[Q] Atrix Car dock charging problem? - Atrix 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I believe that there is an issue with charging performance in the Atrix car dock. I'm using the OEM Motorola ECOMOTO Rapid Rate vehicle power adapter (850 mAH) with dual USB ports. You can tell this USB charger is a good product just by the weight of the thing! A test charge in the Atrix car dock began at 7:45 AM and the phone's charge was 20%. At 9 AM 30% and 10:30 AM 40%. This is obviously nothing like the wall charger so it made me believe that the phone was powered by the charger while docked but only receiving a trickle charge. Connecting the phone directly to the USB car charger (without the car dock) using a stock USB to micro USB charging cable, at 8:00 AM the phone was at 20%, 8:20 AM 40%, 9:00 AM 70% and 10:00 AM 100%. What a contrast!! So it appears that there is an issue with charging performance while in the car dock. I've reported this to Motorola and hope that they can reproduce and address. How about the rest of you, what say you all?

Mine charges fine. I have the moto - 2usb port charger and it powers the phone in the dock just fine (mine is Y shaped and ships with the MotoBranded car dock, not AT&T).
Mine charges just like the wall charger - both put out 850mA. If I am running Nav in the car dock, and screen is on, it charges slower - but this is to be expected.

chromedome00 said:
If I am running Nav in the car dock, and screen is on, it charges slower - but this is to be expected.
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I find when driving around during the day with the screen always on, taking the occasional call and GPS/Navigation running most of the time (not sure, just love seeing my KM/H sitting up there helps keep my heavy right foot off the go pedal) that my battery slowly slinks up in % almost like it's not charging due to the load I have on it.

old thread but..
Hello
I know its old thread and no one is interested anymore but I found out that Atrix is giving power back to the vehicle when connected to the car dock.
I have a Cigar lighter slot hub with an LED indicator. The LED remains glowing when I turn off my car and leave Atrix in the Car Dock. I found out that ACC are having power until Atrix battery is empty.
Even if I unplug the HUB from the car, LED remains glowing, but battery drain seems not that high than connected to the car.
Once I remove the Atrix and put it back, LED is not glowing again, so I think it has something to do with the Car Dock and the Atrix software. (not sure)
I'm trying to make a work around with relay...

Related

Battery charger bug!!:-)

I had a BIG problem with a third party battery charger (RIMAX).
It is a Car charger and a wall mount charger, with USB plug and cable, but IT WORKS ONLY WHEN THE WIZARD IS ON! If the battery goes down for some reason and the phone couldn't turn on, you're lost! :evil:
So, the lesson learned is: before travelling without your original charger check if the one you have could charge the wizard also when is OFF and not only in stand-by mode!
I also have a strange issue with a third party car charger - after plugging in the car charger I have to switch the universal off then on again to make it charge...very wierd!
I've also got one of those, though would prefere one with a bit of cable in the middle to reduce stress on the connector.
Have you checked the amp output on the chargers. They're probably putting out 0.5 amps (USB spec). If you look at the wall charger that came with the wizard, it puts out 1.0 amps. That's why when your battery is completely dead, the 0.5 amp charger can't put enough juice into it to get the battery up to a high enough level.
Actually, according to the USB spec, a device is not supposed to consume more than 100mA without being recognized by the USB host. That is, the USB host is only going to give your phone 100mA until the phone says, "hey, i'd like 500mA, please!"
Sometimes manufacturers may shortcut this and just allow the port 500mA at all times, but a standards-conforming one won't.
This MAY be part of the reason why we have problems charging a completely dead Wizard -- it's only going to get 100mA until the device has enough juice to wake up and request more.
This MAY be part of the reason why we have problems charging a completely dead Wizard -- it's only going to get 100mA until the device has enough juice to wake up and request more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah! - That's the problem I had yesterday - had left my Vario on with TomTom draining away the battery and forgotten about it on Saturday night, had just spent the day moving house and everything was in chaos and had no idea where the charger was.
So when I realised it was dead on Sunday whilst out in the car, I plugged it into the car charger that came with my GPS unit, which I have used to charge the phone many times before - but it would not charge, no light, nothing!
When I got home all I could find was the mains charger for the GPS and a USB cable - tried both and none would put any charge into the phone.
By this stage I was shi**ing myself that the phone, which I got mainly for GPS for travelling around Germany in June, was DEAD - with 3 weeks to go!
of course later in the day, once I had eventually found the proper charger, it took a slight pause after being plugged in and then the little orange light of joy came on and brought me salvation!!!!!
I suspected it might have been something like the previous poster said but not being very technical I really didn't know!!
Thanks.
I've had the same frustrating experience. When the battery is very low or dead the only charger that will work is the original adapter, not the car charger or cradle or pass thru my laptop. As I result I have to carry the original adapter whenever I travel and I often wake up with a dead Wizard if I dont realize how low the battery is when I park it in the cradle.
Very frustrating. I dont understand why Boxwave doesnt use a beefier adapter connected to the cradle.
I've had the same frustrating experience. When the battery is very low or dead the only charger that will work is the original adapter, not the car charger or cradle or pass thru my laptop. As I result I have to carry the original adapter whenever I travel and I often wake up with a dead Wizard if I dont realize how low the battery is when I park it in the cradle.
Very frustrating. I dont understand why Boxwave doesnt use a beefier adapter connected to the cradle.
I've had the same frustrating experience. When the battery is very low or dead the only charger that will work is the original adapter, not the car charger or cradle or pass thru my laptop. As I result I have to carry the original adapter whenever I travel and I often wake up with a dead Wizard if I dont realize how low the battery is when I park it in the cradle.
Very frustrating. I dont understand why Boxwave doesnt use a beefier adapter connected to the cradle.

[Q] loses 450mAh while using GPS

Has anyone noticed that phone does not charge while using GPS. The charging indicator is on but when I look at the stats it says discharging at -450 mAh. Is this the way it is and if so, is there a fix? 1 hr 42 m with 73% display on battery use and 43% charge remaining, but was plugged in the entire time while driving under an hour home. I am using the same Motorola high performance charger that every other phone is charged fully even when using GPS.
are you absolutely sure the charger is giving the full 1A?
What sensor app are you using to see the battery discharging?
Mine charges normally with gps on.
Sent from my HTC
LTE 4G Rezound
I was curious so I tested this with "Battery Monitor" I have it plugged into my laptop currently which only gives +500mA. and not the +1A that you get from a wall/car/high power usb port.
the app is showing +257mA with GPS on and functioning normally.
So charging good here... Might be something with your motorola charger? It could have a sensor in it to detect 'trickle charging mode' that is improperly engaging when connected to the HTC causing the charger to put out a minimal 'sustain only' level of amperage.
good luck!
you need a charger putting out 1A ... most car chargers put out 500mA so find a good one off monoprice
Here's what I'm doing. I have a Belkin 2.1A(2100mAh) USB car charger dongle. The problem is, once i connect the USB cable to it the phone registers it as "Charging USB" and does notcharge anywhere near as fast(power-wise) as if the phone was registering it "Charging AC". I'm not keen on using a power inverter to get the full AC charge so instead i am going to go pick up a cheap micro USB cable, splice it open, then disconnect the data wires(green & white ones) & then tape it back up. By disconnecting the data wires, the phone will no longer think it's a USB connection and then charge via AC, getting the best charge possible.
that should work ^ if thats the problem
I've found that using the included USB cable with a Belkin dual port USB car charger allows the phone to charge as if it were plugged in to a wall. I'm guessing the included cable has a different layout than standard Micro USB cables.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
dawynkoop said:
I've found that using the included USB cable with a Belkin dual port USB car charger allows the phone to charge as if it were plugged in to a wall. I'm guessing the included cable has a different layout than standard Micro USB cables.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
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I'm guessing that I have the same belkin dual port (2.1amp and 1amp ports) and the best I've seen out of it is about 250mah charging. This is using the supplied usb/micro hdmi whatever cord for the phone.
I have seen discharge rates off the charger of 750mah which is the highest I've seen on any phone. I'm guessing if you are using the nav on your phone with the screen on, it will probably still be using battery while plugged in.
thatsricci said:
I was curious so I tested this with "Battery Monitor" I have it plugged into my laptop currently which only gives +500mA. and not the +1A that you get from a wall/car/high power usb port.
the app is showing +257mA with GPS on and functioning normally.
So charging good here... Might be something with your motorola charger? It could have a sensor in it to detect 'trickle charging mode' that is improperly engaging when connected to the HTC causing the charger to put out a minimal 'sustain only' level of amperage.
good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possible, but says AC charging in Battery Monitor widget. I will post a few pics.
Here are a few Pics. you can see a couple of things.
-Charger rated at 950 MA out. and no other phone I have owned lost a charge while driving including TBolt, Charge, Bionic.
-Shows as AC charging
- Spikes of good charging detected
Put on Normal power mode today on the way in. live wallpapers did not wrok, just flickered. 3G on vice 4G. Battery still went down, but above 90% on 40 minute drive in. Screen low but on. Bluetooth speaker.
Maybe it is the iBolt car mount. See review online. will try without dock this afternoon on my way home.
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User: marc frederick, Nov 25, 2011
Pros: Options for different backs
Cons: Does not charge the phone while it is in use
Try playing pandora when the phone is 100 charged. After 45 minutes on the car mount (and yes it is plugged into a charger and all indicatros show it is charging) and the charge level is 84. Using the same charger but plugged into the phone, playing Pandora for 45 min starting charge level 68. Ending charge level is 100.
Yeah, something is telling that charger to not give you full juice
Rezound
ok, drove home off the window mount and just on charger, all same except full brightness on screen.40 minute drive. came up 7% battery vice down from 100 to 43%. nedd a few trials to confirm, but looks like window mount is throttleing juice.
thatsricci said:
are you absolutely sure the charger is giving the full 1A?
What sensor app are you using to see the battery discharging?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have seen spurts up to 913 with GPS off and screen just turned on. Using battery monitor widget. Not on window mount, just charger.
I can confirm. The car dock will not charge your phone atleast not with the screen on and nothing else running but battery monitor widget.
I bought one and tested it extensively yesterday. I used a Verizon 1a charger and a generic 1a charger. With the dock and both chargerz the phone DIScharged(as in LOST battery power) at between 100ma and 200ma. Without the dock using the same chargers and changing nothing on the phone the phone charged at between 50a and 300ma.
I did the test several times to eliminate any random things the phone may have been doing in the background.
After doing that controlled test I played with it some more and no matter what I did I could not get a positive charge with the dock attached even in airplane mode with the screen backlight at minimum. Without the dock using the same chargers i ran Pandora and a police scanner both outputting through the phone speaker, gps, wifi, mobile all on, and screen on auto and still had a very small positive charge.
Moral of the story DO NOT BUY THIS DOCK unless you dont mind it just being a piece of plastic that holds your phone in place.
I wonder if there's a quick mod to it to get it working right. Like the soldering of the USB chargers I've seen.
Rezound
I just went ahead and bought an extra battery so I wouldn't have to charge in the car. Only takes 20 seconds to pop in a new battery.
Can charge both batts while I sleep at night.
Sent from my Galaxy Tab 10.1
I was looking for a high current charger for my Android tablet and there was a review that talked about compatibility. Some of the high cap chargers appear to be designed for Apple products and the pin wiring is subtly different. So, on some non-Apple products, the charge is only recognized as a lower power, 500mah charger and the users reported that some devices would normally charge and others would not. Some of the dual port charges also split the power. The 2.1 amp port and the 1 amp port cannot be used at the same time, depending on what is plugged into them. This was also brand specific. I ordered the Amazon Basics 2.1 amp dual charger and will see how that works. I have noticed a difference in charge rates between my Motorola charger left over from the Blackberry and the Verizon OEM one. The VZW one is faster.
I do the same thing I have been doing since my Windows phone days.
I use the AC cord plugged into a 12v to AC adaptor(screen set to 100% bright and no timeout).
I drove 6 hours last week ruuning Google Maps/GPS & my battery was 100% charged when I got to my destination.
~John

Battery actually drains when using car charger with GPS Google Maps Navigation On

Are all USB car chargers like this? Can I prevent this by getting a higher quality charger? When I'm not using maps or navigation (or turn off the screen for a while), then it'll slowly charge back up.
fungosaurus said:
Are all USB car chargers like this? Can I prevent this by getting a higher quality charger? When I'm not using maps or navigation (or turn off the screen for a while), then it'll slowly charge back up.
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GPS is usually a big energy hog. How many amps is your car charger?
You should be able to get away with a higher amperage charger, but the trade off may be reduced battery life.
fungosaurus said:
Are all USB car chargers like this? Can I prevent this by getting a higher quality charger? When I'm not using maps or navigation (or turn off the screen for a while), then it'll slowly charge back up.
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How fast does it discharge? I just went on an out of state trip last week and had gps on with the charger plugged in for several hours at a time. I didn't pay attention to the actual charge numbers, but it either discharges very gradually or charges very gradually. I could probably run it all day with the charger and gps without a problem. I don't recall the amp output of my car charger, but it is one of the cheap foreign models.
fungosaurus said:
Are all USB car chargers like this? Can I prevent this by getting a higher quality charger? When I'm not using maps or navigation (or turn off the screen for a while), then it'll slowly charge back up.
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Click to collapse
Reflash your ROM, dude. I had that problem on one of my initial GB ROM's where I had bad drain using GPS while charging in my car. I redownloaded and wiped everything and reflashed the ROM and everything was good.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA
If you are running a custom ROM, you can use SetCPU (or any other CPU clock control app that allows profiles) to set max of 800MHz when plugged in. This should at least get you to even charge/discharge levels when plugged in and running GPS while driving. Probably will depend on your screen brightness.
I don't run GPS long term very often right now, but I was for a while and FWIW, I was able to stream pandora, run google maps with screen on, not have any lag, and get a slow charge from my car charger by limiting clock speed to 800MHz.
Your other option (and what I usually do) is turn off the screen during longer sections of GPS nav with no turns (like sections of highway). You'll still get audible notifications for the next turn/maneuver/interchange/whatever, and you can turn the display on then if you need visual along with audio nav. The phone shouldn't have any problem charging and running GPS with the screen off...
fungosaurus said:
Are all USB car chargers like this? Can I prevent this by getting a higher quality charger? When I'm not using maps or navigation (or turn off the screen for a while), then it'll slowly charge back up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all USB car chargers are alike. You need two things:
1. The car charger outputs higher current than 500ma. You need at least 700ma.
2. The charger is wired correctly to be recognized by phone as AC charger instead of PC USB port so that the phone will actually draw more than 500ma for charging. You can go to phone's status page to read what charge mode it is using.
Most iDevice chargers will not meet #2.
I have a stock Samsung car charger and it charges my phone while using Google Nav.
Thanks for the tips guys.
My phone discharges at around 1% every 20 minutes or so. I've been doing things like turning the screen off during periods of downtime to help with this (actually charges when I do this).
I'm using cheapy car adapter actually that has two usb ports and 2 cigarette ports in it and I use that with a samsung branded usb cable.
Hm yeah I'll try and see if limiting the CPU will help and if it does perhaps I'll just do that from now on.
foxbat121 said:
2. The charger is wired correctly to be recognized by phone as AC charger instead of PC USB port so that the phone will actually draw more than 500ma for charging. You can go to phone's status page to read what charge mode it is using.
Most iDevice chargers will not meet #2.
I have a stock Samsung car charger and it charges my phone while using Google Nav.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know of any other options that are wired correctly to draw more than 500ma? I think I did hear from somewhere that charging via usb is considerably slower than when using the wall charger. Do you know of any other options that would fulfill this requirement besides getting the stock Samsung car charger? Also I assume just finding a higher amp charger wouldn't work if the phone detects it as a usb charger instead of an AC charger?
fungosaurus said:
Do you know of any other options that are wired correctly to draw more than 500ma? I think I did hear from somewhere that charging via usb is considerably slower than when using the wall charger. Do you know of any other options that would fulfill this requirement besides getting the stock Samsung car charger? Also I assume just finding a higher amp charger wouldn't work if the phone detects it as a usb charger instead of an AC charger?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The correctly wired charger will typically short the USB data PINs. iPhone charges and most generic car chargers with UBS ports don't do that. Most HTC chargers and Motorola chargers will work on Samsung phones. You need take a look at your car charger to see how much amps it can supply (listed on the spec label). The PC usb can only output 500ma max per spec. It is not enough to charge the phone while keep the screen on, GPS running and 3G connection active. Your Samsung OEM wall charger is rated 700ma. So, you need a car charger that outputs at least 700ma.
You then need to verify from the phone that the particular charger is recorgnized by the phone as AC charger. Without that, the phone will only draw 500ma max.

Slow Charging with car charger

I've got a strange issue. When charging with my stock AC adapter, it charges about 40%/hr (according to Gsam). If I try a 2A charger I can get over 60%/hr. I have three car chargers, I notice each one charges at more like 5-10%/hr. When using Navigation with the screen off, I discharge at around 20%/hr. With the screen on, it jumps to 40-60%/hr.
All my car chargers came with the data pins shorted. When I plug in, it says "Charging (AC)". I don't think my car is the issue because my friend tried charging his Iphone with my charger and it didn't seem to work, but when he pulled out his, it charged much faster.
I remember that in the past, I was able to use the Nav while with my car charger and it would last all day on long road trips. With the charger in and running Nav, I might go up some small amount, like 1%/hr. Now, with the car charger in, I'm still losing and lucky if I get more than an hour or so.
The only conclusion I can think of is that recent versions of Nav or something with CM11 is drawing much more power. Although I've had this issue for at least the past year

Phone stops charging

My H850 frequently stops accepting charge, and then allows the battery to discharge to empty even with the charger connected. When I put it on the charger at the end of the day I hear the charging tone and it starts to charge, but in the morning the charge level is lower than when I connected it, and occasionally the battery is completely empty.
I've checked the charger and battery contacts and can't see any sign of lint or other debris. The charger and cable both work fine with a tablet, so I assume they're fine.
Any ideas??
Your battery has gone bad. Purchasing a new one on Amazon or ebay is your best option.
Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk
itm said:
My H850 frequently stops accepting charge, and then allows the battery to discharge to empty even with the charger connected. When I put it on the charger at the end of the day I hear the charging tone and it starts to charge, but in the morning the charge level is lower than when I connected it, and occasionally the battery is completely empty.
I've checked the charger and battery contacts and can't see any sign of lint or other debris. The charger and cable both work fine with a tablet, so I assume they're fine.
Any ideas??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a possible bad usb port on the charging chin. Or battery does it break connections if jiggled around?
I have the same problem with my spare battery (which I bought a few months ago as part of the LG kit). Interestingly I have a Qualcomm 3.0 certified Anker charger on my desktop which seems to keep it charged fine overnight, so maybe it's just a problem with non-certified chargers (although it was working fine until a couple of weeks ago).
The USB battery connection seems OK - if I jiggle it around I don't lose the charging connection. But then when it's charging overnight it's always sitting still on a flat surface, and I check that it's charging as soon as I lay it down.

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