[HTC Amaze 4G] ericdjobs:
So...I get home one morning, I'm sitting at 7%... and I forgot my AC Plug at work. I'm right in the middle of doing a lot of tweaking/benchmarking, basically stuck in 'phone mode'...I plug into my computer and the notorious "You're draining more current than the charger is supplying" hits... So I start searching for some way to increase that. I noticed that my ASROCK motherboard on my home computer had some software that let me increase the charging rate of the USB ports.. it was awesome, because I constantly plug in there and it would barely supply enough juice to keep me hacking away at the phone.

At work on my laptop, I was doing some research.. it appears every major motherboard manufacturer has some type of utility like this! They seem pretty hardware specific, but they seem to support a pretty wide range of their line-up.

Now, I do want to say use this at your own risk because extra power IS extra power. I'm pretty confident that the majority of USB hardware out in the wild right now (as long as you're using at least a half-modern desktop or laptop) is *probably* capable of supplying the current for this, but I just want to put that out there. If you decide to use this (on hardware that is obviously not supported), it's at your own risk. I haven't heard/seen much trouble from it, though... I've been using it for a couple days now and it's a lifesaver at work when I forgot my AC plug. If you have hardware from a given manufacturer, then I'd suggest you use their version (check who makes your mainboard for bigbox laptops/desktops)

Also, Faux's ICS Kernel supports forcing AC charging on any USB plug. I do not recommend doing any data transfer while doing this. I would wouldn't recommend using this on old hardware... actually you'd probably be better off only using it on USB 3.0 ports only, but I've successfully using Force AC charge mode on my laptop with only USB 2.0 ports without issue for a couple months now. You can enable this with a shell script, I personally use a Tasker shortcut with a task set up that does the command [IF %FCSTATE = 0] ( echo 1 > /sys/kernel/fast_charge/force_fast_charge ) checks to make sure it's enabled ( cat /sys/kernel/fast_charge/force_fast_charge ) puts the return into a variable ( %FCSTATE ), makes a sound, then places a permanent notification in the statusbar, and a 3s pop-up that notifies me it's been turned on (with an IF condition verifying that it is indeed turned on, IF %FCSTATE = 1)... second part of teh tasker shortcut is [ ELSE IF %FCSTATE = 1 ] ( echo 0 > /sys/kernel/fast_charge/force_fast_charge ), check to make sure it's disabled ( cat /sys/kernel/fast_charge/force_fast_charge ), put the state into a variable (%FCSTATE), make a different sound, remove the notification, and a pop-up window telling me fast-charge is off. The sound/popup/notification all have IF %FCSTATE = 0.. be ensure that it's off. The cat script places the return value into %FCSTATE. Force AC charging mode is truly useful for pesky car chargers that won't give their full current and are detected as USB instead of AC. There's actually a "safe mode" implemented into Faux's kernel now that will prevent Forced AC charging when there's a USB peripheral detected, which will prevent forced AC charging on on USB 2.0/3.0 ports that are on a computer/laptop etc. This is a good setting if you're only using Forced AC charging for a crappy car charger or some other "dumb" device. You can invoke this mode with [ echo 2 > /sys/kernel/fast_charge/force_fast_charge ]

Be careful with forcing AC charge on older hardware etc, again I don't personally recommend using it on USB 2.0 ports, USB 2.0 is rated to a maximum safe current of a Standard downstream port of 500mA, USB 3.0 is 900mA. This is why you don't want to force fast_charge on a USB 2.0 Standard downstream port. (I do it, but I'm willing to accept the risk... it has worked for me, it might completely ruin your hardware. Use at your own risk) There's also Charging downstream ports, these can handle up to .9A (2.0/3.0) (During high-speed data transfer.), they can provide more than that when there's no data transfer going on, but we don't need much more than that honestly, with no data transfer going on these can provide anywhere from 1A-2A, depeneding on the device. These type of ports are found on desktop computers pretty often. There's also Dedicated Charging Ports, these are the ports you find on wall-plugs, car-chargers, etc. These provide anywhere from 500mA-2A, whatever the actually device is rated. You can find out if the port you're connected to is a Standard downstream port, a Downstream charging port, or a dedicated charging port by calling a read-only sysfs file with this shell command, [ cat /sys/kernel/fast_charge/USB_porttype_detected ], this will return the type of port you're connected to in plain text. Also, there's a TON of variation in actual USB hardware and true capabilities. There's going to be lots of USB 2.0 ports can can easily supply 900mA of current, but there's no way to know for sure until you ruin some hardware. I just want to stress this because I don't want people using this to force AC charging on shoddy USB 2.0 ports and frying their motherboard or whatever. Lots of people using forced AC charging on USB 2.0 ports with great success, just use your judgement.

Here's a list of motherboard manufacturers who offer enhanced charging drivers for their hardware. This is completely different than Forced AC Charging (in Faux's Kernel). Now, I'm not sure if you need to force AC charge with some of these or not.. You probably DO if it's only a USB 2.0 port, because the phone might limit you to 500mA max. I know that with ASROCK's driver/software, I didn't have to force fast charge to see substantial increase in charge current. MSI Advertises on their site that even a USB 2.0 port is capable of up to 1.5A of current with their Super Charger, and other manufacturer's are similar. I wouldn't be too concerned about forcing AC charging if you have hardware that's supported by any of this software. Please check the manufacturer's website, etc.

ASUS AiCharger] (Supposedly only works on APPLE devices, mixed reports. No idea on this one)

MSI Supercharger

Gigabyte ON/OFF Charge

ASRock AppCharger

Biostar Charger Booster

ECS EZ Charger

Foxxconn offers a program called "Smart Charger", but they don't have an advertisement page and it's included with drivers/etc for their motherboards, so I'd check their main site if you have a Foxconn board.

I've personally only used the ASRock AppCharger and ASUS AiCharger.. your mileage may vary, use at your own risk etc etc etc. I've just found this to be immensely useful and I wanted to share. . Some people do report noticeably slower data transfer rates after the installation of these programs (which I would attribute to noise from power on the line, I guess), so keep that in mind. Not everyone experiences this (I sure didn't)

Check it with CurrentWidget, Android Tuner(This is Battery Monitor Widget and System Tuner rolled into 1 app, same people who make both of them), or Battery Monitor Widget... you'll see a huge difference in the amount of current you get from USB (Our Amaze does support current draw reporting, so the number you get from these isn't exactly an estimate. I wouldn't call it super accurate, but it's a pretty good representation of ingoing/outgoing current from the battery. Great for finding out battery drain etc)

Hope you guys get as much use out of these as I do!