12v USB Car Charger - Phone thinks it's connected to PC

[rhildenbrand]

First let me start by saying I LOVE my captivate. One thing that's driving me nuts is charging in the car. My car has a USB charger port mounted in the dash (it's a 500ma DLO charger that I surface-mounted behind the dash for a cleaner look). This allows me to charge phone, GPS, bluetooth headset, iPod, etc from the same port.

For some reason though my captivate thinks it's connected to a PC whenever I plus it into this port. Very inconvenient because (1) it does a media scan everytime I disconnect from the charger, and (2) disables both internal and external SD card when I'm charging.

Any idea why it does that? I tried covering the middle 2 connectors (data + and data -) on the USB plug to see if that fixed it, but no luck. I also set the USB settings on the phone to "ask me what's connected" instead my usual defaul of "mass storage" -- that allows be to just but the back-arrow button when I plug the phone in, but it's kind of kludgey.

I also just tried a Belkin 1ma USB car charger from Frys, but it gives the same behavior.

Any ideas?

P.S. I do realize that I need to swap my 500ma charger to a 1000ma charger (the 500ma charger charges this phone sloooowly) but looking for any experience you may have on a USB car charger that acts just like a plain-jane charger.

P.P.S. I do have a cheapo-brang microusb car charger (came with the screen protector I ordered on Amazon) and it does NOT act like it's connected to a PC.

Any ideas or suggestions are apprecaited.

 

[alphadog]

If the cheapo one works and the other one doesn't then find a different brand. It could be the voltage or amperage being delivered. All the new smartphones are very picky - they have all kinds of code around the chargind circuit, so it is hard to guess what the culprit is.

What makes no sense is why it is why the phone does the media scan - it should only do this if the SD cards are being mounted - I have never seen them auto mount. Even if window sees the phone as mass storage, i still have to go to the notification bar and mount.

I would find another charger as this one seems to have major issues.

 

[spenserj87]

I have this same issue - it even happens with the AC-USB cable adapter that came with the phone.

 

[rhildenbrand]

It's doing a media scan because when the phone is in "USB Storage" mode, it automatically mounts the internal & external SD cards to the PC (hence unmounting them from the phone). Since the phone thinks it's hooked to a PC when using this charger....

I've tried three USB-style car charges (the 500ma DLO, a 1000ma Belkin, and one other 700ma generic brand I tried at Fry's) and all three demonstrated the same behavior. Rather than continuing to buy & return, I figure I must be missing something obvious - hence reaching out to this austere group

 

[spenserj87]

Mine does this randomly - I haven't figured out a common factor. It happens regardless of the USB cable, PC, AC, etc.

 

[RobertInCypress]

happens to me too. I have the car charger from AT&T that also has the regular USB input near on the 12 volt plug & it works like it should. other chargers act like they are the PC

 

[D-Caf]

The car charge I have acts just a like the standard charger, but I'm not sure what brand it is or what volt/current. It came for free with the phone when I bought it from letstalk.com. I'll check later today.

You could also put it into USB debug mode. That will keep it from auto-mounting and not require additional keypresses. You'll just have to ignore the alert notifications and you'll have to manually change it if you wish to really mount it.

I guess it just depends on what you do more often, charge or sync/mount.

 

[rhildenbrand]

It appears that the factor is whether the data pings are shorted or not. (shorted = acts like a charger, not shorted = acts like a PC).

I'll test this theory tonight. In any case, I still need to replace my current 500ma charger with a 1A charger (going to use the Belkin micro -- easy to fit that behind my dash).

If this test works, I have a path forward...

Got this info from the comments on:
http://www.androidcentral.com/revie...ro-usb-car-charger-usb-port-it-can-multi-task

 

[TheBronze]

Monoprice.com seems to have the best pricing going. The output on the wall wart is 5v, .7a. They hvae 5v, 1A adapters for a buck. Can't beat it...

 

[rhildenbrand]

Theory tested and proven -- shorting pins 2 & 3 on the cable puts the phone in "AC charger" mode instead of "USB mode".

I tested that by shorting the pin 2 & 3 conductors inside the cable -- did it that way because it was easier that soldering the pings inside the charger.

When I grab my 1000ma Belkin charger tomorrow, I'll actually make the mod inside the charger body, so that I can use whatever cable I want...