Major Car Charging Issue

[Guest squiggs1982]

Ok, trying to get this on before the football starts, but I'm having a serious issues with charging my Kaiser in the car.

I have no problems charging from the mains, but when I'm in the car, it appears to be charging (i.e., it says "charging" and the battery symbol changes to a little plug - however, the orange light tends to go off after a few minutes, even though the kaiser still says "charging" and still shows the plug), but it doesn't actually take charge.

I drove for an hour and a half today, using the GPS and when I got to my destination, I only had a 65% charge left, despite it being plugged in for the whole time and looking like it was charging (aside from the orange light).

This only appears to have started recently (I think) and I can't understand it. There doesn't seem to be anything obviously wrong with the charger and what I really don't get, is the conflicting messages from the device.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Squiggs

[Guest Derekdd23]

I have had issues where if i was using my GPS while plugged into the car that my battery would actually go down about 5-10% after 1.5 hours of continuous use. Maybe the charger just cant keep up with the GPS??

Im using TOMTOM 6

[Guest squiggs1982]

I have had issues where if i was using my GPS while plugged into the car that my battery would actually go down about 5-10% after 1.5 hours of continuous use. Maybe the charger just cant keep up with the GPS??

Im using TOMTOM 6

Hi Derek,

I'm using TomTom 6 too. That would be a nightmare and make the device useless if that were the case. I'm hoping there's another explanation!

Cheers

Squiggs

Edited November 21, 2007 by squiggs1982

[Guest Sadlybrokeboy]

Are you using the HTC charger or an OEM one?

The HTC charger works all the time the OEM ones don't - the reason being that if you use a normal Mini USB cable, the handsets will only take a charge if there is an indication of a data connection (either than gprs or the cable) - otherwise it won't take a charge.

You can apparently solder a couple of wires together on a normal mini USB cable - but I wouldn't know where to start on that!

Oh this is what happened to me on my tytn - and I can't think of any reason why it'd be different for the tytn II ;)

HTH

Matt

Edited November 21, 2007 by Sadlybrokeboy

[Guest squiggs1982]

Are you using the HTC charger or an OEM one?

The HTC charger works all the time the OEM ones don't - the reason being that if you use a normal Mini USB cable, the handsets will only take a charge if there is an indication of a data connection (either than gprs or the cable) - otherwise it won't take a charge.

You can apparently solder a couple of wires together on a normal mini USB cable - but I wouldn't know where to start on that!

Oh this is what happened to me on my tytn - and I can't think of any reason why it'd be different for the tytn II ;)

HTH

Matt

Hi Matt,

Interesting. I am using a generic charger, not an HTC one, so that could very well be the issue, although I used it successfully with my TyTN (Vario II).

I'm assuming a brodit mount wouldn't have any such problems then?

THanks

Squiggs

[Guest omk298]

Hi

I've got the same problem. For the first few weeks it was working fine using a generic charger, using TomTom on a 6 hour journey and it kept my battery fully charged. Then the other day it didn't work - the phone looks like it's charging but doesn't. I've tried a different (generic) charger, but that's made no difference.

I could understand (justabout) if only official HTC chargers worked, but I did have a generic one working fine for a while

Anyone any more ideas?

Matt

[Guest andrewkeith5]

the only reason i can come up with is that because there is likely to only be a "trickle-charge" low-power charge from the car, the GPS use and permanently having the backlight on is using a similar amount of power as is being supplied, and so the phone recharges much less quickly, as it is essentially bypassing the battery and just using power from the car

this is often the case when using low-power souces with high power equipment. if the charger is generic its likely that it has not been designed to take enough power from the carto charge the battery quickly as well as powering the demanding GPS features. HTC will likely have accounted for the fact and designed their chargers to suck more power out of the car

woudl anyone be able to post battery levels before and after the charge/journey so we can see if this is the situation?

just my 2 cents ;)

andrew

Edited November 22, 2007 by andrewkeith5

[Guest omk298]

I don't have exact numbers, but journeys early on when it was working the battery level would be highter than at the start. Now the charging isn't working the battery will drop maybe 10% in every 30-45 minutes of use with GPS on. Even if I have the Tytn II on standby and charging the battery level doesn't increase, just goes down more slowly (as it would without the charger connected)

Matt

the only reason i can come up with is that because there is likely to only be a "trickle-charge" low-power charge from the car, the GPS use and permanently having the backlight on is using a similar amount of power as is being supplied, and so the phone recharges much less quickly, as it is essentially bypassing the battery and just using power from the car

this is often the case when using low-power souces with high power equipment. if the charger is generic its likely that it has not been designed to take enough power from the carto charge the battery quickly as well as powering the demanding GPS features. HTC will likely have accounted for the fact and designed their chargers to suck more power out of the car

woudl anyone be able to post battery levels before and after the charge/journey so we can see if this is the situation?

just my 2 cents ;)

andrew

Edited November 22, 2007 by omk298

[Guest andrewkeith5]

whoa they're some pretty high figures. it sounds to me like in your case the charger just isn't working. it could be that the phone is acknowledging that something is plugged in so thinks its charging but the absense of the charging light could mean iti snt. where did you get the charger from?

[Guest omk298]

whoa they're some pretty high figures. it sounds to me like in your case the charger just isn't working. it could be that the phone is acknowledging that something is plugged in so thinks its charging but the absense of the charging light could mean iti snt. where did you get the charger from?

Random generic ebay chargers - one of which worked to start with, and then stopped, and the second which has never worked. Agree that that's a possibility, but then other people on this thread have had very similar things happen

[Guest andrewkeith5]

yeah i'll admit it does sound very odd

all i can think of is that they seem to be the most unreliable chargers in the world. does the charger itself have any indication of power? also which seller did y ou get them from, out of interest

[Guest scottt]

I have same problem, charger from halfords will charge my works phone spvm5000 my blue-tooth headset and my blue-tooth gps but will not charge my tytn or my tytn2.

On my tytn the orange light will come on for a few minutes then go off on my tytn2 I get nothing.

I just bought a new charger as I though my old one was faulty,

The new charger would charge the phone if no programs were running and would stop the battery from going down if I was running my gps.

Now the new charger has gone the same way as the old one and wont even charge the phone.

3 weeks it lasted

I might try a htc one as my battery is flat by 2pm if I cant charge it.

[Guest Lidberg]

Guys, try soft resetting your phone while it's plugged into your car charger. My 8525 had an issue where it wouldn't recognize the car charger when the screen was on. When I put it to sleep, it would start charging. If I soft reset my phone while plugged into the car charger, it would work just fine. It was a known issue on the 8525 with off-brand chargers.

[Guest omk298]

Guys, try soft resetting your phone while it's plugged into your car charger. My 8525 had an issue where it wouldn't recognize the car charger when the screen was on. When I put it to sleep, it would start charging. If I soft reset my phone while plugged into the car charger, it would work just fine. It was a known issue on the 8525 with off-brand chargers.

Just tried that, hasn't made any difference

[Guest TomaHawk]

have had similer problems.

was a pain whe i was using it for my sole navigation while driving 4700 miles round europe. ended up having to just turn it on for junctions and using a combination of the trip and turining it off for motorway stints

anyway since i got back it wasworking for a while but now my car battery keeps going flat!! so dont know what the hells goign on. tihnk i might have to spring for a legit HTC one.

[Guest Shuflie]

Try buying a decent car charger, if you really need your phone to charge while using GPS trusting a £5 ebay charger over a a charger designed specifically for the Kaiser is madness. I use a brodit charger designed for an MDA PRO and it gives absolutely no problems at all.

[Guest zimboox]

Most chargers don't provide enough juice to recharge properly - has to have the same output as a PC, namely 5v DC at 1000mA. Try http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Module...=26m11#overview , works for me! You can use the same cable as the phone came with to prevent any other issues. I use a generic cable, no problems so far using TomTom 6.

[Guest TomaHawk]

well had to get a new car battery today.

hope it wasnt jsut down to my dodgy phone charger.

[Guest Sadlybrokeboy]

The HTC Charger is £14 from Expansys, not sure how much delivery is, but I'm going to invest in one - will report back :(

Here's some details on the car charger that I found some time ago about the hermes, I can't imagine that it's too different with the tytn II :D

http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/hermes-bl...html#post140481

HTH!

Matt

Edited November 26, 2007 by Sadlybrokeboy

[Guest squiggs1982]

The HTC Charger is £14 from Expansys, not sure how much delivery is, but I'm going to invest in one - will report back :D

Here's some details on the car charger that I found some time ago about the hermes, I can't imagine that it's too different with the tytn II :D

http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/hermes-bl...html#post140481

HTH!

Matt

This thread over at xda-developers worries me :(

If the Brodits aren't working correctly, that doesn't fill me with confidence.

[Guest NoFate]

i have a brodit active holder(no issue model) and indeed the charge is verry slow.

10% with 45 min

if i use my charger from my old mio its really fast charged

Any1 else have problems with their brodit active holder?

[Guest squiggs1982]

Ok. This gets odder by the minute.

I bought a Carcomm powered mount (at great expense, I might add - £50!) because I believe it has some high powered charger thingy in it. Same problem, just does not charge.

However,I tried my old TyTn tonight and it seems fine (albeit for a very short journey), but it seemed to take charge.

So my question is this:

Can it be possible that the Kaiser takes charge perfectly from the mains, takes charge perfectly from USB but does not take charge from the ciggy lighter?

I just can't understand this at all. Is it the Kaiser that's faulty? I seem to have eliminated everything else, but I don't see how it could charge from two sources without issue, but not a third?

TIA

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

It's all down to the power rating of the ciggy lighter adaptor, some are rated higher than others and this will affect the rate of charge.

[Guest squiggs1982]

Awarner, thanks. That was one of the reasons I coughed up for the Carcomm mount tho - it should be much higher rated.. Drove from London to Glasgow today, started out with the Kaiser in the new carcomm mount, fully charged. Same as usual, charging light came on on the Kaiser for a few minutes then went out. Still said it was charging on the screen, but wasn't. Using TomTom, the device was dead in around two and a half hours.

Plugged in my old TyTn and TomTom Bluetooth GPS using the old charger (which, if you'll remember, was the one that I originally thought was faulty). The TyTn was completely empty to begin with - fully charged after a few hours and happily navigated me home.

One thing I've noticed, is that the Kaiser gets outrageously hot when exhibiting this behavior. The original TyTn doesn't and that clearly works fine. Thoughts?

Thanks guys.

[Guest omk298]

I'm still having problems. I've found that if I use the usb cable that came with the Kaiser, together with a cigarette charger to USB adaptor it works fine. However trying to use a standard mini usb charger, or a screen mount with charger designed specifically for the Kaiser don't work - the light goes on for a couple of minutes but they don't charge. That suggests that there's nothing wrong with the car socket, but there is with different chargers. Any ideas?