Car Charging 101

[spielnicht]

There are a million threads out there about car chargers for the Atrix, but none of them concretely provide a solution because the threads are either hijacked for some stupid rant or people just post guesses and/or opinions, never facts. For this thread, if you can't provide facts, please don't post, keep it open to those with real knowledge to share.

Background:
I've tested two car chargers to get the Atrix to POSITIVELY CHARGE while using Google Navigation and so far I've failed. In all cases, both by itself and on the official car cradle, I started at 100%, the battery slowly holds its charge for the first 20 or so mins, and then it just takes a nose dive. The longest trip I've been on is 5 hrs, where on the last 30 mins, the phone just shut off, battery at 0% and unable to run Google Nav or itself.

1. Are there any car chargers out there capable of charging the Atrix while in use by Google Nav/Pandora/Something Resource Hungry?
2. Is it a FACT that once the battery reaches a certain temp, it will stop charging no matter what, no matter what the power input is (500-1000mA)?
3. Can the official car dock (Moto or AT&T branded) support more than 500mA since it's treated as a USB connection?

The car chargers I've tested are the Moto SPN5400 and Belkin F8Z445ttP. I've read the Belkin, while rated at 1000mA, only comes through with 500mA because the Atrix treats it as a USB connection.

 

[netter159]

fact: I run google navigation on the car charger and it either slowly charges or seems to stay at the battery percentage. I also have the 1% mod so I can see the subtle charging

 

[spielnicht]

fact: I run google navigation on the car charger and it either slowly charges or seems to stay at the battery percentage. I also have the 1% mod so I can see the subtle charging

What car charger are you using and its rated power output?

 

[NYG-SBXLII]

I use a SYBA SY-IPO20010 USB Car Charger its rated power output 600-700mA and the atrix sees it as a wall charger (i know this because i can boot into tanfar's cwm using it). it charges my phone slightly slower than the wall charger when used without the cardock. However when used with the cardock charging times are alot slower.

 

[jjwatmyself]

There are a million threads out there about car chargers for the Atrix, but none of them concretely provide a solution because the threads are either hijacked for some stupid rant or people just post guesses and/or opinions, never facts. For this thread, if you can't provide facts, please don't post, keep it open to those with real knowledge to share.

Background:
I've tested two car chargers to get the Atrix to POSITIVELY CHARGE while using Google Navigation and so far I've failed. In all cases, both by itself and on the official car cradle, I started at 100%, the battery slowly holds its charge for the first 20 or so mins, and then it just takes a nose dive. The longest trip I've been on is 5 hrs, where on the last 30 mins, the phone just shut off, battery at 0% and unable to run Google Nav or itself.

1. Are there any car chargers out there capable of charging the Atrix while in use by Google Nav/Pandora/Something Resource Hungry?
2. Is it a FACT that once the battery reaches a certain temp, it will stop charging no matter what, no matter what the power input is (500-1000mA)?
3. Can the official car dock (Moto or AT&T branded) support more than 500mA since it's treated as a USB connection?

The car chargers I've tested are the Moto SPN5400 and Belkin F8Z445ttP. I've read the Belkin, while rated at 1000mA, only comes through with 500mA because the Atrix treats it as a USB connection.

Charging in Moto car dock with Moto dual port usb rapid charger. Google Nav and Pandora running. Test one shows in increase in charge of 20% charge per hour. I plan to test for a longer duration to get a mire accurate reading.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[amnigo]

Charging in Moto car dock with Moto dual port usb rapid charger. Google Nav and Pandora running. Test one shows in increase in charge of 20% charge per hour. I plan to test for a longer duration to get a mire accurate reading.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

I'm going to assume you mean model SJ1444A. How long is the included cable? I would hopefully assume it is longer than the USB cable that comes with the Atrix itself, but I wanted to make sure. I could not find this information on any product Web sites.

 

[netter159]

What car charger are you using and its rated power output?

the official atrix car dock

 

[cegna09]

I use an energizer charger, that comes with interchangeable ends and have never seen the charge be lower than when i started. That's with pandora, nav, etc.

forget exactly which one, but i bought it when i had my aria, and it was listed for HTC devices.

 

[dLo GSR]

I used the Moto SPN5400 ($4 on amazon prime) and mine definitely charges still while using navi, albeit slower of course.

 

[InsaneJester17]

I use this (http://cgi.ebay.com/Motorola-Atrix-...317163?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item33683f64eb) with the car dock and stock car dock cable. I've had navigation and poweramp running and it will never go down in percent. Only up.

 

[bongd]

Even the crappiest of car chargers will charge, but when using a resource hungry app like you mentioned your mileage may vary (pun intended?).

I've found heat to play a big factor too. I learned this the hard way when my Atrix was scorching and I was in the US ripping home to make a deadline. GPS and Google Nav killed the battery to the point where it kept restarting. So I let it charge while turned off for a while and had enough juice to make it home and use GPS navigation. Whew! So scary because I didn't know where the hell I was and would have been screwed if I didn't get home on time.

I always try staying charged ahead of time or make sure there's a good buffer. Hopefully someone can share which charger is a better one out there. The one I use is for use with an iPhone and is just a cheap USB charger.

 

[Rayan]

Im using a Nokia car charger with a mini-usb adapter (which while charging gets kinda hot by the way) and also use Aura GPS with my Atrix.

The most I've used the GPS it is for about 2.5 hours without noticing any problem whatsoever. In fact, once I unplug the Atrix, it shows 100% charge.

However here's what I think it's happening to some: If your Atrix is mounted on the screen, the Atrix will receive a huge amount of UV light (heat) even on cloudy days, maybe overheating the battery, thus preventing it to get a charge? Could that be possible?

 

[jjwatmyself]

Im using a Nokia car charger with a mini-usb adapter (which while charging gets kinda hot by the way) and also use Aura GPS with my Atrix.

The most I've used the GPS it is for about 2.5 hours without noticing any problem whatsoever. In fact, once I unplug the Atrix, it shows 100% charge.

However here's what I think it's happening to some: If your Atrix is mounted on the screen, the Atrix will receive a huge amount of UV light (heat) even on cloudy days, maybe overheating the battery, thus preventing it to get a charge? Could that be possible?

Yes. Excess heat prevents charging. I have posted screenshots on one of the other threads showing this.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[ka3yan]

I was going to call AT&T today and ask them to send me a new car dock because I thought mine was defective. I'm glad I checked here. I've tried about 4 different car/USB chargers along with my car dock and none seem to charge it when I'm using Google Nav. I'm currently using the Kensington K33497US PowerBolt Duo. It has a 2.1 Amp side which I felt sure would change the phone...nope.

So it must be heat then that's causing the charging failure. The phone is scorching hot when I take it out of the dock. I wonder if there is anything that can be done. If I can't use the phone for navigation, what's the point of the car dock?

 

[bongd]

I was going to call AT&T today and ask them to send me a new car dock because I thought mine was defective. I'm glad I checked here. I've tried about 4 different car/USB chargers along with my car dock and none seem to charge it when I'm using Google Nav. I'm currently using the Kensington K33497US PowerBolt Duo. It has a 2.1 Amp side which I felt sure would change the phone...nope.

So it must be heat then that's causing the charging failure. The phone is scorching hot when I take it out of the dock. I wonder if there is anything that can be done. If I can't use the phone for navigation, what's the point of the car dock?

I've come to the same conclusion as well. The excessive heat really does prevent it from charging. I went on the same road trip to the US as before and even driving in the early morning or late night when it was relatively chilly, the phone still got too hot to charge.

I went down to about 60% charge from 100% charge using just an offline GPS navigation program. Using Google Nav drains it a little more because of the data usage. Kind of a bummer. I always make sure to go on a full charge because having no GPS in a foreign place is a bit freaky.

 

[drumercalzone09]

I was going to call AT&T today and ask them to send me a new car dock because I thought mine was defective. I'm glad I checked here. I've tried about 4 different car/USB chargers along with my car dock and none seem to charge it when I'm using Google Nav. I'm currently using the Kensington K33497US PowerBolt Duo. It has a 2.1 Amp side which I felt sure would change the phone...nope.

So it must be heat then that's causing the charging failure. The phone is scorching hot when I take it out of the dock. I wonder if there is anything that can be done. If I can't use the phone for navigation, what's the point of the car dock?

Here's something I've done to help the heat. If you have the dock mounted on your windshield, set your vents to come out through the defrost. This will blow cold A/C onto the windshield and dock and helps the phone remain reasonably cool.

 

[bongd]

Here's something I've done to help the heat. If you have the dock mounted on your windshield, set your vents to come out through the defrost. This will blow cold A/C onto the windshield and dock and helps the phone remain reasonably cool.

*thanks post*

Good tip!

I had mine mounted on the dash but moved it to the windshield as well. I normally have the windshield vent on blowing cool air anyway and I'm sure it helped.

During my previous trip I was down to around 40% at times (from a full charge). Using the offline GPS nav helped too. Some programs even allow you to change the GPS intervals but it's something I wouldn't toy with. I'd rather have accurate GPS and sacrifice battery life.

Still a bit of a bummer. Wish there were more ways to curb the excessive heat.

 

[ka3yan]

I wonder if it would make a difference if I took the back of the phone off when it was in the dock. I already have to take it out of the case to put it in the dock, it wouldn't be any problem to take the back off at the same time. It might help air move across the battery better....one less thing holding heat in.

 

[bongd]

I wonder if it would make a difference if I took the back of the phone off when it was in the dock. I already have to take it out of the case to put it in the dock, it wouldn't be any problem to take the back off at the same time. It might help air move across the battery better....one less thing holding heat in.

I don't think it'd make an appreciable difference.

Maybe if you have a cooler in the vehicle when you're on a long trip you can lay it on that for a bit. But then you'd need to worry about water damage and condensation... bleh...

 

[dLo GSR]

UV light wouldn't really be the cause of excess heat, IR light would be more the culprit... which is present in sunlight also.