On Fri, 17 Mar 2017 09:01:52 +0200, Micky
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Mar 2017 20:09:26 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
However, you may have had a different problem. The constant 77%
indication suggests that whatever is delivering this number (OS or
some app) is hung. Since it recovered later, did you reboot the
phone?

I may have turned it off. It charges faster when off, though one
friend of mine told me it only charges when on! Huh? I'm sure mine
isn't different from his.

Well, there's an easy way to find out. Buy one of the various USB
ammeters and measure what the charger is doing.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222262460143
So, I tried it. I turned off my Samsung S6 phone and plugged in the
stock Samsung 2amp charger. The screen showed a gray battery symbol
with an ominous lightning bolt in the middle, which I assume means
that it's either charging or self destructing. The gray battery
symbol then filled up to 100% because the phone was already fully
charged. The screen then announced that "This phone is capable of
wireless charging". It would appear that the S6 is capable of
charging when turned off.

It doesn't charge very fast when on, even when the screen is black.

What is "it"? Maker and model please. If you plug a 0.5A or 1A
charge into a phone that was designed to use a 2A charger, it will
take much longer to charge.

But I know the lit screen runs the battery down far faster than with
an unlit screen. So if the charger can keep pace when the screen is
lit, why doesn't it charge faster when the screen is unlit.

It does charge faster with the screen off. If the charger is
delivering 0.5Amps, and the screen is drawing 0.4Amps, then the
battery is only getting 0.1Amps.

Maybe Whiskers is right. The voltage of the charger is exactly or very
close to the voltage of the battery, so the charger can also run the
phone but it can't charge the battery.

How do those rechargers work, the size of a cigarette pack or so that
charge when there is no outlet? Do they use a different battery that
puts out more voltage**, or do they just even out the charge, like if
you have an empty glass and a full glass, and you pour half a glass
into the empty one? **If the charger put out more voltage it
would take that much longer to recharge, and would never recharge from
the little cube (maybe not cubicle) charger I brought and my friend
also lent me. (I brought a bigger one too, that came with the phone,
but mostly I'm using the laptop port..)

The LiIon external "I forgot to charge my phone" devices have one or
more LiIon cells inside. Depending on the number of cells and feature
list, a DC to DC inverter produces 5.0VDC at the USB connector.
Circuitry on the PCB also take care of charging the LiIon batteries
from a USB 5.0VDC charger. The voltage is always 5.0VDC.

To the phone, these devices look like a 1A or 2A USB charger. They
supply 5.0VDC to the phone. The charge controller inside the phone
decides how much current to suck out of the device, which is then used
to charge the phone battery or run the phone.

I have a bunch of these that I inherited from various disreputable
sources. They work well at moderating my erratic charging habits.
None of them even come close to their advertised capacity (in mA-hrs).

How old is the battery? Maybe it never gets above 77% until you get a
new battery.

The battery was new with the phone last June or July, but as I said,
later I fully charged it, to 100%. And I have done that at least 10
times since. Using a different cable.

I bought a bag of very thin USB to microUSB cables (in 10 assorted
colors) on eBay to give to friends as holiday bribes. No problems or
complaints yet. At the low price of these cables, if you suspect a
problem, just replace it or try a heavier cable.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558