Car charger won't charge phone when using Navigation

[melrosemark]

I was using the my Moto Droid for GPS navigation and it drained the battery in less than an hour. I plugged into my car charger which failed to recharge the battery and failed to allow me to continue to use Navigation. What's the use of trying to use the phone instead of my Garmin Nuvi if it can't even continue to work while actually plugged into the charger? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Mark

 

[beckx020]

Maybe it's because you let it drain. I use my Droid for navigation all the time. Just plug it in when you start navigation. If I don't plug it in, it lasts 2-3 hours for me.

 

[dezymond]

mine always charges when using navi...

 

[melrosemark]

Thanks, perhaps I have a bad battery then and it is not a system issue.

 

[jbwiden]

It might be getting too hot or the charger cannot supply enough current. Try cooling the phone down with the ac and/or using a more powerful charger.

 

[mcatdtDroid]

cheap chargers can be an issue. I also didn't have good battery management at one point in time (got it in check now) It used to drain, just sitting in my pocket, in 4 hours. Dead dead. now, I can make it last 18 hours at idle, and 8 hours of using the heck out of it. The point is, I had a crappy charger that actually couldn't charge it faster than I was using it up when my battery was draining and I had a cheap charger.

one final question, is it completely not charging it (no charge symbol on the battery) or is it charging it, just not enough?

I have had those screw in adapters on cheap chargers lose contact and no charge at all. Check your connections....

 

[Polymira]

I had the exact same issue when using an old belkin iPhone usb charger for my Droid.

If you pick up the official Motorola rapid charger, you'll thank yourself. Running Pandora + Navigation it'll still charge your phone like a champ.

Here's the one I have

 

[melrosemark]

I'm using the stock Verizon car charger I bought with the phone. It discharged down to 10 percent or so running Navigation, I then plugged in the car charger. The light went steady red and it kept turning off. The phone was hot.???

 

[Polymira]

I'm using the stock Verizon car charger I bought with the phone. It discharged down to 10 percent or so running Navigation, I then plugged in the car charger. The light went steady red and it kept turning off. The phone was hot.???

The phone will always get hot when using navigation as it's a heavy cpu, gps, and 3g data user. It uses more power then pretty much any other app. That's why you need a higher powered charger for when using nav, like the rapid charger.

 

[appirishmen]

my Droid does this as well. When it gets very hot the charger stops charging. when the battery gets hot enough, it stop accepting a charge. or thats what i was told when i asked about it. i had to take it out of the window and cool it with the AC for it to charge. now it sucks because i can use my car dock on long drives because it over heats in the window so i have to hold it out of the sun.

 

[JohnnytheK]

It might be getting too hot or the charger cannot supply enough current. Try cooling the phone down with the ac and/or using a more powerful charger.

To help with this I use one of those AC vent mounts, cold air pouring on my
Droid keeps it cool!

It does seem the car charger barely keeps up when my Droid is Navigating.
Plugging it in right away is the answer.

 

[REMilk]

When you are using the navigation feature, there seems to be two things you need to do to keep that battery charged.

1. Keep the Droid plugged in using an appropriate charger; for me the Verizon Charger works well, as does the RocketFish (Best Buy) flush mount USB; the Belkin I tried did not supply enough amperage to keep it charged for me.

2. Keep the Droid cool. When it gets too hot, the charging circuit shuts down. Some folks mount the Droid on A/C vent; others just keep it out of the sun. I have a Honda Element and I mount my Droid on the dash just above the 2 center AC vents. I separated the top fin on both vents so the airflow from these two fins is always directed up and hits the Droid. Since doing this, I have not encountered any time when the charging circuit shut off, even on a 5-hour trip between Richmond, VA and Myrtle Beach in the bright sun with the outside temps in the mid 90s.

Just my experience, yours may differ.

Bob

 

[takeshi]

I was using the my Moto Droid for GPS navigation and it drained the battery in less than an hour. I plugged into my car charger which failed to recharge the battery and failed to allow me to continue to use Navigation.

How many mA does your charger supply? If it doesn't supply more than the GPS receiver consumes then you'll have problems. "Stock from Verizon" doesn't really mean anything regarding your car charger as Verizon definitely sells aftermarket chargers. My Motorola P513/SPN5400A supplies 950mA and that's plenty for using the GPS receiver while still maintaining a net charge.

As stated above, if overheating, your battery will not charge. The only thing you can do in such cases is allow the device to cool off.

 

[r314bd]

Keep the Droid cool. When it gets too hot, the charging circuit shuts down. Some folks mount the Droid on A/C vent; others just keep it out of the sun. I have a Honda Element and I mount my Droid on the dash just above the 2 center AC vents. I separated the top fin on both vents so the airflow from these two fins is always directed up and hits the Droid. Since doing this, I have not encountered any time when the charging circuit shut off, even on a 5-hour trip between Richmond, VA and Myrtle Beach in the bright sun with the outside temps in the mid 90s.

This x1000. Before I was aware of the overheating, I too had the problem of the charging circuit shutting down. Then I downloaded TempMonitor and noticed my phone was getting into the 130s-140s while in the car dock. Now I always keep my front exhaust vents on max cool so cold air pushes up and hits the back of my droid. Now the temp never gets above 110 and stays charging continuously

 

[ajGoes]

I recently discovered a great workaround for this problem. I mount my phone in a window dock positioned with the phone on the far left end of the windshield. This positions the phone in the full stream of the vent that points towards the driver's side window.

Among the many oversights in the Droid O/S, charging behavior has to be one of the worst. It's fine for the phone to stop charging to prevent overheating. It's NOT fine for the phone to do so without warning its owner.

my Droid does this as well. When it gets very hot the charger stops charging. when the battery gets hot enough, it stop accepting a charge. or thats what i was told when i asked about it. i had to take it out of the window and cool it with the AC for it to charge. now it sucks because i can use my car dock on long drives because it over heats in the window so i have to hold it out of the sun.