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[nutballs]

Someone want to explain this to me?
I have a cigarette lighter adapter with a USB socket on it for charging things via USB while driving. (duh).
I have an iPhone 3gs.
Had a 2g.
2g charges in car, 3gs does not.
2g charge on computer USB, 3gs also does.
same cable in all scenarios.

Does the 3g have a magic fucking sensor or something to let it know not to charge?

Same thing with my sound dock.
2g charged 3gs does not.

I don't get it. Is the power from the CLA not upscale enough for the iPhone? Is it racist? "ewww that electricity came from an alternator, blech, i dont want it..."

[vsloathe]

Experienced the same, but with ipod nanos and iphones. There is no rhyme or reason to it, as far as I can tell. I'd love an explanation too.

[jammaster82]

My best guess is that there is some sort of handshaking the phone is expecting on the data wires of the usb cable.... the other two are just +/- 5v ... i found in my phone that even though the phone didnt do a negotiation with the usb port on the car charger the +/- 5v dc still sends juice to my phone battery even though my phone never gets a handshake from what its plugged into....from what i understand usb is a fairly simple protocol and you can dev your own usb stuff if you wanna get that nerdy.

I actually cannabilized an old hand crank flashlight and usb cable and made a hand crank charger just by running the +/- dc from the magneto to the appropriate wires on the snipped up usb cable so i can fully charge my phone in like 15 minutes by hand crank power.

 

[perkiset]

That's weird... my car charger works fine on all of them. Simple 12V bullet with a USB out. I haven't found any charging strangeness going from my 2G to the 3GS - only from my original (i mean really original iPod) to the iPhone initially, which is to be reasonably expected.

Have you tried "jockying it about" (the connector i mean) - my old phone was rather persnickety about the connection and sometimes wouldn't see it - in fact, towards the end of my 2G's life I could connect it and it would connect, disconnect, connect all on it's own and sometimes in rapid succession. But I attributed that to looseness in the connector's shell.

Drats for your trouble.

[perkiset]

My best guess is that there is some sort of handshaking the phone is expecting on the data wires of the usb cable.... the other two are just +/- 5v ... i found in my phone that even though the phone didnt do a negotiation with the usb port on the car charger the +/- 5v dc still sends juice to my phone battery even though my phone never gets a handshake from what its plugged into....from what i understand usb is a fairly simple protocol and you can dev your own usb stuff if you wanna get that nerdy.

I actually cannabilized an old hand crank flashlight and usb cable and made a hand crank charger just by running the +/- dc from the magneto to the appropriate wires on the snipped up usb cable so i can fully charge my phone in like 15 minutes by hand crank power.

 

I don't think so JM ... my car and wall chargers are really stupid devices that wouldn't know a handshake from a milkshake. I think it might be worthy of posting/questioning at the apple forums though, see if anyone else is having trouble.

One interesting thought might be to carry the original Apple cable and plug THAT into the car charger and see if it makes a difference... on reflection, I'll bet it does...

[nutballs]

i assume perk that its NOT an apple CLA.

The one thing i find weird is that the new USB cable for the 3gs has a different pin pattern. look at the little raised pins and compare the two cables. So that tells me that they moved something around. There is potential that a cable from an older device wont work with the new???

[perkiset]

hmmm... I did not look at it, nor am I using it. The new cables that came with mine still have their little celophane wrapper and are in the box. I had my 2G cables nicely tucked into my desk and briefcase, so I am using them. I will open that up later and take a look.

I do think I remember an article about the new headphones having altered capabilities - but not the USB cable. Interesting.

[jammaster82]

My best guess is that there is some sort of handshaking the phone is expecting on the data wires of the usb cable.... the other two are just +/- 5v ... i found in my phone that even though the phone didnt do a negotiation with the usb port on the car charger the +/- 5v dc still sends juice to my phone battery even though my phone never gets a handshake from what its plugged into....from what i understand usb is a fairly simple protocol and you can dev your own usb stuff if you wanna get that nerdy.

I actually cannabilized an old hand crank flashlight and usb cable and made a hand crank charger just by running the +/- dc from the magneto to the appropriate wires on the snipped up usb cable so i can fully charge my phone in like 15 minutes by hand crank power.

 

I don't think so JM ... my car and wall chargers are really stupid devices that wouldn't know a handshake from a milkshake. I think it might be worthy of posting/questioning at the apple forums though, see if anyone else is having trouble.

One interesting thought might be to carry the original Apple cable and plug THAT into the car charger and see if it makes a difference... on reflection, I'll bet it does...

my little 'charging' led didnt come on because of no handshake but what im telling you is that i observed it over time and granted it wasnt on an iphone but that the battery in fact did charge , it  took a reboot for the phone to recognize the new battery state because i assume the event to display battery level was part of a post handshake software process that i am suggesting doesnt happen... i dont have an ipod or i touch but i know that if you find the two wires that are +/- on the usb cable that go to the battery i dont see what would stop the shit from charging the way mine does... a gliche in the system that the handshake is the impetus for the phone to think its charging but the direct current runs like water downhill to the needy cell.... in my experience anyway. you could find out by waitingg till battery is almost dead and just for giggles pluggin it in.. your fone wont goo boo dee like it handshaked with software program on a plug n play OS but im gonna bet the money i dont have that the voltage still makes it to the battery on the two wires i doubt they had a gate or inverter or something in the way to stop the direct current from flowing it would be something on the circuit/program they would have had to go out of their way to design a stop electricity from coming in... maybe a surge protection type of system but i believe they would have to design a special system ... go out of their way ..to make a specific system to forcibly turn on the transistor that allowed electricity through the gate on purpose... constantly with it off ?  this would require electricity itself to leave the gate closed perhaps ... it would be a really fucked up design if the os and all had to be running to get power back into the batt...  otherwise its probably like my treo where even though it  says its not charging juice ends up in the cells...

lmk what happens but i thought that i wasnt charging at first then i realized it was charging... it just didnt think it was charging.

how long does it take to fully charge an iphone, assuming everything is a go, anyone have any figures?

[perkiset]

how long does it take to fully charge an iphone, assuming everything is a go, anyone have any figures?

LOL mine doesn't seem to sit on a single charger long enough at any given point for me to know, unless I leave it on the box all night, in which case I have no idea. My phone gets little snippets of charge as I go from my car, to my notebook, to my desk etc.

[nutballs]

mine takes about 1.5 hours (i think) to go from 50% to 100%

[jammaster82]

alright, and how long after the charge can you use it lets say just you tubin it or playing songs from a stream through the phones speaker (max battery drain attempt) ... 

how long of a life are you getting on that charge?  how come no one will admit that the 2g iphone battery life sux donkey balls? 

I did notice on the 3gs commercial that my video and battery life issues were addressed...
iim curious to hear some reports on the life of the  new 3gs..

'now with video' and 'longer battery life'....... im thinking you cant go more than an hour full tubin without sticking it back into that charger..

and they whole thing about the phone needing jostling about ... this is an age old problem with connectors.. i mean with an extension cord, you make whats called a trip loop... cant they come up with a connector that absorbs the stress of an 'oops i knocked it off the dashboard' moments...  a trip loop theory style connector?

once those connectors get loose in the circuit board thats it.  I mean you think that the original phone with the rj-11 clips ripping out from decades ago would be some sort of lesson provider in what DOESNT work.

 

i solved my problem by velcroing everything in place to the dashboard so that everything is in the same place and the cord has a little trip loop in it so if i or the dog jostles it the shock is absorbed into the cord, and not the connection.