Charging issues?

wkearney99

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Is there a way to tell what level of charging is going on?

If I use the supplied charger it refills the battery reasonably quickly. But if I hang it off a powered hub it seems to take considerably longer, if at all. I put the phone in the cradle, attached to the hub. It showed Charging (20%) and sat there for at least 2 hours with no change. I plugged it directly into the wall charger and it picked up from 20% to 30% in about 10 minutes.

On other phones I've had in the past they often had a way to tell whether full or partial power recharging was happening. Is there a way to see this on the Droid2? Does the Android OS even support showing the amount of charging power (wattage, presumably) present?

To reiterate, I'm not looking for a generic charging app/widget. I'm looking for more precise information that most of the battery apps appear to provide. I'd rather not load them one by one, only to find they don't show what I'm after.

I do wish the media cradle (stupid name, it has no media features) supported both a USB connection to the computer and an optional direct power connection. I've had that feature on other cradles in the past.
 

hyatari

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wall charger will always be faster than usb for charging since there is more voltage in a wall outlet.
 

Dragoro

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meu - settings - battery- click on pic of battery. Thatll tell you charge left and more info.
 
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wkearney99

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Which doesn't answer my question. I'm well aware that some wall adapters and some USB ports (through hubs or from a computer) might have different wattage. Some wall adapters are indeed capable of more, but then again some of the cheap ones aren't. So how it's connected isn't a guarantee.

What I'm after is a way to tell, on the phone itself, what amount of charging it's getting at the moment. Older (non-android) phones I've had could do this. Is the D2 and Android capable of this?
 

sziehr

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As far as I know, there is now way to read charging rate on the phone. I would like to see it too.
 

hyatari

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Try battery snap in the market. It gives alot of battery info and can at least learn over time how much time it takes to charge/discharge so one could run some tests with various chargers if inclined to do so. Another one is juice plotter which does basically the same thing but not as much info I don't think.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
 

DroidGeekGrl

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Charging issues

I have noted the following with Droid 2:

1) on desk dock it says charging but usually only just stays alive. It gets wicked HOT. Yesterday it completely discharged. I run tether all day and play music. Also receive email, tweets, fb, etc.

2) on car charger, it does the same thing. NO charging but stays alive...and gets EXCRUCIATINGLY hot.

3) on wall power, stays cool and charges quickly.

I also note when it is wicked hot, it hangs up when I try to sort through contacts to make a call. I have had to reboot it four times today because it hangs up.

I am about ready to return it and go back to Droid 1.

DroidGeekGrl (eli_for_short on twitter)
 

Redflea

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Dock power and wall power are the same - there should be no difference, source of power for both is the same...your symptoms are odd.

Are you saying that you did all the same things on the D1 w/no issues?

On my D1, when navigating and when the D1 started to heat up I had the same results...charging would just keep things going, rather than actually increasing the battery level. Combination of the heat generated by CPU/battery and load on the phone limits effectiveness of charging.

For 3) above, are you saying you do the same things when "on wall power" as when in the dock (which as noted, is wall power as well) and get different results? Doesn't make sense.
 
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wkearney99

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I ran into the same trouble as #2 a while ago. I was running a nav map and trapster (along with gps of course). It got damned hot and was not keeping itself charged. I have not repeated the experiment.

Wall power and DC adapter power quite often ARE different. Not in voltage, but in wattage. Some DC adapters supply a lot less wattage than a direct wall connection.

That's why I'd love to have a dock that had both a USB port for the computer and a separate power connection. I've had other 3rd party docks that did this for other phones. It'd be great to have one for the D2.
 
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