Battery and Naivagation, Is this Normal?

[vthokies1996]

I'll have to check when I get home. My Jeep is actually in shop now getting it's A/C serviced. Thankfully we haven't had too many hot days so far in Virginia.

My wife has a Rocketfish charger so I may check the mAh rating on both and swap with hers if that one turns out to be higher. She doesn't have a dock.

 

[aminaked]

I noticed battery going down during nav the other day. I had never noticed it before. I wonder if:
1)my cable wasn't properly seated in the cigarette lighter socket
2)there is a difference between the two adjacent sockets in my car
3)the temperature was keeping the phone from charging
4)it's a software bug. I just got a google maps update that puts a navigation icon in the app drawer. Maybe this update fixes this problem.

 

[vthokies1996]

If I was the only one having this problem I would agree with you. I have tried the Motorola charger that came with the Car Dock in several vehicles with the same result. There are numerous users having the same problem, just conduct a google search.

The only app I have had running is Navigation. I do have gmail synch and a synch to update my location on my home screen. The Droid was fully charged when placed in the charger and into the dock. I can leave my Droid turned on in my arm rest all day while at work, at least 8.5 hours, and when I return I have 90% left. So there are no other apps or services which could have led to a 40% in less than 2 hours. It was not the sun, since it was cloudy. It was not hot outside.

What is the longest you have used GPS while plugged into your car charger? I assume since you said you have had no problems, your Droid maintained a full charge while plugged in and using GPS Navigation?

Have you looked at the model # on your charger, or found the mAh rating for that charger? Maybe that charger is defective, or simply isn't rated for the load you're trying to access.

Checked the rating last night and the charger I am using says 950mA on it. It's the Motorla charger that came with the car dock. I read that the ball portion of the car dock is the same as a Garmin GPS unit, so I ordered a mount for a Garmin GPS that fits into the ac vents. It was $5.50 off amazon, which includes shipping. Maybe this will help cool the phone when GPS is running.

 

[NCCicero]

Maps, Navigation, Battery

I am a newbie. Hope not to offend anyone and I may be underthinking this but:
I played with my 2 week old Droid today while out briefly.
-Firstly, a visible check. I.E. does this battery display a lightning bolt to verify that the charger is connected.
-Secondly, while using Maps in Navigation I was able to go to Settings, "about phone". From there I checked under "status" that again verified that my battery was charging via my car charger. My % remained constant. I do have a trip of about 2 hours coming up and I might play with it then as well.
- There is also a "battery use" tab, so to speak, that will tell you what is draining the battery the most.

Just my observations. No, I didn't check the rating of my charger as I didn't feel it necessary. Both my wife and I have had problems with earlier Motorola phones and the connections made by the chargers (both car and home). Could it be as simple as that?
A direct replacement for your GPS? You are comparing a specific-purpose device with a "swiss army knife" type device. Albeit, a very good device. Just My Opinion.

Good Luck.

 

[vthokies1996]

The lightning bolt icon did not appear until after the charge had dropped from 100%. I started with a fully charged battery. I saw it at 90% and the lightning bolt was there. It was still there at 60% when I removed it from the car dock.

The charger was plugged in fully to both the phone and to the cigarette lighter.

 

[zeiroe]

This weekend we drove from Northern Virginia to Ithaca, NY. I left the house with a fully charged Droid. Put the Droid in the dock and plugged in the charger. Then setup up the Navigation to our destination.

It was about 60 degrees out with very little sun. After 1.5-2 hours, I noticed that the battery was down to 60%. A 40% drop in charge, with the charger plugged in.

I am using the Motorola charger that came with the dock. But is a 40% loss within 2 hours normal, or could there be something wrong with the phone? I have noticed considerable drops in battery % when using navigation in several cars with my phone, also using either the Motorola charger or a charger purchased from Best Buy.

I've seen other threads and it seems that people have claimed it has something to do with trying to use the Navigation while in the dock and having the Droid in direct sunlight. The entire trip there was very little sun, maybe 5 minutes of actual sunlight, the majority of the time on the road it was quite cloudy.

No other apps were running. I took the phone of the charger in my house, put it in the dock and started only the Navigation.

I havent seen this mentioned in teh 4 pages yet but I would look at is the temp of your Droid as the NAV is running. Charging+Screen+3G data transfer heats up the unit rooted or stock ... Heat is the bane of all batteries and will run it down quicker than if it were cold.

 

[Mule65]

My new stock 2.1 Droid with a $29 Verizon car charger in my 2005.5 Audi A4 charged me up from 40% to 100% while using Nav and listening to Pandora in about 90 minutes.

 

[trowa]

I have this problem when using wireless tether program for a few hours and plugged in with a USB wire. It just doesn't give enough juice to keep up with the demand. Also I had a 3rd party AC adapter that did the same thing. Now if I use the Stock AC adapter and wire I have no problems. It must have to do with the output on it. Look at the sticker on the AC adapter and see.

Now for the navigational issue I am using the official moto dock and the cigarette lighter charger it comes with. I can tell you running turn by turn gps, sync turned on, my battery will slowly charge as I am using gps. I drove 30 minutes with it on one day it was 80% before I left and while driving it charged it to 90%.