I’ve been more than a bit absent lately. Here’s a hint for people: don’t get heat-stroke. It seriously knocked me over for two weeks, and then some.
Anyway, I’ve come across a small curiosity with the Galaxy S and charging it. The wall charger, of course, charges it fairly quickly, as does the USB cable that came with it. However, a generic USB cable charges it very slowly, and then only to about 90%. In fact, if I have it charged over 90% and plug the generic USB cable into it, it will lose charge until it’s at 90%.
Those with more electrical knowledge than I suggest that somewhere in the official cable is a resistor that changes the behaviour. I’ve since found that there is a standard for using USB for charging, where the data lines are apparently shorted (or at least have a resistor between them). This tells the device that it’s able to pull more current from the cable.
However this stops the cable working as a data cable, whereas the official cable allows data transfer too.
I guess this means if I’m going on long trips using the GPS that I’ll have to take the official cable with me to make sure the Galaxy S stays charged.
Very strange.
