I ruin it) and seeing if there is an improvement available.
 
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