Droid X discharges faster than it charges while using Navigation n the car dock.

[TurboCam]

Sorry for the long title but I'm really disappointed in my dx. Yesterday I took a4 hour drive and was using the google navigation to find my way to the destination. When I plugged my dx into the moto car dock, I only had about 50% of my battery left but wasn't concerned as I had the car charger attached too the car dock as well.

Well after about 2 hours of driving with the nav found the whole time, I got the low battery warning. I checked the charger to make sure it was working and all was well. The problem it seems is that the car charger doesn't supply enough juice to keep the phone charged up........let alone actually charging the battery

 

[TurboCam]

Has anyone else noticed this issue.this is a major problem and basically makes the nav useless on a decent trip.
S iince I had no clue where I was going, I really needed the navigation yesterday and this was a major failure. I had to pull over, let the phone charge up while it was off. Once I was able to get enough charge to turn the phone on again, I launched the navigation app and then wrote down the turn list. talk about bs!

 

[alphanu22]

if the USB Connection notification ask, put it to Charge Only-

 

[t9giese]

How many milliamps does your charger put out?

I have a dual output charger that does 1000 or 2100 but honestly I haven't tried nav too much.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Cory Streater]

Stay away from USB car chargers. The phone will see the charger as a USB host and will only draw 500mAh. Instead get yourself a regular car charger like this one. It's rated at 1,000mAh, which is more than enough to feed your power hungry GPS and charge the battery at the same time.

 

[Hipgrncln]

What brand charger are you using?????


Bob J

 

[rjdangerous]

On a short trip, (20-30min) I used my DX in navigation mode with screen always on @ 60%. After getting to my destination I was suprised my DX stayed at 60% and not go up.

From there took an hour and a half trip with phone using navigation and plugged in but this time when we got there it was fully charged.

So the usb from AC adapter is not that strong, if your using the screen always on it will take a long time to charge, if phone is on standby it charges fast.

 

[greydarrah]

You could also use one of those ac adapters that plug into your lighter but let you plug regular things (like your home charger) into them.

 

[Tifoso]

I found that keeping the phone cool by using a vent mount allows it to charge faster than it discharges. Putting it on the windshield allows it to heat up and it wont charge fast enough.

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

I haven't tested it in the car but I do notice that if I have my phone hooked up via USB to my PC and have it set to Charge mode, and then I go and play a game on my phone like a SNES emulator with a Classic Wii Controller Pro, it can't actually charge the phone. It maintains the same battery % until I stop gaming and turn the screen off. It seems this phone never switches over to just draw from the charger, and always takes from the battery even while charging.

Pretty annoying if you ask me :/

On the topic, does anyone know if when the phone does finally hit 100% and I leave it plugged in, will this mean that its draining from the battery and trickle charging it to maintain 100%, or does it switch over and start drawing just from the wall?

 

[arkuti]

I am having the same problem as Quadcam. Using an old Blackberry storm car charger and when I have it hooked into the car dock, at best it holds the charge, but most of the time it seems to go down by 10% or so. I have only done short trips so far though. I just purchased the charger that Cory mentioned above. I sure hope it works.

 

[TurboCam]

I was using a car charger that verizon sold me when I bought the dx. It's a verizon branded car charger with an extra port on top for charging a second item via a usb port. The main party of the charger is a fixed coiled cable with the standard plug end on it (micro usb.) Seems like if it its designed to charge two devices at the same time, out should do the trick.

I forgot to mention that I then plugged the phone straight into the charger (not via the car dock) and I still was hering the same lack of charge. The gps was still drawing more juice than the charger was supplying.

 

[TurboCam]

I was using a car charger that verizon sold me when I bought the dx. It's a verizon branded car charger with an extra port on top for charging a second item via a usb port. The main party of the charger is a fixed coiled cable with the standard plug end on it (micro usb.) Seems like if it its designed to charge two devices at the same time, out should do the trick.

I forgot to mention that I then plugged the phone straight into the charger (not via the car dock) and I still was hering the same lack of charge. The gps was still drawing more juice than the charger was supplying.

 

[04redgto]

It is temperature related! The phone won't take a charge if it is over a certain temp! It does this so it doesn't fry! The phone gets alot warmer when charging, couple this in the windshield on a summer day, gps running, display on fulltime, and charging, it gets hot! It will charge normally till like around 115 Degrees. Either get a vent mount during the summer, or turn your defroster on fullblast. You will not have this problem if you can keep the phone temp down.

 

[Hipgrncln]

So which is the better charger, the one Cory suggested or the Verizon one ???
I am in need of a car charger and want to get the correct one.

Bob J

 

[anon(40612)]

I too have had the same issue as posted in this thread. Yesterday, I took a 3 hour drive with the Navigation on, and found my battery at 30% at the end of the drive. It actually started with 15 or 20, so it DID charge, but BARELY.

I have the same charger, the Verizon branded one with an extra USB slot for a secondary device, and my wife and I were both using it. I was using the extra USB slot. I'm attributing that to the reason it wasn't charging fast enough.

 

[GlueFactoryBJJ]

The one Cory suggested appears to be a high output "OEM" charger by Motorola. I'd say go with the one Cory suggested.

Scott

 

[Cory Streater]

I believe the Verizon charger is rated at 850mAh and is shared by the cord and the USB port. Trust me I pulled my hair out over this issue with all my GPS enabled phones and kept replacing USB chargers with new ones rated at higher outputs. It wasn't until I had the Droid Incredible that I found out it was because these phones were not drawing more than 500mAh from USB chargers, which is not enough to charge and run GPS all at once.

The temperature point is interesting as well, but unless your driving in a hot car with the windows rolled up and no air conditioning, I suspect the root cause is the charger.

I have the charger I recommended. It definitely works and is priced really well. If you travel, I would suggest getting a spare for that price.

 

[anon(40612)]

When you say that the 850mAh is shared by the cord and the USB port, does that mean that if the USB is not being used, all 850 will be used by the cord, and thus the charger will be just fine for Navigation?

 

[t9giese]

I'm curious how you know the usb car chargers only put out 500mA? For reference this is the one I have. I know for a fact iPads won't charge with only 500mA and mine works as expected.

I'll try nav today and see what happens.

iPad, iPhone & iPod Accessories Power reVIVE II - Dual USB Car Charger for iPad