Android Auto Quick Charge compatible Y-Cable

[trafsta]

I have been using Android Auto in a 2017 Ford Escape (Canada) for the past month or so. It is working well, except that the 1A USB ports in my vehicle do not supply enough power to charge my Samsung Galaxy S7 (it charges VERY slow). I have read elsewhere that a Y-splitter cable might work (data end to the vehicle USB port for AA, and power end into Aukey QuickCharge 2.0 car charger) but I have tried 4 different brands of Y-splitter USB cables ( https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0047AALS0?tag=hawk-future-ca-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5482575 etc) and all result in the same "USB Charging" message and not "Fast Charging" like I get when connected straight to my cigarette lighter Aukey Quick Charge 2.0 charger. I am really hoping someone somewhere is able to figure out how to get quick charging to work, as in about 30 minutes I am only getting 5-10% charge via the Escape's in-built USB port current, which often forces me to decide between using Android Auto for my daily podcasts/Google Maps OR listening to FM radio and having no navigation so my phone can charge on the Aukey Quick Charge car charger.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Andrew DeFaria]

I have an S7 and it has fast charging. I'm using the white, fast charge cable in my 2016 vette. It charges pretty well but if it's hot and I'm running BeyondPod and Google Maps, etc. sometimes it'll not charge but discharge. The phone actually put up a message telling me it cannot charge. If you're gonna use a lot of functionality on the phone it may not be able to charge. What I did was turn on the A/C and point the vent directly at the phone. It cooled it down enough so that I was able to charge.

I'm not sure but I think fast charging needs to be in the car too and your car probably doesn't have it. I'm not sure if any car has it really. IOW I think it's more than just a fast charge charging cable but I may be wrong.

 

[trafsta]

Thanks for the reply. Yes my Escape does not have fast charging, it just has a "high output" charger lol.. I am pretty sure it is 1 amp because if it was 2 amps it would charge a lot faster. Older USB ports were likely 500ma... so while it is higher than before it is still not enough when running podcatchers and google maps, which is why I have my trusty Aukey Qualcomm quick charge 2.0 cigarette lighter car charger also available for use. I am hoping someone is smart enough to release the correct USB port pinouts so that perhaps we could make our own custom cable somehow. While my soldering skills are feeble I figure it might be worth a shot if someone else shows that they've successfully done it The good thing is that the S7 tells you when its "USB Charging" (slowest) or "Cable Charging" (not too bad) or "Fast Charging" (aka "quick charge", fastest...), so we can easily know if it is working or not... just need to figure out the pinouts required... when I have enough time perhaps I'll try googling pinouts for regular Qualcomm quick-charging and compare it to regular charging.... it must do something unique when it negotiates its voltage and amperage (quick charge uses 9V instead of 5V and can go up to 4amps).

 

[Victor Howard]

Considering you're going to mess with an OEM head unit, you might want to see if it can handle outputting that much juice. My Pioneer unit went into a safety mode when I tried to pull 2.5A for a faster charge through a USB-C cable. It's a head unit, not a wall socket.

 

[trafsta]

I'm not trying to draw that much juice from the head unit. Thats the point of the Y-cable. Draw the power from the Aukey Quick Charge 2.0 car charger ( https://www.amazon.ca/Dual-Port-Cha...hawk-future-ca-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5488850 ). And the data pins go to the head unit via car USB port.

 

[Michael May3]

Interested to know if you found a solution to this.....I'd like to do the same thing.

 

[trafsta]

Not yet I gave up for now... learned to try to keep my phone close to fully charged before entering the car. I used to rely on charging my phone while driving to/from work, but now just resort to keeping it plugged in while at work mostly. Hopefully it will eventually be possible to use "Fast Charging" via a y-cable of some kind.

 

[RonOnThePond]

I just bought a 2017 Ford Escape and will no doubt have the same issue. My current phone is a Nexus 5x, about to be replaced by a new Google Pixel. One of the main reasons I looked at the Ford is because of its Android Auto support and generally above average electronics / infotainment system. But I experienced the same discharging instead of charging while driving issue in my previous car (I'll spare you the details), and I will be watching this thread for updates that relate to my new Ford+Pixel combination. Thanks for posting and for stating the problem so well.

 

[anotherMeatServo]

I think it's unlikely we'll ever see a microUSB device that supports simultaneous quick-charge and android auto.

Quickcharge utilizes the D+ and D- lines on the USB plug for passing power; making them unavailable for transferring data to the car. If someone is selling a Y-Cable and claiming it simultaneously supports both, I'm calling snake-oil.

If anyone has a USB-C phone, I'd be very curious if you can use the USB charging standard to get high-speed charging from the cigarette lighter, while still passing the data to the car's system. I would think you could hack together a 3A cable from broken cable scraps pretty easily. Anything more than that will probably require an additional ID chip.

For my money though; my next phone is going to have qi2.0 for charging so it preserves the USB port for data.