Phone chargers and an explanation on fast charging, QC 3.0 an QC 4.0: From Nyamgondho wuod Ombare

[Nyamgondho]

So today, I have some time in my hands so let me explain to talkers about phone chargers along with a few concepts relating to the same.

When buying a phone, it is important to get one with Quick charge 3.0 or 4.0. For me in 2019 I can only touch devices with QC 4+

First what is quick charge. Quick Charge is a proprietary technology from Qualcomm which is present in most of its SD chipsets. Qualcomm charges OEMS extra fees to activate QC. So OEMS have to choose whether to pay or not. QC 2.0 is now free. For example samsung galaxy A9 (2018) supports fast charging (QC 2.0) while the global variant of Mi A2 supports QC 3.0 and Redmi note 7 supports QC 4.0. All these devices run on the SD 660, but Samsung chose not to pay for the technology and used the free fast charging technology. Xiaomi only paid for QC 3.0 for the Mi A2, but paid for QC 4.0 when it came to Redmi note 7. I don’t understand why samsung goes with QC 2.0 even for its flagship phones like the galaxy S10 variants while Xiaomi Mi 9 is on QC 4.0.

Why do you need Quick Charge 3.0/4.0/4.0+

Quick charge technology affects how fast a phone charges from 0% to about 70%. This is because the lithium batteries in our phones charge in 2 phases. The first phase the phone can take as much power as possible while in the second phase power is delivered polepole in a trickle down fashion. Kidogo kidogo hadi ijae. That is why you may notice your phone can even take 20 minutes to move from 97% to 100% while it took 20 minutes to charge from 0% to 20%.

Now QC technology allows phone zikunywe power mingi in the first phase of charging. Phones with Fast charge (QC 2.0), QC 3.0 and QC 4.0 can take power at 18 watts lakini QC 4.0 can go up to 27 watts. With quick charge 4.0+ your phone may charge from 0% to 60% in under 30 minutes. Which is really convenient and awesome.

[ATTACH=full]233430[/ATTACH]

Buying a charger for your phone

If you have a phone with QC 4.0, 3.0, or 2.0. You shouldn’t ever be worried ati charger itaharibu simu. There is no such thing! The phone is the one that determines how much wattage it receives. So you can use any charger to charge your phone without worry. Quick Charge makes sure only the power that the phone needs is taken.

When buying a charger always calculate the wattage for your phone. For example;

If you are charging over a laptop, the USB port delivers a maximum of 5 volts while your phone can draw a maximum of 0.5 Amps which comes to a total of 2.5 watts (5 volts x 0.5 Amps = 2.5 watts). Therefore ukicharge simu yako kwa laptop it can take forever kabla ijae

How to calculate a replacement charger’s wattage

If you have a redmi note 7 for example, it supports QC 4.0 on 2A/9V which comes to 18 watts. (9 volts X 2 amps = 18 watts). So make sure you buy a 18 watt charger. But be careful unaweza nunua an 18 watt charger that charges on 1.5A/12V (12 volts x 1.5 Amps = 18 watts). Such a charger wont quick charge your Redmi note 7 for example, itacharge kwa haraka but not at 18 watts. The resistance created will knock down the power levels.

When buying a charger, somanga hapa. Like this xiaomi charger supports fast charging at 10 watts. Soma hapo kwa output.

[ATTACH=full]233433[/ATTACH]

This aliexpress charger below is an adaptive charger and will deliver power over a couple of ranges: it will offer power via the following adaptive bands;

5V x 2.4 Amps = 12 watts
or
9V x 1.8 Amps = 16.2 watts
or
12v x 1.5 Amps = 18 watts

So if you had a Redmi Note 7, hakuna power band ingekufikishia 18 watts hapo coz the phone charges at 9v x 2 Amps

[ATTACH=full]233436[/ATTACH]

If you think, the charger is fake, nunua USB current meter pare aliexpress. Kitu safi inakupea hadi the current in watts, haraka sana.

[ATTACH=full]233441[/ATTACH]

Charging cable: Buying

Have you ever come across a laptop with a dead USB port? Chances are, the person used a wrong USB cable to charge his/her phone. Mimi mtu akitaka kucharge simu yake kwa laptop yangu namwambianga atokomee mbali.

Here is the reason. If the charging cable cheats the phone that it can draw more Amps from the port than possible, the phone will destroy the port. For example if a cable cheats the phone it can get 2 Amps from a 0.5 Amps USB port on your laptop then that port will be butchered as the phone forces the port to deliver more power than it can.

There is even one google engineer who got so mad about it and went ahead to test all the cables on amazon. Most of them were cheaters and not compliant. You can read more about this here;

https://gizmodo.com/a-google-engineer-is-publicly-shaming-crappy-usb-c-cabl-1742719818

For now sitaki kurefusha hii post more than it already is, just try and get a genuine cable from your phone manufacturer or make sure you never put a third party cable kwa laptop yako. Ikikuja kwa charging bricks, don’t worry about it. Just get any that works and you’re good to go. But chunga cable

Why phone manufacturers are not making a lot of noise about Quick Charge??

Simple, because they don’t have quick chargers. I think only Razer phone has a QC 4.0 charger. Xiaomi this year only unveiled a QC 3.0 charger and yet some of its phones like Mi 9 have QC 4.0 enabled at 27 watts. Samsung hakuna, Htc hamna, Sony hamna, LG bado.

Conclusion

QC 3.0 AND 4.0 Have a lot of benefits besides fast charging that I have not covered here. For example, charging your phone at extremely low temperatures. Simu inacharge hata ukiitumia and no heat dissipated. Hata sijaanza ku-explain oppo’s Super VOOC and other similar technologies that are designed to circumvent quickcharge. Pia sijaongea mambo ya mediatek’s pump express which is also a rival to QC.

Kwa sasa wacha niachie hapo. If you need more info on any aspect of your phone let me know. I will explain nikipata time.

[Bigfish1]

This is alot to consume, basically, buy your charger from the recommended dealer, never charge your phone with a different charger apart from the original that came with the phone.

[imei2012]

Safi sana

[hadadoh]

A very good piece. Infinix have quick chargers. And it is power in watts not current in watts…i.e it is a current-voltage-power meter. Waiting for the drones piece but i like the idea of assembling toys using arduino for your kids rather yhan buy readymade.

[ampex]

@Bigfish1

This is alot to consume, basically, buy your charger from the recommended dealer, never charge your phone with a different charger apart from the original that came with the phone.

Venye NyamaYaNgotha amesema. QC4 technology needs one to buy OEM charger. RedmiNote7 package comes with 5v/2a charger. To enjoy its QC4 tech you need to buy 9v/2a charger. A 12v/1.5a or 5/2.4 charger wont show you the capability. Nice post

[Mediocre]

@hadadoh

A very good piece. Infinix have quick chargers. And it is power in watts not current in watts…i.e it is a current-voltage-power meter. Waiting for the drones piece but i like the idea of assembling toys using arduino for your kids rather yhan buy readymade.

Za infinix ni 12/3A, they charge very fast but heat up even faster.

[Nyamgondho]

@hadadoh

A very good piece. Infinix have quick chargers. And it is power in watts not current in watts…i.e it is a current-voltage-power meter. Waiting for the drones piece but i like the idea of assembling toys using arduino for your kids rather yhan buy readymade.

I know what you mean but I am trying to be as layman as possible because If someone is to buy such an item pale aliexpress ataipata using these layman terms kama wattmeter etc. Power-voltage-current meter will also give you some results.

[Nyamgondho]

@Bigfish1

This is alot to consume, basically, buy your charger from the recommended dealer, never charge your phone with a different charger apart from the original that came with the phone.

I have tried to be as simple as possible. A recommended dealer can easily sell you the wrong charging brick/ cable. Most dealers even don’t understand the total output of the charging brick in the first place. Mimi wanasemanga I am too proud coz It I try to school them on a few of these aspects. If you want to take advantage of your phones quick charge 3.0 or 4.0 capabilities then chances are that the phone manufacturer didn’t give you an appropriate charger in the box. Most likely walikupatia a 10 watt charger. Lazma ujinunulie elsewhere.

[Nyamgondho]

@Mediocre

Za infinix ni 12/3A, they charge very fast but heat up even faster.

You need to buy an appropriate meter to test the power/current/voltage. I know very little about infinix but my guess is wanatumia mediatek chips which may lack the technology employed by QC on SD. Plus this is one of the areas where OEMs save lots of cash so they don’t educate users so that they can take advantage.

[Mediocre]

@Nyamgondho

You need to buy an appropriate meter to test the power/current/voltage. I know very little about infinix but my guess is wanatumia mediatek chips which may lack the technology employed by QC on SD. Plus this is one of the areas where OEMs save lots of cash so they don’t educate users so that they can take advantage.

It’s a replacement charger, but it does the job just fine. Funny thing is that only the charger heats up and not the phone.

[Nyamgondho]

@Mediocre

It’s a replacement charger, but it does the job just fine. Funny thing is that only the charger heats up and not the phone.

That’s how it’s supposed to be. Smartphone circuits have an ability to step down current for example in your case 12 volts to whatever the phone requires this results in heat dissipation at the charging brick’s end. For example your phone’s circuit may lower that voltage to 5 volts and increase the current to 2 Amps which will give you 10 Watts. This will heat up the charging brick. The cable also matters a lot, if it doesn’t conform to USB standards, it can easily destroy the charging brick. The phone is always safe. The industry understands it’s better to destroy a charging brick instead of the phone.

[hadadoh]

@Nyamgondho

I know what you mean but I am trying to be as layman as possible because If someone is to buy such an item pale aliexpress ataipata using these layman terms kama wattmeter etc. Power-voltage-current meter will also give you some results.

I get the reason.

[hadadoh]

@Nyamgondho

That’s how it’s supposed to be. Smartphone circuits have an ability to step down current for example in your case 12 volts to whatever the phone requires this results in heat dissipation at the charging brick’s end. For example your phone’s circuit may lower that voltage to 5 volts and increase the current to 2 Amps which will give you 10 Watts. This will heat up the charging brick. The cable also matters a lot, if it doesn’t conform to USB standards, it can easily destroy the charging brick. The phone is always safe. The industry understands it’s better to destroy a charging brick instead of the phone.

I think the charger also uses the cable resistance as a current sense resistor. In fact if you have the power meter stated above different cables will deliver different current with the cheap thin ones delivering even less than an amp for a 2A/5v charger while the original cable will deliver the full rated current in quick charge mode.

[Recce]

@Nyamgondho

Hii ni technology section, unataka tuanike coomer ya nefertities hapa? Ukikuja hii section, expect kupata vitu hata hujawai fikiria. Kwanza I wanted to explain how one can assemble a simple drone for his kids. Lakini nikiandika the first post si utabaki ume-logout ktalk? Jinga sana!

Expecting @Motokubwa to read this is asking for too much…he is an academic midget/dwarf who likes spending his time in the sex an rships section or shouting ‘liwe liwalo’ at both real and or perceived enemies of lootall

[tombayeye]

@Nyamgondho

Kwa sasa wacha niachie hapo. If you need more info on any aspect of your phone let me know. I will explain nikipata time.

Kama inaingia na inatoshea ,wacha katambe

[Nyamgondho]

@hadadoh

I think the charger also uses the cable resistance as a current sense resistor. In fact if you have the power meter stated above different cables will deliver different current with the cheap thin ones delivering even less than an amp for a 2A/5v charger while the original cable will deliver the full rated current in quick charge mode.

Very true. Kwanza ukinunua cable kama haujui. Pale aliexpress kuna 3 amp cables but sijui kaa ni genuine

[Mediocre]

@Nyamgondho

That’s how it’s supposed to be. Smartphone circuits have an ability to step down current for example in your case 12 volts to whatever the phone requires this results in heat dissipation at the charging brick’s end. For example your phone’s circuit may lower that voltage to 5 volts and increase the current to 2 Amps which will give you 10 Watts. This will heat up the charging brick. The cable also matters a lot, if it doesn’t conform to USB standards, it can easily destroy the charging brick. The phone is always safe. The industry understands it’s better to destroy a charging brick instead of the phone.

The cable is very thick, thickest I’ve seen on a phone charger, basically all electrical cables are rated according to how much current they carry. Plus phones don’t step down, hiyo ni kazi ya brick, what they do is allow the battery to soak up enough power then discharge at their own mAH rate.

[Nyamgondho]

@Mediocre

The cable is very thick, thickest I’ve seen on a phone charger, basically all electrical cables are rated according to how much current they carry. Plus phones don’t step down, hiyo ni kazi ya brick, what they do is allow the battery to soak up enough power then discharge at their own mAH rate.

You’re in a for a shock. Phones circuits nowadays are very intelligent. Your brick provides 12 volts at 3 amp which is 36 watts. If it was an adaptive charging brick, it would have had the ability to step up/down. Phone manufacturers don’t usually pack adaptive charging brick because hawakupei charger ya kucharge all the phones you have but just that particular phone umenunua. The reason why your phone can get some charge from most chargers is because the circuit can step down/step up the current. That is if the charging brick allows.

Phones with QC 4 not only step up/down but they can also divide the current into two. Read about Qualcomms dual charge system. With QC 4, the phone has two power management chips and two paths of charging the phone. The phone has some kind of thermostat too. Qualcomm calls it thermal management system. What happens is that the chips monitors which of the two paths is overheating. Ikinotice one path iko na higher temperature ina reduce the current immediately and sends it to the cooler path. The charging brick has no idea what’s going on. Here is a link

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.engadget.com/amp/2017/06/01/quick-charge-four-plus-qualcomm-snapdragon-835/

[Mediocre]

@Nyamgondho

You’re in a for a shock. Phones circuits nowadays are very intelligent. Your brick provides 12 volts at 3 amp which is 36 watts. If it was an adaptive charging brick, it would have had the ability to step up/down. Phone manufacturers don’t usually pack adaptive charging brick because hawakupei charger ya kucharge all the phones you have but just that particular phone umenunua. The reason why your phone can get some charge from most chargers is because the circuit can step down/step up the current. That is if the charging brick allows.

Phones with QC 4 not only step up/down but they can also divide the current into two. Read about Qualcomms dual charge system. With QC 4, the phone has two power management chips and two paths of charging the phone. The phone has some kind of thermostat too. Qualcomm calls it thermal management system. What happens is that the chips monitors which of the two paths is overheating. Ikinotice one path iko na higher temperature ina reduce the current immediately and sends it to the cooler path. The charging brick has no idea what’s going on. Here is a link

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.engadget.com/amp/2017/06/01/quick-charge-four-plus-qualcomm-snapdragon-835/

That’s just bad electrical terminology, I should know it I design these systems for a living. It’s basically called shunting or converting, not stepping up and down which is done by the brick which has a step down transformer.

[Nyamgondho]

@Mediocre

That’s just bad electrical terminology, I should know it I design these systems for a living. It’s basically called shunting or converting, not stepping up and down which is done by the brick which has a step down transformer.

Yes, you’re right. Bad terminology. And I need to refresh myself. The technology is amazing though.considering the size of the chips. And phone size. In the past all this was managed at the charging brick.