APP that tell you your mA charging rate?

[dss2000]

I found that you can get over 1A but you need two things. You need a "charge only" USB cable where the data wires are shorted. This will signal the phone that it can draw more than the 500mA USB standard current and you need a charger made for an iPad that will provide over 1A. When driving I have have Navigation, podcast, screen on full brightness and drawing close to 1A. The usual USB charger drawing 500mA will not keep up and you'll lose charge. If you put a 1A charger and a charge only USB wire the battery charge will stay about the same, maybe slowly lose charge. If you get a 2.1A charger and use the charge only cable it will gain charge. The 2.1 Amp car charger I use is:
The Kensington PowerBolt Duo Car Charger
Kensington - Smartphone - Universal Smartphone Accessories - Car Mounts & Chargers - PowerBolt
Interestingly I found that even though one USB socket is labeled 2.1 and the other 1A they are both the same. Either one will draw 2.1A just that together they can't draw more than 3.1. Kind of makes sense from a design standpoint, easier and cheaper to make.

Then you will need a charge only wire:
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: PureGear Charge Only Cable for Universal Micro USB - Retail Packaging
or Amazon.com: Naztech Micro USB Charging Cable - BlackBerry, Cal-Comp, HTC, LG, Samsung, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson: Cell Phones & Accessories

 

[dss2000]

See the attached record log. From 06:45AM to 07:16AM my phone is drawing over 1000mA no charger attached. I then attach the 2.1A charger at 07:21AM with a charge only wire and now it is postive 300 to 500mA a change of about 1400mA. If it was only able to draw 1000mA it wouldn't be positive by that much, it would barely be even. If you don't believe the numbers from the Battery Charge Widget you can see the difference in the battery graph in the settings menu. With a normal USB cable you will be losing charge, with a charge only cable but a 1A charger it will barely stay even, with a 2.1A charger and a charge only cable it will gain charge.

 

[dss2000]

Now compare the previous data with this data using a charge only cable with a 1000mA charger. At 07:05 to 07:48 I'm off the charger drawing 900 to 1300 mA and losing charge from 99% to 62%. Then I plug it into the the 1000mA charger at 07:53AM and you see it positive by 93mA, not much and the charge stays around 63%. As you can see there is a difference between the 2.1 A charger and the 1 A charger. If there was truly a limit of 1000mA and a 2.1A charger doesn't add anything the data should both be the same.

 

[zachthebomb13]

Now compare the previous data with this data using a charge only cable with a 1000mA charger. At 07:05 to 07:48 I'm off the charger drawing 900 to 1300 mA and losing charge from 99% to 62%. Then I plug it into the the 1000mA charger at 07:53AM and you see it positive by 93mA, not much and the charge stays around 63%. As you can see there is a difference between the 2.1 A charger and the 1 A charger. If there was truly a limit of 1000mA and a 2.1A charger doesn't add anything the data should both be the same.

View attachment 39626

How do you get to that log?

 

[dss2000]

From the "history" button in the lower left corner of the screen.

Instructions
http://www.3c71.com/android/?q=node/5#main-content-area

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[BaMaDuDe87]

Wow never knew that dss.

 

[carlosriosness]

@dss2000 thank you for this info. i will be playing around with some chargers and cables.

i currently have a S3 (bought used), but the seller gave me his note 2 charger and cable. at work i will have my nexus charger/cable at my desk. in my car i have a 2amp "ipad" griffin power duo charger with a charge only cable. i think the battery monitor widget should help too.

i just want to make sure i am using the best combination of chargers/cables to get the quickest charge (mainly in the car). im not too worried about the batteries life being shortened. i can always buy a new battery in a year. quality aftermarket batteries, with NFC, can be found pretty cheap.

 

[dss2000]

Yes, for the car a 2 amp charger usually labeled for iPad with a charge only cable gives you the most current. I usually get about 1900 mA on my GNex. I don't think it actually damages the battery I've been using them over a year with this setup without any unusual loss in battery life.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[fs328]

I'm new to the Android work as of November 2013. My Samsung Galaxy S3 was going through the battery fairly rapidly. Charging every night was almost mandatory. I found a 7000 mAh battery to solve the frequent charging issue. This created another problem, long charge times. The original 1 mAh charger was replaced with a 2 mAh charger but no improvement in charge time.

The CHARGER Doctor was discovered. It is an Amp/Voltage meter inserted in the USB charging circuit that displays in realtime the actual voltage and current. The price was so good, I bought two. Anyway, I've discovered the S3 will only draw 1.00 - 1.01 amps, regardless of the charger being used. It drinks at it's own rate. My tablet will draw up to about 1.85 amps. As the charging reaches completion, the current tappers off. The voltage ranges up to 5.45 volts during charging. When fully charged, the device being charged will draw 0.01 or 0.02 amps.

If the device is activated after completely charged, it will draw over 0.50 amps while in use. It will return to the previous state when turned off. It appears that the charger will float the device while being used.

The 7,000 mAh battery can take 6 - 8 hours to charge if deeply discharged. The S3 does not know it has a larger battery and will not charge at a faster rate.

Maybe this will provide a bit more on charging and rates. CHARGER Doctor ($5.40) answered all of my questions.

 

[rykellim]

Hi, I am using an intelligent external battery pack with a wireless charging pad on my Nexus 5, and I would like to see how much mA is being supplied to the phone. Using Battery Monitor widget, I saw a negative battery flow ("-588mA"??)... would you please help me understand how to read the readings? Thank you!

 

[Brian Clements]

Using Battery Monitor Widget I've seen it draw as much as -1390 mA. A USB car charger won't keep up and sometimes a 1A one won't keep up. To make sure it charges while using navigation and streaming audio I've had to use a 2.1A charger and •modified the wire (☆☆short the date pins☆☆)• to get it to charge in AC mode.

how did you accomplish this on what exactly do you mean by short the date pins? I know this post is ancient, therefore I am not really expecting that it is still being monitored by these users, but i am hoping that anyone who knows something about this mod or hack can elaborate on it for me, thanks in advance.

 

[dziekan2068]

Please... give a break, all of you guys! There's no such app that can tell you real amp value since current limiter is set up to constant value (or 2 values) and have no sensor to read this true value. Remember that you're using different kind of cables. Some of them are just too "Chinese" and have too big resistance so you cannot achieve "big current" - voltage is fixed (5 V) so if resistance is higher, current is lowet - Ohmic law. If you don't understand this, just remember to have on-hand some strong and thick cable... ;-)

The only way to measure true current is to put mA meter between "+" of charger and "+" of smartphone...
Remember that current is high when battery is almost empty (~10%) and very low when battery is almost ready (~95...97%) - trickle charging is starting there.

 

[carlosriosness]

how did you accomplish this on what exactly do you mean by short the date pins? I know this post is ancient, therefore I am not really expecting that it is still being monitored by these users, but i am hoping that anyone who knows something about this mod or hack can elaborate on it for me, thanks in advance.

search youtube for "Make a Fast Charge USB cable" - i cant post links yet

 

[Asterios]

Hi, i just updated my app and it reads mA from battery driver. You get the current minus the consumption of the system. You can see the consumption by disconnecting your charger. Anyway all these apply IF your device gives the data. Its still under development. Try it, its free. Thanks.
search in google play for "charger tester"

 

[Darr247]

Try the app "Ampere"

I've used it quite a while and it appears to be accurate. It's free (with ads at the bottom, of course).