WP8.1 and Here Drive battery drain

[RevoMikey101]

Hi guys, i hope you can shine some light on this, i am on the developer preview of 8.1, its great and i have no issues apart from massive battery drain on Here Drive, i read another thread saying that the in car usb charger needed to be a meaty one above 1 amp to keep up, this was never an issue before the upgrade to 8.1 but i figured it must be worth a go.

I picked up a 2.1 amp usb in car charger, its slightly better but on a 15 minute drive running Here Drive even when on charge i lost 5%, i cant even get it so hold the charge it started with.

I have turned off all background apps that i can including Here Drive and my brightness is on automatic, does anyone else have this issue?:crying:

Mike

 

[switch side method]

Not tried but the beat thing to do is turn off WiFi, blue tooth and..... Network. Here drive doesn't need to have a signal so turn airplane mode on. That will save the battery but obviously you wont get any calls or texts

 

[RevoMikey101]

I just turned 4g off as that crippled it on the old os. I don't really want to turn everything off as it never caused a problem on wp8. I guess 8.1 will have flaws that's why we are testing it.

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[RevoMikey101]

Well I just drove 2 hours with heredrive and I I lost about 20% even with a 2.1 amp charger. I think its the os as the charge rate continually alters on the phone looking at the battery app. I think its one of the kinks that will be ironed out with future updates. Hopefully anyway. So far I think I will be going back to ios ir android in a few months. 8.1 is too little too late to keep me happy.
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[astondg]

To get more than 900ma or so you need not just a higher amp charger but also a way to force 'fast charge', which can effectively be done by shorting 2 specific pins in the charger/charging cable. These seem really hard to come by though; I've tried various chargers and cables and still haven't found a set up that keeps up with the battery drain. I also have the Nokia CR-200 wireless car cradle, it only supplies 750ma but being a Nokia accessory I was hoping it would work fully with my 920. Unfortunately it also can't keep up with the battery drain and on a recent trip to Sydney running Here Drive+ my phone went dead after the first 3 hours of a 4 hour trip.

I think this is a significant issue for the phones usability as a in car GPS device (which it otherwise does very well!) and I hope it's fixed, if not in the 920 then at least in the newer phones.

 

[trwrt]

You can pretty easily make a charge cable out of any USB cable you have lying around. Cut it in the middle and strip off a bit of the outer insulation. Strip the +5 and GND wires which are typically the thicker pair and reconnect them across the two pieces, and strip the two data wires on the phone side only and twist them together. Apply electricians tape liberally and voila. I had to do this to get my old Palm phones to charge off the auxiliary USB port on my car bluetooth adapter and it worked like a charm.

 

[peacefulberry]

Ive experienced battery drive with most navigation apps. Having gps/location on requires more of any battery. I think it's pretty normal. But turning off other battery draining settings/apps will certainly help.

 

[RevoMikey101]

Thanks for the tips fellas. I lost 90% yesterday with about 2 hours of here drive. 1 hour to my destination and 1 hour back. It seems pretty random when it drains fast or slow.

The weird thing is I didn't get this on wp8. Only now on developer 8.1. I may hack up a spare cable and give the forced charge thing a try.

Cheers fellas.
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[RevoMikey101]

Well i have researched this in some depth and trwrt seems so have hit onto something. It appears that a stock micro usb cable will only allow about 500mah through it despite the supply producing 2.1 amp. Generic data cables are no good for this fast charging that we need. There are some good dedicated charge only cables that will allow the full output of the supply on ebay. Decent brands like Samsung and Motorola produce these cables for about ?5.



I will pick one up and post the results. I did look into modding a generic cheapo cable but couldn't be arsed to do it so will just buy one. Lol.

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[Olav Vincent Ronning]

you need to use an original Nokia charger.

The reason for this is that the phone must "talk" to the charger telling it how much amp it will have.

you have a charger that is not spoken of and is 2.1A so this will not supply more than 750mA show it does not get signal.

Another thing is that the battery stops charging when it gets too hot, which it often can be in a car window, then let phone cool down to watching it takes charge right away. (Assuming you are using a Nokia charger or another charger in the correct drivers for nokia)

 

[beachedwhale42]

Lumia 920 on 8.1 here, downloaded maps to the phone, tried on 1 amp and 2.1 amp chargers (Griffin Powerjolt Dual and ThinkGeek Over9000). Same issue. Maybe Lumia Cyan will fix this? I have found that turning the screen off will allow it to charge, so if I have a long distance before a turn, I turn the screen off. Glad I'm not alone?

 

[RevoMikey101]

This issue is now resolved. I purchased a portapow micro usb from ebay. Its a fast charge cable. Now when plugged into my car usb 2.1 amp outlet I can use my sat nav and the phone actually charges. No more power drain at all. Its confirmed that not all cables are the same.

I hope this helps some of you who found themselves in the same position.

 

[pcleland79]

Glad you found a solution to your issue. The thing about 8.1 Preview is its the OS operating without the updated firmware for the phone. So things like battery drain from GPs and other source are likely to be higher as its not using updated "drivers" per say for the gps antenna. Preview has not been Optimized for devices, thats what Lumia Cyan will do. The optimized firmware to go along with the OS update

 

[beachedwhale42]

Thank you for your response back. Looks like I need to grab one of these.

 

[beachedwhale42]

Just curious, which charger are you using? Both of mine (especially the ThinkGeek Over9000) supposedly short the pins in the charger itself (thus not needing a specific charge-only cable).

 

[RevoMikey101]

I don't really know what power supply it is apart from its a white twin usb in car cigarette lighter supply and I got it in Tesco for ?3. It charges one slot at 2.1 a and the second at 1a. I hope that helps. I am now very happy and after a full day of here drive I have full battery

 

[rpac78]

I'm glad I found this thread. This explains why I'm getting a better charge in one car versus the other; one car had a 28AWG usb cable the other had a regular data cable.

 

[hairychad]

Hi, I've had this issue and I've got a Veetop? 4.4A/22W Dual USB High Speed Car Charger. 2A + 2.4A. This was using a standard Nokia data cable.
I've ordered a portapow lead to try it. Free returns, although I'm sure they'll argue..
It's only Here drive I guess that causes it.. Normal charging is fine as we know.
The old Nokia car chargers I had were all 0.5A so draining more than charging

 

[RevoMikey101]

From what I understand it wouldn't matter if the charger was 10a. The micro usb cable will only allow .5a through it. The portapows are a bigger gauge cable but without the data transfer cables. Its just charge only. It has cured my issue totally so I am sure it will for you too. As I said not only does here drive not drain the phone anymore but the phone even charges now when using here drive.

 

[beachedwhale42]

So then....is it the "charge only" aspect that fixed it, or the shift from 28 to 22AWG that did it? I'd much rather get a pair of 28/24AWG cables (28 data, 24 power) from Monoprice for $5 instead of a single power-only cable for $9. Something like this: 3ft USB 2.0 A Male to Micro 5pin Male 28/24AWG Cable w/ Ferrite Core (Gold Plated) - Monoprice.com

I did verify that my car chargers are showing as A/C (not USB), and the 1 amp wall charger I use at night (Samsung cube) charges the phone while Here Drive is going. Since I believe my car chargers are effectively turning my current cables into charge-only, I almost wonder if I just need a better cable (regardless of data/charge-only). At least, that's what this article leads me to believe: Cable and charger comparison: Samsung, Asus,?€? | Galaxy S4 | XDA Forum

Edit: Yes I've tried the cable from my Samsung cube in the car chargers and it didn't fix it. I think it's only a 28AWG cable though.