Help car dock cable doesn't charge phone when not in dock?

[boatman]

Read all the car dock threads and didn't see this, so just wondering if anyone else has this issue:

If I plug the car dock's u usb end into the phone directly, my phone does not charge (btw, while ranting, i hate that there is no little light by the usb connector like the og droid had!).

When i plug the phone into the car dock, it is charging.

Since the end of the car dock cable looks like a regular micro usb cable, I would think it would act the same and also charge the phone.

If I use the regular micro usb cable that doesn't have audio breakout, it of course charges my phone when it's not in the dock, and also powers the car dock.

In case anyone is asking, i only use the car dock on long trips, but most of the time, when i get in my car, i just plug it into the power adapter as you gotta always be topping off with thses phones.

Anyone else see this issue?

 

[redsox985]

I've noticed this too, that the cable will not charge the phone unless it is in the dock. Weird. I wonder what Moto does that disables this? I just throw my phone into the dock whenever I get in the car and use it for music anyways, so I can't say it's that big of an issue for me.

 

[romshark]

The car charging cable works only with the dock. I guess there's some circuitry in the dock that uses some of the wires in the USB for audio out to the audio connector instead of normal data (which is why the cable won't work with a PC either.)
Also, plugging a normal cable into the dock only enables charging. It won't show up on a computer.
By the way, there is a charging light. It just doesn't work (unless the phone is completely powered off, I think). Based on my experiences with the charging light and updates on my Motorola Xoom, a custom ROM has the best chance to fix it. I doubt Motorola will.

 

[TyrannoTaurus]

The car charging cable works only with the dock. I guess there's some circuitry in the dock that uses some of the wires in the USB for audio out to the audio connector instead of normal data (which is why the cable won't work with a PC either.)
Also, plugging a normal cable into the dock only enables charging. It won't show up on a computer.
By the way, there is a charging light. It just doesn't work (unless the phone is completely powered off, I think). Based on my experiences with the charging light and updates on my Motorola Xoom, a custom ROM has the best chance to fix it. I doubt Motorola will.

Apparently, in a stupid move my Motorola, they decided for the light to be used as a "sign of life." It will only show up when the phone is completely dead and you apply power to it. It saddens me that people get paid to make silly decisions like this, lol.