Charging a mobile using USB3 lead

londonTiger

50Twuncle wrote: »

Mine is actually a Belkin from Maplin ..

yes, that's the way to go. Droid will accept power from any cheap USB lead. Apple has done the right thing and displays a "not charging" sign when you plug in a non-mfi cable.

This is actually a good move by Apple as it warns users to not use these cheap cables. It's so easy to cause a fiire and burn your house down using cheap electrics.

Stick to household brands like belkin, griffin, philips and obviously OEM.

Cheap USB do not charge properly and some are just plain unsafe!

grumbler

londonTiger wrote: »

As long as the volts are a match the device can draw as much amps as it needs.

Yes, this was the point. If the device needs/draws 900mA, charging it from 2A mains charger will not be faster.

The only fault with having excessively high amps, say running a 12 led light straight off a car battery is the the current can spike and burn the device

:huh:
I don't see any problem with 'excessively high amps' if the voltage is right. It's just the limit, not the actual current.

londonTiger wrote: »

...
This is actually a good move by Apple as it warns users to not use these cheap cables. It's so easy to cause a fiire and burn your house down using cheap electrics.

Burn house by a cheap cable?! You must be joking, although theoretically this is possible.
Yes, a cheap charger can cause fire - even if used with a proper cable.

stator

It does depend on the phone/charger combination.
Not all phones can draw more than 500mA. Not all chargers can supply more than 500mA.

Generally speaking the manufacturers original phone charger is the fastest. If you still have it (even if it doesn't work) check the mA output of the charger.

Some Phones and Chargers talk to each other and will only switch to the higher power if they recognise each other, so you may find that attaching your phone to a 2A charger it only charges at 500mA.
I don't know if USB3 has some kind of handshake before switching to 900mA, so if your phone doesn't support that it would still supply a lower current.
Some PCs have special USB ports that can provide higher currents for charging special devices, you activate it via some motherboard software.

Really the only way to tell is to plug it in and see.

50Twuncle

720mA from mains charger
360mA from dedicated charging USB3 port on Asus laptop
According to Ampere App

50Twuncle

And - when I use USB Charger Plus - (activated with driver) on the USB 3 port of my Asus laptop - the charge rate is still 360mA !
Which, implies that USB Charger Plus does not work ??

grumbler

Quick googling for "USB Charger Plus " shows that apparently:

It lets you use a USB port to charge a device while the laptop is in sleep mode. Basically it just allows the USB port to draw more power while the rest of the system is in a low power state.

So, if any improvement is possible, then only in the 'sleep'/'hibernate' mode.
Regardless, it's unlikely to be better than with the mains charger.

50Twuncle

Mine only powers port when laptop is tunning

pappa_golf

umm the intel "nuc" units have a orange USB slot on the front , they are powered even when the nuc is turned off

50Twuncle

pappa_golf wrote: »

umm the intel "nuc" units have a orange USB slot on the front , they are powered even when the nuc is turned off

This is not an NUC - It is an Asus X75VC laptop !!
and the USB 3 socket is BLUE ..

pappa_golf

blue is so common and often over rated (360ma - laugh)


orange is the new blue