Charging your phone in the car

[WildWayz]

Hi all,

I have had my Desire for a few days now, and yesterday we decided to go out for a drive, so I thought I would use the Sat Nav to get us about (NDrive).

The battery in the phone was about half charged.

Was listening to music whilst using the sat nav, and when we arrived at our destination, the battery was still reading half charge - even though it had been charging for over an hour in the car.

is this normal?

 

[SUroot]

Audio + GPS + mobile data + AMOLED Screen Vs 1 hour charge from a car's 12v battery? I don't know for sure, but I should say so.

What do you use to read your battery levels? if standard, it only displays in 10%'s so it could have increased / decreased slightly.

 

[albertshort]

I have seem soemthing similar when driving, even worse was that it didn't add charge to the phone, it decreased in charge, but only by a small percentage.
Too many apps at once just doesn't seem to help when you are expecting the phone to run them all at once & charge at the same time.

 

[Johnrg]

Most car charges only provide around 500mA to the phone, verse 1000mA provided by a mains charger.

The phone will eat power doing all of those functions, and at only 500mA, it is only just enough to keep up, in some cases the phone will want to use even more juice and your battery will slowly lose charge.

Check your car charger and if its only providing 500mA then I'd suggest purchasing a better one. Unfortunately that information tends not to be advertised when trying to buy the charger. I'm sure there is another thread on here that has links to some chargers that does provide 1000mA.

Can I ask, did you phone get very hot during the car journey?

 

[pc99]

It also depends on what charger you're using.

The official charger and ones like the Brodit active charger short the data lines together and deliver more than 500mA when charging and therefore charge the phone more quickly.

You can check what yours is doing by going to settings -> about phone -> battery. If it says "charging (ac)" the phone will be drawing around 800mA, if it says "charging (usb)" it'll only be drawing 500mA.

I doctored a spare USB mains charger by shorting the data lines on a short USB extension cable, beats buying a spare charger (make sure if you try this that the charger can deliver more than 500mA though).

 

[WildWayz]

Defo doesnt get hot when charging via the car USB - or maybe it was hot... it was on the dashboard, and it was a sunny day (25c).

Hmmm will check the charging status.

Also, what battery app would you suggest instead of the default one?

It was a Griffin Dual USB Charger - only one device connected tho

 

[gav28uk]

This subject has been covered in length already Just search the forum for "USB car charger" and roberts-your-fathers-brother It all depends on the USB charger you have and whether it is proving 1amp AND is correctly wired to allow the Desire to draw 1amp.

http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/75062-charging-usb-ac-differences.html

 

[jred7469]

I got one for

 

[SUroot]

Defo doesnt get hot when charging via the car USB - or maybe it was hot... it was on the dashboard, and it was a sunny day (25c).

Hmmm will check the charging status.

Also, what battery app would you suggest instead of the default one?

It was a Griffin Dual USB Charger - only one device connected tho

I monitor mine using a coupel of ways, the first is a 1% incremental widget called battery droid. Free on the market.

I also use a paid app called System panel. It monitors battery and cpu etc. I dont use this all the time though. As it constantly monitors, it too drains power - but I find it usefull as I can look at individual apps (if its been in monitoring mode) and compare their cpu usage with battery drain.

 

[WildWayz]

Cheers Dan - will give that a go!

 

[WildWayz]

Well, I tried this car adaptor:
Car iPod + iPhone 12V Cigarette Lighter Charger: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
It shows Charging (AC) - in the battery area...

I drove for an hour and a half or so with Google Nav and bTunes running...

Stopped at a service station and checked the battery and it had "Overheat" showing... the phone was VERY hot...

Switched back to this one:
Griffin PowerJolt Dual Charger MP3 Player - Black: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
Battery shows Charging (USB) and loses charge when sat nav and music is playing.

So hmmmmmmm

I think this phone cannot handle sat nav and music at the same time - the iPhone did it fine