17 replies to this topic

[Lazydonkey]

Just checking my "miss marple" skills are on the money before i phone orange.

My kaiser has started to not charge when it's in one of my 2 brodit chargers / mounts.  THoguht it was a one off when i was in my weekend toy car as the cig lighter is a bitch - but then it happened again in my boring car.

Basically it "looks" like it's charging but if the phone is bleeping low battery it won't even sustain a conversation when it's "charging" let alone GPS.  So it says it's charging in the power panel, the orange "charge" light is on but it drains the battery.

Then when i got home i plugged it into the suppled charger and noticed it will only charge if the phone is at a slight angle - not straight as it would be in the holder.

So im guessing my phone usb / charging bit is badword and sure enough it's quite wobbly - just wondering if it was me or the brodit wot did it ?

[/miss marple]

thoughts ?

[hotphil]

Sounds to me like you've identified a problem with the charging socket on your handset. Bummer :-(

[GordonTGopher]

Lazydonkey, on Jan 28 2008, 21:59, said:

Just checking my "miss marple" skills are on the money before i phone orange.

My kaiser has started to not charge when it's in one of my 2 brodit chargers / mounts.  THoguht it was a one off when i was in my weekend toy car as the cig lighter is a bitch - but then it happened again in my boring car.

Basically it "looks" like it's charging but if the phone is bleeping low battery it won't even sustain a conversation when it's "charging" let alone GPS.  So it says it's charging in the power panel, the orange "charge" light is on but it drains the battery.

Then when i got home i plugged it into the suppled charger and noticed it will only charge if the phone is at a slight angle - not straight as it would be in the holder.

So im guessing my phone usb / charging bit is badword and sure enough it's quite wobbly - just wondering if it was me or the brodit wot did it ?

[/miss marple]

thoughts ?

I think there is a thread over at XDA dev about a number of people having problems with the charge socket. I know I had to replace my Wizard because after weeks of this sort of behaviour the connector finally died, I was hoping they had improved the design, but maybe not...

Good lucK!

Gordon

[WearTheFoxHat]

Hmmm I wonder if this is the problem im seeing.  When I'm in the car running Cameraware 3, It obviously has Wifi, screen and GPS all on at the same time. I have the phone plugged into the cigarette charger, and yet the battery seems to deplete.

I wonder if the phone deplete's faster than it charges!

[mZimm]

WearTheFoxHat, on Jan 29 2008, 09:17, said:

Hmmm I wonder if this is the problem im seeing.  When I'm in the car running Cameraware 3, It obviously has Wifi, screen and GPS all on at the same time. I have the phone plugged into the cigarette charger, and yet the battery seems to deplete.

I wonder if the phone deplete's faster than it charges!

If this is the case, then I'm pretty disappointed. I'm looking at getting a Kaiser so I can do just that while in the car, and if it can't at least stay powered fully while plugged in in the car, then that could be a deal breaker for me.

[tsutton]

WearTheFoxHat, on Jan 29 2008, 14:17, said:

Hmmm I wonder if this is the problem im seeing.  When I'm in the car running Cameraware 3, It obviously has Wifi, screen and GPS all on at the same time. I have the phone plugged into the cigarette charger, and yet the battery seems to deplete.

I wonder if the phone deplete's faster than it charges!

Don't think so... I have a bog standard car charger and when I have CA3 running with WiFi (for Navizon), GPS and with the screen on for Tomtom, I would see the charging light to go green. So it's charging up okay.

I would suspect it's something else.

[PaulOBrien]

My Vario III charges to green in the car too. Maybe all car chargers are not created equal. Sounds like your socket is badworded too

P

[Kaiser Wilhelm II]

I charge my Kaiser off of the USB socket on my car stereo and it generally seems to work fine with GPS going all the time/screen on running TomTom, charging up over the course of the journey.

  However, once it depleted about the same level as I would have expected it to if it hadn't been charging at all during the journey .. despite the orange charge light on the phone being on.


  The whole power management thing on the phone is a mystery.  As I've posted before, I've experienced strange overnight power drops
on random occasions even with all the radios switched off .  I'm wondering if maybe sometimes the GPS or WiFi components stay active even after they have been switched off by the software but they don't blink the indicator light??  Whenever I get the power drops I do a soft reset.

[Erbid]

I experienced a rather rapid discharge, as if my phone was trying to chatge the car battery.  I had shut off the car (charger voltage drops to "battery only" level), leaving the phone plugged in.  It had discharged remarkably in just 30 minutes.  It's charging light was still on, and the phone will still function as if it is charging (brighter screen) when the car is off and the charger voltage is (presumeably) low.

I now unplug the charger from the phone when shutting off the car.  Those of you with chargers that "turn off" when the car is not running may not have this issue.

Erbid

[WearTheFoxHat]

Hmmm I shall try a different charging cable then, as Im using the cable from my Mio P550 since its longer and reaches across the dash.  I assumed all mini usb chargers were the same.

[Swampie]

I have a similar issue with my Vario III and my Brodit active mount.  I put the device in the mount and charging LED goes on - okay.  Screen goes to 'on power' brightness.  Shows as charging on the top bar - everything fine.  Start TomTom Navigator 5, drive off.  TomTom shows battery level and says charging.

15 minutes later I notice the charging LED is off.  Power settings shows it's not charging, and after looking at the screen for a while, realise it's actually discharging.  Removing the device from the holder makes the display go to the 'on battery' brightness.  Re-inserting makes it go back to the 'on power' brightness, yet charging LED doesn't come on, nor does anything else on the device suggest it's charging - and again, over time the battery power goes down.

If I check the screen brightness with the charger unplugged from the car (so no power), then it doesn't do anything - it stays on 'on battery' brightness.

Shutting down the device and re-starting has fixed it - but I'm not certain if that solves it every time.

Any suggestions?  Doesn't sound like the charger itself (why would a reboot solve it?)  It's random so doesn't always happen.  Device always charges fine via USB sync cable, and by normal mains charger.

[mZimm]

I did a little research on this and found this thread over at XDA. Those of you with the Brodit Mount definitely need to check it out.

[bronksy]

same thing happens with me.. when i have wifi, gps, and BT on for the handsfree the current can't seem to keep up with the amount of draw.. i've tried setting the screen brightness low.. but doesn't help... i think it slows the discharge, but eventually the battery dies...

I bought an O2 XDA charger.. and i've tried it with a usb cable into lighter plug modular thing..

Any ideas anyone?

[Aero]

bronksy, on Feb 1 2008, 22:54, said:

same thing happens with me.. when i have wifi, gps, and BT on for the handsfree the current can't seem to keep up with the amount of draw.. i've tried setting the screen brightness low.. but doesn't help... i think it slows the discharge, but eventually the battery dies...

I bought an O2 XDA charger.. and i've tried it with a usb cable into lighter plug modular thing..

Any ideas anyone?

Any updates on this?

I have a Brodit mount / Kaiser and have also suffered the discharging problem on long journeys using GPS/screen/etc.  Both are recent so I doubt it's the "dodgy batch" of Brodit mounts.

It charges fine from the mains charger.

So what is the official word?  It's useless having a GPS device that flattens the phone battery even when plugged in!

[chookz]

IS there a fix for this my kaiser has started discharging while plugged in

[Tony W]

chookz, on Nov 22 2008, 12:48, said:

IS there a fix for this my kaiser has started discharging while plugged in

I had exactly this problem.  I was told by Brodit (who were very helpful) that all previously faulty models of the mount had been replaced and were no longer in circulation (that was in about Apr/May 08).  My Kaiser displayed just the same problem and you will find posts by me on this issue here and on XDA Dev.  I believe the issue is caused by the (designed for Kaiser) Brodit Mount not be able to supply enough amps (power) to the Kaiser.

There are plenty of posts on this issue hence the comments on not all mounts (and chargers) being the same.  I now have an HTC charger and a new 'general' mount brodit without the charger - all is now well!

Regards

Tony

[dr_nick]

i have this discharging while running cameraware and tomtom issue also.  But i am not using a brodit mount - i simply have it plugged into a USB charger/cable. it charges fine with just cameraware OR tomtom running, but discharges when i try and run both.  Often requires a soft-reset to fix - not the safest of things to tray and do on the motorway (i would have thought)...

always wondered if it was just me - failry critical design flaw if you ask me!

hoping my new touch HD will not have this issue...  


dr_nick

[jontelfer]

Annoyingly my brodit/vario III combination has started doing this as well......  It happened after 2 or so hours of tomtom and cameraware - where it would usually charge the phone to green during a cameraware+wifi+gps+bluetooth sessions.  Now the phone charges for 5 minutes or so and then stops.  Initially thought a cell had gone in the battery until I saw that the phone charged fine via the wall wart or cradle.

So is this a charger problem or phone issue?

Jon