Hi Power USB Charging.

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  • NativePaul
    Greased Weasel
    • Feb 2008
    • 2760

    #1

    Hi Power USB Charging.

    Hi all, I bought a smartphone and it is an amazing device I have loaded all my music onto it and it connects to my car via bluetooth and plays through my stereo, I also use Google maps as a GPS to stop me getting lost if I don't know where I am going which works better than my old TomTom, however when I use both apps together it draws more power than the Samsung car charger can supply and on long road trips the battery drains down and eventually dies.

    I have noticed that even with no apps open the car charger does not charge it as fast as plugging into my desktop PC, nor does plugging it into the wall charger or my laptop, so I believe the phone is capable of charging faster than I can feed it.

    I am thinking about wiring a Castle UBEC into the 12v side of my car set to 5v, and run the 5v leads up through a hole in the dash near where my phone goes, and wire into a micro USB plug.

    Is the Castle BEC stable enough to do this? Both in voltage (as RXs seem to be fine on between 3v-7v) and in ripple (both infeed and outlet as it will be fed slightly dirty current from an alternator not pure clean DC like in a model, and I don't want to risk my expensive phone. If not, is there anything I can do to clean it up so it is suitable (maybe some capacitors in the leads to and from it)?

    I have looked at the pinouts of the USB and I know what I have to do for the most part, pin1 is +5v, pin5 is ground, pin 2+3 are datacables and have to be shorted so the phone knows it is attached to a charging socket not a data socket and it can draw more than 500mA, Pin 4 is the mystery to me, some diagrams don't show it connected at all, but on those that do, it is a second ground but with a 130Kohm resistor in line and marked "sense" or "detect", the other USB-A end of the cable only has 4 pins and this is the missing one, it is simply tapped off the pin5 ground inside the plug. As I only want to charge through the lead not use it for data I don't know whether I should use pin 4 or not, either way I would like to know what it does.
    Paul Upton-Taylor, Greased Weasel Racing.
  • kfxguy
    Fast Electric Addict!
    • Oct 2013
    • 8746

    #2
    You do know they already sell higher amp USB adapters that plug into your 12v socket? I have one that's 2.1 amps and it keeps up. The other one I have I think is .9a, does not keep up. Just in case you didn't know.
    32" carbon rivercat single 4s 102mph, 27” mini Rivercat 92mph, kbb34 91mph, jessej micro cat(too fast) was

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    • kfxguy
      Fast Electric Addict!
      • Oct 2013
      • 8746

      #3
      Something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-2A-2Amp-2...item51bdd497d8
      32" carbon rivercat single 4s 102mph, 27” mini Rivercat 92mph, kbb34 91mph, jessej micro cat(too fast) was

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      • NativePaul
        Greased Weasel
        • Feb 2008
        • 2760

        #4
        Thanks, but it was something very much like that going pop that took my TomTom out with it, and hastened my desire for a smartphone, I vowed never to use cheap Chinese crap for anything of value again. The castle BEC also does not have the protection circuitry that would stop it possibly passing on 12V should it go pop that my Samsung charger has, but I rate its chances of not going pop in the first place much better than the Chinese unit. I would also quite like to get rid of the wire dangling over my dashboard and centre console.
        Paul Upton-Taylor, Greased Weasel Racing.

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        • pescador
          Senior Member
          • May 2009
          • 499

          #5
          You could get away from the lighter plug and wire in a flush mount USB charger. One is .9a for phone and the other is 2a for iPad.
          I have one in my charging station, lots on eBay.


          Brian
          Namba District 16
          1/8 Miss U.S., 1/8 59 Maverick, 1/8 Executone, 1/8 Smokin Joes, MLGSX380, AC Pro40II Q Sport, AC Pro40II nitro,Twincraft mono 10s, Vision AOPC, VS1 FE, M34.

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