[Solved] Car charger suggestions

kourampies · May 16, 2014

Until now, I be been using whatever cheap 1A car chargers I found on eBay. They show up as AC on the phone, and charge acceptably fast, definitely better than USB, but worse than the original AC charger.

With GPS usage (sygic, 3d acceleration, full backlight, GPS, speaker, and mild CPU usage) the battery actually drains while charging. Starting a 4 hour trip with 100% charge resulted in 40% of battery, even if it was charging on the whole duration of the trip.

So, this summer I'm going to do some bigger road trips. I need a car charger that gives enough power to charge while doing the GPS usage described above. I suppose I'm going to need a charger that gives close to actual 2A, not only in theory. Any suggestions?

Zorkman · May 16, 2014

kourampies said:
Until now, I be been using whatever cheap 1A car chargers I found on eBay. They show up as AC on the phone, and charge acceptably fast, definitely better than USB, but worse than the original AC charger.

With GPS usage (sygic, 3d acceleration, full backlight, GPS, speaker, and mild CPU usage) the battery actually drains while charging. Starting a 4 hour trip with 100% charge resulted in 40% of battery, even if it was charging on the whole duration of the trip.

So, this summer I'm going to do some bigger road trips. I need a car charger that gives enough power to charge while doing the GPS usage described above. I suppose I'm going to need a charger that gives close to actual 2A, not only in theory. Any suggestions?

that is due to the fact that your phone only requests 500mA from the car charger (while your phone uses more)

are you using a custom kernel?
I use ElementalX, which has the option to enable fastcharge, which boosts it to 900mA (enough to charge with everything on)

fitz420 · May 16, 2014

Zorkman said:
that is due to the fact that your phone only requests 500mA from the car charger (while your phone uses more)

are you using a custom kernel?
I use ElementalX, which has the option to enable fastcharge, which boosts it to 900mA (enough to charge with everything on)

Is there any downside to enabling fast charge. No sure if there isn't why every kernel doesn't enable it by default.

Zorkman · May 16, 2014

fitz420 said:
Is there any downside to enabling fast charge. No sure if there isn't why every kernel doesn't enable it by default.

Because in theory USB ports of e.g. laptops only give 500mA. I've used it on a lot of car chargers, USB hubs, desktops and laptops and never had any problem.
Even if something were to break, it will be your car charger, because your phone can handle a lot more than 900mA, and if your car charger is rated for 1A that will suffice.

Ohgami_Ichiro · May 16, 2014

Actually the N5 stock has Fast charging enabled. The problems usually are most commonly from poor USB cables and sometimes bad chargers that don't output what they say. If you are dropping battery charge that quickly from a 1A charger most likely you have a problem with one of the 2 I mentioned above. DL CurrentWidget from the play store. Set the Update Interval to 1 sec and then plug in the charger. IF it is a 1A charger you should get just under 1A maybe about 900mA or so. Since you are losing battery life while charging and using the above things you mentioned I would imagine that it is getting about 500mA or less.
Try the test with your OEM cable from the N5 since it is more likely to be better at handling the higher current charge rate. That way you can figure if it is the cable or the charger itself.

Here are ones that MmmmmBacon suggested in his Cheap Charger thread. I am probably going to grab one myself.

http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Dual...=1399909516&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+car+charger
http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Dual-P...=1399909109&sr=8-2&keywords=anker+car+charger

Ben36 · May 17, 2014

I use this and it's brilliant and actually charges the battery while using navigation -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=436834887&pf_rd_i=468294

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

raptir · May 18, 2014

Ohgami_Ichiro said:
http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Dual-P...=1399909109&sr=8-2&keywords=anker+car+charger

Highly recommend this. It can charge two N5s at full speed with no issue.

kourampies · May 26, 2014

Sorry for the late reply... I didnt have time to even read the replies till now.

I never believed that a cable could make that much of a difference, but testing right now with the original LG AC charger and misc USB cables the difference is immence. Best performance I managed to get was from the included cable of my Anker powerbank. its around 980-1010mAh constantly, vs the 400-600 most cables do.

I will test in the car ASAP.

dweekie · May 27, 2014

http://m.ebay.com/itm/301013129424

http://www.scosche.com/chargers/ipad-usb-car-charger-two-port

My combo for the most compact charging solution. Same speed as the stock charger.

nynexelf · May 27, 2014

http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Du...er+car+charger

That is one of the best car chargers I've found, I use to charge my Nexus 5 when I'm on the go.

kourampies · Jul 28, 2014

This Anker charger solved it.

It gives a steady 1000mA that is enough to charge and use GPS.

I have to give a huge thumbs up to Anker, because together with the car charger i also bought the Astroslim 3 6000mAh powerbank, which charges two devices the same time, at a steady 1500mA each!!! I loved bothe the car charger and the powerbank, definitely worth their money.

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[Solved] Car charger suggestions

kourampies

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Zorkman

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fitz420

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Zorkman

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Ohgami_Ichiro

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Ben36

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raptir

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kourampies

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dweekie

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nynexelf

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kourampies

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