ok i may have this completely wrong as i have not tested it yet but i noticed on the back of my tg01 i had 2 round black stickers, one top left, one middle left.
After peeling this stickers off i have 2 little ports which look remarkably like the ports used on internal wifi chips (laptops, nintendo ds) which the areial plugs into for the wifi signal
We can now enhance the tg01's wifi reception with a little careful wire placement
i hope his helps someone with the wifi reception & maybe better battery life as its not having to try so hard for a signal
comments?
Are you sure one of those are not for a external GSM antenna? Like for using in a car
no, i did think this but they are to small. only 2-3mm across. i know what im talking about when it comes to hardware, they are definitely wifi ant. ports.
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...internal+wifi+connector&um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch:1
this site has loads of pics and prices for the relevant hardware
its called an ipx connector, the pigtails they sell can be used to act as the antennae.
i think this could be a good thing
that connector u linked in is a standard connector used with laptop wifi card , they have a little pin in the middle , the connector on the tg01 has no pin in the middle , the ring around it is the shading
kk here is what i know so far.....
most (if not all) builtin wifi chips have an antenae port out, i know this through research with the nintendo ds, and internal laptop chip on various laptops ranging from toshiba to sony.
they commonly have two of the ipx ports for the loop with the wifi flylead.
it may be possible qualcomm have used a proprietary ipx adapter for extra sales through the hardware of there chipset or toshiba have gotten the grubby little hands on it and done it that way
we need people who want to run an experiment on this and find out if they are what i think they are or if im completely wrong
volunteers????
i happen to have a connector ur looking for , but , it doesnt have a pin in the middle and its 90' angled so it wont fit unless i get the back cover off ... with that said , i dont have a 3angled srewdriver thats needed
... ill make some pics later
could it be possible the snapdragon chipset has done away with the pin for a design point? they may be purely there as a dud bit of hardware as qualcomm have directly etched the wifi ant onto pcb and not allowing the flylead?
or...
they may be semi usable with the core (the bit with the pin) etched onto the pcb and the earth allowed to be enhanced by just using the outer rim of these ipx ports?
or...
im totally wrong and as well as the usb host function you could attach a couple of jump leads to the beast via these ports and jump start that big ol v8 what keeps stalling?
Perhaps they could be test points, do you think you can show us a photograph?
i will upload pics tomorrow, they wont be great quality as i have to use my wifes blackberry for em and it dont take great up close pics.
test points are a possibility, tbh it did cross my mind but usually there just dotson the pcb, not ports, but it is a more advanced piece of hardware.
just out of interest but if you were to hook it up with the ports via usb, there would be a chance you could damage it because of the power usb ports output. if it turns out to be wifi then your gonna blow the chip or worse.
but if you want to try it then by all means psot results
hope this help
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/5106/p1210021g.jpg
nice one!
looks like it connects two aerials for better wifi/radio
compare the connector with this
i558.photobucket.com/albums/ss28/linyedongwyl/Intel-5300-half.jpg
thats the connector for the ipx that has been linked earlier , this is a little different , it would be nice to see what the connectors look like on the tg's wires?
alrite , lets compare this baby to the xperia x1
www.phonewreck.com/wiki/images/b/b2/Xperia_x1_pcb_1.jpg
u can clearly see it also has two unused connectors of the same kind wich appear to be unused /but on tg the two upper ones were connected on the pcb!!!/
as for the interconnection of unknown function on the backplate they used the battery cover to pass it thru(the cover's back is unpainted on thoose specific points to give conduction) if it were to just hold the cover in place the would of left the paint on
see the four pins on the phone around the battery
www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2009/3/xperia-x1-battery.jpg
so i was right, we can get better wifi signal with these ports.
and then
better signal + less energy needed = better battery life
and the SE using the conductor pins for the back cover they have used that on the old w series of phones to. no real idea of what it does though
thanks to those who uploaded pics, helped out a lot with explaining what they are and the circuit detail.
so who' gonna be the first to install this on there phone and so testing for battery life and signal improvement?
Did you get anywhere with this? Very interested!
This sort of thing would surely work:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/800-900-1...099221?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item4ced70add5
IPX antenna.
Alternatively.. what would almost 100% work is a replacement antenna cable for the tg01
Although I could be wrong... if you look at this review of the LG P990 (Optimus 2X) you will notice the two different types of connector: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4144/...gra-2-review-the-first-dual-core-smartphone/9
External aerial points for testing the phones at the factory? Can they be used/abused to get an external or bigger aerial setup? What connector is that without the pin????????
Update.. is it an MMCX connector ? (or even MMCX-KC). I am tempted to buy one from ebay (although my TG01 is bricked LMAO, at least I'd know if it fit!) Pretty certain now it's an MMCX connector. Now trouble is... you can get that connector for GSM and GPS... so what are the connectors for I wonder.
For example.. I have terrible reception in the office so having a bigger external aerial on the phone may help, but I'd be interested in a better GPS cable as well Let's have some fun!
EDIT: OR.. I just had a look at my Moto V3i external connection and that is almost identical to the connectors on the TG01.. and it looks like you can get an aerial/antenna kit for the v3/v3i Might give it ago but it's pricey at about £20 :-(
LMAO @ this link: http://www.ehow.com/how_7580234_increase-reception-v3i.html Fancy testing a paperclip guys?
Well... I just ordered a 3G/UMTS antenna from china (so will be a while) with a MMCX connector. I will let you guys know if it fits AND works
Another edit LOL: I also just ordered another external antenna. This time for the V3i RAZR, as it looks like it has the same connector type as the TG01, so will give that a go. Only cost £8.05 for the adaptor and the antenna, so not 'too' bad for something that should fit.
Related
Does anyone know what the connector for external antennas on the back of the wizard is called? I want to build a custom antenna that I can embed into my clothing to improve reception at school. I can't use a regular antenna since phones aren't allowed to be used at school.
HDR said:
Does anyone know what the connector for external antennas on the back of the wizard is called? I want to build a custom antenna that I can embed into my clothing to improve reception at school. I can't use a regular antenna since phones aren't allowed to be used at school.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The antenna part is:
P/N:36H00341-00M "Antenna Pre-Assy, AMPHENOL, GAN40023, PRODIGY"
I am attaching 2 pictures, the first you can see the Antenna Assembly (silver chunky thing above the case) and a second picture of the main board. You can see the brass connector just above the bar code.
This connector type is an AMPHENOL (brand) FME...at least it should be. One of these days I'll get and antenna.
--M
PS when you get the antenna, get a connector that at least has a 90degree bend in it. You might want to try http://www.wilsonelectronics.com
I have one
I grabbed one of those adapters, unfortunately, I cannot remember where. One end (FME) fits into the back of the phone with the 90 degree plug, the other end on mine is a TNC connector. I got that as I had a couple of spare antennas that use TNC.
It does improve the reception. I use the antenna's in the vehicle when on the highway to maintain reception. (I have no problems in the city)
Depending on your device, you may want to update the Radio ROM, if you haven't already. This doesn't flash/reset your phone, but does update the radio. This might resolve your problem without spending any money.
I am using the 2.47.11 Radio ROM and it did make a difference. My device is the T-Mobile MDA (Wizard). In a particular location, where I would get zero reception, I now get one bar...and that's all the difference I need.
P.S. If you do get this adapter, be careful when plugging it in and during use. Remember that FME connector is attached to the circuit board.
Thread for hardware mods
POSTING INTERNAL tf101 pictures
like 3g dongle ? internal sd cards? ssd?
removing the battery for 2 HDD 500go?
finding sd cards hubs? usb to sata cables?
? there is a place in the tablet for a 3g dongle?
there are 2 screws under the upper rubbers and the dock open easy
there is a lot of spaces avaible
My MIFI might actually fit in there, all I would need to do is supply it power somehow.
I'm no hardware engineer though, but if thats possible it would save you from the driver issues with a 3g dongle.
I wonder if it would be possible to check which pins from the adapter connect to USB - so we can make DIY USB adapter for those without a dock.
hmm adding an hdd would be very interesting, sata won't be very hard, powersupply will be.
Sent from my O2x with CM7
This is what I was looking for, looking to do some mods to the dock.
Thanks Markolino72.
Internally mount and wire a 32gb memory stick to the USB port so you get a 32gb hard drive added whenever you dock It might even have enough room for a portable USB hub so you don't lose use of the external usb port?
does anybody think it will be easy to make a DIY dock fix for those with battery draining issues like me?
It seems like it would be relatively easy - just make a switch to either connect or disconnect the cords coming from the docking point.
Or even better, maybe if you put the correct microcontroller in there you can have it switch the pins to floating, if it senses that there is no tablet connected (not sure about the details though)...
ydnality said:
does anybody think it will be easy to make a DIY dock fix for those with battery draining issues like me?
It seems like it would be relatively easy - just make a switch to either connect or disconnect the cords coming from the docking point.
Or even better, maybe if you put the correct microcontroller in there you can have it switch the pins to floating, if it senses that there is no tablet connected (not sure about the details though)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you seen the post in the General forum (2nd page now I think)? Posted by Asus_USA themselves, if you prove the 6 steps that your dock has the issue you can get a new one! I really do hope that I can get mine exchanged, waiting on a reply from my local service center..
Regards.
In regards to the hardware mods, that really looks amazing. Would love to put in my mifi there as well, attach it via USB to charge = your own 3g model Maybe a little modding you could get the mifi to power on only when the dock is connected (remove the battery of the mifi?) so that when it powers on it'll power on the mifi as well. Only a few thoughts.
Maybe a little modding you could get the mifi to power on only when the dock is connected (remove the battery of the mifi?) so that when it powers on it'll power on the mifi as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's a good thought but the mifi I have (novatel 2200) wont work without the battery, for some reason if the battery is bad or removed you cannot run usb, it must be the way they have the power run through the battery or charging. Not sure if all are like this or not.
andrewklau said:
Have you seen the post in the General forum (2nd page now I think)? Posted by Asus_USA themselves, if you prove the 6 steps that your dock has the issue you can get a new one! I really do hope that I can get mine exchanged, waiting on a reply from my local service center..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I talked to the Asus service rep about it. They currently won't give you a new one since they have a hardware upgrade to fix it. If you wanted a new one you needed to do before they solved the problem. I'm waiting on the upgrade part to be delivered for for mine. Should in a few days.
A switch should theoretically work. The guy at the service center said the replace something that goes into the hinge of the dock. Looking at the teardown pics, you can see a wire goes into each side of the hinge, so I think they replace the wires and maybe make a new connection somewhere on the dock.
Surprising how much wasted space there seems to be in the dock -- it's nowhere near as tightly packaged as the tablet itself. Looks like Asus can optimize the size or fit some more features in future versions, if they want...
Let me see if I am thinking correctly...Your saying using something like mifi installed via USB wires (will it be always on?) then connect via WiFi on your transformer? So basically your putting the mifi in a case that can never be opened without a screwdriver? I guess one would always have access for your other devices as well as long as the TF is in the vicinity.
P.S. I think I think this is a good idea, not decided though. I like to think of it in a real world application.
there is another post with a guy putting in an SSD, but it bulges at the keyboard. A 32g SD card would be nice.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
typci said:
I talked to the Asus service rep about it. They currently won't give you a new one since they have a hardware upgrade to fix it. If you wanted a new one you needed to do before they solved the problem. I'm waiting on the upgrade part to be delivered for for mine. Should in a few days.
A switch should theoretically work. The guy at the service center said the replace something that goes into the hinge of the dock. Looking at the teardown pics, you can see a wire goes into each side of the hinge, so I think they replace the wires and maybe make a new connection somewhere on the dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are getting the replacement part? bought mine on the US, but live in chile... would really like to somehow get the part that needs to be replaced and do it myself
tanguita said:
You are getting the replacement part? bought mine on the US, but live in chile... would really like to somehow get the part that needs to be replaced and do it myself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's very little chance they'll give anybody the part, and nothing in the previous person's post suggested they're doing so for him.
Talk to Asus Chile and get it serviced by them:
http://www.asuschile.cl/
http://latin.asus.com/Static_WebPage/Service_center_chile/
knoxploration said:
There's very little chance they'll give anybody the part, and nothing in the previous person's post suggested they're doing so for him.
Talk to Asus Chile and get it serviced by them:
http://www.asuschile.cl/
http://latin.asus.com/Static_WebPage/Service_center_chile/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I ended up calling them. I would have to ship the dock to "someone" in the US, have them ship it to the repair center, fix it, ship it back and then ask that "someone" to ship it back to me... sooo, I'm basically screwed... I ended up with a nice 150US paperweight (not even considering the horrible light bleed on the transformer).
tanguita said:
Well I ended up calling them. I would have to ship the dock to "someone" in the US, have them ship it to the repair center, fix it, ship it back and then ask that "someone" to ship it back to me... sooo, I'm basically screwed... I ended up with a nice 150US paperweight (not even considering the horrible light bleed on the transformer).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, actually, I hadn't realized that but it does say it clearly on the product warranty page:
"Brazil and South American countries don’t support global service"
http://support.asus.com/warranty.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=20&s=16&m=Eee Pad Transformer TF101
took mine apart also and there is quite a bit of room.
i plan on putting a 128gb usb flash drive inside the dock and soldering onto the usb connections once i get all the bits in.
Any bigger pictures? Are the screws under the rubber feet?
just two screws under the rubber feet near the hinge then it just pulls apart from the top
had to take mine apart as the spring/clip mechanism for the sd card wouldnt lock the card in.
now the card is stuck in with no nails haha a simple fix.
This is good news. I hacked a Crystal HD decoder card (pcie), USB wifi dongle, a logitech nano receiver, and a 4 port micro usb hub (from a touch screen setup) into a Dell mini 9 and there was absolutely no room compared to this.
They even have covers for the USB ports, so if you remove a header and solder wires up you just have to hot glue / epoxy that cover from the back and you are money. Looks clean and stock.
I have an old 64 GB thumbdrive that might find a new home. Maybe a 1.8" usb HDD would fit in there with the battery, without the battery who knows.
I just hope (pray is more like it) that Asus made the stupid USB proprietary charging cable longer than the ridiculously short one with the original Transformer. The goofy thing was like 3 feet long, could barely reach a tabletop or desktop from a wall outlet. And for anyone just getting a TF for the first time, note that you need USB 3.0 spec extension cables to extend the charging/sync cable that ships with the Transformer Prime; 2.0 would not charge since the pin-outs are different. My cheat? I uses a regular ac extension cord, and plugged the charging inverter (transformer?) into the regular ac extension cord, that way I could extend it as long as I liked, with no concern about leakage, signal loss etc...
Oh yeah! One BIG THING: I hope that the Prime does not have the quirk where the power supply, when oriented "right side up" (plugged in with the ASUS logo readable) has a grounding issue like the Transformer TF101 did. Anyone who had one might know what I mean. If you lightly touched the metallic sections when charging with the cable oriented one way, the thing had an electric "Buzz" running through it, like a fine vibration. Not dangerous to people, I would think, but when first noticed it I was seriously concerned. I did a bunch of research on it, and basically, if you flipped the charger around in outlet, it went away. All they had to do was make one blade of the plug wider, but perhaps grounding is different in some markets, so they weren't able to do that.
They had several revisions for it, but never fixed it, as far as I know, and I had one of the last serial numbers.
All I know is you take a reasonable durable electronic device, but one where there is no "Frame" or "Chassis" because they wanted it to be ultra slim, and what they do is solder components onto a board that IS the chassis. That, along with a nice strong piece of Corning Gorilla Glass, and you have a reasonably rigid, strong, yet extremely thin device. I think they outright stole the process from Apple's Mac Book Air, and did it first with the Zen Book (Another device I am lusting after, but a bit short on the cashola to be grabbing anytime soon, LOL!)
My concern, if you want to call it that, is that improperly grounding a "durable" but in other ways "sensitive" grouping of electronic components, so much so that the user can literally feel the stray voltage, can not be all that good for the components. I mean, it's not exactly ZAPPING you when you touch it,but it feels downright creepy.. and I do not like it. I think, f my new Asus does this as badly as my old one, I may give them a heard time about it. But I will not be shipping my unit in for inspection - No freaking way. If they want to reproduce it, they can just grab one of their own and work on it. Just don't stand in a puddle during testing, okay guys?
SmartAs$Phone said:
I just hope (pray is more like it) that Asus made the stupid USB proprietary charging cable longer than the ridiculously short one with the original Transformer. The goofy thing was like 3 feet long, could barely reach a tabletop or desktop from a wall outlet. And for anyone just getting a TF for the first time, note that you need USB 3.0 spec extension cables to extend the charging/sync cable that ships with the Transformer Prime; 2.0 would not charge since the pin-outs are different. My cheat? I uses a regular ac extension cord, and plugged the charging inverter (transformer?) into the regular ac extension cord, that way I could extend it as long as I liked, with no concern about leakage, signal loss etc...
Oh yeah! One BIG THING: I hope that the Prime does not have the quirk where the power supply, when oriented "right side up" (plugged in with the ASUS logo readable) has a grounding issue like the Transformer TF101 did. Anyone who had one might know what I mean. If you lightly touched the metallic sections when charging with the cable oriented one way, the thing had an electric "Buzz" running through it, like a fine vibration. Not dangerous to people, I would think, but when first noticed it I was seriously concerned. I did a bunch of research on it, and basically, if you flipped the charger around in outlet, it went away. All they had to do was make one blade of the plug wider, but perhaps grounding is different in some markets, so they weren't able to do that.
They had several revisions for it, but never fixed it, as far as I know, and I had one of the last serial numbers.
All I know is you take a reasonable durable electronic device, but one where there is no "Frame" or "Chassis" because they wanted it to be ultra slim, and what they do is solder components onto a board that IS the chassis. That, along with a nice strong piece of Corning Gorilla Glass, and you have a reasonably rigid, strong, yet extremely thin device. I think they outright stole the process from Apple's Mac Book Air, and did it first with the Zen Book (Another device I am lusting after, but a bit short on the cashola to be grabbing anytime soon, LOL!)
My concern, if you want to call it that, is that improperly grounding a "durable" but in other ways "sensitive" grouping of electronic components, so much so that the user can literally feel the stray voltage, can not be all that good for the components. I mean, it's not exactly ZAPPING you when you touch it,but it feels downright creepy.. and I do not like it. I think, f my new Asus does this as badly as my old one, I may give them a heard time about it. But I will not be shipping my unit in for inspection - No freaking way. If they want to reproduce it, they can just grab one of their own and work on it. Just don't stand in a puddle during testing, okay guys?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you''d think with the new product...with the safety of ground vs hot....they would have fixed it ..but NOOOO....i felt this "vibration thingy" last night and thought something was wrong. I know i have dirty power in my house...and it doesnt do it while plugged into the USB of my computer....
Glad to see this was an earlier issue and although i thought i moved to different sockets in the house..i cant honestly say i truly "tested" flipping the plug around. i'll try that when i get home.
ps. it's retarded that the only way to charge is via the plug. 12v. really? oh and charging my tablet yesterday after picking it up and opening at work revealed a dead tablet...the plug was super hot after charging for about 4 hours...
SmartAs$Phone said:
I just hope (pray is more like it) that Asus made the stupid USB proprietary charging cable longer than the ridiculously short one with the original Transformer. The goofy thing was like 3 feet long, could barely reach a tabletop or desktop from a wall outlet. And for anyone just getting a TF for the first time, note that you need USB 3.0 spec extension cables to extend the charging/sync cable that ships with the Transformer Prime; 2.0 would not charge since the pin-outs are different. My cheat? I uses a regular ac extension cord, and plugged the charging inverter (transformer?) into the regular ac extension cord, that way I could extend it as long as I liked, with no concern about leakage, signal loss etc...
Oh yeah! One BIG THING: I hope that the Prime does not have the quirk where the power supply, when oriented "right side up" (plugged in with the ASUS logo readable) has a grounding issue like the Transformer TF101 did. Anyone who had one might know what I mean. If you lightly touched the metallic sections when charging with the cable oriented one way, the thing had an electric "Buzz" running through it, like a fine vibration. Not dangerous to people, I would think, but when first noticed it I was seriously concerned. I did a bunch of research on it, and basically, if you flipped the charger around in outlet, it went away. All they had to do was make one blade of the plug wider, but perhaps grounding is different in some markets, so they weren't able to do that.
They had several revisions for it, but never fixed it, as far as I know, and I had one of the last serial numbers.
All I know is you take a reasonable durable electronic device, but one where there is no "Frame" or "Chassis" because they wanted it to be ultra slim, and what they do is solder components onto a board that IS the chassis. That, along with a nice strong piece of Corning Gorilla Glass, and you have a reasonably rigid, strong, yet extremely thin device. I think they outright stole the process from Apple's Mac Book Air, and did it first with the Zen Book (Another device I am lusting after, but a bit short on the cashola to be grabbing anytime soon, LOL!)
My concern, if you want to call it that, is that improperly grounding a "durable" but in other ways "sensitive" grouping of electronic components, so much so that the user can literally feel the stray voltage, can not be all that good for the components. I mean, it's not exactly ZAPPING you when you touch it,but it feels downright creepy.. and I do not like it. I think, f my new Asus does this as badly as my old one, I may give them a heard time about it. But I will not be shipping my unit in for inspection - No freaking way. If they want to reproduce it, they can just grab one of their own and work on it. Just don't stand in a puddle during testing, okay guys?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have this with my HP laptop, which also has an aluminium shell. I think that is normal.
EDIT: My Desire Z (G2) also had this, pretty sure that is normal.
The Prime "buzz"
Mine definitely has the grounding issue / buzz. Inverting the plug alleviates the problem but you'd think design measures could be taken to eliminate the problem.
the tf201 charger is unchanged from the tf101. the replacement/spare asus sells is a single part # for both.
Ok, i know theres a sticky for the GPS dongle but this isnt one of those "Wheres my dongle" or how to sign up threads so i thought it diserved its own thread. If you have questions about how to acquire a GPS dongle or want to say you got yours or whatever this is NOT the place to do it. See the sticky. kthxbie.
Still with me? Awesome! In having multiple primes i have recieved multiple GPS dongles. Since i rarely use one as it is, let alone them all at once i was wondering what sort of tweaks / hacks / mods have people tried (or wanted to try but were too afraid of screwing up their only dongle) that i might do on my extra one?
I already plan on doing a full teardown, taking highres macro pictures of the connector as well as unsoldering the shielding on the PCB and seeing whats underneath. Anything else you guys can think of?
Im not too worried about ruining the device if it means i can try something cool! Lets hear those ideas!
UPDATE: isolated the dock connector. Thus far with my tester these pins are grounded: (back view)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ G _ G
G _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ G
I know theres an official dock connector thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630300 but im not sure which pins according to that thread match what i have here.
UPDATE 2: removed dock connector, looks like only the bottom row goes to the dongle, not sure yet if any of the top row go anywhere inside the dongle or if it terminates at the connector. Will continue to test.
UPDATE 3: Ok, uploaded my work for tonight, traced a few of the connections just to see where everything is going. There WERE a couple that were coming out the top row, the two resisters on top, that MIGHT be the trigger to tell the prime its connected to an external device? who knows. anyways, its very late here, i will continue to test as i have time and as people show interest.
UDATE 5/5/2012
Ok, been doing some research and testing and whatnot, i have some very bad news. In order to attach any kind of connector to charge the tablet with the dongle attached it would mean soldering a wire to four of the pins on the connector on the TABLET SIDE of the pcb, UNDERNEATH the connector (the really fine pitch pins). Maybe i will have to take a picture to show what is needed.
Suffice to say chances of a mod that can be completed by most people out there is very low. I will continue to try to find a solution.
The red square shows which pins would need to solder the 15v+, the ground could be soldered to any of the grount points. (+5v to each of the three pins or +15v to all three)
Additionally, i have been doing some work on the pinout, trying to clean up the information we currently have. No offence to bjonston115 but his thread is confusing since every source has pins labled differently and there is info scattered everywhere. Bear with me as i try to sort the mess out and make something we can all use
You are so lucky. Wish I had a spare. My main hope is to determine who makes the connectors (if possible), and what pins are used inside that connector, along with how it's mounted.
My desire, is to procure a connector, to add to the dongle shell, and the wiring, so I can permit the tablet to be charged while the dongle is in use.
When I drive 14 hrs to FL, my battery will run out, mid trip. So far, my only solution is to carry an external GPS to use while the TP charges.
Looking forward to your teardown.
Bob
Images. Took as many pics as i could as i was removing bits n pieces. If you want a picture of a specific part let me know. Pictures uploading, give me a minute or two...
I think a power mod should be straightforward. The dongle shell looks "thick" enough to accomodate a USB female Type A connector, mounted orthogonally. You'd want one with right-angle contacts similar to the one below, so you can let it "bottom out" against far side of the dongle shell. For aesthetics, I'd dremel the opening at the back side of the dongle rather than front, but this depends on your car mount.
The next step is to solder jumper wires from USB's power and ground pins to appropriate pins on 40-pin connector. Since USB adapter for TF101 is same for Prime/300, we can assume pin-out for USB functions is still same. Somebody already posted partial pin-out in another thread.
Soldering to the USB contact isn't a big deal, but to the finer-pitch 40-pin connector would take a bit of finesse.
Note: TF101/201/300 can charge with [email protected]
@pileot: Suggest taking a caliper and measure inner and outer thickness of dongle (ie w/ and w/o the shell thickness).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-USB-sh...ale-socket-Connector-PCB-Socket-/260991770971
unfortunately i dont have access to calipers, far as i can measure outside thickness is about 3/4 maybe slightly less, inside thickness is about 1/8 inches. sorry i cant be more accurate.
im assuming you want to throw a USB on the PCB? im not exactly sure how you want to connect that usb female connector, or what the purpose would be to do so.... Mind explaining just a little more?
Mount: Use dremel to create a rectangular hole (12.5mm x 5.2mm) at the back (or front) of the dongle. Use a short-body USB connector w/ right-angle contact like the previous, and mount it orthogonally, eg perpendicular to dongle facing. I think the short-body one has a length of about 0.5" so it should flush-mount. But if not, having it sticking out a bit isn't a big deal.
Purpose: To charge tablet w/ either [email protected] or [email protected] I would go with the second, since USB car chargers for it are widely available (that's what the iPad uses).
e.mote said:
Note: TF101/201/300 can charge with [email protected]
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I know that the PC USB charge @~500ma takes forever and the TP has to be shut off, but what would the deal be with [email protected]
Would I be able to continue to use it as it charged, or would it need to be shut down too.
I'd probably use a USB 3 connector in place of the pictured USB 2
Thanks for the idea...I never thought of that....now all I got to do is to wait till I get my dongle.
Bob
ahh! makes sense.... sure would be nice if we had a full connector port. Maybe i could make a trip to an electronic component store and pick up some USB connectors.
If you just want to use it for power then dont we just need any sort of connection to the charging ports and the outside of the dongle? It doesnt have to be USB it could be anything as long as you have a male and female connection
pileot said:
unfortunately i dont have access to calipers, far as i can measure outside thickness is about 3/4 maybe slightly less, inside thickness is about 1/8 inches. sorry i cant be more accurate.
im assuming you want to throw a USB on the PCB? im not exactly sure how you want to connect that usb female connector, or what the purpose would be to do so.... Mind explaining just a little more?
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Click to collapse
There is a neat tool in Google Play called Smart Tools. Possibly you could get better measurements of the items you want to measure by using the tool, and laying the item right on the screen. I have it installed, and think it was a well done app.
Bob
>I know that the PC USB charge @~500ma takes forever and the TP has to be shut off, but what would the deal be with [email protected]
No idea. That's something you can find out afterward. Having the mod in place won't hurt anything.
My guess is that it should be good enough to at least maintain battery level while on, which would be all that's needed in a car.
>It doesnt have to be USB it could be anything as long as you have a male and female connection.
You can use barrel power connector. But you'd have to make your own power cable, as opposed to using a standard USB cable to connect to the charger. Edit: On second thought, you can use a [email protected] car charger, then get a mating barrel connector.
http://google.com/search?q=12v+1.5a+car+adapter
from what i understand if you have the tablet on and try to charge with 5v it wont even maintain the current battery level. The tablet charges with 15v or something... having a barrel connector would ensure you dont accidentally plug a prime charger into another USB device frying it.
At that point if we could just get the barrel plug right to the power pins, fitting it in should be too hard....I am really interested iin this because I have 2 dongles coming tomorrow annd planned on hacking one....(I got two because one was RMA and they sent me a new one back 2 serials=2 Dongles)
BSMan1011 said:
At that point if we could just get the barrel plug right to the power pins, fitting it in should be too hard....I am really interested iin this because I have 2 dongles coming tomorrow annd planned on hacking one....(I got two because one was RMA and they sent me a new one back 2 serials=2 Dongles)
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See edited first post. Because the top row does not go to the back of the PCB and i believe thats where the power is, it would be hard to throw a charging circut in there. I am still working on locating where all the pins in this thing go but it is very tiny, even with my finest nodes to test these circuts its very delicate work.
In the mean time, i will upload what i do have before i go to sleep tonight (maybe in another hour or so) so stay tuned!
Okay I will try and keep updated... if we could get a charging circiut in maybe a true car mount might be a project... at least for me, I already have a tablet window mount and with some changes I could affix a modified dongle at the bottom and just slide prime in for GPS + charging (again if we can get it to work)... I get mine today and disassembly will soon follow so I will post anything else I can to help progress
pileot said:
UDATE 5/5/2012
Ok, been doing some research and testing and whatnot, i have some very bad news. In order to attach any kind of connector to charge the tablet with the dongle attached it would mean soldering a wire to four of the pins on the connector on the TABLET SIDE of the pcb, UNDERNEATH the connector (the really fine pitch pins). Maybe i will have to take a picture to show what is needed.
Suffice to say chances of a mod that can be completed by most people out there is very low. I will continue to try to find a solution.
The red square shows which pins would need to solder the 15v+, the ground could be soldered to any of the grount points. (+5v to each of the three pins or +15v to all three)
)
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Okay first off...have we all decided to stay low until we progress, i don't want this thread to die so soon...secondly...though I am sure you have done you research I still must ask, Are you sure? if we can provide any charge to the prime it will at least help a bit...also does anyone one else have other ideas other than charging?...
one idea I literally just thought of so it is not very thought out is, what if we remove the dongle case( as we have done) and integrate it into case.... we will need one of the 40-pin cables to wire onto it but maybe it could fit into some cases.
I will continue to try to think of more uses and mods and will update, meanwhile I hope that we can get some more input
Hmm, you've made quite a bit of progress there. I really wish I wasn't lazy haha, I need to learn to really work with electrical stuff.
So, then the dongle uses some of the pins that would be used for power from the dock? If the dock can pass power without changing the Prime, I should think the dongle could somehow. I mean, only certain pins are used for data right, so the dock and dongle should use the same ones?
Ok, firstly. Yes, im sure. Im sure of the pin placement and based on the best available information scattered around the internet, i know which pins the charger uses and i know where they are located on the dongle. I also know there is very little access to them (as seen in the pictures in OP)
as to integrating the dongle INSIDE the prime casing you would, essentially, be succoming to the same problem the internal antennas have: Metal blocking the signal. Sure its a more powerfull antenna however its encased in PLASTIC not metal, the signal it recieves is a lot stronger and there is less EMI caused by the metalic back plate. Short: Yes you can, no you dont want to.
Finally, the pins the prime uses to draw power are different than the pins the charger uses to supply power. Think one lane dirt road vs a 6 lane highway. On the highway you have dedicated lanes for traffic going in different directions. this is similar to how the prime dock connector works, the prime can turn off power to different connections depending if there is something plugged in reducing the chance of a short, spark, or power drain.
Hopefully this addressed your concerns, maybe when i have apropriate tools handy and a bit of time i may try soldering a connection to the dock connector and see how it functions but as you can see its REALLY tight. I will do my best, no promises.
I also plan, in the near future, to locate more of the data pins, see whats going on, maybe we can make a USB adapter for the dongle and use it in other devices as well! who knows, im thinking it just uses a standard USB interface but it will take more digging.
Subscribed as I see no need for the dongle unless you have enough power.
Though I was pretty sure you were sure I just wanted to ask.... but you did misinterpret my idea, I do not mean the Prime's casing but rather integrating the gps into a case which holds the prime...This is not to say that the gps is big or in the way but just an idea i had to help people with cases and a use for the gps, but since the usb uses different pins that looks unlikely as well i guess...well I will stay updated and if I learn anything I will post.
I would be more interested in adding a power jack of some sort to the dongle. So you can charge while using navigation. I already can not use my dock while plugged into the dongle. We need power!
The USB-C is the second part of this device that will break functionality. Hard to believe that such an expensive piece of hardware has such flimsy connectivity options. I'd hoped for something as reliable as XLR for audio, but apparently the entire industry depends on tiny flimsy weak contacts and the USB-C standard connections.
After it breaks down on you, you would have to buy parts and open it up and replace the connector, and perhaps also buy a new cable. Or you're left with wireless charging only, and wireless file-transfers which pretty much suck all the way from Amsterdam to Bangkok.
First part that will break on your Note 9 is the main speaker, by the way. For that even the replacements suck.
I've had a good experience with the C port and cables on my N10+'s. Unlike the micro connectors, the C port has held up well, still tight and working after over 2k of plugins. Even still using the original Samsung cable after almost 3 years. It's been a solid device all way round.
The C port is easier to replace than the battery, and I've gone through one battery already.