Today I hurled enough invectives at my Samsung Galaxy S3
to make a whore blush, simply because the GPS wouldn't
work under power.

More specifically, the cigarette lighter car charger is
reputed to be 2.1 Amps, while the standard wall charger
is only 850 mA, so, the 2.1 Amps should have been plenty
to both charge and run the Samsung Galaxy S3.

The battery was down to 17% when all the mischief started
occurring. The GPS kept saying over the bluetooth "GPS
signal lost", "GPS signal re-acquired", over and over
and over and over again, within ten seconds of each other,
such that the GPS was useless - and - worse yet - the
battery went lower and lower until the phone finally
shut off.

Yet, after charging it for an hour on the car, with
the phone off, it got up to about 65%, and then I used
the GPS on the road for another hour, and it STAYED at
65% battery.

What on earth is going on?

Why would a 2.1 Amp charger not be enough to both charge
and run the phone, and why would it lose charge when the
battery is at 17% yet it maintains charge when the battery
is at 65%?

Does any of this make sense to you?

Danny D. wrote:

Why would a 2.1 Amp charger not be enough to both charge
and run the phone

Does the phone detect the charger as capable of delivering high current?
If so, it should display "Charging A/C" instead of "Charging USB"
unless Samsung have hobbled that part of Android.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:59:53 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

Does the phone detect the charger as capable of delivering high current?
If so, it should display "Charging A/C" instead of "Charging USB"
unless Samsung have hobbled that part of Android.

Hmmmmmmmm...... I never saw either "charging A/C" or "charging USB".

All I see is a lightning bolt and a percentage in the icon bar.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3755/1...d9fb71fe_o.gif

However, I just downloaded a bunch of battery-monitor apps to see if
they can help me identify the S3 battery drain problem.

In addition, googling, I found this disturbing reference:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/t-m...p-charger.html
Which says:
"a lot of 2A chargers are designed for iDevices and their weird way of the
charger signaling to the device that it is ok to draw max power. Absent
fairly specific voltages on the data lines iDevices will either assume they
are connected to a computer and only draw 500mA, or they won't charge at all.
However, most non-iDevices simply look for the two data lines to be shorted
together to let them know they are connected to a dedicated high power charger
and not a computer. That means that most non-iDevices will not recognize 2A
chargers that are designed for Apple products as being high-power and so the
phone will only draw 500mA even hooked up to a 2A charger."

If that statement above is true, then my reputed 2.1 Amp car USB charger
could only be sourcing 500 mA to the Galaxy S3.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:31:47 +0000, Danny D'Amico wrote:

If that statement above is true, then my reputed 2.1 Amp car USB charger
could only be sourcing 500 mA to the Galaxy S3.

Here is another reference that intimates that a standard USB cable
under all conditions only allows 500mA to go into the Samsung Galaxy S3:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...harger-us.html

"With a standard USB data cable the phone recognizes it as a USB charging
source and only pulls 500 mA. You can get "charging only" cables allowing
higher (still safe) amperage"

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:59:53 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

it should display "Charging A/C" instead of "Charging USB"
unless Samsung have hobbled that part of Android.

I appreciate that wonderful advice!

It took me a while to FIND what you were talking about on my
T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.3 installed.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7366/1...6f4d8d5a_o.jpg

I found the "type" of charging when I went to Android 4.3:
Settings-More-About Device-Status

A. When hooked to a PC USB port, it said "Charging (USB)".
B. When hooked to a wall USB port, it said "Charging (AC)".
C. Tomorrow I will test what it says in the car & report back!

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:53:54 +0000, Danny D. wrote:

2.1 Amps should have been plenty to both charge and run the
Samsung Galaxy S3.

Googling some more, it seems the most the Samsung Galaxy S3
will every draw is 900 mA, at least according to this:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...harger-s3.html

"Tests done by users over in xda-developers show [the Samsung Galaxy S3]
limits the amount of current the battery can draw to about 0.9 amps
regardless of the current available ... Also when the battery is fully
charged it shuts down totally -- it doesn't continue trickle charging like
simpler chargers."

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:35:57 +0000, Danny D'Amico wrote:

"With a standard USB data cable the phone recognizes it as a USB charging
source and only pulls 500 mA. You can get "charging only" cables
allowing higher (still safe) amperage"

Googling for what the difference is between a data & charging cable,
I find this reference:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...harger-s3.html
Which says:
The two types of cable are a "charge only" cable and a full data cable.
In order to distinguish which type of port they're connected to and therefore
know how much power can be drawn phones examine the two inside "data" wires
on the USB connection. If they are shorted together the phone says hey I'm
plugged into a charging port and can draw max amps and it reports it as "AC"
--if they are not shorted then it limits amp draw to 0.5amps and reports it
as " USB". Note that some wall wart modules short the data pins internally
--with those you can use any cable and pull max. Others don't so in order
to pull over 0.5amps you must use a special "charging only" USB cable that
does the shorting in the cable--these will NOT work for data usage.

Apple phones do something similar but instead of shorting the data pair
they change the voltage on one data wire.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 08:13:23 +0000, Danny D'Amico wrote:

Googling some more, it seems the most the Samsung Galaxy S3 will every
draw is 900 mA

It seems, that in the car, the problem is that we probably shouldn't
use Apple USB chargers, unless we use special cables:

At least that is what is implied he
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...harger-us.html
Apples 10W/2A charger puts 2.8v on one of the data lines and 2v on the other
(I forget which is which) to tell an iPad that it can pull up to 2A.
Earlier iphone/ipod wall chargers put 2v on each data line which will
limit the device draw to 500mA. This is why you need to use a "charging cable" with
wall/car chargers made for apple products. The Apple oriented chargers do not
internally short the data lines so most android phones will treat it like a 500mA
source. The charger that ships with your android phone has the data lines shorted
internally so it doesn't matter what cable you use.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:53:54 +0000, Danny D. wrote:

Does any of this make sense to you?

What's going on when GPS is enabled while the S3 is on the car charger is
just starting to make sense now, with respect to the current draw:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...rger-us-2.html

The S3 uses the defined Micro USB charging standard.
If the charger or cable has the data lines shorted, the S3 thinks it is on an AC charger.
If the data lines are not shorted, the S3 thinks it is plugged into a USB port on a PC.
When the S3 thinks it is plugged into an AC charger, the S3 pulls a maximum current of about 800ma.
If the charger is LESS then 800ma. the phone may fall back to the lower current of a USB port.
When the S3 is plugged into a USB port (where the data lines are not shorted),
then the S3 pulls a miximum current of between 300ma and 400ma.
If the charger DOES have shorted data lines, but it can't handle the 800ma
AC charger setting, the phone falls back to the lower USB port rate of about 300ma.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:01:09 +0000, Danny D'Amico wrote:

Does any of this make sense to you?

Another quote from the same thread, which is instructive:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...ml#post2997829

Most batteries can handle a charge rate of 1xcapacity.
In the case of the Samsung S3 the battery is 2100mA capacity.
Therefore, the S3 can be safely charged at 2.1A.

The battery has no regulator in it and it not smart in any way.
The S3 has a circuit built in to properly charge a lithium ion
battery and can regulate the source current as needed.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:53:54 +0000, Danny D. wrote:

Today I hurled enough invectives at my Samsung Galaxy S3 to make a whore
blush, simply because the GPS wouldn't work under power.

Here's a summary of what I've found out, in bits and pieces:

STUFF I KNEW FROM PRINTING ON THE PHONE & BATTERY:
- The Samsung Galaxy S3 itself, is rated at 3.8V, 1025mA.
- The Samsung Galaxy S3 battery is 3.8V, 7.98Wh, 2100mAh, Li-ion.

STUFF I LEARNED SO FAR:
Note: *** indicates important but unproven statements found on the web.
- The 2100mAh battery can be charged at up to 2.1 Amps (1x Capacity).
- We're told the S3 never allows more than 800 to 900mA of charge current.***
- We're told the S3 does not trickle charge after 100% capacity.***
- Settings-More-About Device-Status-reveals the charge assumption.
- If the S3 sees 2 data pins shorted, it assumes "Charging (AC)".
- If the S3 does not see shorted data pins, it assumes "Charging (USB)".
- Cables can be either "data" or "charging" (with shorted data pins).
- Charging (USB) will be limited to 500mA current draw.
- Charging (AC) is not known to be limited in current draw.
- The stock S3 AC charger is 1A.
- We're told Apple-spec USB chargers put voltage on the data lines.
- So, the S3 will assume "Charging (USB)" with a normal "data cable".
- A "charging cable" switches the S3 to "Charging (AC)" on Apple USB.

CRITICAL FACTORS (the Samsung Galaxy S3 "charge assumption"):
- An S3 assumes "Charging (USB)" with PC USB & a "data cable".
- An S3 assumes "Charging (USB)" with Apple USB & a "data cable".
- An S3 assumes "Charging (AC)" with wall chargers & a "data cable".
- An S3 assumes "Charging (AC)" whenever a "charging cable" is used.

OPEN QUESTIONS:
- I still don't know how to tell how much current is actually drawn.
- None of the Android battery apps I tried gave current draw in amps.
- Instead, they listed charge in cryptic terms such as "12%/h".

Thanks! for posting this valuable information. I have been mystified by batteries in
general for a long time... the older I get, the more I don't understand. I have
always presumed there is the "Apple way" and perhaps several other models of the
universe, so I am not at all surprised by the fact that devices intended for use with
Apple products are the spawn of the devil and may not work in non-Apple situations. I
look forward to more revelations - especially about battery monitoring apps.



On 1/31/2014 7:37 AM, Danny D'Amico wrote:
On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:53:54 +0000, Danny D. wrote:

Today I hurled enough invectives at my Samsung Galaxy S3 to make a whore
blush, simply because the GPS wouldn't work under power.

Here's a summary of what I've found out, in bits and pieces:

STUFF I KNEW FROM PRINTING ON THE PHONE & BATTERY:
- The Samsung Galaxy S3 itself, is rated at 3.8V, 1025mA.
- The Samsung Galaxy S3 battery is 3.8V, 7.98Wh, 2100mAh, Li-ion.

STUFF I LEARNED SO FAR:
Note: *** indicates important but unproven statements found on the web.
- The 2100mAh battery can be charged at up to 2.1 Amps (1x Capacity).
- We're told the S3 never allows more than 800 to 900mA of charge current.***
- We're told the S3 does not trickle charge after 100% capacity.***
- Settings-More-About Device-Status-reveals the charge assumption.
- If the S3 sees 2 data pins shorted, it assumes "Charging (AC)".
- If the S3 does not see shorted data pins, it assumes "Charging (USB)".
- Cables can be either "data" or "charging" (with shorted data pins).
- Charging (USB) will be limited to 500mA current draw.
- Charging (AC) is not known to be limited in current draw.
- The stock S3 AC charger is 1A.
- We're told Apple-spec USB chargers put voltage on the data lines.
- So, the S3 will assume "Charging (USB)" with a normal "data cable".
- A "charging cable" switches the S3 to "Charging (AC)" on Apple USB.

CRITICAL FACTORS (the Samsung Galaxy S3 "charge assumption"):
- An S3 assumes "Charging (USB)" with PC USB & a "data cable".
- An S3 assumes "Charging (USB)" with Apple USB & a "data cable".
- An S3 assumes "Charging (AC)" with wall chargers & a "data cable".
- An S3 assumes "Charging (AC)" whenever a "charging cable" is used.

OPEN QUESTIONS:
- I still don't know how to tell how much current is actually drawn.
- None of the Android battery apps I tried gave current draw in amps.
- Instead, they listed charge in cryptic terms such as "12%/h".

On 01/30/2014 10:53 PM, Danny D. wrote:
Today I hurled enough invectives at my Samsung Galaxy S3
to make a whore blush, simply because the GPS wouldn't
work under power.

More specifically, the cigarette lighter car charger is
reputed to be 2.1 Amps, while the standard wall charger
is only 850 mA, so, the 2.1 Amps should have been plenty
to both charge and run the Samsung Galaxy S3.

The battery was down to 17% when all the mischief started
occurring. The GPS kept saying over the bluetooth "GPS
signal lost", "GPS signal re-acquired", over and over
and over and over again, within ten seconds of each other,
such that the GPS was useless - and - worse yet - the
battery went lower and lower until the phone finally
shut off.

Yet, after charging it for an hour on the car, with
the phone off, it got up to about 65%, and then I used
the GPS on the road for another hour, and it STAYED at
65% battery.

What on earth is going on?

Why would a 2.1 Amp charger not be enough to both charge
and run the phone, and why would it lose charge when the
battery is at 17% yet it maintains charge when the battery
is at 65%?

Does any of this make sense to you?


Turn off GPS. It will drain your battery fast. Turn off mobile data
unless you need it. Voice and Text are not on Mobile Data.

WOW! This valuable thread answers some questions, but also raises one.

Where can I buy 2-3 charge-only cables? eBay and Amazon listings don't
seem to indicate whether those pins are shorted or not.

Is there such a thing as a charge-only "adapter" that goes in-line and
shorts the appropriate pins?

THANKS

Per Danny D.:

occurring. The GPS kept saying over the bluetooth "GPS
signal lost", "GPS signal re-acquired", over and over
and over and over again, within ten seconds of each other,
such that the GPS was useless - and - worse yet - the
battery went lower and lower until the phone finally
shut off.

Yet, after charging it for an hour on the car, with
the phone off, it got up to about 65%, and then I used
the GPS on the road for another hour, and it STAYED at
65% battery.

What on earth is going on?

First thing that came to my mind was that the GPS satellites were harder
to acquire than usual.

I don't claim to know anything about that stuff, but I do know for sure
that things like tree cover can diminish satellite signals - so I'd have
to wonder if atmospherics could do the same.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:59:53 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

Does the phone detect the charger as capable of delivering high current?
If so, it should display "Charging A/C" instead of "Charging USB"

I checked what the phone says when it's on the 2.1 Amp
cigarette lighter charger, and, interestingly, it does
say "Charging (AC)" (even though that 2.1 Amp figure
has the word "iPad" next to it on the adapter).

So, had it said "Charging (USB)", that would have been
my problem - since it actually says "Charging (AC)", we
know that's not the problem.

I'm think I will need to sacrifice a USB cable, by cutting
it in half, and then checking the wires (or buying a test
fixture that allows me to hook an ammeter in series).

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:18:44 -0800, Ike wrote:

Where can I buy 2-3 charge-only cables?

There is a long thread on where to buy charge-only cables:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...rger-us-2.html

Make sure you read the reviews though, as some
suppliers seem to "confuse them", at least according
to the rather detailed reviews (for a cable) here ...

Amazon Charging-Only USB cables:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...idcentral00-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...idcentral00-20
etc.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:01:29 -0800, dave wrote:

Turn off GPS.
Turn off mobile data
Voice and Text are not on Mobile Data.

Luckily, I don't even have mobile data.
I do use GPS navigation all the time in the car though.
That's the whole point!

If the phone can't keep up with the GPS while
on the car charger, um, what good is GPS?

Note: I have gone on long trips (4 hours), and
if the battery is charged (say, 50%) it stays
at about that level; but if the battery is low
(say 20%), then the battery steadily depletes.

That's the enigma I'm trying to understand.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:48:34 -0500, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

First thing that came to my mind was that the GPS satellites were harder
to acquire than usual.

I don't disagree.

The first few times this happened, I thought the
same thing.

It was only yesterday, when I REALLY needed the
GPS navigation to work - that I realized the
constant "GPS signal lost" audible warnings
were actually due to the fact the battery was
at 17%.

Worse yet, apparently 17% is the critical point
in the curve where the phone can't keep up with
the GPS and the GPS keeps shutting off (rendering
it useless).

If only the 2.1 Amp charger would keep the phone
running. That's the enigma!

The enigma is that, if the charger is actually
putting out 2.1 Amps, and, if, (as it appears),
the phone recognizes the charger as an AC charger,
then, why isn't 2.1 Amps enough to run the phone?

Note: Yes, I know they it is said that the phone
never draws more than 900 mA, but, even so, that
should be enough to run the GPS, isn't it?

I guess the question is, literally:
Q: How MUCH additional current does the GPS cost us?

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:23:56 +0000, Danny D. wrote:

The enigma is that, if the charger is actually putting
out 2.1 Amps, then, why isn't 2.1 Amps enough to run the S3?

I should note that I *do* realize the charger doesn't
"put out" current (as it does voltage); what I meant,
clarified, is:

The enigma is that, if the charger is capable of
sourcing 2.1 Amps, then, why isn't that enough to
run the Samsung Galaxy S3 with operative GPS?

How much current does the GPS sink anyway?

Per Danny D.:
I realized the
constant "GPS signal lost" audible warnings
were actually due to the fact the battery was
at 17%.

Worse yet, apparently 17% is the critical point
in the curve where the phone can't keep up with
the GPS and the GPS keeps shutting off (rendering
it useless)....

I rooted my N7000 Note and removed everything that I could think of that
was not there for *me*.

I think it helped a little on battery consumption and I could usually
make it through a day without getting below 30%.

But every so often, this phone will draw an unexpected and unexplained
amount and the battery's charge will drop a *lot* in a few hours.

That being the case, I opted for a double-capacity battery from Mugen
and it seems to have reduced my chances of running dry during a day's
use to zero.

If ZeroLemon made one of their triple-capacity batteries for the N7000,
I would have bought one. They do make one for the S3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7NTukwTDOM
--
Pete Cresswell

Danny D. wrote:



Why would a 2.1 Amp charger not be enough to both charge
and run the phone, and why would it lose charge when the
battery is at 17% yet it maintains charge when the battery
is at 65%?
Most likely the electrical connection between the phone
and the car's noisy electrical system was trashing the
GPS receiver. If you know how TINY the GPS signal was at
the ground, you'd marvel that ANY GPS works at all. There is
a 50 W transmitter feeding an omni-directional antenna on
a satellite 400 miles up, that blankets a wide spot on
earth, several thousand miles wide with signal. That leaves
VERY little signal for the receiver to pick up. Any interference
will trash it and it can't get a valid fix.

Jon

On 01/31/2014 12:17 PM, Danny D. wrote:
On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:01:29 -0800, dave wrote:

Turn off GPS.
Turn off mobile data
Voice and Text are not on Mobile Data.

Luckily, I don't even have mobile data.
I do use GPS navigation all the time in the car though.
That's the whole point!

If the phone can't keep up with the GPS while
on the car charger, um, what good is GPS?

Note: I have gone on long trips (4 hours), and
if the battery is charged (say, 50%) it stays
at about that level; but if the battery is low
(say 20%), then the battery steadily depletes.

That's the enigma I'm trying to understand.

Perhaps your best solution would be to use the phone as a phone, and
purchase a separate GPS unit to use for navigation.

TJ

Danny D. wrote:
On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:23:56 +0000, Danny D. wrote:

The enigma is that, if the charger is actually putting
out 2.1 Amps, then, why isn't 2.1 Amps enough to run the S3?

I should note that I *do* realize the charger doesn't
"put out" current (as it does voltage); what I meant,
clarified, is:

The enigma is that, if the charger is capable of
sourcing 2.1 Amps, then, why isn't that enough to
run the Samsung Galaxy S3 with operative GPS?

Have you verified that the charger is delivering even 1 Amp (that would be
more than adequate, since that is above what the phone requires)? Testing it
isn't all that difficult, but it does require some knowledge of electronics.

The charging circuit in the phone determines how much power is used to
operate the phone and other functions such as GPS vs. recharging the
battery. It is possible that the design of that circuit will not supply
adequate power to other functions when the battery is down to 17%.
--
best regards,

Neil

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:42:44 -0500, TJ wrote:

Perhaps your best solution would be to use the phone as a phone, and
purchase a separate GPS unit to use for navigation.

Yeah. Maybe. I get your point.
But, I think that there is something *wrong* that I can diagnose and fix.

1. It could be rogue apps sucking power.
2. The battery tests good - but it could be the battery.
3. The charger needs to be tested to see what current it supplies.
4. It could be a design flaw

I'm sure there are lots of potential reasons, but, what I'm going
to do is try to measure the actual current in the USB cable.

For that, I plan to sacrifice a cable and hook up some test leads.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:25:42 -0500, Neil Gould wrote:

Have you verified that the charger is delivering even 1 Amp

Nope. All I know is what is printed on the charger.
So, it *could* be simply that the charger isn't sourcing the
rated current.

I plan on sacrificing a USB cable to that I can hook an
ammeter in series to test the actual current flowing.

It is possible that the design of that circuit will not supply
adequate power to other functions when the battery is down to 17%.

I hope not, but I certainly understand what you're saying.
That's why I'm asking here - which is to see if others have similar
issues - or if it's just me.

Danny D'Amico wrote:

OPEN QUESTIONS:
- I still don't know how to tell how much current is actually drawn.

I've mentioned, in a recent thread, that you can buy in-line USB ammeters; the
one I use is from portapow.co.uk/ (who also sell power-only cables and other
goodies). Available on Amazon.

(BTW, there was some discussion in that thread of whether data could flow
through the meter -- it seems to be OK through the portapower gadget, though I
won't want to trust it for important data)

- None of the Android battery apps I tried gave current draw in amps.
- Instead, they listed charge in cryptic terms such as "12%/h".

"CurrentWidget" will display amps if the data is available, but the output
isn't consistant with (always much lower than) the portapower gadget's reports.
Presumably they are reporting different things.

And, reverting to your earlier puzzlement, maybe the reason why your phone
discharges faster when ~17% full is that below that limit it is firing up
bluetooth to warn you that power is low. Above that limit it doesn't bother so
its overall power consumption is lower, thus allowing it to charge (or at
least, not discharge) on nett.

-- chris

Danny D'Amico wrote:

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:42:44 -0500, TJ wrote:

Perhaps your best solution would be to use the phone as a phone, and
purchase a separate GPS unit to use for navigation.

Yeah. Maybe. I get your point.
But, I think that there is something *wrong* that I can diagnose and fix.

1. It could be rogue apps sucking power.
2. The battery tests good - but it could be the battery.
3. The charger needs to be tested to see what current it supplies.
4. It could be a design flaw

I'm sure there are lots of potential reasons, but, what I'm going
to do is try to measure the actual current in the USB cable.

For that, I plan to sacrifice a cable and hook up some test leads.

For five dollars with free shipping you may prefer this
http://tinyurl.com/maqfv9r. I don't own anything similar so I can't
provide a recommendation. As I understand it, the cheap ones like this
can't pass through the data.

On 02/01/2014 02:05 AM, Danny D'Amico wrote:
On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:42:44 -0500, TJ wrote:

Perhaps your best solution would be to use the phone as a phone, and
purchase a separate GPS unit to use for navigation.

Yeah. Maybe. I get your point.
But, I think that there is something *wrong* that I can diagnose and fix.

1. It could be rogue apps sucking power.
2. The battery tests good - but it could be the battery.
3. The charger needs to be tested to see what current it supplies.
4. It could be a design flaw

I'm sure there are lots of potential reasons, but, what I'm going
to do is try to measure the actual current in the USB cable.

For that, I plan to sacrifice a cable and hook up some test leads.

I'd discount 4. Too many of those units around. A design flaw would have
surfaced by now. That's not to say your particular phone isn't
malfunctioning, though. A couple of years ago I purchased a
factory-authorized reconditioned Samsung 23" LCD monitor. It worked
great - for a year - before it succumbed to the infamous
bad-capacitor-in-the-power-supply syndrome. But things worked out,
because I replaced it with a new AOC LED-backlit monitor which draws
less power, has an easily-replaceable external power supply, and works
even better than the Samsung. Even so, it taught me that buying Samsung
is not necessarily a guarantee of long service.

It sounds like you've run down your battery several times. That's not
good for them. From what I read, it shortens the life expectancy. If
it's been in service for a year or more, and you've run it in a
low-charge condition repeatedly, it would be my prime suspect.

The Chinese-made charger would be my second. My third would be that
you're trying to make the phone do more heavy-duty multitasking than
it's designed to handle.

TJ

On 02/01/2014 06:17 AM, Capt Rick wrote:
On Sat, 1 Feb 2014 07:08:11 +0000 (UTC), Danny D'Amico
wrote in part:


I plan on sacrificing a USB cable to that I can hook an
ammeter in series to test the actual current flowing.

No need to sacrifice a USB cable. Measure the current going into the
cigarette lighter adapter. Measure without the Galaxy plugged in for
any idle current. Plug in the Galaxy. Subtract idle current then
multiply by 2.52 for a rough figure - 12.6V / 5V = 2.52. For more
accuracy measure the actual 12V Voltage and the actual 5V Voltage of
the USB output.

The current will be less on the 12V end because it is a step down
circuit. Just for example, if 1A on the 12V side, 12.6V X 1A = 12.6
Watts / 5V X 2.52A = 12.6 Watts.

Rick

Don't know about modern vehicles, but I believe that with older ones if
the vehicle is running, the alternator puts the voltage at more like
13.6V, especially if it's still charging the battery after starting the
engine. Could be higher with a high-output alternator. They cut back
once the battery is charged, but there is that period of time where it's
higher.

TJ

Per dave:
Turn off GPS. It will drain your battery fast.

That's what I keep reading, but it does not match my experience with a
Samsung 10" Note.

I rooted the thing and cleaned out everything I could think of and it
holds a charge so well that I hardly ever turn it off.

With GPS on I can leave it with screen black for a day and it will lose
less than 5% of it's charge. OTOH, maybe GPS is not working when the
screen is black..... ??
--
Pete Cresswell

Per TJ:
Perhaps your best solution would be to use the phone as a phone, and
purchase a separate GPS unit to use for navigation.

I think he would be on the wrong side of history if he did that.

I gave my Garmin Nuvi away last year and have been using Sygic on my 5"
and 10" Notes ever since.

I'm not a heavy driver, but so far I would have to say that Sygic is
plenty good enough for me - in fact, it's turn advisories are somewhat
better than the Garmin.

Only place I'd fault it is announcements of route recomputation. Garmin
would right away say "Recomputing Route" as soon as I departed from it's
route. Sygic issues a couple of "Make A U-Turn" directives and then
just silently recomputes the route. I found that disconcerting and a
little confusing at first but now that I know what's coming I'm used to
it.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Sat, 01 Feb 2014 11:16:06 +0000, Chris Uppal wrote:

maybe the reason why your phone discharges faster when ~17%
full is that below that limit it is firing
up bluetooth to warn you that power is low.

I guess if I had a better understanding of how the GPS and
bluetooth consumed power, I'd be better off.

One thing about the bluetooth, since I have a bluetooth speaker
in the vehicle, it's always "talking" to the bluetooth for
phone calls and for GPS - although I don't know how much the
bluetooth needs to 'fire up' to say "GPS signal lost" and
"GPS signal reacquired'.

One thing that 'seems' to have made a difference in the
ensuing days is that I've installed a plethora of battery
monitor freeware on the S3.

A bunch of them were garbage, so I deleted them soon after
first using them, but, the ones still on my phone a

a. Battery Doctor
b. Battery Monitor Widget
c. Elixr & Elixr2

And, in a different category:
a. Wakelock Detector (uZumm Apps)

I'm not sure what combination of things made the problem less
severe, but, using these programs, I was able to find the high
draining ones, and I uninstalled most of the culprits, I think.

I do like how, for example, Battery Doctor, kills twenty running
apps at a time, all of which I hadn't even realized were running.

For example, unbeknownst to me, the Chinese mapping program,
ZNavi, was apparently using the GPS all the time, even when GPS
was turned off on the phone. So I uninstalled it, and a few
other programs that kept waking up the phone, or running in
the background.

So, now I have the operating system being the main consumer
of power at 75% with all other programs only consuming in the
single digits of battery percentage.

I need to test on the road, but, I am hopeful that this
"optimization" (which had yielded surprising results)
will help somewhat.

On Sat, 01 Feb 2014 11:16:06 +0000, Chris Uppal wrote:

I've mentioned, in a recent thread, that you can buy in-line USB ammeters;

I'm going to consider that, although my "plan" was simply to cut
an existing usb cable in half, and wrapping the wires around a
bunch of brass screws sticking out of a piece of wood.

However, for convenience, and longer-term data, the inline
ammeters do seem to be useful, and not a lot of money.

On 01/02/2014 13:59, Gordon Levi wrote:
For five dollars with free shipping you may prefer this
http://tinyurl.com/maqfv9r. I don't own anything similar so I can't
provide a recommendation. As I understand it, the cheap ones like this
can't pass through the data.

I've just copied a file to PC, from 'Samsung GT-P3110' via USB cable
with said device inline.

On Sat, 01 Feb 2014 09:21:44 -0500, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Only place I'd fault it is announcements of route recomputation. Garmin
would right away say "Recomputing Route" as soon as I departed from it's
route. Sygic issues a couple of "Make A U-Turn" directives and then
just silently recomputes the route. I found that disconcerting and a
little confusing at first but now that I know what's coming I'm used to
it.

I had the same experience with Sygic, only much worse.
I was on a well-known shortcut (highway 84 in Livermore)
between i680 and i580 and Sygic, for fifteen miles, kept
telling me to make a u-turn.

It wasn't until I was almost at i580 that Sygic finally
decided to recalculate.

In contrast, Navigator freeware recomputes within 100 or 200
feet of missing an intersection.

On the other hand, the Sygic 3D display is absolutely gorgeous,
and, even better than that of the Garmin nüvi!

Patrick wrote:

On 01/02/2014 13:59, Gordon Levi wrote:
For five dollars with free shipping you may prefer this
http://tinyurl.com/maqfv9r. I don't own anything similar so I can't
provide a recommendation. As I understand it, the cheap ones like this
can't pass through the data.

I've just copied a file to PC, from 'Samsung GT-P3110' via USB cable
with said device inline.

Thanks for the correction Patrick. I have just ordered one!

On Sat, 01 Feb 2014 05:17:38 -0600, Capt Rick wrote:

No need to sacrifice a USB cable.
Measure the current going into the
cigarette lighter adapter.

Now why hadn't I thought of that!

I can just hook an ammeter across the fuse
for the cigarette lighter socket, which
will give me the current being consumed
with, and without the phone being charged!

On Sat, 01 Feb 2014 09:17:30 -0500, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

With GPS on I can leave it with screen black for a day and it will lose
less than 5% of it's charge. OTOH, maybe GPS is not working when the
screen is black..... ??

Wow. Today I removed the S3 from the wall charger,
and, within 5 hours, the battery was nearly dead.

When I looked to see what was consuming the power,
I found, much to my surprise, that "Google Play Services"
consumed more power than the Android operating system!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7412/1...c685ceab_o.gif

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:59:53 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

Does the phone detect the charger as capable of
delivering high current? If so, it should display
"Charging A/C" instead of "Charging USB"

Testing for this, I found 4 different possible reports:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7369/1...0eeb227a_o.gif

1. Charging (AC)

2. Charging (USB)

3. Charging

4. Full