yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 4 Accessories] tbonepat11:
So I just popped it on the charger for about 20 minutes and got a +10% charge. My goodness this thing seems quite random. I did unplug and plug it back in before I did that. Maybe it is heat related or the length of time it is plugged in before using? Who knows. Anyone else with any experience with the basic desk owlpad charger?
[Nexus 4 Accessories] neotekz:
some people are reporting problems with the carpad not charging fast enough with gps on too, if you check the last page you will see the post about it.

about your problem i would test it some more to make sure it wasnt a one off thing or maybe because you started charging when your phone was dead. it reminds me of a similiar issue i've encountered with the nexus 7 with the factory ac adapter. Sometimes when i charge the my nexus 7 when the battery is very low(<5%) it will not charge fully overnight to about 40-50% like you described but if i unplug and plug it back in when i wake up it will start charging fast again. its only done this a hand full of times out of the 10months i've had it. i have no idea what is causing it either.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] mpdt:
I tested the carpad without my case and spacer. I got 7% increase in roughly thirty minutes.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] tbonepat11:
I am going to try unplugging and replugging it in before I go to sleep tonight to see the results. I will post here tomorrow to see what I wake up to.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] simics:
for the desktop charger, I use it to topup the charge during the workday. works fine for this purpose.

I use the original USB charger to charge it to 100% at night.

for the carpad charger, I have basically given up. It is just not reliable in the tropical climate over here.

I think you guys will encounter the same situation during summer.

stops charging when it get too hot.

slowly drains when gps and BT audio is running.

I cannot be bothered to baby the charger or keep a eye on the battery stats when I'm driving.

Plus not sure if the additional heat imposed by the inductive charging will cause long term damage.

Going back to usb charging in the car and use the carpad as a nice mobile phone mounting kit.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] topanga:
It's winter and my car pad won't show a positive increase on the phone. I left my screen off, phone was idle on my way to work and in 15 minutes I managed to lose 3% while "charging"

Same poor results with my desktop pad. Slow slow slow. Sure it may work to "keep it topped up" but why bother with it if I can buy a different brand for the same price that will charge my phone overnight or better still in a few hours.

I'm bummed out. :(
[Nexus 4 Accessories] garyyager:
I ordered an owlpad for the car and they sent the desktop version instead. Rather than trying to return it, I'd like to adapt it to be used in the car. Can anyone point me sort of cigarette lighter power adapter than can be used? Or maybe the specs? I see it's 12v 1.0A, is the center positive? What size plug? Thanks for your help
[Nexus 4 Accessories] happybana:
Car pad shipped! Can't wait to get it. This whole wireless charging thing is great, going to be starting on my own inductive charging pad to fit into the dash console of my PT Cruiser soon. Love this phone!
[Nexus 4 Accessories] tbonepat11:
Alright so it did the same thing last night....I woke up after about 6 hours and it had only gotten about 10% more charge. I unplugged and plugged back in....about 2 hours later my phone was completely charged.

I am not sure what is causing this weird issue.

I to am worried about the summer and my carpad. I had the heat issue with my old palm pre with the touchstone in the car during the summer months. I imagine the same will be true here. Especially on long trips where it is baking in the sun.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] delrazor:
Geez, I'm not understanding everyone's poor results with the chargers.

I always have positive charge when using whatever I want while charging on the CarPad.

The OwlPad is a bit weaker, and seems to cut off preemptively, but it still works well for what i need it for.

Can those who are having poor performance post some screenshots of the history tab from battery monitor widget after 10minutes of charging?

There's got to be something else going on, like tons of background processes or something, because I constantly get 600+ mA when not running anything, and around 100mA when using streaming music and GPS navigation.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] topanga:
I'm happy to post screenshots. What specific widget should I use to monitor? I was using battery widget reborn but its not as detailed as some I'm sure.

On that note though, any other chargers I have tried have worked no problem at creating a positive charge the Owl chargers are the only chargers that have ever caused this issue. I'm simply comparing my experiences between different products. So if my phone was running all sorts of crazy things wouldn't I have the same issue on my other qi charger?

Do you have the latest version? Mine is from the most recent shipment.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] bingunginter:
I'm not satisfied with the carpad. Anybody want it just pm me. I will sell it cheaper.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] delrazor:
I've got the latest version, that came with the little clear spacer.

To be clear.. if you have any sort of case on your phone, you might be better off not using the spacer.

I've been using "Battery Monitor Widget" to get my results.

Here's a link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ccc71.bmw

The way I have this one setup is as follows.

Upon opening the app, click on the settings cog.

Under monitoring set "Monitoring without widget" to checked

1% increment support checked

Under Calibration

Battery Capacity - set it to 2100

Under History

Save Battery History is checked

Uninterupted history logging checked

record fully charged history checked

History update rate - Set this to 60 seconds.. this way you can see immediately how much your phone is bringing in.

Now, after letting the phone charge on the CarPad for about 10 minutes with nothing going on... take it off, open the app, and click the History button on the bottom left.

Take a screenshot of that and note the times you had it charging for us.. (i.e. if you charged from 8:47am to 9:00am, say so when you post the screenshot, and make sure the time range is visible in the screen shot.)

Thanks to anyone who will do this for me.

I'm not concerned so much about the quality of the charger, but more on the idea of each phone being it's own unique snowflake, and because of different ROMs, Kernels, and background things running, this charger could either be the most awesome thing, or the worst waste of money ever.. I'm fine if the product deserves bad comments, but I feel there's something more happening here, and it's more due to the currently running things on the phone than it is the charger itself..

As I've said, I can pretty much run the phone at full tilt on Spotify with mobile data, and GPS on with screen on 50% and Navigation constantly running, and keep a charge stable (added 2% over the course of 2 hours)

Also, when you post your screenshot, let us know about your phone.. Stock non-rooted? Rooted with roms? kernels? anything else running in the background, etc?

Thanks,
[Nexus 4 Accessories] jimbobalu:
What is the purpose of the spacer? I took it off since I am using a Poetic bumper.

I'll download the battery app and see if I can provide some info.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] delrazor:
The spacer apparently helps align the coils in the CarPad with the phone.

In my testing using the Diztronic Matte Black case, I found using the spacer made the phone stop trying to charge, so I figured it was too far away from the coils. Removing the spacer and using the case as-is seems to work fine for me. If the phone were naked, the spacer might work better for some..

Here's the images from owlpad.net discussing the spacer.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] neotekz:
picked up the charger today and was able to do some testing, sad to say im very disappointed. I wasnt even expecting it to charge the phone with the nav. on just keep it constant or discharge very slowly.

i was able to do 3 test,

the first screenshot is with nothing on except the screen, i didnt post the entire log but it started at around 28 degrees Celsius 8:17. There's a blizzard outside tonight so it's fairly warm at 0 degrees Celsius. It took 26mins for the phone to hit 40 degrees then start to charge erratically until it stop charging at 41.1 degrees.

The second screenshot is with nav on. I let the phone cool down to 28.6 degrees then started charging at 8:50. It only took 10mins for the phone to hit 40.5 degrees and shut down charging.

The last test was with nothing on and screen turned off. i didnt have much time left for the drive so i just let it cool down to 36.4 degrees at 9:05 and started charging. Even with screen off and nothing running it still hit 39 degrees in 5 mins. This is much faster than with screen on but i think it was because the charger and phone was already heated up by now.

im surprised that it still overheats with nothing on and screen off...maybe i have a defective unit, i will forward my results to moon to see if i can get a replacement.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] YasooKhuul:
I like it very much :)

-> http://imgur.com/a/PXW5M
[Nexus 4 Accessories] mpdt:
Emailed Moon letting him know how we have all found the chargers to be sub-par.

Hopefully he'll do some damage control.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] happybana:
...I hope you mean how some of us have found them sub par, since a fair number have been happy with the new CarPads and OwlPads and still more of us are waiting to receive them.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] topanga:
He's been good to deal with.. But shipping these back is going to cost me 50-80 bucks :(
[Nexus 4 Accessories] mpdt:
Moon did respond to my email, but I can't access my email from work.

Once I get home I'll copy everything over to the forum.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] Antebios:
Something strange is happening. First, I thought the CarPad was the problem, but I'm starting to see that it might be my phone. TL;DR = Drove to work with GPS + Music and battery level stayed the same or dipped a little. I took my case off, and still the same thing. I brought it to work to plug it into my USB charger, and it battery level has barely crept upward. Something is sucking my battery. I'm going to wipe and re-install CM.

As a footnote: I was watching Netflix 2 days ago and my phone died. I had gotten the Red Light of Death. I was able to resuscitate my phone, but it's been off kilter. So, I think this might be related. I'll let you know what I find.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] mpdt:
From Moon:

Hi I don't know what they are talking about owl charger.

Just a couple of hours ago, I did driving test after confirming that owlpad desktop charger is charging wonderfully as you can see the pictures here I attached.

With GPS on. listening streaming music via bluetooth (Flexsmart Xe),

there was not much drop down charging while I was driving at near home.

Please check it out video and pictures here I attached.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L4_mkUAjnU&feature=player_detailpage&list=UUvrMk6cBFxLpFHfwg9lM8_A

I did all my best whenever I got a email regarding trouble-shooting.

This is new one in the world and there is limitation that we can do for Nexus 4.

CarPad for HTC DNA will be released soon. We found that HTC has much higher induction central position.

Thank you very much for your tips.

Moon Soo Choi
[Nexus 4 Accessories] mpdt:
I watched his video, and it's noted that the spacer is required.

I replied letting him know that I used a case and spacer. Phone won't fit in the mount with both.

I'm thinking I need to find a way to raise my phone/case in the mount to match the height in the picture.

I can say that if you use a case and the spacer the phone will not charge.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] krahim786:
Anyone want to buy my car pad? I live in Texas... I think it gets way too hot here for the carpad to work well.

I'll sell it at my cost and throw in free USPS priority shipping. PM me.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] pedxing:
I just got the desktop charger and the car owlpad yesterday. Today was my first experience and it seems to match neotekz's. The phone doesn't charge much at all and it overheats in 10 minutes or less. Even Moon's video shows a dramatic upswing in the phone temp during the last 10 minutes according to the battery history widgit screen. It tops out on the video at 46C. His must be special because mine stops charging long before that...maybe 42. I just tried again to charge it with the car charger and left it for 15 minutes and it actually dropped 1% with absolutely nothing running. This is a very well tuned phone, underclocked to 1.3 ghz and it only drains maybe 0.4% per hour when the screen is off, on wifi.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] tbonepat11:
Yeah there is something going on. My desktop version is now sitting next to my computer on my desk for when I lay it down. Nighttime is back to the USB cable or until I switch to something better.

My carpad is a nice mount and I haven't really tested it to much on any trips yet to see how the charger works. Maybe I am just super spoiled from my Palm Pre Touchstone car mount days. God that was nice. Just throw it on there and off you go.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] gotzaDroid:
I just got my car pad today and my first 35 minute ride with screen on set to auto brightness (night driving) and running power amp the whole time, I only gained 1% battery. My guess would be that with gps on too, I'll be losing juice. Not very pleased.

Just for reference, if I had the phone plugged in to the car, it would have gained 10% battery in that time running the same app with the screen on.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] croques:
Seen this? http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/nokia-wireless-charging-nfc-car-holder-p38310.htm
[Nexus 4 Accessories] tbonepat11:
Unless I start seeing some people with good experiences post on here I am going to assumed that we got sent a bad batch or this was some sort of scam. I based my purchase on the original posters review and hands on. Not a happy camper.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] gotzaDroid:
Found some interesting things out here. My commute is about 35 minutes, so that's the time frame I used for all of this. What I did was test the owl pad vs. the nexus orb in a few different scenarios. Now, obviously, the orb wouldn't usually be running navigation, but I wanted to be fair. This was just a simple time vs. Battery percentage comparison. I did not use any monitoring app, just what battery widget displayed after 35 minutes.

Owl car pad:

On DC with music only and screen on for 35 min, 1% battery gain.

On AC with music, screen on and GPS for 35 min, 2% battery loss

On AC with music only and screen on for 35 min, 1% battery loss

On DC with music, screen on and GPS for 35 min, 10% battery loss

On AC with screen off and idle for 35 min, 9% battery gain

On DC with screen off and idle for 35 min, 5% battery gain

Nexus charging orb (AC only):

With music only and screen on for 35 min, 16% gain

With music, screen on and GPS for 35 min, 0% gain

With screen off and idle for 35 min, 22% gain

Now an interesting observation is that I found that the clear spacer is needed. I had removed it as I saw that the phone still showed charging without it, but when I was running all three (screen, music, GPS), the phone stopped charging even though the light was red. I put the spacer in and the phone would still stop charging, but the light would turn green when it stopped instead of staying red like before. So I used the spacer for my other DC test and all the AC tests and this time the phone didn't stop showing it was charging (though in reality, I was losing power slowly). It seems that the AC charges less crappy. I may pick up a cheap power inverter, hide it in my glove box and run the AC cord instead. I'd still be losing power, but a lot less.

The orb blew the owl out of the water, at least on AC, but it is worth noting that the screen on with music and GPS going was still to much for the orb to gain a charge (though it held the charge). What I would like to do, if I can figure out a safe way to put the orb in my car, is to test the orb on DC.

I plan on finishing the owl DC tests tonight and I also am going to test direct plug in DC in the car too, but so far, my official stance on the owl is that it sucks. Waste of 60 bucks.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] lifeisfun:
Thanks for posting feedback folks, looks like it needs some work :(
[Nexus 4 Accessories] Solutions Etcetera:
While I doubt I have read every post in this thread, I certainly came away with the impression that this is a tiny company, with limited resources, and that their product is not really ready for prime time, but certainly not a scam.

The silly spacer was the last straw... along with a web site based on a wordpress theme. Sorry... but slick and professional they're not.

Hope those that are unhappy can easily return them.

BTW, after I got my orb, I took a shot at making a cradle from my LG WCP700. I came up with this in about an hour, and it works quite well.

The 'U' around the cradle is low compression, self adhesive rubber weather stripping. The pad is mounted to a RAM mount via a diamond plate stuck to the back of it via a trimmed 3M adhesive disk. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and it is pretty solid.

My goal is to replace the weather stripping with some strategically placed polyurethane bumpers along the bottom and sides, but I have yet to source some of the right size (.25 inch diameter and about 7/16" tall).
[Nexus 4 Accessories] gotzaDroid:
Nice! Lucky you got the room for that. I barely found room for the car pad in my stupid car.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] diablonyc2:
I tried the NEW car pad last night on a short trip and YES....it did not seem to function great. I actually lost charge while driving, streaming, and using GPS. Oh well --- I guess we will have to wait for the Nokia charger.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] gotzaDroid:
It's kind of sad, the car pad fits the N4 great it's not a bad looking charger either. But we all spent all this money just to now hope for a better alternative down the road.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] jamaroufi:
Awe heck, put me on the list too. I think with this, an NFC tag, and a Bluetooth car receiver I can achieve total wireless car integration.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] narcopolypse:
That's what I was thinking. I already checked to see if an NFC tag would work on a Qi pad and it does.

But I decided NFC makes things too complicated so I just created a set of Tasker profiles instead.

Profile 1: If power is connected,

Turn on Bluetooth if it is off.

Profile 2: If connected to "Sony Automotive",

Turn off Wi-Fi.

Turn on GPS.

Open Car Home Ultra.

Set volume to 100%.

Wait 3 seconds (my stereo takes about 2 seconds to route the audio after connecting)

Play music.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] Shadow6363:
Looks like I've missed out on the initial batch, but please throw me on the list as well!
[Nexus 4 Accessories] delta18:
Please put me on the list for the car charger as well, this would make integration so much easier!

Thanks
[Nexus 4 Accessories] abrahavt:
I would like one too.

Thanks
[Nexus 4 Accessories] jdavet:
So excited. Thanks so much for doing this.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] jamaroufi:
Yes this sounds like exactly what I wanted to do. Thanks for the tip!
[Nexus 4 Accessories] runningwarrior08:
Why not. Throw me on the list, :thumbup:
[Nexus 4 Accessories] xShadoWxDrifTx:
Please add me on the list.

Thanks!
[Nexus 4 Accessories] Nickerbocker:
Interested to hear what everyone thinks about these.

I wonder how tough it is to implement the Qi standard and whether or not it might be a fun project for a DIYer to make a custom charging station. If there were small component Qi charging pads available, might be possible to just add that functionality to any generic car dock.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] lfpayne:
Please add me to the list also, looking forward to this!
[Nexus 4 Accessories] Redoxase:
I'm interested! Put me down for one too! : D
[Nexus 4 Accessories] aznxk3vi17:
Definitely interested in picking one of these up.

Sent from my Nexus 4
[Nexus 4 Accessories] lakedubvt:
Put me in for one!
[Nexus 4 Accessories] davpel:
I'm definitely in on one of these.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] Solutions Etcetera:
That's is where my interests lie. I have sourced the coils and controller chip from ti for under 20 bucks, but they are charging 200 for a full working dev kit... I have no idea why it is so expensive.

I am guessing that when supply is refreshed on the lg charger and prices come back down to the 30's again, it might be more cost effective to just rip the guts out of one of those. I am interested in mounting a coil on the center pad of the RAM XGrip.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] diablonyc2:
And while your at it....Add me to the list! I have had the device less than 24 Hrs and already looking to add accessories
[Nexus 4 Accessories] gienka:
Please add me to the list also, looking forward to this?thanks
[Nexus 4 Accessories] irishtexmex:
I'd definitely like to be on the list. Thanks!

Edit: Just for some clarification, it looks like we'll be able to use this dock with a bumper or small case on, right?
[Nexus 4 Accessories] watso4183:
+1 for the list

Take my money!!!

Thanks!
[Nexus 4 Accessories] Antebios:
Is there a mod we can do ourselves to the CarPad to give it more juice? Like, more power from the adapter? Reposition the Qi coils?
[Nexus 4 Accessories] simics:
i dont think its as simple as repositioning the coils.

the main issue for me is temperature.

once it heats up beyond 40-41C, charging will stop.

I'm using Xylon ROM, Faux kernel.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] mpdt:
I've changed the height that the phone (and case) sit in the mount, using many house hold items anyone should have. No change in the 10%battery increase. Was able to get to not charge quite a few times.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] pedxing:
What's the max charge you all get on the desktop version? Mine seems to go to 91 or so and then stop. I thought it was supposed to go to 95% at least. No heat issues, each time, it just stops early.

For the car version, I tried to follow the advice moon sent out: Use the spacer if you want the screen on and higher heat tolerance (but will result in less charge) or don't use the spacer but keep the screen off to result in higher charge.

So I did not use the spacer and over a 40 minute drive it increased from 87 to 93%. Load was very light -- the phone was reading an ebook to me via Moon+ Reader which requires little CPU and almost no network. In battery history I was seeing around +200ma per reading. Ambient temp was fairly cool...maybe 69F.

I'll try again on the way home with the spacer and streaming music and screen on. Temp will be higher. One problem is that the phone and mount is black and when mounted on the windshield or on the dash it will be hit with direct sunlight a lot of the time. I have it mounted on the left next to the A-pilar which blocks the sun sometimes, but the whole dash area will be hotter than the rest of the car.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] tneedell:
I just got back from a disappointing trip from NYC to Philly...

I had Google Navigation on with auto-brightness and was losing juice quickly. Temp. in my car was set to 63 and the mount isn't near a heat vent. The scary thing was the spiky charging pattern. That just can't be healthy for the battery.

I was using the phone without the case on(Ringke Slim) because it wouldn't even begin to stay charging with it on. I was also using the spacer because it wouldn't charge without that either.

You can see I started to charge the phone and use GPS shortly after it went into the yellow.
[Nexus 4 Accessories] StevenBX:
Echoing frazzle's request - anyone from the UK got one? It seems like it's a bit of a hit or miss product (the car pad) so I'd like to know how it deals with the UK climate and if we'll get charged to import it before going ahead and ordering one.