Wireless charging options for the Nexus 4

[Guest everett_psycho]

The car charger problem may be that at 96% it doesn't initiate the charging process, unlike the wired chargers wireless ones only kick in of you drop below a set percentage, I think it's either 90 or 95%

[Guest bbawden]

Anyone know when the official charging orb will be available in the UK?

[Guest Brembo109]

Hi Guys, I´ve ordered one of this very attractive QI chargers on ebay : http://url9.de/yZo . There is also an XDA thread about it (http://url9.de/yZV), and the overall performance and usability seems very good. Maybe it´s a good alternative for people like me who are unable to get an official Orb. I will report back when mine arrives from China if anyone is interested.

Greetz

Brembo

Edited March 12, 2013 by Brembo109

[Guest tdroza]

I will report back when mine arrives from China if anyone is interested.

Please do! I'm very interested in this charger. It's a shame that it's not £10 or £15 cheaper but I guess while the official one is still so hard to get hold of, the 3rd party manufacturers can pretty much dictate their price. I'm hoping that prices will start tumbling as more chargers come to market and more handsets support QI - I'd like one for my desk at work, one for my bedside table, and one for the coffee table - but at £40 each I'll probably stick with my $2 retractable usb cable!

[Guest everett_psycho]

Ive just ordered one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QI-Wireless-Charger-Pad-For-Lumia-820-920-Nexus-4-UK-USB-POWERED-Galaxy-S4-S3-/161030342740?pt=UK_MobilePhones_MobilePhoneAccessories_MobilePhoneChargers&hash=item257e280854

Will let you know how it goes but seems good value and it's a name that's been on xda. I ordered through his website but a friend apparently works with this guy so if it sucks she will be unleashed on him

[Guest everett_psycho]

Well my cheap charger arrived yesterday, it works fine with the nexus, nothing special but for the price I paid I'm happy. It's smaller than the maxell one but that means it won't clutter up my desk as much

[Guest The Soup Thief]

That's quick delivery! Does it have a blindingly bright light while charging? If not I'm gonna get one

[Guest everett_psycho]

The guys in harrow so it didn't have far too come. I've only used it in the day time do didn't notice the brightness but the light on it is always on, it just changes colour when charging.

It comes with a micro USB lead and 1.5A USB plug, tried it yesterday and it manages to charge from a PC USB port but I presume that will take longer. Left it at work though so can try some more things out on Monday when I can get to it again

[Guest The Soup Thief]

There was an unbranded one mentioned on xda that was cheap & good but had a really bright blue light so it couldn't really be used on your bedside table.

[Guest hugobosslives]

There was an unbranded one mentioned on xda that was cheap & good but had a really bright blue light so it couldn't really be used on your bedside table.

i'm sure with a bit of DIY this could be very easily remedied..... :)

if you are confident with your mitts just take it apart and disconnect the led.

if not, get some tape or paint the led cover with white (blackout) paint.

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Absolutely - that's what people over there have reported doing (disconnecting the LED)

Just would be nice to have something work right without having to open it up first - also a (dim) light to say the device is located correctly over the coils and is charging would be handy (I've read it can be easy to assume your phone's in the sweet spot and then wake up to find it wasn't and didn't charge). I spose though, the N4's LED indicator should tell you if it is charging or not

Maybe painting over the light is the answer - would act to dim it a bit.

[Guest hugobosslives]

It makes a noise when you successfully put it on a wireless charger. Then the notification light on the n4 will tell you if it slips off

Problem solved :)

[Guest everett_psycho]

I can't say the light on the cheap one seems that bright but I've only used it in a well lot environment. I couldn't see the light through a napkin. It has a weird problem that if u leave it till it's fully charged I can't charge again and need to unplug and re connect the pad. Not a deal breaker for me as it does this when I turn my PC off at night anyway, but again it could be a deal breaker for most

[Guest The Soup Thief]

That's one of the funnyossities about all these devices from what I've read - they all charge to 100 percent then stop. There's no facility for top up / trickle charge, which is a bit of a nuisance if you're leaving it on for an 8 hour overnight charge (for the final 5 hours it will be discharging). Wonder if Tasker might be able to help, say by turning off wireless charging when it reaches 95 percent then back on half an hour before your alarm is due to go off?

[Guest everett_psycho]

This one is worse than that, I have to physically disconnect the charging pad to get it to work again so tasker won't help me. As I said it's fine for my use as turning the computer off reboots the pad daily anyway but it would be a problem for overnight cycles

[Guest The Soup Thief]

So connecting it through a mains timer plug, set to click off and on again at 6am might work for overnight charging - giving it a full charge then a final boost. Shame they all seem to have this issue

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Tiddly little wireless charger - less than £15!

They claim to be compatible with the N4

I just ordered one of these Metrans Wireless Chargers

Also available from Dealextreme

Stupidly cheap - it'll probably take a few weeks to get here but I'll let you know if it's any good when it arrives

Edited July 21, 2013 by The Soup Thief

[Guest tdroza]

Tiddly little wireless charger - less than £15!

They claim to be compatible with the N4

Good find! I've just ordered one from DX. If it works as expected I'll probably get another at this price - one for my desk at work and one for my bedside table.

[Guest arnoldziq]

Recently, I bought on eBay a cheap charger produced in China.

It cost me £14.04 included "free" shipping from Hong Kong.

I am very pleased with it. So far, this is the only wireless charger that has been able to charge the battery through my rubber case and stuck to it metal plate used for magnetic holder.

Edited July 24, 2013 by arnoldziq

[Guest The Soup Thief]

W00t! My Metrans charger arrived today!

First impressions? It's tiny! Very neat, feels solid. Came with a nice (white?) usb/micro-usb cable.

Will test it out this evening and report back

Anyone know if there's any way to switch wireless charging off and on from the phone side? Google seems quiet on the subject

Actually, I guess it's pretty much an electromagnetic process between the charger coil and the phone's coil, so it may not be turn off- & on-able.

The slight problem with these things is (I've read) that they charge to (or near) capacity then stop charging, so by morning your phone may have discharged by 5-10%.

My fix for this was to have Tasker turn wireless charging on at 3am (or so) then by 6 my phone would be at 100% in time to get up & go, without losing any power, as it would if I set it to charge from 11pm (reaching max c. 2am then discharging til 6). But that won't work if the phone can't turn charging off & on.

New, less elegant fix is to use a timer plug to turn the mains AC to the charger on at 3 am or so.

Again, I'll report back

Edited August 6, 2013 by The Soup Thief

[Guest Stuart_f]

You are probably already following this thread on XDA http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2360202&page=11 quick summary:

Qi wireless charger should charge to 100% then switch off and come back on again around 96% keeping the phone in the 96-100% range forever.

If you see it get to 100% then switch off and never turn back on again then it's most likely because you are plugging it into a 5v 1A mains charger, try it with a mains charger that can produce 2A and it'll work properly. The stardard N4 charger is only 1A and is known to have problems with this device.

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Cheers for the pointer

Was following that thread but took my eye off the ball!

Have ordered a 2A USB charger from Amazon.

Let's see what they deliver

With the 1A chargers I have, charging seems a bit slow unless the phone is powered off.

When this is done, it charges really quick (and keeps its charge til morning as Stuart_f points out) - it's just a PITA to have to shut down and boot up.

With the case on and phone on the phone registers as charging, but the battery level doesn't increase. Presumably there's not enough power going to it - using a 2A charger should make the difference, but again I'll report back.

Once more - I can't get over how tiny this thing is - 6cm in diameter by 1.2cm tall! That's roccoculous!

The LED is a bit on the bright side but a bit of insulation tape has sorted that

EDIT

I really need to learn to RTFM, or at least what it says on the side of the box:

Not surprising that it's been a bit dicky with only 1A going to it. Reassuring that a bunch of other people made the same mistake

Also I found that it charges more reliably (quickly?) since I reverted to stock 4.3 kernel (previously on franco kernel v 174)

Edited August 10, 2013 by The Soup Thief

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Dislike the phone's "connected" sound when wireless charging starts? Using Cyandelta or similar (so even if you delete the sound in the media folder it comes back when you update your firmware)? You need Ultimate Sound Control http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2482155 Really handy - allows you to turn each system sounds on /off. Pro version (free for a few days at the above linky) also lets you change the sounds, to play different noises without the need to switch files with a file explorer each time you update. Bloody quiet in here at the moment, ennitt?

Edited October 14, 2013 by The Soup Thief

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Another tip shouted into the empty room...

Struggling with wakelocks and battery drain after wireless charging?

Dzo at xda has a neat fix http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=46343147

Reckon you need to re-run it after a reboot, but it's working for me for now

[Guest thriddle]

Some of us are reading with interest, even if we're not messing up the thread with useless thanks.

But thanks for all the research, I hope to be making use of it soon!

I think the main reason the N4 forum is quiet is that the stock phone is just so darn good there's no real need to mess with it. A big contrast to my (much-loved) ZTE Blade, where I was constantly trying something new. :-)

A cheap and reliable wireless charger would be most welcome, however.