Lazerboy

Anyone know whats the maximum amperage rate for the 5v USB charging ports inside the armrest ? Its way slow to charge Geewweeizz

I used to know a app that told you exacly the amp charging rate but since I changed phone , forgot the name of the app, also I cant uset the Qi charger ...BECAUSE ITS TOO FREAKING SMALL for my S7 edge by 4 mm (yeah)

I have night dreams of dreammling a whole to make it fit ! seriously!!!

Im sure there a easy way to crank it up to 2 amp and bypass that. Unless you got a Note 7 , youll have a heating arm rest

no1SomeGuy

Checked the feature/shop manuals, doesn't say as far as I can see what the amperage is.

Lazerboy

Found it, its rated at 500mA or 0.5Amps

TechNut

I think that is rated "up to .5 amps", but it doesn't mean it operates at that current all the time. I just checked with my iPhone and it wasn't reaching that current level.
Current in NX USB port with iPhone 6

lesz

I believe that, in general, wireless chargers are going to have a slower charge rate than wired chargers.

For my Samsung Android phones, I have a wireless charger that I use at home, and, even though it is supposedly "fast charge capable", its charge rate is usually about 1/2 of the charge rate that I get when I use the wired charger.

TechNut

I think you are correct Les, the wireless chargers are slower to charge than the wired ports. We have the wireless Qi charger in our NX but without a special phone case, it is of no value to my Apple phone. However, I took this measurement at the USB port since I understood the question to be referencing the wired USB ports. I don't have the proper test equipment to measure the current draw on the wireless charger.

lesz

I was careless in reading the posts in this thread, and I mistakenly thought that the discussion was about the charge rate for the (optional) wireless charger, but, yes, on multiple vehicles that I've owned, the charge rate using USB ports has been quite low. In fact, if there are multiple apps being used on the phone and if the screen is being used, I've found that the charge added to the phone battery using the USB port might not even be keeping up with charge being lost by use of the apps. On the other hand, there is a much better charge rate when using the DC ports in the car.

d8168055

I have one of these chargers in black. Ppl who ride in my car say its feels like an UBER cuz they can charge their phone lol

offroad200

The USB ports aren't really meant for charging. They are primarily for using an iPod or thumb drive. They will charge but very slowly as you've noticed. Use the power port instead. For the crazy reason of that's what it's there for.

mcomer

Also in some cases if you are charging through the USB and playing music your phone will glitch
when segueing to and from music to phone calls to Waze comments and back. Better as offroad200
stated to use the much more powerful 12v plug and let the phone command everything through BT.

Lazerboy

You are limited to 1 12v port in the front as opposed to 2 usb jacks.

TechNut

Dissapointing. I would personally use it more for charging than anything else. I think the designers missed on this to give the USB ports such a narrow purpose.

lesz

I don't believe that the power limitation of the car's USB ports is the result of design decisions made by Lexus. Instead, I think it is a limitation of USB technology, itself. I know that, if I connect my phones to a computer via USB, charging will be at a very low rate and one that is similar to the charge rate when the phone is connected to the car's USB port. I think that the design of USB is such that it can provide sufficient operational power to a device, but it was not designed to provide the additional power needed to charge a battery.

Lazerboy

I think that they have to compromise carefully between safety and praticality. Let say you had the famous exploding Note 7 charging in your car using the USB port with sufficent Amperage to recharge it, that would of compromise the car safety but on the other hand, what is usb port good for if your phone can't recharge it? On the other hand, plugging the famous Note 7 in the 12v adaptor would also compromise the car's safety, so in the end it becomes a customer annoyance in my opinion.

mcomer

The purpose of the Universal Serial Buss port is for data transmission between devices.

You can download photo(s) to display across the opening and closing screens when you
start up the car (Sunrise/Sunset. spouse, Fluffy the puppy...) iPods stuffed full of music
will play with verbal commands, thumbdrives work if formatted properly. The 500 milliamp
(0.5 amp) charge rate will keep an iPod charged but not a phone with heavy draw Apps
such as Waze. Lazerboy note - most models have 2 12v power ports, 2016/17 RX has four (4)!