Seems like the DroidX takes a long time to charge

[stryguy]

^^
not total b.s.
i'll explain why...power grids in the united states notoriously put out unclean power. most people don't plug their cell phones into a ups battery backup/clean power converter like they do computers/tv's/sound systems/etc. although not probable it is possible to damage or ruin your cell phone by just plugging it into a wall outlet.

that being said, i don't follow my own advice. it's too much of a hassle.

as far as the droid x charging slow, i agree. my x takes forever to charge.
-as far as turning the phone off while its charging...why would you want to turn this phone OFF? madness...

I'm sorry but this statement is incorrect. The AC to DC conversion taking place in the wall charger eliminates all possibility of destroying your phone from "unclean power". You could destroy your wall charger, but US electrical standards dictate that all AC to USB chargers can handle an input current from 110v to 220v and will output 5v at 50hz or 60hz depending on the input current. Short of your line being hit by lightning you're perfectly safe.... and if your feed line was hit by lightning and wasn't properly grounded you have far more to worry about then a $500 cell phone.

 

[aminaked]

I think the charger has a fuse in it, no?

I've owned cell phones since the late 90s and I've NEVER turned it off before plugging it in and I've NEVER had a phone or battery break down.

I file this under the "battery pull" mythos. Somewhere along the line, some crappy phone (a blackberry) needed it's battery pulled. Now everyone goes around pulling the battery out of the droid to fix problems. Just reboot the frickin' thing!

ps: I do agree that charging with your phone off will make the phone charge faster but:
1) how will you know when it's done charging?
2) the droid turns on when you plug it in so the point is moot

 

[Mr. Q]

...you may be right, but it's not how it is in los angeles. we get power spikes and brownouts all the time because of the heavy usage in the grid.

 

[aminaked]

...you may be right, but it's not how it is in los angeles. we get power spikes and brownouts all the time because of the heavy usage in the grid.

Cool, well you may be right too. I've just never heard of this and never done it. I'm trying to save people unnecessary headache, if possible.

 

[stryguy]

For the record, it does charge through the USB, just slowly as expected. If I'm using the phone for anything while charging on the USB, it effectively doesn't charge at all as out appears the 500 mA supplied from the port is totally used by the phone and display.

Again, I'm comparing this to my BB Tour charging in the cradle powered from a wall charger. Never took more than an hour to charge no matter how low the battery was.

But don't get me wrong, this isn't a rant about how I regret switching to Android. I love this phone and couldn't imagine going back at this point. BB feels so ancient compared to this. I just need to change my charging habits and buy more chargers.

Just wondering if anyone else thought their Droid X charged slow.

Basic electrical engineering has to question what's going on here. The battery that comes with the phone is a 1570mA battery. We can assume your USB output is 500mA as expected.

If you aren't seeing significant charge while the phone is on then we can assume the phone is burning 400mA + This would translate into a battery life of around 3-4 hours. This is without putting any additional load on the phone by making a phone call, etc.

Considering I can get 20 hours easy out of my battery this means I have a average current draw of about 75mA. EVERYONE gets about 10 hours of charge out of their phone and that would mean their phones have an average current draw of 150mA. What in the world do you have running?

I don't doubt you're telling the truth, I just have to wonder what widgets and apps you got going that would pull that much current. Your CPU probably never clocks down.

 

[VerizonUser]

NOTE:
While charging a phone ALWAYS have it turned off for a faster charge
Also Before plugging you phone into a home charger turn the phone off and then plug it in, if needed on turn it on after you plug it in, this will prevent damaging your battery, over heating your phone, and a faster charge

I don't know where you got this info but it seems like total bs to me

Got that info from verizon themself

 

[deranger]

Considering I can get 20 hours easy out of my battery this means I have a average current draw of about 75mA. EVERYONE gets about 10 hours of charge out of their phone and that would mean their phones have an average current draw of 150mA. What in the world do you have running?

I don't doubt you're telling the truth, I just have to wonder what widgets and apps you got going that would pull that much current. Your CPU probably never clocks down.

Run navigation with screen at full brightness and you can kill the battery in less than a couple hours. This phone is very capable of drawing more than 500mA with all radios being utilized, screen brightness at full, and a program stressing the CPU. I really don't expect any real charge when I hook it up to USB and use it, it's more for avoiding a discharge.

With this latest generation of phones, I think people need to realize that the computing power can easily outpace the batteries, much like a laptop. I don't play games on my laptop when its on battery if I want decent life out of it, just as I don't run my Droid X with all the power hungry settings/apps on.

Also, there is SO much poor information being spread. Turn your phone off to charge to avoid damage? "Notoriously unclean" power in the US? Cite some sources or STFU. You'd only damage the phone/wall charger if your power went over 240V, after which your phone charger would be the last of your worries. Any dips below 100V are just going to cause the charger to work slowly, and you're going to notice your whole house sucking at this point. Pulling batteries, charging to full and discharging, etc aren't going to help. The phone's battery meter is set off the voltage of the battery. A full charge and discharge isn't going to alter the way the sensor checks voltage, and lithium ions do not benefit from cycling whatsoever.

 

[stryguy]

Considering I can get 20 hours easy out of my battery this means I have a average current draw of about 75mA. EVERYONE gets about 10 hours of charge out of their phone and that would mean their phones have an average current draw of 150mA. What in the world do you have running?

I don't doubt you're telling the truth, I just have to wonder what widgets and apps you got going that would pull that much current. Your CPU probably never clocks down.

Run navigation with screen at full brightness and you can kill the battery in less than a couple hours. This phone is very capable of drawing more than 500mA with all radios being utilized, screen brightness at full, and a program stressing the CPU. I really don't expect any real charge when I hook it up to USB and use it, it's more for avoiding a discharge.

With this latest generation of phones, I think people need to realize that the computing power can easily outpace the batteries, much like a laptop. I don't play games on my laptop when its on battery if I want decent life out of it, just as I don't run my Droid X with all the power hungry settings/apps on.

Also, there is SO much poor information being spread. Turn your phone off to charge to avoid damage? "Notoriously unclean" power in the US? Cite some sources or STFU. You'd only damage the phone/wall charger if your power went over 240V, after which your phone charger would be the last of your worries. Any dips below 100V are just going to cause the charger to work slowly, and you're going to notice your whole house sucking at this point. Pulling batteries, charging to full and discharging, etc aren't going to help. The phone's battery meter is set off the voltage of the battery. A full charge and discharge isn't going to alter the way the sensor checks voltage, and lithium ions do not benefit from cycling whatsoever.

The phone doesn't act as a volt-meter and does not read the voltage of the battery. Instead the battery reports the voltage at the protection circuit module built into this battery. That circuit is calibrated by discharging the battery to 2700mV and recharging to 4200mV. But I think your main point was that discharging and recharging doesn't help the battery hold more charge, which is true.

You're right that you can get the phone to pull more then 500mA. I don't doubt that. I don't doubt the guy has a difficult time charging his phone off the 500mA USB port on his computer. I just don't understand what he has running when he's trying to charge it. Obviously the original poster isn't so dumb that he's trying to charge his phone while running GPS and turn by turn navigation.

You're also right that surges and brown outs cannot damage the phone due to the wall charger taking all the brunt. It would have to be one hell of a surge, like a lightning strke or a transformer in your neighborhood getting hit by lightning. Even then your home transfer junction (if built 1990 or newer) has protections against this from occurring.

You're also right, there's a ton of misinformation out there when it comes to batteries and electronics. It's better to take a deep breath and explain what the person previously said was wrong rather then having a conniption fit.

 

[deranger]

The phone doesn't act as a volt-meter and does not read the voltage of the battery. Instead the battery reports the voltage at the protection circuit module built into this battery. That circuit is calibrated by discharging the battery to 2700mV and recharging to 4200mV. But I think your main point was that discharging and recharging doesn't help the battery hold more charge, which is true.

How does the circuit know when the battery reaches 2.7v and 4.2v? Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't the circuits manufactured to have set voltages ranges, rather than each protection circuit being calibrated after they're built? Even if they were calibrated and adjusted to said voltages, you can't calibrate from the sample, so to speak.

 

[aminaked]

NOTE:
While charging a phone ALWAYS have it turned off for a faster charge
Also Before plugging you phone into a home charger turn the phone off and then plug it in, if needed on turn it on after you plug it in, this will prevent damaging your battery, over heating your phone, and a faster charge

I don't know where you got this info but it seems like total bs to me

Got that info from verizon themself

A store employee? Excuse me...HAHAHAHAAHAHAH

 

[stryguy]

The phone doesn't act as a volt-meter and does not read the voltage of the battery. Instead the battery reports the voltage at the protection circuit module built into this battery. That circuit is calibrated by discharging the battery to 2700mV and recharging to 4200mV. But I think your main point was that discharging and recharging doesn't help the battery hold more charge, which is true.

How does the circuit know when the battery reaches 2.7v and 4.2v? Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't the circuits manufactured to have set voltages ranges, rather than each protection circuit being calibrated after they're built? Even if they were calibrated and adjusted to said voltages, you can't calibrate from the sample, so to speak.

Battery State of Charge Determination <-- Check it out as it answers all of your questions. Especially read the parts on Cumulative Error Buildup (which is what the full discharge/recharge helps calibrate out) and the charge estimation algorithms.

A far less technical reference to the same subject: Understanding Lithium-Ion and Smart Battery Technology HP Pavilion Notebook PCs - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Long story short, the "fuel gauge" is calculated off many factors and requires an occasional full discharge, full recharge to help overcome the ever changing reference points that is a fully charged battery used X number of times. Full discharge in the case of this battery and electronic device is 2.7v

 

[Backnblack]

NOTE:
While charging a phone ALWAYS have it turned off for a faster charge
Also Before plugging you phone into a home charger turn the phone off and then plug it in, if needed on turn it on after you plug it in, this will prevent damaging your battery, over heating your phone, and a faster charge

I don't know where you got this info but it seems like total bs to me

Got that info from verizon themself

It is Total BS since you can't charge a droid or X in an Off state, They will automatically turn on.

 

[stryguy]

Included is a small apk that will request full power from your USB port and tell you exactly how much that power is. Testing it around the office I see that several of my colleagues computers will only offer 200mA. That would indeed make for some VERY slow charging. It just flashes the value on the screen and does not stay memory resident. It works on the Droid X but I have no idea about other devices.

Hopefully it helps the OP figure out his issues.

But we've gone so far Off Topic with rants I doubt he's even reading this anymore.

 

[Flatland2D]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. For the record I am an electrical engineer and I work for the local utility. As was said earlier, nothing coming out of your wall outlet short of a surge will damage your phone, and if it did happen by chance, your utility will probably buy you a new phone. It happens occasionally with voltage conversions and someones house gets skipped. Then the utility has to get out its checkbook and start replacing a lot of stuff for the customer.

Maybe I am running too much, I just don't know how much is too much being new to Android. I have widgets on 5 of the 7 home screens with beautiful widgets (set to update once an hour), battery left (just finished calibrating, maybe that was using extra power), power widget, two agenda widgets, pandora widget (not steaming), and the media player widget. I normally keep wifi off and bluetooth on.

I'll try some of the other suggestions tomorrow. Thanks again.