iPhone will not charge when GPS is in use - it's a huge battery drain!

[Rybold]

My prediction was right it seems - good to have it confirmed. At first, I thought it was my charger then noticed it would happily charge after I just locked it at left it for a while.

I'm glad we now know the cause. I almost panicked when it first happened because I was driving somewhere important, and I needed both my GPS and my phone! and the 10% battery warning had come on and it wouldn't charge!
It's nice to now know the cause of this in case it happens again.

 

[danielspencer2]

you should submit this iphone gps bug to apple via their website.

 

[TheSpaz]

Okay. It might be the chargers you guys are using. I have the Griffin AutoPilot and today I used GPS on my way home and my iPhone charged fine and got to 100% and stayed that way even while I was using GPS the whole time in Maps.

 

[9822679]

apparently you guys are too lazy to click the link i provided... so ill just post the information on this thread -___-

Guys stop posting and read what has been stated already... here are the facts


- USB output = 5v 500mah ( maximum allowed spec)
- AC output = 5v 1000mah ( maximum allowed spec)

- Car chargers 5v 500-2000mah ( maximum allowed specs)

The thing you guys don't seem to realize is that those ARE MAXIMUM allowed specs. I have a Belkin 5v 2000mah car charger that will STOP charging the iPhone if it overheats ( from using 3g, GPS + music all at the same time). When I realized this I was able to keep the back of the iPhone cool and was able to keep the phone charging for the whole trip.

Do I know the exact amperage draw of the phone ? NO, but I do know that it was less than 2000 mah ( otherwise the internal 2 amp fuse, which I verified was still intact) would have blown out.

The maximum draw the iPhone was designed for was 2.6 amps.



The most broad answer then is that when all the radios are turned on we get a amperage draw of between 1000-2.6 amps. Realistically the draw must be below 2000amps

The older apple car chargers will not work if you try to max them out because most of those are spec'd to max out at 1000amps. I bought a cheap Chinese iPhone 2g charger for my iPhone 3g, and the fuse blew out ( it was a 1 amp fuse), so obviously when the all the radios are on, there is a larger than 1amp draw.

 

[TheSpaz]

apparently you guys are too lazy to click the link i provided... so ill just post the information on this thread -___-

Thank you. My iPhone charges correctly because it's not in a case then?

 

[Rob Mclovin]

Ya it seems that it won't charge if it's taking to much power. Like sometimes I will be using safari pretty heavely, I'll plug it into the wall, and then it will show the power plug, I'll unplug it, and it would be a low battery. So then I would have to restart the phone and wait like 5 minutes for it to actually charge.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

awesome work!

So then the moral of the story is, if you want to use gps in the car remove the case and/or blow the AC on it!

 

[firewood]

GPS is not the cause; overheating is the cause of the phone automatically disabling battery charging. In other words, when the phone has reached a hot enough temperature, it will not allow you to charge it.

Interesting. I'll have to test this on a long drive by resting my iPhone on one of those frozen ice packs, while simultaneously charging and running a GPS app.

I wonder if it's the iPhone that overheats and stops charging, or the car charger adapter?

.

 

[9822679]

Thank you. My iPhone charges correctly because it's not in a case then?

Yup, your case is working like a sweater. I would try to cool it from the back.

awesome work!

So then the moral of the story is, if you want to use gps in the car remove the case and/or blow the AC on it!

AC or just any air will cool it ( if you are saving gas ;P )

I wonder if it's the iPhone that overheats and stops charging, or the car charger adapter?

.

It would be hard to test this out without opening the Iphone and testing precisely how much charge is being drawn, but since the 2amp fuse in my charger did not blow it must be the iPhone that stops charging once it overheats.

 

[eelpout]

Holy crap... I would not believe this had I not experienced it myself yesterday while using GPS and data simultaneously on a 3G (using Waze). I watched the battery percentage tick down in the car about a point every other minute, while plugged in!!

I've never seen that happen in any GPS equipped phone or PDA before *ever*.

Man, Apple gets away with a lot.

I was using a 5v, 1000ma charger in the car... I thought that was suppose to be enough to prevent this? Obviously not. What charger out there pumps out enough to do GPS and data simultaneously in the car? Maybe I need one that does 5.2v...

(and just to be clear, WiFi: off, BT: off, 3G: off; it was NOT in any case so no heat issues. Using 4.0 with no other apps running but Phone and Settings)

 

[mbaran]

holy old thread batman