Charging from USB Lighter Adapter

[MdicnMan]

I am looking for some insight here.

I have been using a car lighter adapter with two USB ports for charging my previous phone / headset so rather than buying a car charger I just bought a 2nd USB Micro cable.

The problem is that regardless of which cable I use, the original or the new one, it will charge from the wall wart and from the PC but not from the lighter to USB adapter. I have tried three different lighter plugs, HP, Belkin and a no name. All will charge anything I throw at them with a mini USB but not the Droid with the micro USB.

Any thoughts or experience with a specific dual port USB lighter adapter? I really hate to give up charging my BT and phone at the same time.

For now I guess I will have to use the standard car charger... it of course works fine.

Thanks

J

 

[apeshitninja]

I've got a single-port no name USB car adapter, it charges my Droid just fine using the included USB cable. Not sure it wouldn't work.

 

[MdicnMan]

I guess I will try a newer one and see what happens.

 

[Droider]

The Droid requires higher amperage than most USB chargeable devices. Perhaps those lighter adapters just aren't putting out enough amps. I tried a wall usb charger that only puts out 400mA and it was enough to turn the Droid on but not enough for it to indicate that it was charging. The wall charger that comes with the Droid puts out over 800mA.

 

[MdicnMan]

The Droid requires higher amperage than most USB chargeable devices. Perhaps those lighter adapters just aren't putting out enough amps. I tried a wall usb charger that only puts out 400mA and it was enough to turn the Droid on but not enough for it to indicate that it was charging. The wall charger that comes with the Droid puts out over 800mA.

You had me excited there for a minute. Unfortunately I have a 5v 500ma wall wart that works and a 700ma car adapter that doesn't .. must be a pinout thing. Hopefully I can find one in town to try.

 

[Narsil]

I'm using a Zagg 2 port USB adapter that plugs into the lighter port and it works just fine with the cable I bought from Verizon. I have no idea what the power rating is on it, though.

 

[wsbsteven]

The computer puts out 500mah on the usb and the adapter puts out 850mah. I would make sure you are somewhere in that range to ensure you get a charge.

 

[stillz]

I have the same problem... the lighter adapter does not work.

 

[jimnutt]

A lot of lighter adapters have unregulated outputs. In other words, the voltage on the output can vary as the current draw fluctuates. So a droid with a low battery might draw too much current and pull the voltage down on the adapter enough that it can't charge. And then, when the battery has a partial charge, the droid doesn't pull enough current to pull the voltage down to an acceptable value, which will cause the droid to do strange and amazing (and often undesirable) things. Basically always look for a charger that provides 5V regulated at at least 500 ma (the more ma, the better).

 

[takeshi]

You had me excited there for a minute. Unfortunately I have a 5v 500ma wall wart that works and a 700ma car adapter that doesn't .. must be a pinout thing. Hopefully I can find one in town to try.

700mA for each USB port or 700mA total (i.e. 350mA each)?

 

[DiscoStu65]

a coworker brought me an extra one of these yesterday. works just fine for me.

 

[monkeydog]

My car adapter works fine in one of our vehicles but not in the other. They are both almost brand new cars. It works in the 2007 HHR but not in the 2009 Aveo. So, it could be something with the amperage of the vehicle.