Huawei 4G Pocket Hotspot Charging Issues

[Anonymous]

Anyone else got the Huawei E5770S?

I've had two of these devices, and unless I use the original mains charger it just won't charge up. I've tried my car USB, my desktop USB, and my Samsunf Phone Fast Charger.

It dropped to 3% this morning and shut down. I brought it to my desk and plugged it in, USB ERROR. The battery charging symbl is moving. I left it plugged in for six hours and it's charged from 3% to 25%.

Huawei on Twitter suggest only to use their provided charger, but how am i supposed to use that in my car?

I have USB 2A chargers but none of them work with this device, rendering it almost useless unless it stays at home - kind of defeats the object of it being a portable hotspot.

I have a third replacement device coming tomorrow, if that does'nt work it's going back and being cancelled.

[MI5]

Same on a tablet I had a while back. They must use a different pin configuration to standard or something.

[sheepdog]

I've actually got two of these - one on o2 & one unlocked. Both charge fine without using the in-the-box chargers. I've charged one of these via 2.4A USB socket (dedicated power no data) and one via a standard USB port on my Youview box using the attached usb cable. That one slowly charges up through the day so presumably the Youview box has only the standard 0.5mA of current available.

Unfortunately that drains a lot faster but then I realised its connected to a TV in the other room all day. Just connected but not in-use for internet! USB 3 provides a bit more power but I haven't tried that yet. 

Just to clarify, you are using the micro-hdmi port (in the centre) to charge and not the standard usb one? Reason I'm asking is that the usb error shouldn't show up and is indicative of the standard usb port connecting. 

[sheepdog]

Just checked the one attached to my youview box which has been charging since about 11am this morning. That is set to come on at 11am and not in use for anything else till the mid-evening. Also been using it all day via wifi, though not heavily, plus the TV connected to it doing nothing bar a connection. Its currently done about 40% worth of charge (think it was about 45% at 9am).

The one I have on my desk (no data use at all) charging using the 2.4A USB power only port has gone from 75% to 85% in the last half hour.

[Anonymous]

Yes I am using the micro USB. After 8 hours of continuous charging it now has 38% battery. Anyone know what the charging rate is supposed to be at 2A? It's a 5.2Ah battery so I expected it to be fully charged in under 3 hours. 

As I want to use it as a remote hotspot to monitor my in-car dashcams I don't see how my car will charge it up enough for it not to run out of juice overnight. I need 12 hours use for a 1 hour charge, mostly on standby. It shut down overnight at 3% and after a 45 minute trip to work it was still on 3%.

[Anonymous]

Maybe. But that mean's it's not truly portable, as I often don't have a mains suppy to charge it with.

[Anonymous]

It just charged up by 8% in half an hour connected to the car USB using the Huawei supplied USB cable. These guys must wire it up differently. So I can't just use a normal cable when the supplied one breaks. That's just crazy.

[jonsie · Accepted solution]

If you are going to keep it you may be better buying a spare cable from Huawei 

[sheepdog]

Sounds like your car may not be providing enough current through the usb port. You could buy a usb current detector from ebay to check the output from the ports which are rather cheap.

Alternatively, you could find a usb dual power cable that will use two usb ports which will combine the output current like this one for example (Mods: There are others available, I have no link to the seller) but in that example, you'd need to get a gender changer to micro-usb or search for a micro-usb version.

Just occurred to me that you if you have a cigaretter lighter, try using a 12v usb charger similar to this one that provides 2.4A from it (Mods, its an example, no affiliation to the seller in link) rather than the car usb port. Perfectly safe as it reduces from 12v to 5v which is the usb spec. 

[sheepdog]

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@Anonymous wrote:
It just charged up by 8% in half an hour connected to the car USB using the Huawei supplied USB cable. These guys must wire it up differently. So I can't just use a normal cable when the supplied one breaks. That's just crazy.

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Posted my above reply then noticed this one...the quality of USB cables vary dramatically so sometimes its worth buying quality rather than using what is available. I've come across similar issues with the various small board computers powering by usb cables that work fine with other things but refuse to work on the SBC unless its well, an expensive-ish cable!

BTW just noticed the cable on my desktop I used for charging it is one of those good ones and I've used an official Blackberry 5v 2A charger as well.