Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0

[Nevis]

Just wanted to share my experience from earlier today. If you buy a charger with QC2.0 capability, it will not go into quick charge mode unless the device is turned on.

My phone died this afternoon due to a low battery, and I plugged it in thinking that it would charge even faster if it was not powered on. My charger has an led indicator that lights blue for regular and green for quick charge. I plugged it in and left the room for about 15 minutes, and when I got back the led was still blue and the battery was at about 26%. When I turned the phone on, the led turned green, and that's when the juice really started flowing.

 

[EarlyMon]

How long does it take to charge would you say?

 

[Nevis]

That's actually what I was trying to test when I let it run down (which I rarely do). I wanted a benchmark test from 0% to 100% with markers along the way. However, with the phone off it kind of ruined the pure test case. I will try again when I have a chance, and post those results here.

As it was, it took about 90 minutes to fully charge. Right after I turned it on it went from 26% to 46% in about 5 minutes. Phone gets hot, too. I had it resting on a thick pad, and it was nice and cozy. I placed it directly on the desk after that and it was able to dissipate the heat better, so it wasn't as hot to the touch.

 

[Nevis]

Well, here are my results. It took 2:15 to go from 1% (phone shut itself down) to 100%.

3:44:00 PM 1%
3:59:00 PM 23%
4:14:00 PM 47%
4:30:00 PM 66%
4:45:00 PM 76%
5:00:00 PM 81%
5:15:00 PM 85%
5:31:00 PM 90%
5:45 PM 95%
6:00 PM 100%

Next, I will do the same with the stock charger.

 

[Nevis]

Finally had a chance to do another full charge using the stock charger. As you can see, the QuickCharger was about 45 minutes faster. The Stock charger took 3 hours while the QuickCharger hit 100% at about 2:15.

 

[markdoc]

FYI: If you want a quick charger that works, get rid of the HTC. I purchased the HTC quick charger from HTC when it first became available. I was never really impressed with it. I never tested it like you, but I could tell it wasn't that much faster. I usually use the phone while it's charging. A week ago, I read an article about Qualcomm 2 certified quick chargers and it mentioned a company named Aukey. I never heard of it but it was $15.00 on Amazon. I bought it. It is amazing. It comes with a cord and it charges my HTC One M8 in almost half the time it took the HTC model. Also, HTC has a 14 day warranty (I asked in an email) and the Aukey is 18 months, 2 years if you register it) Amazon sometimes has a code for $5 off. It will also safely charge any other phone. I don't own the company, it's just a great product. Try it, you'll like it.

 

[markdoc]

VERY IMPORTANT!
There has been a new issue with the Aukey charger. I started to get pop-up message saying that "The charger is incompatible with my phone and it will stop charging to prevent damage." And it stops charging. I wrote to Aukey and we are in the process of figuring it out. At first they said that the screen had to be off in order for it to quick charge. I told them that is was charging fine for days until I got the pop-up. I tried to charge it with the screen off, but you can't tell what's happening. I turned the screen on to check and the error message was waiting for me. I'll keep everyone posted on the outcome. For now, be careful buying the Aukey Quick Charger 2 for your M8 until this is settled. Sorry

 

[ella69]

Thanks for the quick update @markdoc.

 

[markdoc]

UPDATE:
Here is where I'm at with Aukey. First they have been very nice and tried to figure it out. As of this morning they gave up and offered me a complete refund. I have done a little more experimenting on my own. I downloaded "Battery Life" and "Battery Tester" to check the condition of my battery. Both found some bad cells. After repairing, both said my battery was now 100%. I'm not sure how accurate those apps are. I had switched out the Aukey cable for the original HTC. At first I thought that was the problem, and it was, but only part of it. I think I figured it out the rest. I use my phone a lot while it's charging. I write emails, play games, pay bills etc. It rarely gets a rest. Lately the phone has been heating up more when I use it while charging. Now it's 103° but it can get hotter. I think when it gets hotter, it stops charging as a safeguard. A few times, while charging, the phone has fallen into a tight space and reached 106°. I think the combination of constantly using the phone, an overheated battery and the extra juice used to quick charge are causing the problem. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[EarlyMon]

I'll check the Qualcomm docs but I think that rate of change as well as charge level could be involved.

You can use a phone heavily enough that a normal charger can't keep up.

Even if you weren't at that extreme, if rate of change is involved I could see that being an issue.

Until or unless I find something to substantiate that, that's just a wild guess ok.

I did have a look at the Battery Life Repair screens on the Play Store.

If you're talking about this -



Then that's astounding.

We know that the battery in the M8 has a 2600 mAh capacity, so let's take a quick look at what that means in terms of voltage -



That's the voltage of a single-celled lithium polymer battery.

I got curious so I tried the app.

It showed that my particular battery consisted of 264 squares using Android's exciting new Material Design colors.

And 4 of mine were low.



Oh noes! So I pushed some more buttons and discovered that their repair would improve my battery life by 8%.

8% sounds like a pretty good deal to me so I said OK. That produced the payload -


And pressed ok but the pain stopped because I never let it past the firewall when it first started.

Disappointed that only 2 of my squares in the exciting new Material Design colors (let's abbreviate that to sitenMDc) got fixed, I decided to do some math -

4 sitenMDc / 264 sitenMDc = 1.5%

Not 8%.

Not sure if that's the same app you used but I'm going to have to call shenanigans on any app that can divide a single lithium polymer cell into 264 sitenMDc and then fix them - provided that I install some more of their swag because they worked so hard.

Which I'm sure that they did. Just not on battery technology ok.

I'll get back to you if I find anything from Qualcomm.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[markdoc]

LATEST THOUGHTS

I am still having problems charging my phone no matter what charger and cable I use. At this time, I don't believe the the Aukey charger is faulty. I tried it on my HTC DNA Droid and it worked fine. It didn't quick charge because the Droid isn't capable, but it charged it continuously without error. What is happening now is my HTC One M8 charges intermittently. If the notification bar is showing, I can see that the lightening bolt disappears from the battery. When I check the charging message after charging for over 30 minutes, it says that the phone has been charging for only a few minutes. I think that the charging port is the problem. When I insert a cable, there is definitely more play than my other phones. If I wiggle the cable while I'm charging the phone, the charging time in the message drops to zero. Here's the big issue, I can't tell if the cable is loose in the port or the port is loose in the phone. I've tried expanding the cable plug to tighten it in the port. It took more effort to insert the cable but once inserted, there still was a lot of play. That leads me to think the port is loose in the phone. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[markdoc]

FINAL UPDATE
I'm posting this to exonerate Aukey Turbo Quick Charge 2 from any blame. It was just a coincidence that my problems started a few days after using it. The problem was a damaged charging port. Unfortunately, since it was damage, it was an insurance issue rather than a warranty issue. I'm still getting a "Like new" phone, but I have to pay $100. Bummer . Aukey still stepped up and is sending me a new charger package. That's a great company. So after all this, I'm back to where I started. If you want a quick charger, buy Aukey.

 

[markdoc]

LAST FINAL UPDATE

I just got an email from Aukey support. They said that when using all 2.0 quick chargers, the phone's screen has to be off, to get the fastest charge. If the screen is on, no harm and no quick charge. I've found this to be true.