Clock blinks with Car Charger

[YamahaR86]

I just got a new phone and car charger. Google Pixel.

When the car is turned off and the charger is plugged into the phone the clock lights up and blink. I tried googling around and couldn't figure it out.

Is this normal? Anyone else have this issue and does it pose any concerns?

The charger is rated for 5V/3.0A

[elitegunslinger]

Just noticed this on my car today, I think it's normal but I'm not sure why it's happening lol.

[soundman98]

i would get a different charger.

the cig. lighters are part of the accessory circuit that powers up the radio, and the clock. they shut down when the car is off. so if the clock is working/flashing/doing anything, it means that the charger is discharging the phone into the cars accessory circuit.

[FR-S2GT86]

Geeze, I gotta start wearing my readers a bit more often than I do. I totally misread that subject line....

[FR-S2GT86]

On that note, you didn't mention WHAT exactly you were plugging WHAT into WHERE, which is vital information needed for us to help troubleshoot your problem.

But most phones nowadays, draw alot of current (compared to slightly older model phones) when charging. If you are plugging your USB charging cord directly into the USB receptacle in the car, your phone's charging circuit may be overloading the USB power supply of the cars' head unit. Try using the cigarette lighter with a stand-alone aftermarket USB/cigarette lighter adapter. If your phone has some sort of "Turbo Charging" mode, like my Motorola G6 does, then you need to use the charger that the phone came with to charge it if you want to take advantage of that fast-charge feature.

That means you may have to find a 12-volt to 120-volt inverter to plug your phone charger into then plug the charging cord into that.

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by FR-S2GT86

On that note, you didn't mention WHAT exactly you were plugging WHAT into WHERE, which is vital information needed for us to help troubleshoot your problem.

But most phones nowadays, draw alot of current (compared to slightly older model phones) when charging. If you are plugging your USB charging cord directly into the USB receptacle in the car, your phone's charging circuit may be overloading the USB power supply of the cars' head unit. Try using the cigarette lighter with a stand-alone aftermarket USB/cigarette lighter adapter. If your phone has some sort of "Turbo Charging" mode, like my Motorola G6 does, then you need to use the charger that the phone came with to charge it if you want to take advantage of that fast-charge feature.

That means you may have to find a 12-volt to 120-volt inverter to plug your phone charger into then plug the charging cord into that.

wow, went way off the deep end with an inverter setup for a simple phone charger!

first off, USB specifications require that any device can draw up to 500mA without connection negotiation.

any USB connection that wants to draw more MUST pass data with the charger to negotiate a higher current draw, and part of that negotiation is that the charger then tells the device how much it is allowed to pull.

any new phone is compliant with this specification. one can check this by plugging the phone into the charger, and the lock screen will display the charge status, as well as the charge rate. many android phones will pop up a notification that it's slow charging if it can only take the 500mA charge rate.

there are plenty of cigarette lighter chargers that will negotiate a higher charge rate and fast-charge a phone. i'm using 3 across different vehicles now with no issues. the trick is that one must be willing to pay more than $2 for a cigarette lighter phone charger. i believe i paid between $15-30 for each of mine.

i also believe due to the age of the original vehicle and it's design process, the radio usb port is only compliant with the initial USB specifications, meaning that 500mA is it's maximum output under all circumstances.

[FR-S2GT86]

Originally Posted by soundman98

wow, went way off the deep end with an inverter setup for a simple phone charger!

first off, USB specifications require that any device can draw up to 500mA without connection negotiation.

any USB connection that wants to draw more MUST pass data with the charger to negotiate a higher current draw, and part of that negotiation is that the charger then tells the device how much it is allowed to pull.

any new phone is compliant with this specification. one can check this by plugging the phone into the charger, and the lock screen will display the charge status, as well as the charge rate. many android phones will pop up a notification that it's slow charging if it can only take the 500mA charge rate.

there are plenty of cigarette lighter chargers that will negotiate a higher charge rate and fast-charge a phone. i'm using 3 across different vehicles now with no issues. the trick is that one must be willing to pay more than $2 for a cigarette lighter phone charger. i believe i paid between $15-30 for each of mine.

i also believe due to the age of the original vehicle and it's design process, the radio usb port is only compliant with the initial USB specifications, meaning that 500mA is it's maximum output under all circumstances.

I personally haven't had the need to charge any of my phones in this car, except for one drive up to Cincinnati and Dayton and had no charging issues charging two phones at once. This is my weekend toy, and I just don't get to drive it very much, but I have been using my cigarette lighter plug-in inverter for charging my laptop during data logging recently. I think it cost about $30 when I purchased it a year and-a-half ago. I've been plugging it into the 12-volt port in the glove box, again with no noticable issues.

But we're still just guessing as to what the OP's problem MIGHT be, since we still don't know exactly WHAT he is plugging WHAT into WHERE.

We don't know if it's the LED clock underneath the head unit that's blinking, we don't know if it's the clock on his phone that is blinking, we don't know if it's the clock on his head unit that is blinking (if it's an aftermarket head unit).

We've had one other person chime in on this as well, but again, the exact circumstances are still unknown.

There are simply too many details that we don't know yet to properly give a definitive diagnosis. I was just giving possibilities of what MIGHT be the issue. And until he gets back to us with that information, all we can really do is throw out possibilities for him. I'm curious as to know what the final diagnosis is.

[WNDSRFR]

Originally Posted by soundman98

i would get a different charger.

the cig. lighters are part of the accessory circuit that powers up the radio, and the clock. they shut down when the car is off. so if the clock is working/flashing/doing anything, it means that the charger is discharging the phone into the cars accessory circuit.

I believe this is the answer. When the car is off there is no power to the cig. lighter OR the USB port. The phone charges only while the car is on.

[spike021]

Originally Posted by soundman98

i would get a different charger.

the cig. lighters are part of the accessory circuit that powers up the radio, and the clock. they shut down when the car is off. so if the clock is working/flashing/doing anything, it means that the charger is discharging the phone into the cars accessory circuit.

I've had a similar issue, but the weird thing for me is my phone is plugged into the USB port that is powered by the headunit.

Veeeery occasionally (like maybe twice in the two years I've had this headunit) when I turn the car off and the phone is still plugged into USB, it keeps "charging" for a minute or so even with the car off.

I've also heard a noise though, which suggests that maybe the CD changer or fan in the HU is active post-shutting the car off.