Can you use any micro USB charger?

[TheOldFart]

I have used the 850 ma Droid charger, the 800 ma Verizon brand charger that is recommended for the Droid, the Motorola 550 ma charger for the Motorola BT headsets, the Zagg Sparq and my Dell laptop USB port. All work fine and all are 5 V chargers. The Motorola Droid says that any Motorola micro USB charger is fine.

 

[ZBoater]

I've used my iPhone 1A charger, a Moto Razr 950mA charger, and my 500mA USB port. All feed my Droid just fine.

 

[tommyz]

Some USB "chargers" don't short the D+ and D- lines, so the Droid won't draw power from them. Many el-cheapo ones don't meet the voltage/current specs in all conditions.

The Droid should work fine with a port which only puts out 500 mA, but I believe it will take advantage of more to charge faster, if available.

I have a Cig Lighter bracket with a built-in mini USB adapter. I tried to use a mini to micro adapter and it wouldn't charge. This bracket was originally for my Garmin Nuvi which works fine. I have also tried my Garmin mini usb chargers (car and A/C) neither would work with the Droid and the mini to micro adapter.

So I think I'm haveing the D+ and D- issue.

The answer is no all usb adapter will not work with the Droid.

 

[grimace]

i bought one off of ebay, & while it does charge, it just takes a LONG time for me, plus i cannot type when plugged in....rather i can type but it will take each key as being hit twice (hhii hhooww aarree yyoouu??), but hey for $8 shipped or whatever it was, it was good enough to have a spare when necessary, not my main charger.

 

[jimnutt]

Adapters without the D+/- lines shorted will charge the phone... but very, very slowly and probably only with the phone off (or at least sleeping) as the phone won't try to pull more than 500ma max from the adapter. The shorted D+/- lines tell the phone it's connected to a charger and not a USB port so it can try to pull more current to charge faster.

 

[mikes]

No, it can't draw 500 mA. The most a properly implemented USB device can draw without enumerating itself, or identifying a charging port, is 100 mA. But I don't think the Droid will charge in that case.

 

[Enter]

I wouldn't if I were you. I once had a motorola V600, tried charging I think a V800 with it. The charger fried immediately. I have heard of friends who slept over other peoples house and tried to same thing to wake up to a fried battery, chargers operate on different levels of voltage and I wouldn't trust a third party considering it can fry a lot of things on your phone.

 

[mikes]

Neither the V600 nor the V800 charge via USB, so your comment is a non sequitur. USB is a standard, as long as both the device and the "charger" follow the USB spec, there is no problem (it will either charge fine, or won't charge at all).

The only concern is with things which don't follow the spec. Beware of cheap "Made in China" chargers from eBay.

 

[Cyrus6001]

i cannot use any micro charger. My Plantronics Bluetooth headset charges via micro usb, but that same charger will not charge my droid.

 

[mikes]

If it's like my Plantronics charger (model # SU0500018), it doesn't come close to meeting the USB spec, as it's only rated for 180 mA.

 

[jimnutt]

No, it can't draw 500 mA. The most a properly implemented USB device can draw without enumerating itself, or identifying a charging port, is 100 mA. But I don't think the Droid will charge in that case.

I stand corrected, thank you.

 

[chrisdeal85]

I've been using two different motorola bluetooth headset chargers to charge my droid and they work great, no problems at all. It charges and doesn't seem to affect battery life, but I'm a little concerned about the battery life in the long run. I just don't be ok with the answer, "it works so it must be ok to use", and then my my battery only last 3 hours after one year because I was using the wrong charger. Kind of like getting skin cancer from the sun or lung cancer from smoking. Skin looks great and smoking doesn't seem to hurt anything, everything is great...and then bam! cancer Any thoughts?

 

[KennyBerndt]

How do I know if its charging or not? I'm using my chargers from my old LG Dare on my Motorola Droid. Sometimes the light next to the micro usb port lights up, and sometimes it does not. Is that the indicator? The reason I ask is that my phone is locked up right now, and I cant get the regular screen to come up, Just the M screen. I've drained the battery trying to fix it.