Charging voltage

[thunderclaps]

I have a charger in my car that has a voltage setting, and says for ipod/mp3 use to always use the USB setting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a low voltage setting and doesn't really charge the phone too well... so I wanted to at least match the wall charger. I think it's 5v, but the charger in my car doesn't have a setting for 5, only 4.5 and 6.

Will using the 6v setting zap it or what? I've been using the 4.5 just to be safe, don't really want to chance it.

When it was on the USB setting and I had it on the dock, which the charger's plugged into, I was using the navigation and it was using more power than it was getting from the plug, so I wanted to up the voltage.

 

[jim302]

I have a charger in my car that has a voltage setting, and says for ipod/mp3 use to always use the USB setting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a low voltage setting and doesn't really charge the phone too well... so I wanted to at least match the wall charger. I think it's 5v, but the charger in my car doesn't have a setting for 5, only 4.5 and 6.

Will using the 6v setting zap it or what? I've been using the 4.5 just to be safe, don't really want to chance it.

When it was on the USB setting and I had it on the dock, which the charger's plugged into, I was using the navigation and it was using more power than it was getting from the plug, so I wanted to up the voltage.

The current (amperage) controls the rate of charging, but voltage is important too.

The USB spec is 5 volts DC. It doesn't have to be exact (for example, 5.1 volts won't hurt anything), but it should be close. 6 V is too high and could cause damage, and 4.5 V might work if you are lucky but is too low. Also, the power adapter may not have the data pins shorted which means the phone will draw at most 500mA which will cause it to charge slowly (or possibly even discharge the battery when running navigation or other power hungry apps).

You would be better off to purchase a high quality and high amperage microUSB power adapter to make sure your phone has sufficient power to charge the battery, and that the voltage is correct. Here's a very good one: http://store.androidcentral.com/motorola-micro-usb-high-performance-car-charger/5A47A3044.htm

More information on USB specifications: Universal Serial Bus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia