Is S3 running on AC after charge complete?

[pcguys]

Always wondered,
Mike

 

[ansextra]

If the battery level isn't dropping (which it won't since the phone is still plugged in) I would have to think the phone is running on AC.

 

[funkylogik]

as in Alternating Current? nah its DC

 

[funkylogik]

wait i get what u mean man.. while the chargers still plugged into the phone? not sure, doesnt the charger turn it into DC?

 

[ansextra]

Ok. So it's AC converted to DC. That would make sense. Duh.

 

[funkylogik]

lol i like people who think about stuff like this

 

[jaltman]

Think of it in these terms.

Its just like your car. There is a power source, the alternator. There is the battery, then all the things in the car that use electricity. The alternator is only a source of power, the battery is both a source and consumer, the stuff in the car only a consumer.

When starting, the alternator is not available, the battery is a source. When the battery is discharged, after starting, it becomes a consumer and charges.

When the battery is full it stops charging and power is drawn from both the alternator and the battery, but when the battery drops low enough for the regulator to notice, it kicks back into charging.

And, yes, the wall wart converts the 110 v. AC into 5v. DC. Your automobile charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter regulates the 12v to 5v.

 

[funkylogik]

nicely explained man thanks

 

[coreyacole]

Or, you can look at what I learned last night when I decided to charge my second battery. If you do a battery pull while the phone is plugged in, the phone stays on.

That tells me that while charging, the phone uses power from the plug and not from the battery.

 

[funkylogik]

Or, you can look at what I learned last night when I decided to charge my second battery. If you do a battery pull while the phone is plugged in, the phone stays on.

That tells me that while charging, the phone uses power from the plug and not from the battery.

yeah my Xperia did that. havent tried it on the s3

 

[jaltman]

Or, you can look at what I learned last night when I decided to charge my second battery. If you do a battery pull while the phone is plugged in, the phone stays on.

That tells me that while charging, the phone uses power from the plug and not from the battery.

Your conclusion is not completely accurate. Both are there in parallel. You can pull either charger or battery and phone will stay on.

|----------------|------------|
charger battery phone
|----------------|------------|
When the battery is full and the regulator stops it from charging further, current is drawn from both the battery and charger. Pull the battery and it will all come from the charger, without interuption. Put the battery back and the regulator (which is actually in the battery case) will say oh - I got power, lets charge.

 

[funkylogik]

cool so the regulator is actualy part of the battery?

 

[jaltman]

Thats my understanding, I have never pulled one apart, but I have had the regulators go bad overcharging and over drawing current, and it was the battery that needed to be replaced. Other batteries did not over charge. It makes sense tho, with extra-capacity baterries, that they build the proper limiting controls into the battery itself.

In the (much) older days I remember laptops that couldn't be charged correctly because replacement batteries didn't have the smarts to talk to the bios. That doesn't happen any more.

I am sure that if I am wrong there are enough smarter people than I to jump all over me.

 

[funkylogik]

nah man what ur sayin does make sense (about the extra-capacity batts etc)

 

[coreyacole]

Your conclusion is not completely accurate. Both are there in parallel. You can pull either charger or battery and phone will stay on.

|----------------|------------|
charger battery phone
|----------------|------------|
When the battery is full and the regulator stops it from charging further, current is drawn from both the battery and charger. Pull the battery and it will all come from the charger, without interuption. Put the battery back and the regulator (which is actually in the battery case) will say oh - I got power, lets charge.

The problem is, that although I have no proof, my theory can't really be tested.

In my experience, your suggestion sounds perfect if not for most of my phones powering off if they were connected to power but the battery was pulled. That tells me that the cord was not supplying power to the phone but was supplying the battery and the battery was powering the phone.

In this situation the cord is in fact powering the phone and the battery. What we don't know is if the phone draws battery power while the charger is connected.

I choose to believe that the phone has a switch that stops pulling from the battery when the cord is connected. Why? To do it the other way impacts the battery and makes no sense.

I rewrote this three times and it still seems confusing and that I didn't make myself clear... oh well.

 

[funkylogik]

lol i think, if its a parallel conection as Jaltman says, the phone will draw power from both but mostly from the charger as it has higher voltage until the battery is charged.. does that sound right?

 

[pcguys]

Thanks everyone.

So, it sounds like after the charge is complete, even if it stays plugged into the wall for 24 hours, when eventually unplugged, it should be at 100% (or maybe 99%), Right?

Thx
Mike

 

[funkylogik]

right what does this..

http://db.tt/D0vsQbGO

mean to our quest for answers lol?
why will charging during use when the battery is below 15% prevent efficient charging??

 

[ronmc1954]

A cell phone charger has it's limits and voltage is just one factor, All chargers and transformers have a wattage or amp rating in there specs. So a 3Amp 5VDC charger will not have as much power as a 6amp 5VDC charger would.
So if you have a battery with a low charge and your still using your phone your charger will have a hard time doing an efficent job because of its size.
You might say get a more powerful charger, not advisable, a charger with to much power can charge a battery to fast causing damage.

Ron

 

[jaltman]

A cell phone charger has it's limits and voltage is just one factor, All chargers and transformers have a wattage or amp rating in there specs. So a 3Amp 5VDC charger will not have as much power as a 6amp 5VDC charger would.
So if you have a battery with a low charge and your still using your phone your charger will have a hard time doing an efficent job because of its size.
You might say get a more powerful charger, not advisable, a charger with to much power can charge a battery to fast causing damage.

Ron

Yes, exactly correct (except for the part of the bigger charger damaging the battery). Assume you are using the stock 1 Amp charger. At .5 volts you have .5 watts of power available, .5 watts = 500 milliwatts, assume further that you are in a poor reception area and your transmitter is running full bore at 250 milliwatts (thats outpout power, not input needed to generate that output). Your screen is on, pulling all the power it needs (gotta be another couple hundred mW) and your cpu and memory are all actively draining away. Whats left to charge the battery? Zilch.

Its conceivable that power consumed could exceed the capacity of the charger and be drawing from both the charger and the battery and if your battery is less than 15% things could become unhappy in short order. Damage is unlikely, but voltage will be dropping, your cpu will become unhappy.

@funkylogik Yes! Because the charger has a slightly higher voltage more electrons will come from it than the battery. Voltage=electromotive force. Force = pressure. The electrons from the charger are pushed harder than the ones from the battery, so more of them get through. Efficient charging is affected because exceeding the power rating of the charger will result in voltage dropping Drop the voltage from the charger and more power will be drained from the battery, which is already low, an unhappy phone call experience is ahead.

If your battery is at 50-60% charge, the length of the phone call or phone use is unlikely to exceed the charge left in the battery, but at 15% or 10% or less your battery drain can exceed that which is left making everything even more unhappy. Battery damage can result from draining your battery COMPLETELY dead and your phone wont let you do it.

The phone is one smart lil fella. If you leaving it sitting going dead, it will start beeping and yelling for you to connect it to a charger and if you ignore it, it will turn itself off rather than let the battery go completely dead.

Completely dead is an unhappy experience for a multi-cell battery. You dont want that to happen.