the data connector on the missus' new phone is *way* too stiff. I'm convinced it's going to break at some point.
Is there anything that can be done to make it fit a little less snugly? i thought it'd get better over time but it hasn't so far...
I know what you mean, if you look on the back of the plug you will see a little dimple of metal sticking up that does the locking part. What I did was very carefully file it flat and now the plug just slips in easily, it is very small so be careful with filing it down.
mine broke indeed... it pulled out with the charger... ended up putting a new core in from a parts phone off ebay... had to unlock, etc though... good call with the filing...
did the exact same thing batfrog,but I used the rough edge of a flathead screwdriver.Whenever I get to open the phone I might go in there and put in some epoxy behind the connector for kicks....
Unless you are swinging the phone around your head like a lasso..the connector is way too tight..it almost seems like it was designed to break..planned obsolescence anyone?
Hey guys - does anyone know of any after-market battery covers for the HD that would be metal - specifically for the purpose of attaching to a magnet? I purchased one of those magnetic "cradle" kits that is basically just a big magnet you stick onto whereever, with a little metal slab that you stick onto the back of your phone. Then - you can just stick the phone up close to the magnet and it sticks - a perfect low-profile car cradle. The metal slab that sticks to the back of the phone is thin - it doesn't really stick out any further than the camera housing - but it still isn't as sleek as just the phone by itself. I thought a replacement battery cover that sticks to the magnet would be perfect. So... does anyone know of any? Or perhaps a vendor that could custom-machine one?
SolusCado said:
Hey guys - does anyone know of any after-market battery covers for the HD that would be metal - specifically for the purpose of attaching to a magnet? I purchased one of those magnetic "cradle" kits that is basically just a big magnet you stick onto whereever, with a little metal slab that you stick onto the back of your phone. Then - you can just stick the phone up close to the magnet and it sticks - a perfect low-profile car cradle. The metal slab that sticks to the back of the phone is thin - it doesn't really stick out any further than the camera housing - but it still isn't as sleek as just the phone by itself. I thought a replacement battery cover that sticks to the magnet would be perfect. So... does anyone know of any? Or perhaps a vendor that could custom-machine one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made my own magnetic car holder solution. Didn't cost much and can't imagine it work better than this...
I can't see what you've done there... It looks like some sort of metal on the battery itself, so that the regular cover works fine... What is that? How is it affixed?
Jouh has placed 2 razor blades on the battery.
Cool! I'm going to try that...
just don't take ur phone to the airport...... they might think ur going to use the razorblades for other non magnetic purposes.
Ohh! Good point! I would have completely forgotten about them and then been really screwed - I actually have to run my mobile through an X-ray every day at work... That could be an issue. Oh well - back to the drawing board...
just do the same with any thin metal i.e. sheet steel.
spzero said:
just do the same with any thin metal i.e. sheet steel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really wouldn't recommend directly attaching the phone to strong magnetic sources. It may impede the functionality, reduce or affect the battery operation, interfere with the many antennas in the phone, not to mention run the risk of corrupting memory sticks etc?
The phone itself isnt that heavy so probably wouldnt need a strong magnet, but you'd want to use something quite strong just to hold it in place. Imagine driving over a speed bump or pot hole which dislodges the phone and makes it go sliding across your dash board and out of an open window. (worst case scenario..)
If youre looking for a quick release holder I would recommend something that you clip the phone into like those hip holsters and then find one that has a socket connection to a window mount.
makaveli2g said:
I really wouldn't recommend directly attaching the phone to strong magnetic sources. It may impede the functionality, reduce or affect the battery operation, interfere with the many antennas in the phone, not to mention run the risk of corrupting memory sticks etc?
The phone itself isnt that heavy so probably wouldnt need a strong magnet, but you'd want to use something quite strong just to hold it in place. Imagine driving over a speed bump or pot hole which dislodges the phone and makes it go sliding across your dash board and out of an open window. (worst case scenario..)
If youre looking for a quick release holder I would recommend something that you clip the phone into like those hip holsters and then find one that has a socket connection to a window mount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used the same razors and the same magnet (This one) with my SE P1i for 1½ year without any issues.
And the phone doesn't move 1 mm even driving over the biggest speed bump in Sweden.
makaveli2g said:
I really wouldn't recommend directly attaching the phone to strong magnetic sources. It may impede the functionality, reduce or affect the battery operation, interfere with the many antennas in the phone, not to mention run the risk of corrupting memory sticks etc?
The phone itself isnt that heavy so probably wouldnt need a strong magnet, but you'd want to use something quite strong just to hold it in place. Imagine driving over a speed bump or pot hole which dislodges the phone and makes it go sliding across your dash board and out of an open window. (worst case scenario..)
If youre looking for a quick release holder I would recommend something that you clip the phone into like those hip holsters and then find one that has a socket connection to a window mount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I honestly couldn't think of one thing that a magnet could have an effect on in the phone, certainly not the memory. The only type of memory that is affected by magnets are HDD (because the data on the disks is stored magnetically) and credit cards (once again, data stored magnetically). However, RAM/ROM is completely different and relies on gates and latches to store data, neither affected by magnet. Not to mention even if it did have an HDD (like old school mp3 players/iPod) it would take a strong magnet (mainly electromagnet) to corrupt the memory. Likewise, I can't foresee it having any affect on the battery or interfering with the antenas (unless you're using some super strong magnet....which you're likely not)
One of the only build quality problems i have with the Touch HD is that the battery cover creaks when pressed in certain spots.
To revive this topic, does anybody know of an actual aftermarket battery cover for this phone, preferably metal?
I searched google to find no results. It seems like it would be a good idea to make these
You can also shave the inside of the battery cover with a small sander. Than add ANY kind of magnet that will than fit inside the cover. The plastic cover is THICK so you can shave enough for some type of magnet.
I would also like a metal/rubber etc back cover. The quality of the orginal cover is driving me nuts..
Has anyone found this kinda aftermarket item?
sudo_x60s said:
I would also like a metal/rubber etc back cover. The quality of the orginal cover is driving me nuts..
Has anyone found this kinda aftermarket item?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any news on that topic?
Does anyone know how to take a G-Tab apart and repair a broken power connector? My son pulled it off of the table where it was charging and it landed squarely on the adapter where it was plugged into the GTab. Everything else works, but charging, of course, does not.
stalnakerz said:
Does anyone know how to take a G-Tab apart and repair a broken power connector? My son pulled it off of the table where it was charging and it landed squarely on the adapter where it was plugged into the GTab. Everything else works, but charging, of course, does not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy a dock, that's what I did
stalnakerz said:
Does anyone know how to take a G-Tab apart and repair a broken power connector? My son pulled it off of the table where it was charging and it landed squarely on the adapter where it was plugged into the GTab. Everything else works, but charging, of course, does not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Choice 1: Buy a dock.
Choice 2: Open it up and solder it back in.
Choice 3: Sell your son to a slave labor camp and use the money to buy a new tablet.
Stolen from another forum about performing a hardware reset:
Disassemble the tablet. Remove the four rubber stoppers on the bottom of the tablet (put them aside). Next, unscrew the screws under them (keep those too). Next we need to get the back half of the tablet off. Put the tablet face down on a piece of paper or another protective material. Gently work one corner of the tablet until the two halves are slightly separated, then use something thin like a business card to keep them slightly parted. You can then use something thin and strong, like a plastic gift card to zip around the edges and break the seal. Prying will only damage your plastics.
snowzach said:
Stolen from another forum about performing a hardware reset:
Disassemble the tablet. Remove the four rubber stoppers on the bottom of the tablet (put them aside). Next, unscrew the screws under them (keep those too). Next we need to get the back half of the tablet off. Put the tablet face down on a piece of paper or another protective material. Gently work one corner of the tablet until the two halves are slightly separated, then use something thin like a business card to keep them slightly parted. You can then use something thin and strong, like a plastic gift card to zip around the edges and break the seal. Prying will only damage your plastics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pulling it apart is one thing, resoldering the connection is another. I've read that it's really tricky (and small) Mine started acting up, had to have the plug on a weird angle for the tablet ot start charging. I thought it was the chord, but it must be the hardware inside the tablet that caused it. I bought a dock, and a second charger...the dock works BEAUTIFULLY for charging, and for watching movies on the big screen via the HDMI port on the dock...
Viewsonic G connector input jack power jack
If you need to replace the jack, you can get it at Ebay.....just type in Viewsonic G jack or power jack and they have them there.
Hey Everyone.
While sitting on my living room floor, I dropped my Prime & Dock from about a foot high onto the carpet. Murphy's Law: Gravity will always exert a greater force on the weakest part of your device. The Prime landed on the charging connector. I thought for sure the wire itself would be kinked up and broken (My mind is racing: "can I get a new cable from somewhere in less than 18 hours?! Argh!") As it turns out, the cable was fine, but the port itself was broken.
The little plastic comb that separates the upper pins from the lower pins was broken and had fallen out. I figured I would have to send the dock into Asus to be repaired one way or another, so I thought I'd take a stab at a repair. I used my smallest two flathead screwdrivers (PC-repair sized) to gently bend the upper pins further up and the lower pins lower down. I describe how little of an adjustment I'm talking about here- it has to create just enough room for you to slip the comb piece back in, but not be so much that the charge wire won't flatten them back down when you first connect it.
To make the comb stick, I used the smallest imaginable amount of superglue at either end of the comb piece. It seems the plastic is a little thicker there and there aren't any pins (that might get coated with glue) at the very ends. I used small needle-nose pliers to insert the comb and held it tight for a few seconds. I then put the dock in position so that the comb was facing straight up, so that gravity (grrr) wouldn't pull the comb piece down out of perfect vertical alignment while the glue cured. I left it overnight just to be safe.
Next morning, I plugged in the power connector and all was well. I've probably plugged and unplugged it 20 times or so now, and it feels reasonably solid. Mind you, I have NO doubt that this fix is temporary. The second I trip on the power cord or forget to be gentle with the device that superglue is going to let go. At that point maybe I'll send the dock off for repair. I just couldn't part with it this early on, knowing Asus is dealing with about a zillion more important fish to fry right now.
So, If you happen to have the same problem- give some glue a shot. It worked for me!
Kudos! I can't ask you to recreate and photo lol
But if anyone else runs into this, please take some macros of the process to give people a good idea of just how much bending of the pins is needed.
Naturally. I thought of taking pictures the next morning after everything was working again.
If the comb breaks out again, I'll probably attempt one more repair before I send it to Asus. If and when that happens I'll post up some pics.
As far as the bending of pins, I just pressed gently and tried to insert the comb piece with pliers. If it seemed too difficult to do with glue on the broken piece, I just set it down and pried on the pins a bit more. I guess if you looked at them, you would have been hard-pressed to tell if they were any wider than normal. The telling fact was being able to slide the broken piece back into the pins fairly easily. Once I could do that, I actually applied the glue, inserted the piece, and let it set up.
A couple of months ago, one of my co-worker's Palm Pre phone attempted to swim in a pool and drowned (electronically anyway). My co-worker replaced it with a Samsung Galaxy S2 and when he got it he was complaining about how much he loved his Palm touchstone inductive charger. Basically you just stick the phone near a little hockey-puck thing and magnets align it and it starts charging without connecting any wires.
We thought about it and had this great idea to mod his new SGS2 phone and at the time we thought we were the first to think of this. So, I bought an inductive charging kit on Amazon and we both mod'd our phones and I'm very happy with the inductive charging system.
While lots of people have done it for lots of different phones, this thread is about the i777 and I haven't seen any mod instructions out there for the i777 SGS2.
First you need to get a Palm Pre inductive charging kit. Go to Amazon and search for a Palm Pre inductive charging kit. They run less than $10 including shipping (yeah, seriously, I couldn't believe it either). I paid $8.35 for mine. While you are there, get a Palm Pre AC adapter... the kit is finicky about the AC adapter and most of mine didn't work with it. So that's another $3.70 (inc. shipping), so you are now up to $12 or so.
Once you get it, it should look like this:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
And inside it looks like this:
Open the kit box, and you will see a touchstone that you stick on your desk that is the charger and then the Palm Pre case back cover with the inductive coil on it. Peel off the inductive coil very very carefully as well as the four silver circular magnets and try to leave everything intact. Set it aside because when you put it on you want the contacts to line up.
Now comes the fun part, taking apart the phone, soldering the wire, and then routing the wire.
To take apart the phone, your best bet is to watch a Youtube video (that's how I did it), but fundamentally, unscrew the 7 small silver screws and then carefully, use your fingernails (best) to work your way around the gap in the edge of the plastic. Or - if like me you don't really have much in the way of fingernails - use a guitar pick or a thin credit card... like a store shopper reward card. Slide it into the gap and work your way around... not too hard. Don't use anything metal or it will scuff the plastic. Just start in a corner and work your way around, be patient and don't try to take them apart until you've worked all the way around. And if this description doesn't make sense, then watch a i777 disassembly video on YouTube.
Once you are done, you need to solder a wire to a resistor at the bottom. There's a close up here:
You could try to solder to the VCC pin on the USB connector but it's tiny and I personally thought the resistor was much easier to solder to without risking shorting any pins. I suck at soldering so if I can do it, others can too. Just get a fine tip for your soldering iron, get it hot (but not red hot), put some solder on the wire, and then touch the iron to the wire and then the resistor quickly. Do it quickly to make sure you don't damage the resistor or the PCB. It took me three tries but I got it.
Then route the wire.
You can see the wire route. I routed right... if you are looking at it yourself, you might think the the left side looks better, but it's next to the antenna and I thought the right side was less risky. I routed down, across the speaker (the bare black gap at the bottom is where the speaker is), under the PCB, then crossed up, and then dodged the screw slot in the upper right of the battery compartment by tucking the wire under the plastic there. But you don't have to do it like this... do it any way you want (although I'd steer clear of the antenna), you just want to route from the VCC resistor at the botton up to wherever you want to put the contact.
For the ground connection, any of the screws, or the sim slot metal or anything else works. I used copper tape and just routed with the tape to the screw in above the upper right of the battery compartment. But it doesn't matter. The metal of the SIM card slot works too... whatever you want. Ground is easy.
When you are done, it should look like this (more or less):
I used copper tape ($5 from a hobby store, look in the jewelry section) for the contacts, then lined them up with the contacts from the Palm Pre coil by putting the stock cover with the coil onto the separated plastic from the phone and lining them up by looking at them together.
Yes, this mod is not easy, and it voids warranties, but it is magic every time you stick your phone on a touchstone and it just starts charging. I bought a touchstone for my car, and then one for my nightstand. For <$20, I have a car charger and a home charger and it's super easy to just put the phone near the touchstone and let the built-in magnets hook it up.
Things to be careful of:
Do not short anything. Make sure not to short VCC to ground on the USB connector
Do not flip the power connections. Make sure not to tie VCC on the inductor coil to ground in the phone and visa versa.
Don't damage the resistor when you solder to it. Be fast. But get a good connection too
I used a multimeter to check for shorts and to make sure that I got VCC -> VCC, GND -> GND.
Very nice, only problem I see is you should of posted to the accessories forum. But overall a very nice mod and the directions were clear.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
Nice mod! Thanks for posting it up. What's the difference in charging time compared to charging via USB?
Sweet, the TouchStone has been one of my favorite features with my TouchPad. I saw lots of people doing this with the Galaxy Nexus, but I wasn't sure if it would work with the i777. I know what I'll be doing with my next Amazon gift card.
Sent from my Galaxy S II (i777)
Now THIS is the kind of inductive charging mod I wanted to see!
Saving the pics for later, just in case.
I see that you have a case on your S2 in the first picture, does the inductive charging work through cases?
Hasn't this been done on the sgsiiet?
Sent from Optimus-Prime's SGSII
mfreywald said:
Very nice, only problem I see is you should of posted to the accessories forum. But overall a very nice mod and the directions were clear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, good point about the Accessories forum. I didn't think of that.
f1456 said:
Nice mod! Thanks for posting it up. What's the difference in charging time compared to charging via USB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't timed it, but it's not significantly slower. I'm not sure what the difference is, though, because I just stick it on the charger when I go to bed and wake up and it's charged. But when I was testing it, it seemed to charge at a rate slightly slower than the USB charger.
quarlow said:
Sweet, the TouchStone has been one of my favorite features with my TouchPad. I saw lots of people doing this with the Galaxy Nexus, but I wasn't sure if it would work with the i777. I know what I'll be doing with my next Amazon gift card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. If you have any questions let me know. And send me a message when you get it working.
Ashhong said:
I see that you have a case on your S2 in the first picture, does the inductive charging work through cases?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You, my friend, have incredibly sharp eyes. I'm using a bumper case - so there's no backing to it. I don't know how well the system would work with a real case, but I'd assume you'd lose some charging current/efficiency by increasing the gap.
Optimus-Prime said:
Hasn't this been done on the sgsiiet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but not as far as I know on an i777 and the internal routing is a bit different from SGS2 model to model.
This is a cool idea. Maybe make a side job out of it for those that don't have the patience or time to do it? I work in electronics for the semiconductor industry so I have the hardware skills but between life and work i don't know if/when i will find time to get around to doing it. Just wanted to suggest it to ya since it is a really cool idea. Thanks for sharing it.
Sent From My KickAss ATT SGS2 SPORTING my CobraRom
Nice. Would you be willing to post some higher res pictures showing the contact placement and the inductive coil installed on the back panel?
Also, were the inductive coil contacts labeled, or did you have to figure out which one was VCC and which was ground?
I've been meaning to attempt this mod after I saw a Galaxy S video showing it.
Can I get a picture of the back of the phone after everything is complete? Without the case, ofc.
sjwaste said:
Nice. Would you be willing to post some higher res pictures showing the contact placement and the inductive coil installed on the back panel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can do ones of the inductive coil, but I'm not going to take the phone apart again... I should have taken better phones when I had it apart last night... but every time I need to put it back together, it takes a while. I think what we have will have to serve.
There's only one resistor near the USB connector so even though the photo is a bit blurry, if you take the phone apart, you'll see right away which one it is. There's not much there... just a capacitor (the yellow thing) a small IC (the black thing) and then the surface mount resistor (the orange thing in the photo).
As far as the coil, I just peeled it off of the Palm Pre kit and stuck it on the case of the i777. The only thing was lining up the contacts so that they matched the places that I put the copper tape. For that I used to back plastic that was off the phone, that the back cover would attach to, attached it as if the phone was together, and then eyeballed it from the other side.
Also, were the inductive coil contacts labeled, or did you have to figure out which one was VCC and which was ground?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used a multimeter to check. But the contact farthest from the coil is 5V, and the other, the inside one closer to the coil, is GND.
yahoowizard said:
Can I get a picture of the back of the phone after everything is complete? Without the case, ofc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like this:
It might look like the wire would interfere with a real SIM (instead of the microSIM that I have in there now) but it doesn't. Last week I was in Costa Rica and I had an ICE full SIM card in there and it worked fine. The wire doesn't push into the SIM card slot as much as it looks... or rather, you can tuck it under the plastic so that it's more out of the way.
Very snazzy. Got my parts in and going to complete this evening.
Stupid radio shack didn't have any copper tape tho...I'm going to try using the wire ends strategically placed and/or taped to get the same effect.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA
I tried it last night, but it didn't work for me. I'm trying to find out what I did wrong. I solder a wire to the resistor and to the touchstone cover directly to test. Then I wrapped the ground cable around a screw and screwed it down. The tester displays that the cables are receiving all 5 volts.
Mine seems to be a different model because that "U" that is next to the resistor in the picture appears to be on top of my resistor.
I'll keep trying to see if I can get it.
chilean03n said:
I tried it last night, but it didn't work for me. I'm trying to find out what I did wrong. I solder a wire to the resistor and to the touchstone cover directly to test. Then I wrapped the ground cable around a screw and screwed it down. The tester displays that the cables are receiving all 5 volts.
Mine seems to be a different model because that "U" that is next to the resistor in the picture appears to be on top of my resistor.
I'll keep trying to see if I can get it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NVM I got it to work!
I soldered only the right side of the resistor and it works flawlessly!
Sorry, I stopped reading the forum as things got busy at work.
chilean03n said:
NVM I got it to work!
I soldered only the right side of the resistor and it works flawlessly!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. Congrats.
Mine is still working great too.
For the copper tape, I should have elaborated on that. I bought it at Michael's (a hobby/craft store). I think hobby stores that have supplies for making jewelry have it. I tried Radio Shack as well and they had no idea what I was talking about. Amazon has it too. But I think the cheapest option is a place like Hobby Lobby or Michaels or any other jewelry or stained glass window supply.
I tried aluminum tape - from Home Depot - but I had a really hard time soldering to it without soldering through it. Someone at work recommended copper tape instead.
Also, someone on another forum (I'm the moderator of the mobile devices forum at Anandtech) mentioned that their back cover has been popping off. This hasn't been a problem that I've had much - very rarely a corner will pop off after a day in my pocket, but otherwise everything fits pretty well. If people have problems with that, one could move the coil further down on the back cover and that should solve it. Or else you could use double-sided permanent tape from an office supply store and apply it to the inside cover where the cover is coming off.
I just picked up the parts to do this. $3 each for kits with charger and back from Amazon, so I picked up three. I have a couple of batteries that charge off USB that this could work for as well.
Test fit inside my otterbox commuter case seems ok, but will need more metal for the magnets in the charger to hang onto.
Tapped out by infinite monkeys on an Atari 800
just bought the parts to do this
just need the courage now
Sorry to bump an old thread, but this is an awesome mod.
@pfmahoney (or anybody else who has done this) have there been any adverse effects over time? I've read that on some other phones, you can't use the touchscreen while connected to the Touchstone. Is that the case on our model? I've also heard about overheating issues and compass issues. These reports were on other phones, though. Any thoughts?
Danation said:
Sorry to bump an old thread, but this is an awesome mod.
@pfmahoney (or anybody else who has done this) have there been any adverse effects over time? I've read that on some other phones, you can't use the touchscreen while connected to the Touchstone. Is that the case on our model? I've also heard about overheating issues and compass issues. These reports were on other phones, though. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you are right, you can't use the touchscreen while it's charging... well, actually, you can... just not the spot right in the middle. There's a circle about the size of the inductive coil that doesn't respond to input or responds erratically.
I haven't had any issues over time. I put it on the charger every night and it's been fine.
It does get a little warm, but not what I would consider excessively hot. I've had it get hotter playing games than it does on the inductive charger, but it definitely does warm up.
I have never noticed any issues with the compass - by issues, you mean the compass not working? I have never noticed that. I just tried the compass now and it seems to work fine... are these issues with the compass while it's charging? I've never tried that and I can imagine that there might be problems using the compass while it's charging inductively. If you need the compass while it's charging (for example in the car), you can always just plug it in to the USB plug - the inductive mod doesn't stop the regular USB plug from working.