"Danny D'Amico" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 06 Feb 2014 17:55:55 +0100, Leviatan wrote:
Linear or switched voltage regulators, as the ones used in phone
chargers,
are mostly self current limiting, so there is no risk, just that moto-G
will tabe a bit longer to charge.
I understood that the risk of the Moto-G sinking too much current is
minimal (since I assumed it had current-limiting circuitry to prevent
battery overcharging).
However, if the Moto-G takes, say, 1 Amp to just run whatever is running
on it (admittedly high, but this is just a worst-case scenario), and if
the USB port is only a typical 500mA port, then the battery will slowly
discharge.
In practice, if you're charging your Moto-G, most of the time you're not
also using it, except in the case of GPS and bluetooth and dashcams which
is what you'd be using in a car.
So, the key problem is that the *car* charger has to be beefy just to
keep up with the demands of the phone, and not just those of the battery.
PS: I'm debugging exactly that problem on my Samsung Galaxy S3 as we
speak.
There are a couple of games that when I run them on my Asus Memo Smart10,
the charger mostly "breaks even", or the battery will still slightly
discharge while on the charger. It's a 2.1A charger (came with the tablet),
but still won't keep up. One that comes to mind first is "Real Racing". My
guess is between the processing power required, the graphics, and the
constant wifi connection, it's more than the poor battery can handle :-(
If I disable the wifi (airplane mode), it'll do OK, but when off charger,
it's still a drain on the battery. I usually reserve playing that game when
near an outlet :-)
I haven't played the game while in the car, but I have a USB car charger
that works fine when using the GPS travel program. It has a dual output of
1A and 2.1A. I got it from Amazon a while back for my old Creative Labs MP3
player, but it works great for my phone and tablet now.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PU01M4/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I don't recall what it cost them, but it wasn't as expensive as it is now
:-( I see there's a new daul-2.1A one available.
--
SC Tom