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Sat Nav and In Car Charging

RussWWFC

Android Enthusiast
Sep 25, 2010
276
17
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I've got a TomTom but fancy giving Google Maps a go when I go to a footy game on Saturday.

What I'd like to know is, will the HTC battery drain with all that going on (GPS/Screen/Net)

I'll be using a car USB adaptor (unofficial) and a normal micro SD lead

I don't want to arrive with a dead battery, or worse still it conking out en-route!
 
I've just bought an official HTC in-car charger for this exact issue. If I go on a journey that I need the satnav for, it's generally more than a couple of hours. In that time, the battery is really gone. Without the charger, my phone was dead in under an hour from 95% charge.

As an aside, the Premium Navigation (I'm on the trial at the moment) is far better than the free Google Navigation - which is still OK, but couldn't replace a dedicated satnav.
 
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after reading around, it depends on the charger. If you have a USB adapter for the cigarette lighter it might not work, as the charger needs to inform the phone its capable of charging at 1A, rather than USB charging which is limited to 500mA - even if the charger is rated at 1A.

The HTC charger should do this, and therefore charge @ 1A.
 
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I've just bought an official HTC in-car charger for this exact issue. If I go on a journey that I need the satnav for, it's generally more than a couple of hours. In that time, the battery is really gone. Without the charger, my phone was dead in under an hour from 95% charge.

As an aside, the Premium Navigation (I'm on the trial at the moment) is far better than the free Google Navigation - which is still OK, but couldn't replace a dedicated satnav.

How much did you pay for Premium, out of interest?

From the answers so far I'll probably stick with my TomTom for now, will try and remember to test out the charger when I go down to the car, see what charging rate I get.

I only asked as my iPhones battery seemed to drain slowly when using CoPilot with the car charger, but when I had TomTom on my old Mio A701 it was charging too
 
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Phone battery status shows the charging :)
"Charging AC" = 1000mA
"Charging USB" = 500mA
> Settings > About Phone > Battery > Battery Status

Harry

Nope. Mine shows 'Charging AC' whether plugged into mains or the car charger. However it does show 'Charging USB' if plugged into my PC. Which shows that the mA levels you indicate are probably the cut-off points. At least, the '500' one is.

I use a genuine (note the 'genuine' there!!) Nokia DC-4 charger which, from Googling and not checking on it as it's plugged in behind the dash) is rated at 5.7V/800mA. I use it directly with the wife's Nokia as that takes the 2mm charging pin, and with a Nokia CA-146C converter cable (see ... Nokia CA-146C Charger Adaptor: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics ...) with the DHD. I use this as that was what I had with my previous phone and it works ...

Now I haven't used it with SatNav and long journeys but at 800mA I shouldn't reallu have a problem. I hope .... Oh, ensure you get a genuine one if you go this route. The knock-offs do not work, or they only work sometimes.

Dave
 
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Just got the Desire HD and wanted to run it from my old hands-free kit which is fitted with a mini-usb.

I bought a cheapo mini to micro converter (female to male) . This morning I plugged it into the converter but the phone immediately conked. Had to remove the battery from the phone to reboot it. The phone is fine but what am I doing wrong?
Do I need a dedicated cigarette type charger instead of running it from the hands-free powered mini/micro USB?



Thanks

Paul
 
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Nope. Mine shows 'Charging AC' whether plugged into mains or the car charger. However it does show 'Charging USB' if plugged into my PC. Which shows that the mA levels you indicate are probably the cut-off points. At least, the '500' one is.

I use a genuine (note the 'genuine' there!!) Nokia DC-4 charger which, from Googling and not checking on it as it's plugged in behind the dash) is rated at 5.7V/800mA. I use it directly with the wife's Nokia as that takes the 2mm charging pin, and with a Nokia CA-146C converter cable (see ... Nokia CA-146C Charger Adaptor: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics ...) with the DHD. I use this as that was what I had with my previous phone and it works ...

Now I haven't used it with SatNav and long journeys but at 800mA I shouldn't reallu have a problem. I hope .... Oh, ensure you get a genuine one if you go this route. The knock-offs do not work, or they only work sometimes.

Dave

Yes, it seems that Nokia does the same coding at their charger as HTC :)

EDIT: 500mA and 1000mA are the max. currents which the phone TRIES to charge.

Harry
 
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How much did you pay for Premium, out of interest?

From the answers so far I'll probably stick with my TomTom for now, will try and remember to test out the charger when I go down to the car, see what charging rate I get.

I only asked as my iPhones battery seemed to drain slowly when using CoPilot with the car charger, but when I had TomTom on my old Mio A701 it was charging too

I have found the Google Navigation very good, pity she sounds like Metal Mickey though, I did a 300 mile round trip, and it was flawless, never lost signal once, directions where spot on and my phone arrived each time with 100% charge (I was using a Desire though, not the HD)

I sold my Tom Tom 740 when I got the Desire, and have not really missed it, I guess Google will advance there Navigation as time goes on, and at the time I got fed up of paying Tom Tom
 
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Plugged in my car charger last night, and it reported "Charging (AC)".

Is there an app that shows current Battery Usage and Current received from charger?

Your charger is coded like HTC so the phone tries to charge "AC" (up to 1000mA).
If the Desire isn't properly charged while you drive with a nav app on, then maybe the charger has a fault.

I think, there is no app avaiable to measure it (or maybe only for rooted phones).

Harry
 
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Well after getting my Desire, I soon started to leave my tomtom at home, as I found the standard google maps very good, then I bought copilot, which I find very good. Now I have the Desire HD as well, and as yet have not tried the built in navigation on a route, but playing about with it, it seems just as good as copilot, except, htc navigation for all of western europe is way cheaper than copilot. I may well buy the htc version after trying it out this weekend.

As for chargers, I use the htc charger, it always keeps the phone well topped up, even when using copilot for several hours, it is always fully charged at the end of the journey.

I also have the htc car kit for my Desire, and find it very good, it comes with a different charger to the standard one, I assume this is so it activates car dock when placed in the holder.

Both chargers work very well indeed. I currently have a car holder bought off amazon, which seems pretty good for
 
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Havent read everything here, but to add my 10p, I used my DHD as a sat nav for the first time this weekend to get to Birmingham and back using the below car holder and charger (750ma)

Modern-Tech In-Car Windscreen Suction Holder: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Worked brilliantly, no loss of charge in the phone, kept it going up to full battery as if it were in the mains. The basic google maps and navigation found my location pretty much instantly and had me going in the right direction the entire time :)
 
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