Charging faster via USB

[qoncept]

I've already bought a whole bunch of chargers for my Droid and don't really want to spend any more, but I don't have one for work. I've been using a regular USB cable connected to my laptop to charge it, but it charges painfully slow. Portable 2.5" hard drives sometimes come with a cable that has a tail that splits to a second USB port for more power, and I have a bunch of them. Any reason this wouldn't work on my Droid?

 

[Brian1]

Don't know never tried one. Yep not a lot of power off the USb ports when you get to it. You can see the power required on the port in the System devices of the USB hubs and so forth. I have even noticed using a USB extension on the factory charger will slow the charge process some. The longer it is the slower it takes.

Brian

 

[Laramie]

Are you at your desk all day? I'd know my car charger charges faster than the usb whether it's connected directly to my Mac or do a AC powered usb hub. YMMV.

Maybe look at getting a Zagg Sparq or similar portable charging unit? Usually my usb charger or car charger is enough to get me through the day until I can charge over night.

But even with downloading podcasts or listening to live radio through RadioTime, I can still usually last a whole day.

 

[cuskit]

I've already bought a whole bunch of chargers for my Droid and don't really want to spend any more, but I don't have one for work. I've been using a regular USB cable connected to my laptop to charge it, but it charges painfully slow. Portable 2.5" hard drives sometimes come with a cable that has a tail that splits to a second USB port for more power, and I have a bunch of them. Any reason this wouldn't work on my Droid?

It will work - just slower than your AC chargers. I normally keep mine plugged into my desktop USB port at work - though slow it gets the job done, and the time is not important as I'm here most daytime hours anyway.

I can say that 50% charge is completed in 2 hours or less. This is just a single USB. Your split cable does not give anymore mAmps than one - but it does assure you that you are getting the maximum available through the usb port (I'm thinking 500mA?). qoncept is right - the longer the cable the more you lose. Probably why the Droid comes with the silly little 3' cable! I have some 10' and 6' cables (from monoprice.com) and see no significant difference in charge time.

 

[unix.punkx]

Working at Apple for 2+ years, (obviously doesn't know if this applies) Apple specifcially told us that the iPhone will always get a better charge and faster off of the included Power Adapter over USB charge from your computer. I have not really "tested" this with the Droid but could be a similar situation.

 

[wil318466]

I've already bought a whole bunch of chargers for my Droid and don't really want to spend any more, but I don't have one for work. I've been using a regular USB cable connected to my laptop to charge it, but it charges painfully slow. Portable 2.5" hard drives sometimes come with a cable that has a tail that splits to a second USB port for more power, and I have a bunch of them. Any reason this wouldn't work on my Droid?

Charging via USB is very slow. The regular wall charger seems like its twice as fast. If you charge via USB from a laptop that is NOT plugged in, you might as well just take a nap, it took 45 minutes for me to get 5% charge from an unplugged laptop. It was an Apple laptop, so there may be some investigation that needs to be done. Heh.

Anyway, use USB chargers when in a pinch, but the wall chargers are ALWAYS preferable. With a wall charger 2 hours and you should be from 0 to 70% or 80% or so. With USB you'd be at 40-50.



-Wil

 

[LifeIsABeach]

While you can't turn off the phone while it is charging turning off the display should help it charge a little faster.

 

[SANhacker]

To me the beauty of the Droid is the ability to change batteries.

I could care less how long it takes to charge since I always have fresh batteries fully charged in the car and in the house. Am I missing something ???

 

[Brian1]

To me the beauty of the Droid is the ability to change batteries.

I could care less how long it takes to charge since I always have fresh batteries fully charged in the car and in the house. Am I missing something ???

Are you using an external charger to charge those extra batteries?

Brian

 

[SANhacker]

Yes I am.
Here is the link.

 

[Brian1]

Kool thanks for the link. Worth buying a couple spare batteries and be out for a while in the field.

Brian

 

[Droids]

A/C powered charger allows the Droid to pull the full 850ma it needs. USB is limited to 500ma so it'll always be slower. I doubt the split USB cable will charge it any faster, it's still only drawing the max 500ma the USB spec allows (both usb ports run off the same usb bus). Mine does seem to charge faster off the desktop PC vs. the laptop though.