As I said before, I can manage with the battery life of my S3 and overnight slow charging each night. I have a Mophie powerstation XL which I have used with other tablets. If I need to extend the battery life of my Surface 3 for any reason am I right in thinking it work best if I plug the battery pack in while the S3 battery is full so it depletes the Mophie battery first rather than trying to charge the Surface from flat? It has worked well this way for other tablets.
Surface 3 Charging
- Thread starter GreyFox7
- Start date
It was shutdown.
Side note: left the battery pack plugged in 3 hours ago and it's still charging with just 3 segments lit, only 7 more to go. :-(
Plugged the power monitor in to see what was happening... after another 3 hours it's up to 6 segments.
So 1 segment in the first 3 hours then 3 segments in another 3 hours. Yep I'm lovin it.
1 segment = 10%.
Plugged the power monitor in to see what was happening... after another 3 hours it's up to 6 segments.
So 1 segment in the first 3 hours then 3 segments in another 3 hours. Yep I'm lovin it.
1 segment = 10%.
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Thanks to a genius suggestion from a member of another forum I have found a simple travel charging solution....
Plug MS USB charger into the Surface 3.
Plug phone into the S3 USB port.
I just tried this and it's working. S3 is closed and sleeping plugged into it's MS charger. Note 4 plugged into USB port on S3 and charging. I'll have to experiment a bit and make sure this works when both devices are flat before I can rely on it.
The MS charger is beefy but smaller than carrying 2 x USB chargers.
Plug MS USB charger into the Surface 3.
Plug phone into the S3 USB port.
I just tried this and it's working. S3 is closed and sleeping plugged into it's MS charger. Note 4 plugged into USB port on S3 and charging. I'll have to experiment a bit and make sure this works when both devices are flat before I can rely on it.
The MS charger is beefy but smaller than carrying 2 x USB chargers.
The Anker 20W Dual Port charger is slightly smaller (same length, not as thick, slightly taller) than the MS charger and charges the Surface 3 as fast as the MS charger while charging a battery pack and there are other similar dual port chargers like the iClever 24w Dual 2.4A charger. Anything that supplies 2.4A should work well.
GreyFox7, I appreciate all the research you've done into the charging issues with the Surface 3. I just have one to add, the cable. I just noticed that some micro usb cables aren't passing the full power through. I have some double sided cables that have micro and mini usb ends, they work fine and pass the full wattage (over 13w) to the S3. I just purchased this fancy thick cabled Amazon Basics 6ft micro usb cable and after a few minutes the input to the S3 drops to 3.5w~ which causes the S3 to report plugged in but not charging. So not only does the charger (brick) make a difference but the cable you are using.
I have not seen that with the cables I have used. That's not to say it didn't happen just that I haven't run into it yet with any of the cables I used including the flimsy looking/feeling cables that came with the battery packs.
Not surprisingly, I tried a gold plated Anker cable and it did not double the charge rate or increase the measured current or charge rate in any way.
For some reason this cable literally chops in half the wattage. I thought it was my iPad 12W charger that wasn't working right (i'd mistakenly put a 10W version and the same issue was noticed) but on a whim i tried the double headed cable and the wattage just spiked, and stayed there while it was charging. Previous cable would charge at about 7.5w, then drop to 3.5w~ This just wasn't enough to even maintain the charge on the S3.
I'm also using the hint I found elsewhere of using the USB3 port to charge another device while I'm using the single port MS charger or iPad 12W charger. Works like a charm so far.
I'm waiting on another iClever 2 port charger to come in. These little buggers are great for the price.
I'm also using the hint I found elsewhere of using the USB3 port to charge another device while I'm using the single port MS charger or iPad 12W charger. Works like a charm so far.
I'm waiting on another iClever 2 port charger to come in. These little buggers are great for the price.
Sometimes the negotiation may fail ... I mentioned that in one post, and a second where it seems to have occurred is with charging the battery pack. It hardly charged at all in 3 hours then after I connected in the power meter it went as expected. Other times I saw a low charge rate right off the bat and disconnected then reconnected and it was fine. just more weirdness to deal with when working with micro USB charging.
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Unfortunately this is not available with an Australian plug. I'll keep looking.
malberttoo
Well-Known Member
Indeed, very interesting and informative thread!!
Some time ago I backed this project- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/david-toledo/the-practical-meter-know-your-power
I learned right away that all USB cables are NOT created equal. You wouldn't think so initially, but many cables are limited in the amount of power that they can pass.
