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> Poorly implemented fast charging can ruin your phone's battery quicker than most anything else But isn't the charger basically just a power supply for the ph

by Aaargh20318 8y ago

> Poorly implemented fast charging can ruin your phone's battery quicker than most anything else But isn't the charger basically just a power supply for the phone ? i.e. the actual charging is done by the phone itself, not the charger.

tehbeard 8y ago
"Smoothness" and stability of the incoming current is probably a factor.
- bfdm 8y ago
  OK, so build detection of that into the phone and disable charging if the source is unsuitable. Apply to all charge bases evenly. I have no problem with this. The problem is in saying you can only use theirs, even if you have another perfectly spec-compliant source.
lostmyoldone 8y ago
In any cae, the charger definitely should only be a PSU. Current, voltage, and temperature during charging should be completely managed by the phone hardware. Otherwise a defective charger can easily destroy the battery, and potentially also your house. If I'd hazard a guess - assuming it's not only greed - they are either offloading part of that work to the charger for a smaller bill of materials for the phone, or the charger is part of the thermal design. The higher current for fast charging might generate more heat than the body of the phone can get rid of on its own, and the stand could be engineered to cool down the phone. Almost all cordless power tool chargers have some kind of fan that connects to battery pack cooling ducts to prevent it from overheating during changing.
- gargravarr 8y ago
  I'd say the heat generation is the biggest factor in fast charging wearing out the battery - lithium batteries do not like heat, and base Qi generates quite a lot of it (have a Qi charger for my Galaxy S5). Can only imagine the fun you run into trying to pump more current through them without melting the phone. Google may well be doing this because they can't guarantee cooling on the third-party stands, and would have to throttle the charge rate when the phone started to overheat. Guess they might be pre-empting it.
pkaye 8y ago
Quick charging works a little differently. The charger does some handshaking with the phone and switches to a mode which violates USB voltage/power specs. I think there are multiple implementations of this by different manufacturers. Maybe the USB committee can get everyone to agree to a standard.

tehbeard 8y ago

"Smoothness" and stability of the incoming current is probably a factor.

bfdm 8y ago
OK, so build detection of that into the phone and disable charging if the source is unsuitable. Apply to all charge bases evenly. I have no problem with this. The problem is in saying you can only use theirs, even if you have another perfectly spec-compliant source.

lostmyoldone 8y ago

In any cae, the charger definitely should only be a PSU. Current, voltage, and temperature during charging should be completely managed by the phone hardware. Otherwise a defective charger can easily destroy the battery, and potentially also your house. If I'd hazard a guess - assuming it's not only greed - they are either offloading part of that work to the charger for a smaller bill of materials for the phone, or the charger is part of the thermal design. The higher current for fast charging might generate more heat than the body of the phone can get rid of on its own, and the stand could be engineered to cool down the phone. Almost all cordless power tool chargers have some kind of fan that connects to battery pack cooling ducts to prevent it from overheating during changing.

gargravarr 8y ago
I'd say the heat generation is the biggest factor in fast charging wearing out the battery - lithium batteries do not like heat, and base Qi generates quite a lot of it (have a Qi charger for my Galaxy S5). Can only imagine the fun you run into trying to pump more current through them without melting the phone. Google may well be doing this because they can't guarantee cooling on the third-party stands, and would have to throttle the charge rate when the phone started to overheat. Guess they might be pre-empting it.

pkaye 8y ago

Quick charging works a little differently. The charger does some handshaking with the phone and switches to a mode which violates USB voltage/power specs. I think there are multiple implementations of this by different manufacturers. Maybe the USB committee can get everyone to agree to a standard.