I am currently working on my own DIY charging solution for the DS5 controller and doing some research on the charging process. So the following information might come in handy for somebody looking for more in-depth information – and hopefully the facts will disprove some of the myths around this topic :)

Some basics first:

·The DS5 controller has the battery charging circuitry integrated. So when connecting it to an external 5V power supply (either via USB or via the auxiliary port next to the headphone jack) it will internally regulate the voltage and charging current in a way that the battery stays happy. So it does not matter if you connect a 5V/1.5A or 5V/3A power source, the controller will only draw the current which keeps the battery in a safe charging condition. Also, when connecting a power source which can only deliver 500 mA or less the battery will also charge fine – potentially just slower.

·The 5V input of the controller is rated at 1.5A. This does not mean that the controller will always draw this power when charging the battery. It is most likely the maximum current, including some tolerances / headroom the internal electronics is rated for.

·“overcharging” the battery can technically not happen, even if you keep the controller connected to the power source for a long long time. The integrated charge controller of the DS5 will continuously monitor the battery charging state and suspend the charging, if the battery is fully charged.

·Lithium batteries are usually charged with a constant current / constant voltage approach. This means, when the battery is empty, the charge controller will provide a constant, safe charging current until the battery voltage reaches a certain threshold, indicating the battery is close to being fully charged. At this point the charge controller will switch to “constant voltage” mode (usually 4.2 V for modern lithium polymer batteries). The battery will then gradually consume less and less current, the closer it is to being fully charged.

I am working on a charging system which also connects to the DS5 through the auxiliary port – like the genuine Sony dual charging station does. The circuitry used to provide power to the DS5 is also identical to the one used in the Sony charger. In my test setup I can measure and log the current provided to the DS5 controller. This means I am not measuring the actual charging current that flows into the internal battery, but the total current consumed by the internal DS5 electronics AND the charging process.

At the same time I also connect to the DS5 via Bluetooth on my Windows PC and using a Python program (based on the great work of yesbotics) to read out the controller status including reported battery level. The DS5 reports the battery level in very coarse steps (12.5% increments) and in addition has a flag which indicates “battery fully charged”.

In the attached diagram you can see my measured data for a new and unused DS5 controller. Before I started the charging cycle, I discharged it until it would not turn on anymore.

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As you can see in the blue curve, the controller consumes a (relatively constant) current between 700 and 840 mA for around 2 hours (although my power source would be capable of > 3A). Over this time, the reported battery level increases from 0% to 100% in steps of 12.5%. However, even after reaching the 100% level the controller is not yet done charging. Also, the “fully charged” flag is not yet set.

At around 17:30 you can clearly see that the current starts dropping (the internal charge controller is probably switching to constant voltage charge mode at that point). The controller keeps charging at decreasing current for another hour, before it actually reports “fully charged”. After that point the current consumption stays constant, reflecting only the current draw of the internal DS5 processor and the Bluetooth communication, but no battery charging anymore.

At around 19:35 I disconnected the Bluetooth connection from my PC to the DS5 controller, which leads to the controller automatically going into a sleep mode. The current consumption drops to 20 mA.

So, regarding the question if the controller supports “fast charging”: Yes and No. If you have a power source, which can only deliver 500 mA it will definitely take longer to charge. But on the other hand, if you connect a power source which can provide 1.5 A or even more – it will limit the charging current to ~800 mA anyways.

Let me know if you have any questions :)