My In-Car Charge Testing Results w/Froyo 2.2

kjarrett · Sep 5, 2010

Have been gone a few days, came back to see this place on fire with reported problems with the 2.2 update. I must be one of the lucky ones...

Received the OTA on 8/31. Phone was a little flaky so I did a hard reset. Spent quite a while getting everything back just the way I wanted but I think it's there now. Not using a task killer. My apps: kjarrett's Apps on the phone. Have two 1500 mAh TP2 batteries from Bidallies on ebay and a cheap wall charger. I run each battery until it's in the red (or thereabouts) then charge overnight in the wall charger. Also have a Verizon car charger and a Motorokor T505 bluetooth car thingy. Running Setting Profiles, config for car (BT on/GPS on/Wifi off/Screen timeout off).

I just did a short test ... in the car (wife driving) with BT on, MixZing streaming music to the car stereo, Googe Maps navigation running, Yahoo!Mail active, on a short trip of about 7-8 minutes, my battery went from 9% to 11%. Battery status reported AC charging so I know I'm getting the full amount of juice. Going to have to do some more extended testing ... because I was used to the phone charging MUCH faster in this exact use scenario ... but I'm relieved it's charging at all.

More to come...

-kj-

ONJFan · Sep 5, 2010

Yes you should do some more testing cause 7-8 mins may not be long enough. I used google maps for 1 hr the other day w/ verizons car charger and I lost battery life, started with 4 bars and had 1 left. Test it for longer and let us know. Before the 2.2 update this never happened to me, I was also running older version of Google maps and when 2.2 OTA update came thru I believe it updated my Google Maps to the new version 4.4 and now I am wondering if the new ggogle maps update is not working with Froyo while using car charger.

The problem is car charger gives off trickle charge and google maps is intensive app so maps is using more battery juice than the car charger can input back into the battery.

kjarrett · Sep 5, 2010

Gotcha. Just need to take a longish trip and will report back.

Have to say, talk about screwing up an update. Wow...

DocTauri · Sep 6, 2010

I did the OTA on my Inc. Took it on a 3.5 hour trip, using it in GPS mode the entire way. It started off with a full charge, and was plugged into a Griffin USB Dual Jolt 12V adapter the entire time. When I took it off of the charger at the end of the trip, it came up and warned me that it was at 9% battery and to plug in immediately.

Needless to say, that's totally unsatisfactory.

Doc

ONJFan · Sep 6, 2010

As I posted on another thread, I just did a full factory reset on my phone tonight. I also got the OTA update last week. So now my phone has no apps and only the 2.2 OTA update. Tomorrow I am going to test out the Google GPS navi and plug in my verizon car charger again to see if the factory reset helps resolve this issue. I will report back to let you all know.

captainm27 · Sep 6, 2010

DocTauri said:
I did the OTA on my Inc. Took it on a 3.5 hour trip, using it in GPS mode the entire way. It started off with a full charge, and was plugged into a Griffin USB Dual Jolt 12V adapter the entire time. When I took it off of the charger at the end of the trip, it came up and warned me that it was at 9% battery and to plug in immediately.

Needless to say, that's totally unsatisfactory.

Doc

I hear you exactly! That design by HTC to lower the charge rate so much really killed it for me. It drove me to find a way to revert back to 2.1 using the guide on the xda forums.

ONJFan said:
As I posted on another thread, I just did a full factory reset on my phone tonight. I also got the OTA update last week. So now my phone has no apps and only the 2.2 OTA update. Tomorrow I am going to test out the Google GPS navi and plug in my verizon car charger again to see if the factory reset helps resolve this issue. I will report back to let you all know.

I wish you luck. I tried a factory reset in hopes of getting it to work, but I still had the same results.

mike146 · Sep 6, 2010

this will be totally unacceptable to me, as this was one of the main reasons for me to originally get this phone. Granted, I have to come to love many other aspects of the the phone, but google maps was a big selling point for me to eliminate the need for a standalone GPS.

canrunin · Sep 6, 2010

i have noticed since the ota update when i put my phone on the car charger it is charging but at a much slower pace.just wondering if that is why you are doing your tests or did you notice something else?

DocTauri · Sep 6, 2010

We'll see what kind of a response I get with this letter to HTC...

I have a Droid Incredible that recently took the 2.2 update. Prior to that, using the NAV features worked fine. Since the update, I recently took it on a 3.5 hour trip, using it in GPS mode the entire way. It started off with a full charge, and was plugged into a Griffin USB Dual Jolt 12V adapter the entire time. When I took it off of the charger at the end of the trip, it came up and warned me that it was at 9% battery and to plug in immediately.

In reading internet buzz about this, it seems that this bug is intentional? Needless to say, that's totally unsatisfactory. One of the HUGE selling points for this phone was the ability to eliminate my standalone Garmin GPS. Unfortunately, it appears that a 4-5 hour trip in GPS mode will render this phone all but useless. It will run out of battery, and I won't be able to use any phone functions as well.

As explained, 2.1 did not have this problem. Please tell me your plans to fix this bug, and if not in a relatively soon timeframe (30 days) provide instruction for reverting back to 2.1 or on returning it to you so that you may revert it back to 2.1.

gruss · Sep 6, 2010

Are you folks leaving the screen on the whole time too? Even on 2.1 the wouldn't charge if you were streaming while navigating with screen on an eventually the battery would get hot and the indicator would start flashing and charging stops. If you let the screen turn off it might not charge much if music was streaming but would hold the battery steady.

DocTauri · Sep 6, 2010

gruss said:
Are you folks leaving the screen on the whole time too? Even on 2.1 the wouldn't charge if you were streaming while navigating with screen on an eventually the battery would get hot and the indicator would start flashing and charging stops. If you let the screen turn off it might not charge much if music was streaming but would hold the battery steady.

I fail to see the use of a GPS navigation system that has no visual feedback...

euph_22 · Sep 6, 2010

DocTauri said:
I fail to see the use of a GPS navigation system that has no visual feedback...

It gives audio feedback...

Depends on where you're driving...if your one the same road for 5+ mins, you don't need the screen on. Turn it off till you get the audio directions (or the 5+ minutes are almost up)...annoying that it's necessary, but really not a big hassle.

jrmckins · Sep 6, 2010

euph_22 said:
It gives audio feedback...

Depends on where you're driving...if your one the same road for 5+ mins, you don't need the screen on. Turn it off till you get the audio directions (or the 5+ minutes are almost up)...annoying that it's necessary, but really not a big hassle.

even the worst GPS lets you leave the screen on.

grimstar · Sep 6, 2010

I just used my GPS for the first time since getting froyo due to being on vacation. Just traveled for roughly an hour and a half and in the beginning I noticed it drop a percentage or two in battery life. It would do it on 2.1 as well when I had a lot of stuff running so I just turned it off/on and started the GPS up again. Needless to say I checked again after like 10 more minutes of it running and it was still dropping. Like I said I just got back from vacation... have a lot of people seen similar results since 2.2?

A.Nonymous · Sep 6, 2010

gruss said:
Are you folks leaving the screen on the whole time too? Even on 2.1 the wouldn't charge if you were streaming while navigating with screen on an eventually the battery would get hot and the indicator would start flashing and charging stops. If you let the screen turn off it might not charge much if music was streaming but would hold the battery steady.

A GPS system with no visual display is useless. On 2.1 the battery would get very hot, but I was able to counter this by simply pointing an A/C vent right at the phone. Problem solved. 2.2 solves the overheating problem by not having the phone charge as quickly. This means GPS is useless for navigation though which is pointless.

captainm27 · Sep 6, 2010

A.Nonymous said:
A GPS system with no visual display is useless. On 2.1 the battery would get very hot, but I was able to counter this by simply pointing an A/C vent right at the phone. Problem solved. 2.2 solves the overheating problem by not having the phone charge as quickly. This means GPS is useless for navigation though which is pointless.

Even with Froyo 2.2, I noticed my device would still get hot. Templite reported as high as 44 celsius on a day with 77 degrees farenheight with windows down. 48 is the cutoff point, where the device stops taking a charge. I thought that even with the slow charging, it would at least reduce it by a bigger amount. To me, 44 is too close, so obviously, the slow charging doesn't help the device much, as I get similar results with 2.1. I'm glad I went back down to 2.1. My phone would discharge way too quickly, with nothing to improve on heat-wise.

Robert Paulson · Sep 6, 2010

Hi everyone. 2.2 is such a disappointment, but how they've killed the notion of GPS just undermines one of the reasons for getting the device.
Not that this is a real solution, can the battery be removed, and phone plugged in 'a la carte'? So it's getting power straight from car, replace battery upon arrival.

rsarno · Sep 7, 2010

kjarrett said:
on a short trip of about 7-8 minutes, my battery went from 9% to 11%.

Dude i read this entire thing and then saw "7-8 minutes" and i felt let down!!

7-8 minutes?? We need someone who is going on like a 4 hour trip to run this exact same test, and report back. I wish you would do it because i like the way you write out all of the detail.

Look at all this detail just for a 7min trial, imagine a 4hr run?? haha

Thanks for the effort, but 7-8min isn't enough to even test the temp

But i know you meant well so im not trying to bash. Actually i look forward to your more in-depth testing.

OldMuttonHead · Sep 7, 2010

I drove a 2 1/2 hour trip on Saturday with Google Maps and either Audible or Grooveshark running the entire trip. I probably lost about a third of my battery on the trip.

rsarno · Sep 7, 2010

OldMuttonHead said:
I drove a 2 1/2 hour trip on Saturday with Google Maps and either Audible or Grooveshark running the entire trip. I probably lost about a third of my battery on the trip.

wow

OldMuttonHead · Sep 7, 2010

A couple of other things, I was in a very low/no signal area for the first 30-45 minutes, thus the change from Audible to Grooveshark.. Also, I had WiFi and Bluetooth on and not connected to anything.

DocTauri · Sep 7, 2010

I'm curious how much draw the phone is on the battery in GPS mode. It would seem to me the best thing to do would be for the phone to run entirely off of the USB port, not trying to charge at all, but also leaving the battery alone.

Here's HTC's response:

I understand that you have completed the update for your Incredible, went on a trip, and had a significant drain in the battery after using the navigation for 3 hours during the trip. I know this is frustrating. Because the phone is constantly accessing data using the navigational software, this can in fact inhibit the battery life on the device. I have listed some ways to conserve on battery, as well as train your device to maintain a longer charge. 1.Follow these steps to train your device to hold a longer charge: 1.Connect the phone to the charger and charge the device until the LED turned green with the phone powered ON 2.Disconnect the phone, and power it off. 3.Reconnect the phone to the charger, and charged the device until the LED turns green again. 4.Disconnect the phone, power it on, and then power it off. 5.Reconnect the phone to the charger and charge until the LED turns green again. 6.Power on and use. 2.Turn off Bluetooth, and WiFi when not in use. Go to: home> menu> settings> wireless networks, uncheck Bluetooth and WiFi when they are not in use. 3. You can download the Advanced Task Cleaner and Green Power applications from the Android Market to better manage your applications that are running, and your device

kayatai · Sep 7, 2010

Are you guys using 500mAh chargers or 1000mAh hr chargers? Are they showing up the same as the wall charger or are they showing USB Charge (trickle charge?).

http://androidforums.com/incredible-accessories/68792-htc-oem-car-charger-2.html#post1227435

I noticed on 2.1 that my battery would drain alot when using navigation and streaming music from last.fm, not drain too much with navigation and streaming music from pandora, and charge some while using navigation and playing mp3's stored on the phone.

Fortunately I haven't had the chance to test this with 2.2 yet (vacation). I usually throw on navigation + music during my 1.5 hr commute to work and back (just to have the navigation in 'traffic' mode so I can see if I need to find an alternative route).

ONJFan · Sep 7, 2010

I spoke to a Verizon rep about this and he said yes it may drain if battery using navigationk but it will never cut off. Someone needs to verify this.

LiquidBreadMan · Sep 7, 2010

ONJFan said:
As I posted on another thread, I just did a full factory reset on my phone tonight. I also got the OTA update last week. So now my phone has no apps and only the 2.2 OTA update. Tomorrow I am going to test out the Google GPS navi and plug in my verizon car charger again to see if the factory reset helps resolve this issue. I will report back to let you all know.

Ok, but this isn't a 2.2 issue. The Griffins aren't set up to look like an AC adapter, and a USB adapter just won't keep up with the usage when GPS is on and your screen is on. This scenario works exactly the same for me under 2.2 as it did under 2.1

My In-Car Charge Testing Results w/Froyo 2.2

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