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Post by dreamingofthefarm on May 29, 2011 22:59:53 GMT -5
My husband and I are arguing about charging the cell phones in the car. I've read (somewhere but I can't find it) that the amount of power your phone uses to charge while the car is not running is negligible. He thinks it will kill the battery.
Has anyone else plugged their phone in to charge overnight? Did it kill your car battery?
Post by Mista Don't Play on May 29, 2011 23:12:06 GMT -5
I'm not sure if it will drain the battery or not. You could always just charge your phone in Centeroo at the Fuse Barn. Or do like I do, just cut your phone on when you anticipate needing it. A full charge should last the whole weekend if your phone is only part of the time.
The phone charger is pretty negligible, but I would be cautious about what else might be on when the key is in the acc position. If the 12v outlet is the only thing on, you seriously will make very little dent in the car battery.
Cautious use and being willing to drop it off at the charging station might be sufficient.
But I've heard voices not in the head Out in the air they called ahead Through ripped out speakers Through thick and thin They found a shelter Under my skin -Evgeny Aleksandrovitch Nikolaev
Post by dreamingofthefarm on May 30, 2011 7:21:15 GMT -5
Thanks guys. While I love my Android phone, it sucks at staying charged. I plan on uninstalling everything I don't need so the battery lasts as long as possible. If some kind soul is generous with a generator then that would be great, too.
I've never used the charging station. How does that work?
It will be fine as long as the 12 volt power outlet it on all the time. Like above poster stated, if it makes you feel better start your car once a day letting it run for 5 min will defiantly top off the charge on the car battery.
My work cell phone stays plugged into the outlet along with the satellite radio on all night and the car starts up every morning.
No way the phone drains your car battery, the energy consumption vs the 12 volts in the car battery is negligable. However, if you fing that while in centeroo you are juicing your battery from pics, messaging etc, they have a charging tent sponsored by HTC. Also i picked up a super handy little gadget that is in essence a portable battery charger, consisting of a couple AA batteries in a case attached to a micro USB cable that does the trick on the go and its basically the size of just the batteries and totally portable.
Post by tsmithou812 on May 30, 2011 10:41:07 GMT -5
We use a jumper pack and even at the end of Roo we have enough power to jump about 5 cars that are dead! We also use the jumper for the fan and lights too.
I charge my iPhone in my car all the time, when it's not running... like if I'm at a friends house and no one has an iPod USB or anything, I just plug it into my car charger for 3 or 4 hours... I've done this atleast 6 times in the past 3 months, same battery. You should be fine.
Post by belltwala1 on May 30, 2011 11:09:16 GMT -5
i have to turn my car to accessory to charge mine so im really careful. this means that there are other things on when i do this so i try to kee pit at a minimum. you can often find people who have a charger that charges when the car is completely off. my friend had a charger in his car that did this.
if you want to use your car charger you could try it now for a couple of hours a couple of times to be sure and certain. i agree the phone alone wont drain your car but...make sure theres not something else on when you do it.
Just as a side note, I solved many of our battery-related issues (fans, phones, etc.) by building a small array of four sealed gel 12v 7ah batteries from backup power packs for computers (UPS). I've now got effectively a 28 ah 12v rechargeable sealed battery, which I trickle-charge with a 2a 12v smart car charger. That runs our O2 Cool fan, phone chargers, an interior light, etc. inside the wagon (we car camp).
The 12v rechargeable batteries are not expensive and you can get a lot of amp hours for little stuff like fans and phone chargers out of one. An in-line blade fuse, a dc adapter, some decent wire, some f-connectors, and about 20 minutes work is all it takes. Just be sure to keep it someplace reasonably cool / shaded (ours goes on the floor in front of the drivers seat during the fests).
It also means I no longer buy (or dispose of) a bucket of D-cell batteries every festival. Just be sure you wire it up properly or else you could multiply the voltage instead of the amp hours and fry your gear.
Next up I want to add a solar charger to keep them topped off and a couple more batteries to expand the capacity... then get a dc blender and make margaritas at site.
YMMV, caveat emptor, please consult a professional, do at your own risk, not responsible for you blowing up your equipment, etc.
But I've heard voices not in the head Out in the air they called ahead Through ripped out speakers Through thick and thin They found a shelter Under my skin -Evgeny Aleksandrovitch Nikolaev
Post by plasticpepper on May 30, 2011 15:35:33 GMT -5
Yeah, the phone itself wouldn't kill the battery, but definitely be careful with what else may start drawing power with the car "on" like PapaCat said. And see if you can manage to lock your car with the key in the ignition. A lot of newer cars are designed to make it pretty impossible to lock your key in the car with the car running - I'm not sure if the same would apply to just having the key in the ignition if the car wasn't running, but it's worth making sure you can do it. Since you probably don't want to leave your car unlocked while you're sleeping. Not much chance anybody would manage to drive off with it, but they could certainly steal things out of it. And of course, if you are going to lock it, you'll want to make sure you have an extra key! ;D
Oh, and make sure your charger will actually charge when the car's not running. I would think a phone charger would work, but I know some inverters won't do anything if the car isn't running because they don't want you to accidentally drain your battery. Another thing to test out before Roo.
Thanks guys. While I love my Android phone, it sucks at staying charged. I plan on uninstalling everything I don't need so the battery lasts as long as possible. If some kind soul is generous with a generator then that would be great, too.
I've never used the charging station. How does that work?
There are some things that you can do to make your android phone last longer on a full charge. First get a task killer and set it to the highest kill rate possible. Display kills my phone the quickest so download the brightness widget on the market (free and made by curvefish). It's a 1x1 widget to put on your homescreen. Touch the widget to open and set it to 0% brightness unless you are using it in the sun. These two things will help significantly. There are couple more good widgets from curvefish. To turn gps on/off with on touch get the gps widget. Keep gps off always unless you need it on. They also make other useful widgets like battery %, wifi on/off, and one touch silence. Also, in settings make sure your backlight is set to turn off as quick as possible with non-use. Turn off the display manually everytime you are done using it.
I hope this helps. My friend charged my phone overnight in his Rav4 last year and accidently feel asleep in there. His car wouldn't allow charging without turning accessory on and he woke up to a dead battery.
Also i picked up a super handy little gadget that is in essence a portable battery charger, consisting of a couple AA batteries in a case attached to a micro USB cable that does the trick on the go and its basically the size of just the batteries and totally portable.
Also i picked up a super handy little gadget that is in essence a portable battery charger, consisting of a couple AA batteries in a case attached to a micro USB cable that does the trick on the go and its basically the size of just the batteries and totally portable.
Does anyone know where I can get one of these?
I've seen 'em pretty much everywhere - Walmart, Target, even supermarkets. I bet even a CVS or similar would have 'em.
I had one with me last year though and it didn't do a damn thing.
