USB Battery Packs

[enaberif]

So I was invited into the closed beta of Ingress.

This game is absolutely BRUTAL on battery life and so I purchased a USB battery pack to help compensate when I am out for a few hours to keep my phone going.

So I purchased a USB battery pack that does 5@2.1A or 5@1.0A.

Now when I plug my phone into the battery pack my phone shows its charging at 4.0v @ 2.1a but with GPS on and the screen on this simply cannot keep up.

The phone also shows its charging at 4.0v when its plugged into the wall and I know that is at least 15amps.

I'm thinking of buying another battery pack that does 4.0v @ 3a and was wondering if this could perhaps make the difference.

But the issue is that I have NO idea what my phone draws in amperage to charge my phone. All I know is that it has a 1850mAh battery..

[ZZLEE]

Milwaukee | Milwaukee 400 Amp Clamp Meter | Home Depot Canada

See if you can find an electrician friend with one of these. Loop it around wire and read the amperage.

[Jake_HT]

your phone can't possibly be drawing more than 2.1 amps?? I don't even think the note2 going balls out draws that much, only tablets

I could be wrong but I'm willing to bet your phone is charging at .5amps because it thinks it's connected to USB, does it say charging AC??? If not then it will die while plugged in.

You're using a samsung phone right? judging by the battery size it's an S2, type this into terminal emulator (root required) while your charger is plugged in, it will tell you your charging rate, I think you have to divide it by 10 to get the mah rating

cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/batt_current_adc

EDIT: Or even try this APK, it essentially types that command for you and gives you a notification with your charging rate

[APP] Skyrocket Charger Test - xda-developers

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Jake_HT

your phone can't possibly be drawing more than 2.1 amps?? I don't even think the note2 going balls out draws that much, only tablets

I could be wrong but I'm willing to bet your phone is charging at .5amps because it thinks it's connected to USB, does it say charging AC??? If not then it will die while plugged in.

You're using a samsung phone right? judging by the battery size it's an S2, type this into terminal emulator (root required) while your charger is plugged in, it will tell you your charging rate, I think you have to divide it by 10 to get the mah rating

cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/batt_current_adc

EDIT: Or even try this APK, it essentially types that command for you and gives you a notification with your charging rate

[APP] Skyrocket Charger Test - xda-developers

USB from PC = 504.9 mA
USB from Battery Pack plugged into 5v @ 2.1a = 906mA = .9a
USB from Battery Pack plugged into 5v @ 1.0a = 872mA = .8a
AC from the wall = 906mA = .9a

So obviously this thing draws more than .5a when charging Wondering if this thing would pull more than 1a off a different source.

So not sure what is going on but apparently my phone receives the same amount of juice from the wall as it does my battery pack.... and when plugged into my battery pack it says "AC" not "USB"

[Jake_HT]

Originally Posted by enaberif

USB from PC = 504.9 mA
USB from Battery Pack plugged into 5v @ 2.1a = 906mA = .9a
USB from Battery Pack plugged into 5v @ 1.0a = 872mA = .8a
AC from the wall = 906mA = .9a

So obviously this thing draws more than .5a when charging Wondering if this thing would pull more than 1a off a different source.

So not sure what is going on but apparently my phone receives the same amount of juice from the wall as it does my battery pack.... and when plugged into my battery pack it says "AC" not "USB"

Is it still dying while using it when it's charging at .9 amps? It really shouldn't be, I can see it charging VERY slowly but the phone shouldn't be drawing more power than the charger can supply, unless the engineers were drunk as shit when they made the phone. Seems to be that your battery pack is working as intended at least, I seem to have a lot of problems with my chargers being confused from my phone as USB connections and only feeding me .5 amps, so I have to use the fast charge feature in a custom kernel to over ride it

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Jake_HT

Is it still dying while using it when it's charging at .9 amps? It really shouldn't be, I can see it charging VERY slowly but the phone shouldn't be drawing more power than the charger can supply, unless the engineers were drunk as shit when they made the phone. Seems to be that your battery pack is working as intended at least, I seem to have a lot of problems with my chargers being confused from my phone as USB connections and only feeding me .5 amps, so I have to use the fast charge feature in a custom kernel to over ride it

I changed out my usb cable for another I had and now it apparently allows it to charge!