Help Charger not keeping up!!!

[IFlyEm]

I am getting VERY frustrated with this phone. I bought the car dock ($20+) so I can use the GPS and I cannot find a charger (AC OR DC) that can keep up with the drain. Even with the bluetooth off the battery just drains the entire time. I have spent as much on freaking chargers as I did on the phone.

I have tried 850 mah, 1 amp, 1.5 amp, and a 2.1 amp chargers. NONE have been able to keep up with continuous use of the phone, let alone GPS. I can't even just talk with the phone plugged in without draining the battery.

I cannot believe that this thing pulls more than 2.1 amps.

For the record it doesn't matter if I am using the extended battery and the stock battery.

Is ANYONE having any luck charging this thing during use?

 

[artcwolf]

I used it for GPS driving from VA to MI and back. I turned off the screen when on the the long stretches of road, heck it told me what to do and never turned the screen on, and didn't have a problem with charge at all, in fact it stayed pretty close to 100% the whole drive.

 

[finndo77]

I was at home using a 2.1 amp wall charger, running on 4g, I was downloading a file (a little over 100MB) while reading email and opening multiple links from the emails into dolphin browser, maybe 4-8 tabs total. My battery charge went down 1% every 45+ minutes

 

[IFlyEm]

What set up are you running?

 

[t35rk]

There seems to be differences in chargers no matter the amp rating. Not all/many work for Droids. Something about the circuitry. Most charges are for IPhones. The Verizon one supposedly is good. Search the web for info on the LG and chargers. I remember reading it somewhere about the LG Nitro.

Edit: Here's the link:


forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1387413

 

[finndo77]

Had this with the GPS on a 40 minute drive today, battery went from 76% to 38% while plugged into a 1amp car charger with the Apple charging chip in it.

 

[IFlyEm]

Had this with the GPS on a 40 minute drive today, battery went from 76% to 38% while plugged into a 1amp car charger with the Apple charging chip in it.

Totally unacceptable! Especially when they are selling the navigation feature as well as a $20+ car mount.

 

[artcwolf]

Had this with the GPS on a 40 minute drive today, battery went from 76% to 38% while plugged into a 1amp car charger with the Apple charging chip in it.

Is that a stock charger? Have you tried it with a stock charger?

Mine was plugged into a USB port on one of those extrae charger port things using the cord that came with the phone.

 

[stef7]

To update the map as you move requires constantly downloading data for the area around the vehicle. I wonder if switching to 3G only would improve the situation. The data consumption + the GPS + Bluetooth (if you are sending the audio to the vehicle's radio like i do) will use a good amount of power.

This is one of the things I will experiment with when I finally get the phone (today). I typically stream some music to my car radio via Pandora at the same time and run GPS with the Google Nav (the coordination of the audio is quite good) - I have not had a problem on a Motorola Triumph even when it is off the charger - but I wouldn't want to go for an extended period that way.

I'm thinking its the 4G consuming the most.

I plan on using my OEM Motorola charger. It's a good charger.

I will report my experience.

 

[stef7]

This is not meant to be an exhaustive test, however I tried running Pandora and Google Nav. going into work, streaming the audio to my car's BT radio. I was using a Motorola OEM Charger (the one with the plastic circular window with the "M" illuminated by a blue LED.

Phone is running ADW EX Launcher, and I've frozen the bloatware and set the CPU to conservative.

I noticed with the screen off, during 20min of the commute, the phone picked up 2% of battery charge (the actual amount means just about nothing, I've only just gotten the phone and configured it last night). For the second 20min, I left it on the visible moving map, and over that period lost 2% of charge.

Now then, for those experiencing their charger not keeping up, I think the phone is going to limit the charging rate of the battery, regardless of the amount of current being put out by the charger.

I might suggest you repeat my experiment, and do two additional things: toggle to CDMA only, and adjust the screen brightness from auto to something lower. Doing both might help. I might even do the same, and perhaps report back those results

This is not a real issue for me as I generally keep my eyes on the road and listen to the turn-by-turn directions with the screen off.

FWIW: I've replaced the Pico voice with SVOX Classic and the American Gracie voice, which is much more natural sounding.

 

[stef7]

fwiw, i did another experiment today, this time limiting the phone to 3G. the results were essentially the same, about .1%/min battery drain, even when on charge.

I've posted as much over on the LG Forums site
Spectrum chargers won't keep up!!! - Official LG Phone Forum

i may try another experiment, turning down the display brightness.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

I've noticed at home, using the phone on wi-fi while plugged into a charger, the battery still drains quickly. In a car, it doesn't stand a chance. I don't think without rooting and making major changes, this battery is at all useful. I can turn a lot of things off, and the battery still doesn't last an hour even on the charger.

 

[kool kat2]

Well this is scary. I've only had this spectrum for a few days but i frequently go on trips where i have navigation, music from sd, and Max brightness on for a good amount of time. Maybe I'll conduct my own experiment and see if it's not just some bad batches of phones

 

[stef7]

Yeah give it a go. Like I said, if the display is off, and I'm running Google Nav, and streaming Pandora, the phone picks up a charge. It's the screen consuming the most juice.

Perhaps at 50% brightness or something.

It's not necessary to have the moving map visible all the time. Generally, the vocal turn-by-turn directions should be enough. So the situation isn't completely unworkable.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

I upgraded to Juice Defender Ultimate, the $4.99 version and went through and adjusted it to be pretty aggressive. Battery life today has been outstanding. It also looks like Juice Defender was turned off during my road trip on Friday...so the phone was probably scanning for signals and wi-fi while driving down the highway in the middle of nowhere.

 

[kool kat2]

Well i did notice something today. Usually on my way home from work my bionic charged about 15% . The spectrum only charged 7%. At home i switched to my gnex. I traveled the same time approx. that it takes me to get home from work. It had a 17% increase. Ask this was with music from sd, screen on at all times and at full brightness. I can at least say that for me, it seems that the spectrum charges significantly slower.

 

[stef7]

Interesting comparison. I think you should post that over at the LG Forums since you have 3 of the comparable phones doing the same activity... could be helpful - I get the sense LG Moderator gets significant problems to the engineering staff:
Carriers - Verizon - Official LG Phone Forum

 

[zmorrow]

I have this same issue with my LGS. If I leave the screen on while charging at home and do not use the phone for anything, it will charge so slow you barely notice...if I turn the screen off, it will charge 10% in a few short minutes. I can do everything on my phone in the car however. I did have to buy the "Vehicle Charger with USB Port" to do this. It is listed at 29.99 in the Verizon stores and is well worth the price, but you can find the same one online for 10-15 dollars US. I am hoping that ICS will solve a lot of the charging issues with this phone, whenever the LGS gets it.

Regards,

Zach

 

[kool kat2]

Interesting comparison. I think you should post that over at the LG Forums since you have 3 of the comparable phones doing the same activity... could be helpful - I get the sense LG Moderator gets significant problems to the engineering staff:
Carriers - Verizon - Official LG Phone Forum

Ill do that. Unfortunately, it seems this is a spectrum problem ,judging from all the posts. I did order spares with an external charger so it shouldnt be too much of a problem. And an ota may just resolve the issue. Looking forward to what comes.

 

[sonicmerlin]

I'm having the same problem. I'm using the 2 Amp charger that came with my HP Touchpad, which I think is pretty high quality and charges my Touchpad very fast, and the Spectrum actually loses power while the screen is on and I'm using it.

You can check your power draw by using Battery Monitor Widget. With the screen off the phone charges at 450 mA (at *exactly* that number, which implies the phone is limiting current), and with the screen on it drains at around -40mA to -50mA. There seems to be a software bug that causes it to draw less power while the screen is on. Of course it might have been a "feature" to reduce phone temperature.

Coming from a Droid Charge, 450 mA isn't terrible, although the Charge could charge at higher rates. I know my mom's iPhone can charge up to 700 or 800 mA. But even 450 mA should be enough to charge the phone while it's in use.

 

[bones420la]

for using navigation ive been using a wifi tether app. cdma only with setcpu set somewhere between 800-1200mhz cant remember the exact numbers... and i use my old fascinate with google maps and playing music from the sd... so far the charger seems to be able to keep up with it...

 

[sonicmerlin]

for using navigation ive been using a wifi tether app. cdma only with setcpu set somewhere between 800-1200mhz cant remember the exact numbers... and i use my old fascinate with google maps and playing music from the sd... so far the charger seems to be able to keep up with it...

Maybe because you're only using CDMA. It seems it charges at 450 mA max whether or not you use the phone, and that running it with LTE on and the screen on uses up more than 450mA.

 

[liteon163]

It is possible to turn the screen off manually while running Navigation. You'll still hear the voice prompts, too. You just have to turn the screen on manually to see where you're going.

As for running other things in the background, pulling data uses a lot of power. Whether it's navigation data or streaming music, it draws a lot of power. Doing both just makes it worse.

I understand your point that it worked fine on your old phone, but maybe you could adapt?

 

[finndo77]

for using navigation ive been using a wifi tether app. cdma only with setcpu set somewhere between 800-1200mhz cant remember the exact numbers... and i use my old fascinate with google maps and playing music from the sd... so far the charger seems to be able to keep up with it...

Gives me an idea... i'll set a phone weaver profile to change the cpu to a slower max when GPS is on, maybe change the gov to battery save too. And lower the screen brightness automatically. Might have to combo phone weaver and rom toolbox profiles...

 

[stef7]

It is possible to turn the screen off manually while running Navigation. You'll still hear the voice prompts, too.

Exactly right. If you can do the turn-by-turn via audio, leave the screen off.

It's possible, some other LG charger combo uses an extra wire/wires in the charging cable to charge at higher rate... I'm looking for postings to that effect and will repost here if I find something.

See this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1387413

Otherwise, I know on LG's forums, the product expert has forwarded our concerns to engineering. We have to be able to watch video or run NAV (for hours on end) on the charger and not have the phone shutdown...