Hi all,
I've been looking at a solar powered charger for my Jasjam, and the one that seems to catch my eye the most is this one called the "Scotty":
http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/acatalog/Scotty_Charger.html
I know that the limitation in USB Car Chargers about having to solder pins 4 and 5 to get it to charge will probably also affect this solar charger as well, but has anyone had any direct experience with either this one or another brand?
Can you get enough juice out of it to charge a Tytn / Jasjam?
Don't know about that one. But here's a recommended Solio one for mobile devices with press releases:
http://www.solio.com/v2/
thanks for that link, it looks pretty good as well, if not better given that it has a greater total solar panel area. The first one I found can swap the internal batteries for standard AA's for instant power if required which is what makes me lean towards that... hmm... decisions, decisions. I hate making choices like that! haha
galaxys said:
Don't know about that one. But here's a recommended Solio one for mobile devices with press releases:
http://www.solio.com/v2/
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Click to collapse
Well, just another FYI for everyone here... I ended up getting the Solio Solar charger (http://www.solio.com/v2/).
Many thanks to Galaxys for the suggestion. It charges to almost full after a full day of sunlight and stores 1 and a half full charges for my Jasjam. It's great for weekends away and is small and compact for that extra peace of mind of having a portable charge. Unfortunately, word has gotten around that I now have it and occasionally some friends of mine who forget to charge their phones ask to use it.
Dinty said:
Well, just another FYI for everyone here... I ended up getting the Solio Solar charger (http://www.solio.com/v2/).
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Click to collapse
iam looking for solar charger as well and got two questions regarding the solio. is the solio hard enough to take some outdoor activities (dirt/rain/drops) to a certain level and do i have to solder the pins in order to charge my tytn?
thanks
chaos42
chaos42 said:
iam looking for solar charger as well and got two questions regarding the solio. is the solio hard enough to take some outdoor activities (dirt/rain/drops) to a certain level and do i have to solder the pins in order to charge my tytn?
thanks
chaos42
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Click to collapse
g'day!
It's a well made and solid little device, but by no means is it indestructible... I store it in a ziplock plastic bag just in case it gets wet. If it's raining, then I won't pull it out to use because there won't be enough sunlight anyway (but I guess you could cover it in something if you really wanted to).
Also, in regards to the pin soldering, I haven't had to do that. So far it has worked perfectly each time without it.
It does have one interesting feature which is good and bad at the same time. Once it detects that the phone is fully charged, it stops sending power to the device. I assume it does this to conserve the power in it's own battery (but I guess this stops you from using it as an "extended battery" for the phone.
So far I've used it to charge my Jasjam, Bluetooth GPS and a couple of other Motorola phones and it has worked each time.
If you've got any more questions, let me know. Hope this is useful.
hiho dinty,
thanks for the quick reply. It was indeed very helpful.
I am going to order my solio right now and looking forward to my next trip to the desert in november
cheers chaos42
what about human/mechanical chargers? wouldnt those work good too? at least for short burst charges... u know like those devices u shake and stuff
Wind and Sun charger
Just found this site. There are about to release a wind and sun powered charger. looks quite promising.
http://www.hymini.com/
but no word about a release date or price rigth now ;(
cheers
chaos42
Maplin battery box hacked..
Maplin sell a battery box with solar panel in the lid.
I buy these, take out the panel which is on grp board & well made, wire a diode & charger plug & socket, & glue velcro loop all over the back.
They are cheap, give an open circuit output of 7.5 volts, and can flow up to 250 mA in bright sunshine.
They don't damage my phones or pdas, which in any case seem to have conditioning circuits in them.
Can buy at £15 usual price or £8 when on offer.
I am able to parallel any number of these together for more current, or in series to a cigar lighter smpsu to give a regulated 5 volts.
The panels can get wet, no problem, & the phone being charged stays dry inside a sandwich box.
I discovered that for Wizard/Hermes a current maximum of 1 amp has to be observed up to 80% charge, then reduce to 1/4 amp to top it. For other pdas the current max is lower.
Hope this helps.
Peter
Dinty said:
Hi all,
I've been looking at a solar powered charger for my Jasjam, and the one that seems to catch my eye the most is this one called the "Scotty":
http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/acatalog/Scotty_Charger.html
I know that the limitation in USB Car Chargers about having to solder pins 4 and 5 to get it to charge will probably also affect this solar charger as well, but has anyone had any direct experience with either this one or another brand?
Can you get enough juice out of it to charge a Tytn / Jasjam?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
chaos42 said:
Just found this site. There are about to release a wind and sun powered charger. looks quite promising.
http://www.hymini.com/
but no word about a release date or price rigth now ;(
cheers
chaos42
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Click to collapse
The post is quite old, but nevertheless i will post a reply just in case someone bumps into it and thinks - Wow! a wind charger, let me search the web and get one for myself.
Well, in the latter case stay away from Uniross brand windchargers(I own one)
I have written a review in Amazon. Here it is:
Well, i was very excited to buy this gadget (costed me 30 EUR in Paris ). I bike a lot and this was also meant to be used for outdoor hiking activities.
But..
First of all the lack of any type of power meter renders the device unreliable to the point of uselessness. You take the charger (with a 1200 mAh battery inside) and you have no idea how much of the battery is filled. You can put it to charge from mains, and maybe be shure that it is charged in some 3-4 hours (not mentioned in manual). But then, if i needed an external battery, there are definitely better choices.
Second: You cannot charge your device and charge the device simultaneously, nor you can charge your device "on the go"-directly from wind..
Third: You cannot turn on the quite weak led lights in front of the device and charge it simultaneously (so, for example if you bike in the evenings when it is late, you have to chose, either you use it's light for safety, or you charge the device.)
Forth: in the description on Uniross site it is said "Can also be charged through a computer or through wall plug". Well, it can be only charged using supplied wall plug, no wire for computer charging..
Fifth: It almost has no effect on my HTC HD2 (1230 mAh). The charging current for my device is quite hight ~ 1 A. So make sure your device will agree on some 500 mA of charging current (most of them will probably)
Sixth: It does need quite strong wind to charge, it starts to charge when your speed (in no wind condition) gets around 15 km/h. People say it needs some 15 km of ride to be fully charged. How they managed to estimate that the charger is fully charged - i have no idea.
Seventh: The charging indicator (which tells you that the speed is enough for charging), is placed right in front of the charger, so to see if it does charge you have to dangerously lean forward or ask the aproaching bikers if they see a green LED light- truly stupid design flaw.
Eighth (the most annoying and stupid): YOU HAVE TO CHARGE IT FROM MAINS FOR SOME 20% BEFORE YOU CAN START CHARGING IT FROM WIND!! Can you imagine how dumb this condition is.. first - there is no way to know how long should i charge it from mains to get the necessary 20%. Then, when i am outdoor and lets say charging the phone - if i use all the juice - the charger will become useless, as there won't be a possibility for another startup charging. Then I have to charge till it is decreased to 20% and use the wind to charge it back. HA! there is now way to know that it is on 20%,10% or 30%... how dumb the design and functioning can be... This is truly a raw device they let out on market. Shame for Uniross.
(i will stop here because it is too late...)
I wish i would have read a review like this before i went and got this piece of ... something... Hope it helps someone else.
lusjash said:
.....
Seventh: The charging indicator (which tells you that the speed is enough for charging), is placed right in front of the charger, so to see if it does charge you have to dangerously lean forward or ask the aproaching bikers if they see a green LED light- truly stupid design flaw.
Eighth (the most annoying and stupid): YOU HAVE TO CHARGE IT FROM MAINS FOR SOME 20% BEFORE YOU CAN START CHARGING IT FROM WIND!! Can you imagine how dumb this condition is.. first - there is no way to know how long should i charge it from mains to get the necessary 20%. Then, when i am outdoor and lets say charging the phone - if i use all the juice - the charger will become useless, as there won't be a possibility for another startup charging. Then I have to charge till it is decreased to 20% and use the wind to charge it back. HA! there is now way to know that it is on 20%,10% or 30%... how dumb the design and functioning can be...
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Unbelievable, pal!
I could not stop laughing with tears (sorry for that) with their stupidity! Unbelievable and really ...funny, but sad at the same time.
Thanks for sharing!
Related
Hi, Bin looking at some of the mobile solar panels you can get for charging your phone on the go. Some seem quiet practical and strap onto backpacks etc.
Anyone have any experience with these? Do they work? How do they fare with our power hungry HD's?
I have Powermonkey eXplorer and it is so usefull! I had it with me on my trip to Bulgaria and for week I didnt have to use wall charger for my ipod nor Touch Diamond.
It requires lots of sun to charge from empty to full but it is very good if for example leaving on car hood (inside) to charge battery.
For straight solar panel -> phone or other device it is good for retaining or slowly charging device. When I was on beach I listened music almost all the time and it solar panel kept battery full always.
Remember, solar panel needs sun! Here Finland it is pretty useless except now that summer comes.
Bought mine from inkino.co.uk for 45£ and always keeping it with me when going little farther from wallchargers.
I have one as well. If your battery is near empty it will recharge to about 25% before draining completely, still enough to get you out of an emergency. You should know that it takes about 10 hours to charge using the solar cells but you can use a notebook USB port to charge it in about an hour. I would say definitely a useful device, I use it mostly if watching movies on my HD.
Thanks Guys, Are there any that will fully recharge the battery from dead?
I've seen some that come with a 1000mAh and you can get replacement batteries for bout £10.
Rekon its worth gettin one with a few batteries n charging each o them? I'm planning a trip where I'm not going to be able to charge the phone during the day, so charging a secondary battery would be useful.
If you dont mind messing with a soldering iron, you might want to try this out.
Not sure if it'll work on our baby, but it looks interesting and fun.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/800000/solar_powered_usb_charger_cheap_and_easy_to_make/
At least its cheap 8O)
Vey Nice! Maybe as a summer project just to see how well it works. Might try it out on my old wizard 1st
In the meantime! any1 else had any experience with the commercial ones? I'm worried they wont have enough clout to charge a touch HD
I've got the Power Monkey solar charger mentioned above but it only discharges my battery. I have never seen it recharge as it should. Probably not powerful enough.
How about the onion trick? Will be interested if that one works
Done It!
Hi, got an old garden solar panel given to me. Just hooked it up to a USB cable and voila!
Even managed to charge two phones at once!
Follow Link for Images
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/CarlBanbury/USBSolarCharger?feat=directlink
Hi,
Here is some information on free loader charger.
Free Loader charger absorbs the suns energy quickly and can store it as electrical charge for up to three months.
The Free Loader is 120mm long when fully extended, and 17mm thick, made of smooth aluminium. The solar panels slide out when you want to charge it, and can alternatively be charged via USB if the sun hasn’t got his hat on. Then you add on one of the various included adaptors, connect it up to your chosen device and voila- extra juice! It can run a phone for 44 hours, an iPod for 18 hours and a PSP for 2.5 hours. Apparently.
I've tried the Soldius1 and Solio units.
The Soldius1 is a foldable panel with no battery. That means it's a power source only in direct sunlight., so you'd have to carry them around or leave your HD where you leave the chargers.
Unfortunately, one of them wasn't strong enough to actually charge the HD. External power is detected, and the HD wil indicate that it's charging, but any power it thinks it has will appear to be drained in a couple of minutes, so it's just some voltage thing it measured rather than actual charge!
They're relatively cheap however, so i just bought two of them and made myself a cable that connects the two Soldius units in parallel, and this time it actually worked pretty well I put the HD nice and cool in the shade and put the two Soldius1 units in the sun with a USB extension cable, and they were able to charge the HD up to half its capacity in about 2 to 3 hours. Only thing is you'd have to get two of them and make your own cable like i did.
So even though this works, i didn't like the hassle with the working but poorly built cable, so i bought a Solio Classic as well. This is a collapsible charger that has three rotating blades that can form a flowerlike shape when unfolded. This one does have a battery pack, so if you charge it before you go it's even useful if you don't see a single ray of sun In addition, you can leave your Solio out in the sun while you run around with your HD and charge it overnight at the end of the day, since the Solio has been gathering its charge on its own.
It turns out that the Solio can charge the HD up to full capacity if the Solio was fully charged itself. However, i wasn't able to charge the Solio for more than half of its capacity during the day. I left it unattended, so there may have been shadows and clouds, and i only did this for two days (i drained its charge into the HD each time, so it started out empty both times). Then again, they weren't particularly sunny days, so you might get more out them.
In any case, if you live somewhere where there is a lot of sun you can do with the Soldius method if you don't mind fiddling with wires and cables. If you want a more compact unit and want the added advantage of having a backup battery pack, go with the Solio.
As there is much discussion about batteries, capacities and performance I thought that there may be interest in this item
http://www.directfoto.co.uk/shop/product/Juice-Bar-Solar-Mobile-Phone-Charger.aspx
I have one and it's very well made, gives excellent performance and has the ability to recharge/power a whole range of kit.
And the price is not 'out of the way', by any means.
Thanks for sharing, looks very reasonable.
solar energy from the moon, and any light bulb???? sounds too good to be true. has anyone tried this product to confirm this?
I if were you I wouldn't believe easily in miracles. Since I'm electronic engineer who knows something about solar energy harvesting I can advise you to avoid cheap solar solutions. Firstly, the size of solar panel matters when it comes to current delivery performance and the ability to charge your PDA. To put it briefly, your Topaz requires 1 A of current @ 5V to properly charge the battery (if you use USB port it will take 500 mA, but it won't fully charge - time limit will activate and interrupt the process). As a result, you need solar charger that will have its own energy reserve battery that will be able to provide 1A (or at least 0.5 A) of charging current. You can find such devices on ebay, but they're more expensive than 19 £. Also you would like to have battery capacity ~30% higher than your Topaz's to counter efficiency losses of charging circuits (usually there are two - one handling solar charger's battery and second inside Topaz). Depending on your location and weather you may require solar panel size as high as A4 paper format which is nowhere near the one you presented in the link.
(Un)fortunately in this case: bigger is better
jetbro said:
solar energy from the moon, and any light bulb???? sounds too good to be true. has anyone tried this product to confirm this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Am I living in a time warp or what?
Read my first post and you will truly find that I HAVE ONE AND THE PERFORMANCE IS GREAT.
Still, if you have trouble reading then a solar recharge unit will be way out of your area of operation.
So, in case you had a bad night/morning, I will tell you that it will indeed recharge itself from a light bulb! (although very slowly)
Nol_ said:
I if were you I wouldn't believe easily in miracles. Since I'm electronic engineer who knows something about solar energy harvesting I can advise you to avoid cheap solar solutions. Firstly, the size of solar panel matters when it comes to current delivery performance and the ability to charge your PDA. To put it briefly, your Topaz requires 1 A of current @ 5V to properly charge the battery (if you use USB port it will take 500 mA, but it won't fully charge - time limit will activate and interrupt the process). As a result, you need solar charger that will have its own energy reserve battery that will be able to provide 1A (or at least 0.5 A) of charging current. You can find such devices on ebay, but they're more expensive than 19 £. Also you would like to have battery capacity ~30% higher than your Topaz's to counter efficiency losses of charging circuits (usually there are two - one handling solar charger's battery and second inside Topaz). Depending on your location and weather you may require solar panel size as high as A4 paper format which is nowhere near the one you presented in the link.
(Un)fortunately in this case: bigger is better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a load of total b**ls**t!
This unit provides 1500mAh capacity.
It has a solar panel rated at 5.5 volt/80 mAh.
And it works perfectly.
"Firstly, the size of solar panel matters when it comes to current delivery performance and the ability to charge your PDA"
It recharges the internal device cell, not the phone (who still calls them a PDA?)
"To put it briefly, your Topaz requires 1 A of current @ 5V to properly charge the battery (if you use USB port it will take 500 mA, but it won't fully charge"
It does not require 1000 mAh and it will fully charge from USB at 500 mAh. You are just plain wrong.
"As a result, you need solar charger that will have its own energy reserve battery that will be able to provide 1A (or at least 0.5 A) of charging current"
Yes, that's exactly what it does have. 1500 mAh! Isn't that odd?
" Also you would like to have battery capacity ~30% higher than your Topaz's to counter efficiency losses of charging circuits"
Now let me see. Original battery 1100mAh, charger battery 1500 mAh. 30% of 1100 = 330. Add them together and 1430. Bingo at least 30 % extra. Would you believe it!
"Depending on your location and weather you may require solar panel size as high as A4 paper format which is nowhere near the one you presented in the link"
Yes here I have to agree, especially in the rainy parts of the world you would get you A4 paper format all soggy. It's just a blessing that they haven't developed a paper solar panel
"Since I'm electronic engineer"
With all the respect that's due, I don't think so!
In any case it's electronics engineer.
The correct form is Ah and mAh.
.5 A should be 500 mAh etc etc.
Here is a link for the JuiceBar for US buyers: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/c5a7/?cpg=froogle
$49 US
pa49 said:
I will tell you that it will indeed recharge itself from a light bulb! (although very slowly)
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relax grumpy, i was hoping to get someone elses opinion on the product since two reviews are better than one. but since you're the only one responding, what did you mean by "very slowly". i live in michigan, so that means that we get sunlight 3 days out of the year. so, the only way i can charge my cell phone is through light coming from a light bulb. my question is, if it takes me about two hours to fully charge my phone using a wall outlet, how long will it take me to fully charge it using this product and an average 75w light bulb? please don't give me an insulting answer because it's not very helpful to this forum..... and it hurts my feelings
jetbro said:
relax grumpy, i was hoping to get someone elses opinion on the product since two reviews are better than one. but since you're the only one responding, what did you mean by "very slowly". i live in michigan, so that means that we get sunlight 3 days out of the year. so, the only way i can charge my cell phone is through light coming from a light bulb. my question is, if it takes me about two hours to fully charge my phone using a wall outlet, how long will it take me to fully charge it using this product and an average 75w light bulb? please don't give me an insulting answer because it's not very helpful to this forum..... and it hurts my feelings
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Far longer than is practical. I only pointed that out to burst the myths in previous post above.
pa49 said:
What a load of total b**ls**t!
This unit provides 1500mAh capacity.
It has a solar panel rated at 5.5 volt/80 mAh.
And it works perfectly.
"Firstly, the size of solar panel matters when it comes to current delivery performance and the ability to charge your PDA"
It recharges the internal device cell, not the phone (who still calls them a PDA?) and who said that I can't? / Nol
"To put it briefly, your Topaz requires 1 A of current @ 5V to properly charge the battery (if you use USB port it will take 500 mA, but it won't fully charge"
It does not require 1000 mAh and it will fully charge from USB at 500 mAh. You are just plain wrong. current is expressed in AMPERS !!
"As a result, you need solar charger that will have its own energy reserve battery that will be able to provide 1A (or at least 0.5 A) of charging current"
Yes, that's exactly what it does have. 1500 mAh! Isn't that odd?
" Also you would like to have battery capacity ~30% higher than your Topaz's to counter efficiency losses of charging circuits"
Now let me see. Original battery 1100mAh, charger battery 1500 mAh. 30% of 1100 = 330. Add them together and 1430. Bingo at least 30 % extra. Would you believe it!
"Depending on your location and weather you may require solar panel size as high as A4 paper format which is nowhere near the one you presented in the link"
Yes here I have to agree, especially in the rainy parts of the world you would get you A4 paper format all soggy. It's just a blessing that they haven't developed a paper solar panel
"Since I'm electronic engineer"
With all the respect that's due, I don't think so! I'm glad such people as you don't find their ways to universities to teach
In any case it's electronics engineer.
The correct form is Ah and mAh. lol
.5 A should be 500 mAh etc etc.
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Click to collapse
If you knew anything about battery charging (especially Li-Ion) we could continue this discussion, but you simply don't. Every word I wrote is valid, especially electrical units you mentioned. Topic closed from my side.
P.S.
I really recommend using wikipedia to find out what's the difference between current and electric charge that is expressed in Coulombs or Ah...
xttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_current
There's a lot of Solar power/USB charged external Li-ion battery solutions out there these days ....
I've tried a few of them and have had mixed experiences with them...
I have actually got a product like the Juicebar from Dealextreme and it was okay, with Solar Panels size does matter though, The solar panel on the juicebar WILL charge up the internal Li-ion battery but with a quick napkin calcuation it will take approx 20 hours of direct strong sunlight to charge up.
(Remember that a lot of these devices are designed as 'last resort' just to provide the power to get that ONE call out and you don't need a full charge for that)
I just usually use the USB charging feature and charge it up via a mains adapter or from a PC to charge the devices up.
My favourite at this moment is the Powermonkey Explorer, BIG Li-ion (2000mAh I'm guessing a 18650 cell) battery and decent size.... and the Solar Slave DOES charge my TD2 directly in the nice Aussie Sun
I've also had some luck with the Solio as well.
Of course there is the handcrank generators or the Hy-Mini wind powered ones as well... I'd just prefer to carry a retractable USB cable to charge off the nearest PC...
I did something completely different. I had a flood light outside that did not want any more. The floodlight came with a solar panel the size of a standard dvd case that was used with a battery for night time.
I got a 5.5V resistor and hooked it up since output was 12V, painted it black made it look nice, glued some cloth with magnets underneath it so it could stick to a car or anything without scratching it.
Works great, charges a dead battery in 2 hours.
The device posted by the pa49, without having any specs listed and simply going off the price, is garbage. Energy from moon light and light bulbs? Seriously? yes maybe a few ma but nothing usable. A solar panel that fits in your pocket would be lucky to be 0.25W. To be able to reliably charge the average PDA/Smartphone youll need at least a 5W panel (5V 1A) as stated by Nol, who BTW does know what hes talking about...
Hey guys,
I'm in a very unfortunate but serious situation here.
My X10 outright refuses to charge via the power point ( please see: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1054455 ). And, now, I'm using the EWJet ROM with Zdzihu's custom kernel. My battery is at 0% (charging is a pain, really slow - also, I don't think it's calibrated properly), and, since I'm using this kernel, I cannot off-line charge!
So, I'm looking for an alternative how to charge my battery. Would cutting my cable and matching the positive and active wire's to the battery's positive and negative terminal's be sufficient? If so, how long should I keep it there for at least some charge to get my battery up enough to start my device?
Thanks guys,
Regards,
Mayazcherquoi.
I wouldn't rly suggest cutting the wires since the x10 has internal circuitry that protects the battery, the battery itself should have circuitry too if memory serves right. You could do it if you know what your doing but Li-On batteries tend to be explosive if you don't know what you're doing. If you push for this method I'd suggest having a voltmeter close to check the battery and charger voltage before starting.
You could try finding a wireless charge pad compatible for the x10 if repairing the phone isn't possible. Since you mentioned cutting the cable and matching the wire and such I figure you're handy. So why not try replacing the micro usb connector? I mean its already busted anyway.
EDIT: Charge pad like this http://store.androidandme.com/sony-ericsson-xperia-x10-powermat.htm , hopefully you can find something cheaper :S
kindred7 said:
I wouldn't rly suggest cutting the wires since the x10 has internal circuitry that protects the battery, the battery itself should have circuitry too if memory serves right. You could do it if you know what your doing but Li-On batteries tend to be explosive if you don't know what you're doing. If you push for this method I'd suggest having a voltmeter close to check the battery and charger voltage before starting.
You could try finding a wireless charge pad compatible for the x10 if repairing the phone isn't possible. Since you mentioned cutting the cable and matching the wire and such I figure you're handy. So why not try replacing the micro usb connector? I mean its already busted anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thing is, I don't really have the parts :-/ And I kind of need this up and running by tonight I cut the wires from an old Motorola phone charger (unable to determine which is positive and negative) which details at OUTPUT: 5.0V - 550mA, and practising on an old O2 Graphite Lithium Ion battery (to no avail ) which outputs at 3.7V - 1100mAh.
So far, no explosions. Is this okay to practice on?
Thank you.
Use a voltemeter to determine the polarity. The old phone battery circuitry may be refusing to charge since the battery may have dipped below the minimum allowed voltage to prevent any danger. Since you've gone this far I suppose it won't hurt to see if you can get it going, check the polarity first of the charger though.
Explosions only happen at the instant of trying to charge a dead li-ion without circuitry or trickle charge and also in the event of excessive current which would be heat related.
kindred7 said:
Use a voltemeter to determine the polarity. The old phone battery circuitry may be refusing to charge since the battery may have dipped below the minimum allowed voltage to prevent any danger. Since you've gone this far I suppose it won't hurt to see if you can get it going, check the polarity first of the charger though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thing is, I don't have a voltmeter
Is there absolutely no visual difference between the wires? Post A picture.
Hmm... I'd guess this question will return a no as an answer but, do you have an LED handy that you could use in series with a resistor as a visual aid?
kindred7 said:
Is there absolutely no visual difference between the wires? Post A picture.
Hmm... I'd guess this question will return a no as an answer but, do you have an LED handy that you could use in series with a resistor as a visual aid?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I don't have an LED, but I have a motor. Depending on how I connect it, it will spin either clockwise or counter-clockwise (I think). How could I determine the positive and negative from that?
And no, the wires of the Motorola Charger were split, and both coloured black. Inside the black insulation, however, is just the standard copper colour.
This is the best illustration I could find: http://mohitjoshi999.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/080609_0658_dcmotorinte2.png
Clockwise has the positive at the top of the motor, assuming the rotor faces out (The page didnt specify but I would think that would make more sense).
Hope that helps.
EDIT: By rotor I mean the shaft.
kindred7 said:
This is the best illustration I could find: http://mohitjoshi999.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/080609_0658_dcmotorinte2.png
Clockwise has the positive at the top of the motor, assuming the rotor faces out (The page didnt specify but I would think that would make more sense).
Hope that helps.
EDIT: By rotor I mean the shaft.
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Click to collapse
I don't know, I'm kind of doubting it changes sides now since it's too fast.
By that diagram, I think I've found which is which. Still quite uncertain though.
If it's a typical dc motor it will change as you alter polarity.
If you have paper clips you can wrap two on the rotor, if they are different colour it would be even better. That way you could decern what direction it's turning.
kindred7 said:
If it's a typical dc motor it will change as you alter polarity.
If you have paper clips you can wrap two on the rotor, if they are different colour it would be even better. That way you could decern what direction it's turning.
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Good idea.
Okay, I think I've got it. I've marked the negative (black wire) with some sticky tape.
What now?
Also, thank you so much
Since you have the polarity figured you you could go ahead and try it again on the old battery just to be sure if it can give you any indication of charging. If not try it on the xperia battery. Id suggest monitoring the temperature of the battery while charging by sense of touch, if it feels hot pull it off and let it cool before continuing.
The xperia battery is 5.4 Whr and the power going into the battery is 2.75W, so it should take 1.96 hrs to fully charge, assuming max current. So about 59 minutes will give you 50%.
EDIT: I used the xperia charger power instead of the one you're using
best thing to do is charge it in the car. rev the engine or get it up to 180km/h and that should cause it to start charging and since you have the custom kernel, it will turn on and continue charging. I hope it works, I had the same problem
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Anyone find a charger that can actually charge the phone while using the GPS? I have a modified charger with the center pins tacked together and the Samsung genuine car charger, neither of which can keep up with the drain.
Anyone have positive evidence that their charging solution will at least maintain battery life while GPS + screen are running?
I'm at a loss and tired of spending money on chargers that aren't up to the task.
Thank you.
I have the Samsung car mount that comes with a Samsung car charger. Not sure if that's the same charger you have, but I've used it on a road trip so far and it definitely maintains and charges a little. 14 hours of driving btw.
I attempted to call Samsung Accessory support this morning to find out if that charger is different than the basic charger and they were giving me the run around. I didn't want to spend $XX on another charger unless I knew it had a higher output.
Can you give me the spec's on it?
I know the basic samsung charger only puts out 750mA.
I have used numerous chargers in the car while running GPS and none of them actually seem to charge the device; they just keep it "treading water".
Truth is, with the screen size being what it is, and likely both cores firing at full capacity, I don't think it's entirely realistic to expect the thing to charge while doing something so data intensive as GPS; especially, when you consider that your data signal can and will vary WILDLY while driving through different places, which absolutely and invariably will stress the battery even further, contributing to drain whether plugged in or not. That's a lot of work for a relatively small device to handle.
Just my $.02 coming from a mix of experience and common sense.
-Ryan
Guy above you says that his does.
Hell, I'd be happy with treading water, way better than the steep downhill fall I've got going on.
Can limit processor speed by throttling it manually with my OC kernel or by enabling the saving mode the phone has innately. Can reduce data by switching off 4G.
It doesn't need those things to run as a GPS. The GPS itself doesn't seem to eat much battery at all but I realize the screen is huge. However, how can this be a viable device if we can't figure out a way to make it WORK?
I hope that camaroz28 can get back to me on this.
fellstar said:
I attempted to call Samsung Accessory support this morning to find out if that charger is different than the basic charger and they were giving me the run around. I didn't want to spend $XX on another charger unless I knew it had a higher output.
Can you give me the spec's on it?
I know the basic samsung charger only puts out 750mA.
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There is no writing on it at all so I have no idea what it's output current is.
As an aside, I've heard of a lot of people just getting a small DC->AC converter and then using the original wall charge adapter to charge in the car.
There are two very good posts about this very topic.
This one recommends a charger:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538341
It also has a link in the OP to the other post about charging the Note.
camaroz28 said:
There is no writing on it at all so I have no idea what it's output current is.
As an aside, I've heard of a lot of people just getting a small DC->AC converter and then using the original wall charge adapter to charge in the car.
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You can confirm that your phone will charge, albeit slowly, with the provided adapter that comes with the Nav mount?
I'm not a big fan out DC to AC car adapters.
lactardjosh said:
There are two very good posts about this very topic.
This one recommends a charger:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538341
It also has a link in the OP to the other post about charging the Note.
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Only did a couple quick searches for "GPS Charging" before making this thread, and didn't find that one!
Thank you guys.
fellstar said:
You can confirm that your phone will charge, albeit slowly, with the provided adapter that comes with the Nav mount?
I'm not a big fan out DC to AC car adapters.
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Yes, after driving for 7 hours, my batter went from something like 52% to 60%. Don't remember the exact numbers, but it went up. This was while switching between google navigation and an app called "GPS HUD" with Pandora running in the background. Data was mostly HSPA/HSPA+ except for the beginning and end of the trip where I was in LTE cities.
camaroz28 said:
Yes, after driving for 7 hours, my batter went from something like 52% to 60%. Don't remember the exact numbers, but it went up. This was while switching between google navigation and an app called "GPS HUD" with Pandora running in the background. Data was mostly HSPA/HSPA+ except for the beginning and end of the trip where I was in LTE cities.
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Thanks again Camaroz28.
Maintain a fully charged spare battery in auto
Tried about every auto charging fix I could find on this forum. Still get about 2% per hour discharge. I'm routinely in and out of my car 8-10 hours a day so end up with a dead battery. My fix (not elegant but works) is to maintain a fully charged spare battery in my van using a charger for extra batteries.
Of course could not do this with my iphone which is now relegated to my grandkids for games and music.
I love this forum. Great help to me.
yogidad said:
Tried about every auto charging fix I could find on this forum. Still get about 2% per hour discharge. I'm routinely in and out of my car 8-10 hours a day so end up with a dead battery. My fix (not elegant but works) is to maintain a fully charged spare battery in my van using a charger for extra batteries.
Of course could not do this with my iphone which is now relegated to my grandkids for games and music.
I love this forum. Great help to me.
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Same, I actually have 3 spare batteries and a spare battery charger. I don't want to have to fool with changing my battery in the car though. I've already ordered the charger from the other thread, should have it by Saturday to try that puppy out.
I'm an engineer, and I travel quite a bit.
The GPS software you use makes a huge difference. If you want the phone to charge, don't use Waze. During a test one day, Waze plugged in drained more battery than Navigon did while unplugged. Mine charges with Navigon and Pandora running simultaneously. I haven't tested Google Navigation yet, I'm going to do that today. The charger I use is a 2.1A Belkin AutoCharger made for iPhones. I'm using a USB extension cable with manually shorted data pins. I get 800-something mA out of it, unfortunately not the full 1000 the stock wall charger puts out. Running an inverter in the car with the stock charger I can get Waze to charge, but that's just not worth it for me. Too much gear in the just to charge a phone.
Ok so this is a quick review of a desktop usb charger that I've been using for the past week.
The device is the Choetech Multi Port Desktop Charger.
So I figure I would get to point first then going further into details
THE BOTTOM LINE:
This device is not for everyone, but if it is for you, you'll love it with a personal rating of 4.5/5.0
Pros
The device is light weight and easy to travel with.
The device have a total of 6 charging ports 2 of which support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 .
The device have a real nice matte finish.
and my favorite, the device ports are all real nice and snug, so there is no chance of accidental unplugging.
Cons
Unfortunately, the only major con I found with it was the price.
**As an after thought** It would have been nice if the auto detect tech work on all 6 ports not just standard ports. (If my understanding if correct)
Performance?
The device have a total of 6 ports with an output of 5V/9V/12V with the 12V being reserved for only the 2 quick charge port. The 4 standard ports on the device boast Choetech "Auto Detect" Technology meaning that it can automatically detect the max voltage for your device and output accordingly.
But if you're buying this device for it's QC technology you're probably more interested in the how well it perform compared to other quick chargers?
For my testing I used my Nexus 6 with CleanRom, and the stock usb cable that came with the phone, I also compared the Choetech device against the stock adapter that came with my Nexus 6.
To ensure a fair and relatively accurate results I followed the following procedures for both chargers 3 times to ensure no unusual data.
I drained my phone completely until it auto shut off, charged the device for exactly 30 seconds to ensure enough power to turn the device on.
I then place my phone in airplane mode and cleared all recently used apps.
I used the Playstore app Battery Monitor Widget in order to take a min by min reading of the charging process.
Finally I charged the device for exactly 10 mins (I went with 10 mins because the purpose of Qualcomm QC technology is to get as much juice in the least amount of time)
Results?
Unfortunately, the stock charge narrowly beat out the Choetech by an average of 1% for a ten minute charge(Choetecht charged 13% in 10 mins the stock 14% all three times the test was conducted), however Choetech beat the stock charger with an average of 2-3 degree Celsius less battery temp during that 10 min charge times (I think this is a bit more important considering the narrow gap in percentage charge considering the fact that battery temp have a direct effect on the lifespan of batteries.) Also if you care both the Choetech and stock charger took just under 2hrs 15min for a complete charge.
Usefulness?
This is why this device is not for everyone. Choetech market the device as a replacement phone charger, which if you intend to use it solely for that purpose and you only have 1 phone in your possession, there is no justification for purchasing this device.
However, if you're like me and you have several a bunch of peripherals like that doesn't require a data connection then this is perfect for you. Another example where I've personally used it in the past week was when I had guest over instead of everyone trying to find an outlet to plug there phones up I just plug this device in a central location that everyone could easily access... My wife have the S6 Edge and now we both can use QC tech at the same time without her annoying unplugging my phone , and finally I had a FTX with my Army Reserve Unit this week as well, and if you every had to sleep in a tent with 20 other people then you know how scarce an outlet is to charge your phone... but with this 6 people were able to charge up at any giving time.
Conclusion
So there you have my complete review of the Choetech Desktop Charger. Decided for yourself if its something for or not. Also keep in mind that your miles may vary as no 2 device is the same even if they were constructed the same.
If you like a video review to accompany this writing review just let me know
Bought two of these. It's just okay
Once the Nexus 6 reaches ~70% the Quick Charge port refuses to charge my Nexus 6 anymore. If I move it to one of the other 4 ports it will keep charging.
metaphz said:
Bought two of these. It's just okay
Once the Nexus 6 reaches ~70% the Quick Charge port refuses to charge my Nexus 6 anymore. If I move it to one of the other 4 ports it will keep charging.
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Sorry but can't say I experience the same issue. I was able to fully charge my Nexus 6 with the qc ports. My wife is also able to fully charge her S6E as well, but like i said "your miles may vary"
omg your yellow font is killing my eyes.
bradputt said:
omg your yellow font is killing my eyes.
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lol better?
Love this.. I have 2. 1 on my desk and one in my suit case for travel. It saves space and plugs and charged all my. Devices quickly. Was excited to try it again given the 1st time I purchased one, the device short circuited and never worked again. Since I liked the idea of what the product represented, I bought it again.
Fyi....there is a deal currently...http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/0...rt-usb-charger-for-17-after-a-7-off-coupon/#1
Meh.