Chigee & phone

[grantmac]

well, I have since converted from BMW Navigator units to the Chigee but I still have a Nav 6 as back up with all the files for any trips. The value of a motorcycle tour to me is having the routes planned out so a failure of hardware would be a bit of a disaster in my opinion.
After about 10k km with the iPhone and Chigee I must say I find it a lot better mainly because of the phone apps that I can use - Carplay, make and reiving calls etc. but there are 3 big issues and have already been mentioned in other posts.
Frying your iPhone, the power drain AND the overheating part.
I power my phone in the top box which helps but using the various apps and charging causes overheating and sometimes the phone to shut down which is a royal pain. I have also heard about phone just giving up and breaking because of this.
I have now set up a second ´´dumb´´ phone which will only run off line maps on MRA and my off line Spotify. Hopefully this will help if anything as a back up to my regular device. Foolish, maybe but as said I do rely maybe too much on the preplanned routes when I go on a trip so better to be safe.

 

[Arsey]

well, I have since converted from BMW Navigator units to the Chigee but I still have a Nav 6 as back up with all the files for any trips. The value of a motorcycle tour to me is having the routes planned out so a failure of hardware would be a bit of a disaster in my opinion.
After about 10k km with the iPhone and Chigee I must say I find it a lot better mainly because of the phone apps that I can use - Carplay, make and reiving calls etc. but there are 3 big issues and have already been mentioned in other posts.
Frying your iPhone, the power drain AND the overheating part.
I power my phone in the top box which helps but using the various apps and charging causes overheating and sometimes the phone to shut down which is a royal pain. I have also heard about phone just giving up and breaking because of this.
I have now set up a second ´´dumb´´ phone which will only run off line maps on MRA and my off line Spotify. Hopefully this will help if anything as a back up to my regular device. Foolish, maybe but as said I do rely maybe too much on the preplanned routes when I go on a trip so better to be safe.

That’s kind of what I do . Bought an iPhone SE off here for £90 and always use that on trips with my Aoocci units . Never had an over heat issue .

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

I can’t really offer anything as a solution sadly but I’ve used my CHIGEE AIO-6 across 4 different iPhones and experienced no battery issues at all so I’d be keen to try and figure out what’s causing it as this is something wirh other units people have also told me about but I’ve never been able to get to the bottom of it as it’s always been fine for me

 

[Wapping]

I can’t really offer anything as a solution sadly but I’ve used my CHIGEE AIO-6 across 4 different iPhones and experienced no battery issues at all

I guess you need to tell people where you keep your phone on the bike? The opening post says the phone is in a topbox, where it overheats.

Phones get hot when charging all day and can get pretty warm when only processing routes, music and Lord knows what else, whilst a topbox cuts off any airflow. Hot phones, drain batteries faster and / or it leads to phones shutting down.

My sacrificial iPhone and / or Android phone, sit out on the front of the bike and don’t get unnaturally hot, nor do they shut down. There again, they are only running MyRoute and its voice instructions and nothing else.

BMW put cooling fans into their phone cubbyholes, to reduce the overheating problem.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

I guess you need to tell people where you keep your phone on the bike? The opening post says the phone is in a topbox, where it overheats.

Phones get hot when charging all day and can get warm when processing routes, music and Lord knows what else, whilst a topbox cuts off any airflow. Hot phones, drain batteries faster and / or it leads to phones shutting down.

My sacrificial iPhone and / or Android phone, sit out on the front of the bike and don’t get unnaturally hot, nor do they shut down. There again, they are only running MyRoute and its voice instructions and nothing else.

BMW put cooling fans into their phone cubbyholes, to reduce the overheating problem.

Mines always in the cubbyhole on the R1300GS but it’s not cooled so I do occasionally get the phone stopping charging due to the heat but even if I don’t keep it on charge it’ll last a solid 8 hours of riding without being flat

 

[Wapping]

Mines always in the cubbyhole on the R1300GS but it’s not cooled so I do occasionally get the phone stopping charging due to the heat but even if I don’t keep it on charge it’ll last a solid 8 hours of riding without being flat

Thank you.

If I read that correctly, your phone does not overheat when it’s not being charged in the cubbyhole? But it sometimes does overheat (shut down) when you do opt to charge it. That presumably depends on the period over which the phone is being continuously charged.

Your phone runs for about eight hours a day on a single full charge, sitting in the cubbyhole, with no additional charging.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Thank you.

If I read that correctly, your phone does not overheat when it’s not being charged in the cubbyhole? But it sometimes does overheat (shut down) when you do opt to charge it. That presumably depends on the period over which the phone is being continuously charged.

Your phone runs for about eight hours a day on a single full charge, sitting in the cubbyhole, with no additional charging.

Sorry should have clarified, my phone when it’s in the cubbyhole in very hot weather (30 plus) does reach a temperature where it stops charging due to the heat, but it never shuts down completely. I’ve never had an iPhone actually fail to function due to heat, aside from stopping charging.

I’ve never been in a situation where that has then caused the phone to run out of battery and then turn off.

In the UK in moderate weather I’ve ridden all the way to Potters Bar recently and back (380 round trip) using Waze and/or MRA for navigation over CarPlay and my phone had about 17% battery left when I got home. iPhone 17 Pro Max with a battery health of 91% of its original charge.

This is a pretty consistent experience for me over the last 6 years of using these CarPlay screens with multiple iPhones both in Europe and in the UK in a variety of weather.

 

[grantmac]

To clarify. I have never had a phone “blow up” on me. I took that from another thread on a very similar topic.
My phone even with offline maps and off line Spotify does maybe 4 hours max before it needs charging. I tend to keep it on the charge in the top box. It does stop charging when it gets hot but I have on several occasions had it simply shut down because it’s too hot. That’s the part where I need to stop and wait a few mins for it to cool down enough. Normally takes about 5 mins but is annoying

Never been able to ride 8 hours without charging the phone. Yours must be bionic.

 

[the woodster]

I keep my sacrificial iPhone SE in my tankbag. It's never overheated or had any functionality issues due to heat in temperatures up to 37C, yet. It lasts about 4-5 hours on the initial charge. I swap over to a small powerbank on a break. My bar mounted Android running Calimoto when needed has also performed well and is on a charging mount so no concerns about battery use.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Ok I might have been a little optimistic in my 8 hour estimate, went out today and did 4 and a half hours without the phone being on charge.

Left home with the battery on 80%, navigated with MRA over Apple CarPlay the whole time, had the phone also connected to the bikes TFT running a route and also had streaming radio playing the whole time.

Arrived home with 8% left. I will say I don’t normally have this much stuff running simultaneously.

One thing I will say is it’s worth sticking your iPhone in Low Power Mode as it makes zero negative impact to the navigation and can really help with battery saving.

 

[grantmac]

Seems to be more in line with my experience ……

 

[Victor c]

Ok I might have been a little optimistic in my 8 hour estimate, went out today and did 4 and a half hours without the phone being on charge.

Left home with the battery on 80%, navigated with MRA over Apple CarPlay the whole time, had the phone also connected to the bikes TFT running a route and also had streaming radio playing the whole time.

Arrived home with 8% left. I will say I don’t normally have this much stuff running simultaneously.

One thing I will say is it’s worth sticking your iPhone in Low Power Mode as it makes zero negative impact to the navigation and can really help with battery saving.

Low power mode definitely helps in the heat. I use this a setting routinely (when I remember)

 

[GSian]

I've been using a PD Qi2 charging mount plugged into a Nippy Normans Dual USB in place of the Hella port, the one with a fast USB - C and a USB -A socket, for a couple of years now. Because the phone is out in the open, it has air circulating around it. Couple of years ago I did the RBL Iron Butt run that covered 1000 miles in less than 24 hrs (1041 miles if I was to be precise) through hot, cold and sometimes very wet conditions. The phone never lost charge and never overheated using MRA through Chigee AIO 6 LTE (or may have been 5 lite). It's an iPhone 15 Pro Max, but I think most mobile phones these days have a degree of water resistance.

 

[Wapping]

I've been using a PD Qi2 charging mount plugged into a Nippy Normans Dual USB in place of the Hella port, the one with a fast USB - C and a USB -A socket, for a couple of years now. Because the phone is out in the open, it has air circulating around it. Couple of years ago I did the RBL Iron Butt run that covered 1000 miles in less than 24 hrs (1041 miles if I was to be precise) through hot, cold and sometimes very wet conditions. The phone never lost charge and never overheated using MRA through Chigee AIO 6 LTE (or may have been 5 lite). It's an iPhone 15 Pro Max, but I think most mobile phones these days have a degree of water resistance.

It does seem to be the answer.

Power the phone, preferably by tapping into the bike’s surfeit of power and by exploiting the latest and efficient charging methods. Do not assume that just because a motorcycle has a factory fitted USB outlet it can supply all the power a modern phone or (just as importantly) a MagSafe charging head might need. I have made this simple mistake.

Cool the phone, as far as is practicable, rather than hiding it away where no air passes.

If unable or unwilling to do this, switch the phone to low power demand and / or try to reduce the number of applications running. Charge the phone or at least top it up when it’s convenient to do so, either through a power brick or in a cafe, via a mains charger. At least the cafe’s electricity is free, even if the coffee isn’t.

 

[karlp]

Maybe something like this would be ideal

The battery is huge

Amazon.co.uk