Intermittant wireless charging on ATT Note 3

[droidnate300]

(I ran a few searches and came up empty)
Hello -

New Android user here (switched from WebOS in late December).

One of the things I was looking forward to on the Note 3 was wireless charging, since I had been using it for years without issue on various WebOS devices(and still use it on my touchpads at least).

So I have been quite surprised the number of problems I have had with this technology on the Note 3 since I started trying to use wireless charging about a month ago.

First off about a month ago I purchased a Samsung EP-P100IJWU wireless charging pad along with a Samsung EP-CN900IBU wireless charging cover. I saw one or two other options for covers but liked that one as it seemed the least bulky(basically is the same size as the existing back cover though weighs about 20x more).

I had sporadic charging issues, sometimes it would charge, other times it would not. The charging pad as a green light on it to indicate when it is charging - turns out this light is not accurate, I have left it on the charger with the green light on and wake up to the battery at 10%. Fortunately there is another light on the phone to indicate when it is charging.

Most often the behavior is the phone goes in and out of wireless charging every second or two. Other times the phone doesn't charge wirelessly at all.

Next up I purchased a pair of Tylt Vu chargers, and had similar strangeness, in some cases the phone would charge OK on the Samsung pad then I'd take it to the Tylt and it would not charge, then I'd take it back to the Samsung pad and it would no longer charge.

This pattern went on for a couple of weeks, some days it charged flawlessly every time, other times it just flat out refused to. I'm a techie(I'll say I've been using Linux on my desktop for 16 years) and I exhausted every troubleshooting idea I have. The people at Tylt offered to replace the chargers though given the issue is reproducing on 3 different chargers theirs and Samsung I think the chargers are OK.

Samsung support was somewhat less helpful.

A little over a week ago I purchased a second Samsung EP-CN900IBU back cover and the results were the same. Intermittent charging.
I saw on a couple of occasions the phone did start charging but did not recognize there was power for a minute or more which makes no sense to me..

I'm thinking it's a design flaw myself, I suppose next option is to try to replace the phone but am looking to hear if anyone else has used this back cover and has had success. Searching the forums for the part number reveals no hits.

I purchased another wireless charging pad (Nokia) yesterday, will get it in a week or so. I'm not expecting different results just wanted another pad to charge the phone. I'm so used to having HP/Palm touchstones pretty much everywhere..

On a side note does anyone use Android Daydream? It is similar to Palm/HP's exhibition mode. However I found at least on this phone it is flawed enough that daydream is not worth using (sadly as I would like to use it), once the phone's battery is full daydream is kicked offline, and a message notification shows saying "battery is charged, unplug the charger", then a minute or so later the charger kicks in again and daydream launches again, only for a minute or two then..rinse & repeat.. This problem is made worse at night, if I turn the screen off with daydream enabled, and the battery gets charged not only does daydream get kicked offline but the screen lights up nice and bright next to my bed (screen does not turn on when battery is charged with daydream disabled). So at least for now daydream stays off. I manage servers and networks for a living so I keep my phone close by as it acts as a pager I'm on call 24x7.

Phone is ATT Note 3, not rooted, no special mods installed, pretty generic stuff at this point.

thanks for any ideas..

 

[GMJeff]

Are the chargers plugged into a power strip, or directly to the wall?

It can make a difference sometimes.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[mavrrick]

I have wireless charging enabled on my note 3 via a Qi Reciever. I use the Tylt vu and it is great. I am sorry you are having issues with it. I think part of the problem is the nature of how wireless charging works. Basically it slowly charges the phone. Once the phone is full the phone and change do a kind of dance periodically activating to keep the phone full until you remove it and take it for use. I believe this is to prevent overcharge.

It is strange that you are having such issues with it even charging though. Maybe the contact on the back panel are just to shallow to make good contact.

 

[droidnate300]

GMJeff - I haven't heard of that myself but for what it's worth, the Samsung charger is plugged into a non surge suppressing strip which is then plugged into a UPS. The Tylt chargers are plugged into surge suppression strips with no UPS(one at my office the other at home). The first time I used the Tylt it was plugged directly into the wall(similar behavior).

One thing that I did notice is the Samsung charger uses a 2A power source and the Tylt only 750ma. I could not find any info on the power OUTPUT for the Samsung, the Tylt claims 5W output if I remember right(well within Qi specs), not sure if Samsung is higher or not..

Mavrrick - I am aware of wireless charging I have been using it for five years or so on my Palm/HP devices(never ever had a problem across a half dozen devices), though this is my first Qi device.

thanks for the replies! I will try plugging the charger directly into the wall the next time the problem occurs and see what happens. Maybe as early as tonight.

 

[droidnate300]

Latest update(few mins later)

I was able to charge the phone on the Samsung charger wirelessly, I let it sit for a few seconds, then took it to the Tylt. It did not charge on the Tylt (was going in and out of charging - same behavior). Took the phone back to the Samsung, and it was doing the same thing. I plugged the Samsung directly into the wall and the behavior continued.

I moved the Tylt directly into a wall socket and the bad behavior continues. I notice that after a dozen or so switches between wireless charging and not charging the phone seems to give up and sits on the charger(in this case the Tylt), the charger green light is on but the phone is NOT charging.

Also tried(again) just in case, rebooting the phone and powering the phone off and back on again, no change in behavior

Mavrrick - what back cover do you use? same model# as mine or something different?

thanks again

 

[mavrrick]

Mavrrick - what back cover do you use? same model# as mine or something different?

thanks again

You are welcome. I am using a Do-Cooler Qi-Receiver(i got from amazon) behind the original stock back panel. I use that because I wanted to use regular cases. I also have a Diztronic TPU Case on it.

Not sure if this will help but Tylt states over and over in support stuff that you should set the bottom edge of the phone on the charger and then tilt the phone back. If you sent it down and let it slide into position it can cause problems, or at least that is what they say. I think it has something to do with how the charger works with the wide charging area. I will say this it does take about 5-7 seconds for it to detect it is there and start charging.

Also the Tylt is 750 milli-amps at 12 volts. That means 9 watts. The Samsung charger is 2amps at 5 volts. That means 10 watts. I also believe that the Qi-Receiver can also make a difference as if it can't take in more then say 500 milli-amps at 5 volts then you are still stuck at that charging rate.

If I was to by a Qi Receiver now I would get this one

 

[droidnate300]

ok thanks! the 9 watts must be the input? because the Tylt website says output is 5W.

 

[GMJeff]

I was just wondering as sometimes electronic devices need to be connected directly to the mains, as a power strip could be faulty causing the power to the device to not fall in the expected input range.

As for the Nokia plate you ordered, is it the DT-900? If so, the specs for it seem to match the Tylt charger you purchased with a 12v .75A output. I have one and was using it with my Lumia 920 windows phone. I no longer have that phone because i upgraded, but it had the same exact issues you are talking about here. I would put the phone on the charger and it would take about 5 to 10 seconds before the tone would sound letting me know it was charging. Other times, i could wake up to a dead battery because it would disconnect for some reason. That was also without a charging shell, it was built into the phone.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[mavrrick]

ok thanks! the 9 watts must be the input? because the Tylt website says output is 5W.

Yes I was referring to the input voltage on both of them. In most cases these Qi Chargers put out about half of what they take in. Tylt may be able to do something a bit better since it is 12V instead 5v.

The charging rate is controlled by both the Qi Charger and the Receiver. Allot of Qi Receivers don't go over 500-600 milli-amps. Some can reach 1 amp at 5 volts(5watts). The Do-Cooler one I linked above claims 1amp charing.

 

[droidnate300]

As for the Nokia plate you ordered, is it the DT-900? If so, the specs for it seem to match the Tylt charger you purchased with a 12v .75A output. I have one and was using it with my Lumia 920 windows phone. I no longer have that phone because i upgraded, but it had the same exact issues you are talking about here. I would put the phone on the charger and it would take about 5 to 10 seconds before the tone would sound letting me know it was charging. Other times, i could wake up to a dead battery because it would disconnect for some reason. That was also without a charging shell, it was built into the phone.

Yes it is the DT-900, interesting that you had similar issues on that phone.. my phone has been stable for the past couple of days, I think my next step will be to get a different type of charging cover and see if things get better. Funny the things you can sometimes take for granted(like charging)!

thanks again for the assistance

 

[droidnate300]

quick update.

I don't know what happened but for roughly the past week the device has been charging flawlessly on all chargers. This is after at least 6 weeks of almost non stop problems.

My only guess is perhaps a software update came in without me noticing that somehow fixed it. I noticed a few weeks ago an update came in and automatically installed(wasn't happy about that - I'd like to know in an advance and be able to opt out if I want or postpone the upgrade), I would never had known had the phone not lit up and started making noises at 11:30pm at night and I looked at it and it said updates were installing. The charging issue wasn't solved with that update though, so perhaps there was another. Or maybe the planet alignment changed and that was enough to get this to work reliably.

of course now I've probably jinxed it.

 

[droidnate300]

I don't see a way to change the thread topic( to add [RESOLVED] or something) but I found the root cause of the problem.

I'd call it a design flaw in the charging cover. When the problem occurs, I can resolve it by taking off the back cover, putting the back cover on a flat surface and pressing the back of it in to compress it. Putting the cover back on then resolves the issue.

I had the problem recur after going to an ATT store and getting something else unrelated, while there the employee I was talking with expressed interest in the wireless charging and wanted to see the back cover. So I let him remove it(after it had been flawlessly charging for 7-8+ days). Then he put the cover back, later that night the phone stopped charging again. So I had an idea of compressing the cover(didn't want to do it on the phone itself maybe I'd break it or something..). I did it, and the phone has been flawlessly wirelessly charging for a couple of days so far.

So I think real fix would be to have larger components or something in the phone or back cover so contact is easier to establish. Or perhaps a latching system around the charging area that the cover can connect to and secure itself(similar to how the cover secures itself to the outside edges of the phone).

I removed the cover from my WebOS phones I don't know how many times, and they never had problems wirelessly charging, well for any reason whatsoever.

But at least I can put this issue to rest, I'm not going insane, it is a design flaw and at least I have a workaround.

 

[bikernzrh]

I seem to have the same problems with my lumia 1520 with built-in qi capability and various chargers (DT900, DT910, RAVPower RP-WCN7)

sometimes the phone just flat out refused to charge wirelessly and had me think something was broken. sometimes the phone would charge normally, sometimes it would stop and not restart no matter what charger and/or position I would put it on. then again suddenly I could place it on a charger and it would instantly start the charge. I usually use a pretty thick cover but it doesn't seem to have any impact on the above behaviour.

from squeezing backplates to slapping the back of the phone I've heard (and tried) a few remedies but none would cure the problem. my guess first was a bug in the phone's firmware but you might be right speculating about a design flaw.
this interesting post could give a hint about the origins of the problem:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/0...-for-keeping-your-nexus-4-awake-indefinitely/