Battery Charging while in Car Dock

[Flomaster]

I bought one of these to use, and it works just fine with the cable that came with the Droid. It's a cheaper and more flexible option than the mini-usb car charger.

Rocketfish™ - USB Vehicle Power Adapter - Black - RF-M357

Just to update, I finally got around to picking one of these up at Best Buy (the closest one I was able to find simply by telling the phone, "Navigate to Best Buy", btw. How awesome is that?) and it works great! Charged the phone and didn't affect the screen at all, and only cost $14.

I definitely recommend this anyone who doesn't want to buy the DC charger.

I bought one of these to use, and it works just fine with the cable that came with the Droid. It's a cheaper and more flexible option than the mini-usb car charger.

Rocketfish™ - USB Vehicle Power Adapter - Black - RF-M357

Just to update, I finally got around to picking one of these up at Best Buy (the closest one I was able to find simply by telling the phone, "Navigate to Best Buy", btw. How awesome is that?) and it works great! Charged the phone and didn't affect the screen at all, and only cost $14.

I definitely recommend this anyone who doesn't want to buy the DC charger.

I actually just got the same exact thing branded as Belkin, same price. world very well.

wow you guys paid about $10 to much for your USB car adapters.

HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more!

for ALL YOUR CABLE NEEDS!

for $14 shipped I have the following coming to my house.

3 USB car charger dealybobs price $1.16 each
2 - 6' USB MICRO cables
1 - 15' USB MIRCO cable

Click photo to be taken to this item


also buy a Micro USB cable $1-$2


pick from 3' 6' 10' or 15'

and for less than $5 you have a car charger, longer USB cable heck buy 2 USB cables so you have a longer one at home.


-=Jason=-

 

[Speedfreak]

At those prices you can cut the car usb charger up and wire it directly in to the car. Then hide the usb wire all the way up to the car mount so it will always be there. I am going to wire one into each car... LOL

 

[Flomaster]

At those prices you can cut the car usb charger up and wire it directly in to the car. Then hide the usb wire all the way up to the car mount so it will always be there. I am going to wire one into each car... LOL

if you want to cut off the USB you need some sort of resistor because you can't just hard wire the mini USB directly to 12v power that would most definitely FUBAR your phone.


I have been using MONOPRICE for all my cable needs.. CHEAP Quality cables. I haven't had one fail me. returned my $80 MONSTER HDMI back to best buy and ended up getting 4 cables for $6 each... killer deal


-=Jason=-

 

[xylene303]

Google Maps still has a ways to go before it'll work as well as my Garmin, but I suppose it's good enough. If I keep the phone (about 75% sure I will at this point)

sold my garmin 765t after i used google maps. drove all around in nyc, and 5 hour road trips.

i guess it depends where you live

 

[thebourbonnflip]

i just decided to buy the official Motorola Car charger for micro usb so i wouldnt have to deal with brining the cable from my house to the car

 

[jimnutt]

If any of y'all decide to hardwire a USB port directly to your car battery, be sure to put a voltage regulator on it (an LM7805 will do just dandy). That will limit the voltage to 5V and keep your phone from going insane (and possibly damaging it).

 

[Speedfreak]

I didn't make my self too clear but you need to cut up the mini usb charger dohickey and use the input into that to wire into your car. Then you can plug your usb into that and run it to your phone. I had done this on our GPS's just hide the old cigarette plug and run the wire anywhere you want.

Sorry but that is what I meant to say..

 

[REMilk]

I bought one of these to use, and it works just fine with the cable that came with the Droid. It's a cheaper and more flexible option than the mini-usb car charger.

Rocketfish™ - USB Vehicle Power Adapter - Black - RF-M357

Now that looks interesting! No issues with the touchscreen when using this?

I also use the Rocketfish (Best Buy brand) USB power adapter. A couple of years ago I added 3 power outlets to the console of my Honda Element. One of these outlets is now dedicated to the USB Power adapter. I use the car mount and the USB power cable reached to Droid fine. My wife also has one these USB adapters for her LG ENV3.

Bob

 

[REMilk]

If any of y'all decide to hardwire a USB port directly to your car battery, be sure to put a voltage regulator on it (an LM7805 will do just dandy). That will limit the voltage to 5V and keep your phone from going insane (and possibly damaging it).

You will fry your Droid with 12 Volts if you do not step the voltage down to 5V before the standard USB port. I recommend that you hard-wire an extra power outlet and use the appropriate plug or charger for the Droid.

 

[sarge]

Have battery issue because of heavy use of Droid.. Need a way to charge extra batttery at home while using phone independent of charger. Had a BB Storm previously and was able to buy a independent charger to charge exta battery. Any suggestions?

 

[Flomaster]

Have battery issue because of heavy use of Droid.. Need a way to charge extra batttery at home while using phone independent of charger. Had a BB Storm previously and was able to buy a independent charger to charge exta battery. Any suggestions?

verizon sells a "battery only" charger you can buy another battery

-=Jason=-

 

[sarreq]

wow you guys paid about $10 to much for your USB car adapters.

meanwhile, the rocketfish/belkin adapter sits only a 1/4" out from my ciggy lighter, therefore not blocking my cup holder :icon_ banana:

 

[omally]

Yeah, I'm pretty satisfied with the Rocketfish adapter. It was behaving a little weird, though - it seemed like every time I started the car the adapter wouldn't charge my phone unless I unplugged the USB cable from the adapter and plugged it back in. I exchanged it for another one and haven't been able to test that much, but it seems like it's working better. Anybody else seen that behavior with these adapters?

 

[Zeblue]

I also had an issue with my touch screen acting really screwy when charging and sitting in the motorola car dock. It's good to know that this is likely due to the charger I'm using, a quick and easy thing to fix.

 

[takeshi]

I guess the next question is how do I get the car to recognize the phone like it did my iPhone, so that I can play the music through the car's stereo and use the steering wheel controls?

Your head unit would have to support USB mass storage devices and you'd have to mount your SD card. There's (currently) no equivalent to the iPod interface that you find on some head units.