These days it is rare for a phone to be able to be used without a battery. The r...

e44858 · 2025-11-30T01:21:18 1764465678

I've had success using a large capacitor instead of the battery. To keep it charged I connected its positive leg to the 5v USB pin through a diode.

whitehexagon · 2025-11-30T08:47:31 1764492451

I was pleased to discover my old PinePhone allows this. It makes development much easier when having to swap the SD card every few minutes, and allows for simple power cycle via USB switch.

What I cant figure out is how to detect power usage from the PMIC when in that configuration. ie seems to still assume power draw happens via a battery.

jofzar · 2025-11-30T05:18:37 1764479917

That can't be true right? PD (and some Chinese standards) have insane wattage allocation/allowances, there's no way that a mobile CPU can pull over that amount, it's more that they don't support it.

fragmede · 2025-11-30T05:29:43 1764480583

> device can accept over USB PD

Accept, not what the power supply can supply. Cell phones aren't being made with massive laptop-sized 100W accepting circuitry.

jofzar · 2025-11-30T05:46:38 1764481598

> Accept, not what the power supply can supply. Cell phones aren't being made with massive 100W accepting circuitry.

Surprisingly they are, supervooc goes up to 120w now (which is insane), there is also a Motorola phone which also does 68w via PD standard

https://m.gsmarena.com/oneplus_15-review-2898p3.php

https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g_stylus_5g_(2025)-13...

As for past through charging, it's actually apparently more common then I knew.

Google does it as part of their "adaptive" charging (hits 80% then does pass through) and the OnePlus etc also do it with a settings for gaming.

(Older article confirming this https://www.androidauthority.com/phones-with-bypass-charging...)

vlovich123 · 2025-11-30T03:00:59 1764471659

Unlikely a web server would see such usage patterns.