[notaphonegeek]

My Sprint charger works fine, and can keep up with Sprint Nav / Pandora.

Same here, my sprint charger works with Nav and Pandora. I also said bye bye to sirius.

[Daemon]

It's odd that nobody's mentioned the second big X-factor with regard
to whether the Pre drains the battery faster than it charges.
It has a lot to do with your signal strength and whether you're
jumping into and out of digital roaming areas. With poor signal strength
I've seen the battery get sucked down 50% in 30 minutes.

I suspect it's why some people say that their Pre still drains
on the Palm charger, while it works fine for others.

ian

[sjamie]

I am THRILLED to say I purchased the Palm Vehicle Power Charger from PreCentral and it actually charges the phone while running Sprint Nav, Pandora, and bluetooth simultaneously. The OEM Sprint Palm Car Charger (which I have) works too but I wanted a universal USB car charger and now I have it.

THANK YOU to all of you for helping me get the kind of charger I desired!!!

[rj5620]

This is a bad one:

Ok, I have read so many threads, spent hours and am so confused that I have to add my experience. First of all the charger issue is confusing due to the names used to identify them, Palm, at the Sprint store, Pre, Sprint for the Pre etc.

I have a Sprint charger (package does not say for the Pre, but the model # ends in PRE) that has the yellow circle light that has listed on it's base an output of 0.85A and when hooked to my touchstone, causes the the Pre (not the TS) to get extremely hot and could cause damage as suggested in many threads. I shaved the end to fit the Touchstone.

So this set up is BAD.
1. Sprint cig charger with the circular yellow ring light (Model KPS2008PRE/PVX8930) with listed output of 5v / 0.85A, shaved end.

2. Touchstone sitting on console
3. Palm Pre

Without adding direct wiring, and unusual installs, I would like to hear from someone who has a setup using a cig lighter charger that hooks to the Touchstone and charges with/without Pandora, GPS on etc and does not get HOT. Please be extremely specific with the model and name of the charger that you have found to be successful.

Thanks

[lostnthenet]

You will be fine as long as the output is 1000mA.

Thanks,
Eric

[Daemon]

...and does not get HOT.

If that's a deal breaker for you, then prepare to be disappointed.
From what I can tell, whether it gets hot or not, is not a function
of the charger, but of the current draw of the phone against the battery.
If the phone is at the edge of coverage and working hard to
pull data, or burning a lot of CPU it will get hot, whether it's charging or
not. Charging it when it's working hard will make it even hotter due
to the nature of Lipo batteries.

ian

[buzzardjrt]

i picked up an extra pre usb cable, they say its a little thinker or something and they never charged me for it. then i went to amazon and got a 12v usb plug in. i think it was like $0.01 then 3 bucks shipping. so i just use the Pre cable and that and i do not have a problem.

this one looks nicer then the one i got but pretty much the same deal

Amazon.com: HTC Cingular 8125 8525 USB Rapid Car Charger with Ic Chip: Cell Phones & Service

its a pretty good set up since the cord is designed for the Pre. not sure if it makes a difference, but i dont have much into it.

i dont have a touch stone, but if it uses usb then this should work. has surge protecter too

[rj5620]

If that's a deal breaker for you, then prepare to be disappointed.
From what I can tell, whether it gets hot or not, is not a function
of the charger, but of the current draw of the phone against the battery.
If the phone is at the edge of coverage and working hard to
pull data, or burning a lot of CPU it will get hot, whether it's charging or
not. Charging it when it's working hard will make it even hotter due
to the nature of Lipo batteries.

ian

Comparing charging my pre on the touchstone at my desk with the AC charger, it never gets hot, but gets extremely hot with the same setup as above in the car, both sitting there idle.

[sjamie]

I did open it up and nothing seemed out of place; most likely a resistor had gone bad or something.

As for the dealextreme dual car charger, just placed an order! Thanks for the tip and doing the research for us! =)

Here's a link to the item if anyone wants to order one ($4.81 w/Free Shipping):

DealExtreme: $4.81 Dual USB Power Ports Car Cigarette Power Adapter (1000mA)

I am shocked that this $5 charger works PERFECTLY! I don't have a touchstone but it works flawlessly while running Pandora & SprintNav simultaneously and it actually charges the phone faster than the OEM Sprint Car charger. Plus it is much smaller and NO COILS!!!

Thanks again for the recommendation!

[edd247]

I got the motorola one that was posted earlier, for $7 shipped off amazon...works great