Charger / ibolt dock question

[3fingersalute]

Hello all,

I looked through some threads here on chargers and read another on the ibolt docks but figured I'd start a new one rather than necro-thread.

Anyhow, I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (AT&T) and recently bought the ibolt xprodock to use with it. My problem is, I can't seem to find a charger that will keep my phone charging while running in this dock. In fact, I'd be happy even if I found one that kept it dead even, as it is right now it drops about a percent every 1-2 minutes or so. When I'm in the dock I'm running a dashcam app and I know they use battery but I turn the screen off so I would imagine I should be able to find a charger that will at least keep it from draining while doing this, right?

I've read various information on data vs. charge cable, etc. so do I possibly need to swap out the cable this thing came with? Or am I just not buying the right type of charger? I've tried one or 2 of the "cheapy" chargers that are single USB outlets supposedly rated at 1000mA and I picked up one this weekend that is another single outlet 2.1A charger and claims to be for android instead of Apple.

Anybody have any luck using this dock and getting their battery to charge properly while in it?

 

[GSDer]

Welcome to the forums!

I'd expect the 2100 mAH charger to be sufficient.
If you DON'T run the dashcam app does the charging level keep up?

I'm guessing that the dashcam app is just putting a heavy load on the phone (max CPU frequency; all cores in use; graphics intensive; screen on) and that it simply can't keep up with the power demand.

It also seems to me (just my opinion, no technical data to back it up) that charging is deprioritized when the device is under heavy load to keep it from overheating.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[3fingersalute]

Thanks for the reply. I know from reading that people are running this app in this dock and are able to keep their charge up, but they don't really specify what charger they are using. The 2100mA charger does charge when not running the app, so does the 1000mA one but I don't feel either one of them are very fast at doing so. Also, I use a different cable with them since the idock's is included with the dock.

I'll do some looking but is anybody aware of an app that might let you see your current charge stats (like what amperage it's pulling)?

 

[GSDer]

I looked at half-a-dozen apps that claimed to show charging current, but most of them noted that they didn't work with the Verizon variant of the S3, and several said they didn't work with Samsung or Motorola phones period (apparently these manufacturers didn't provide libraries to access that information).

I did find one app that provided a current guesstimate but the information seemed inaccurate at best and took 30 minutes to calculate.

Most of the battery apps just tell you the battery voltage, temperature, technology and whether it's charging from AC or USB.

I did come across two paid apps that claimed to provide charging current on Samsung devices but I wasn't willing to pay to find out.

Here're the ones I tried

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[3fingersalute]

Thanks for the replies! So I decided to look into this some more and after reading threads elsewhere I purchased one of these:

SMAKN(TM) USB Car Charger Doctor Voltage Current Detection Tool (3.5V-7.0V, 0-3A) - Battery Testers - Amazon.com

It was money well spent, it's an inline hardware solution that will tell you what current is being drawn. Using it I was able to find that when connected to my house (AC) charger it pulls .74A. Using the cheap 1A chargers I have, they only seem to pull around .4A - .5A at best, and the 2.1A charger I mentioned above only pulled around .6A.

When I bought that off Amazon, I also bought one of these after reading some reviews:
Amazon.com: PowerGen 4.2Amps / 20W Dual USB Car charger Designed for Apple and Android Devices: Electronics

With my phone plugged into that charger it pulls at .74A, exactly the same as my house AC charger. This morning I ran my dashcam app in the dock with GPS enabled, etc. on my drive to work and I slowly gained charge even with all of that running, so all is good now. Definitely worth spending the few extra bucks to get this figured out once and for all.