As most of the users who tried the usb dongle I found that it sits pretty loose in the socket, and I can see how easily it can snap the charger pins, on the other hand, it's really useful accessory to have......
So....
I took a piece of metal (from a cover of a pci slot I had laying around) bent it carefully to fit the backside of the prime. Covered the whole thing in hot glue, to prevent damage to the delicate metal and ductaped the metal to the dongle. The result is pretty good, the dongle sits firmly in the socket, no wobbly movement (the backside is restricted by the metal, the front side restricted by the thickness of the dongle) although it's not pretty it gets the work done, I can connect everything to it without the fear of snapping the charging pins
And yes, whoever engineered the dongle should be fired!! I can't understand how Asus let this thing pass the prototype stage....
Agreed and yes it is ugly I'm gonna copy ur design tonight though
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
if you have access to someother coating material I guess you can make it smoother and nicer. File the hard edges and coat several layers and you should have a slick design..
My own 'Mod'
After having my Usb kit delivered, I saw your post, I ran around the house looking for the metal type object the same as your PCI card...
I couldn't find one, so i decided to make my own! I found an old credit card, so i decided to cut it up and stick it on both sides. duct taped it! and stuck it on!
It looks ugly, but its stable and does the job! I wont be wasting 19.99GBP!
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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?
Wondering if anyone has seen or knows of a right angle 40 pin charging connector? Either that or im hacking up a keyboard if i can find one cheap enough. Im dead set on getting this tab in my dash =D
Sent from my Transformer
What do you mean right angle? Do you mean so the cable is lines to to right rather than at the bottom on the sync/charge cable?
In that case - no, never seen. But its not super-hard to do it yourself. It will still stick stick out around 1cm though, because theres a PCB inside.
Although the PCB can be removed as well, but that requires some very fine soldering (we're talking pins that are like 0.7mm, if not less, with like 0.5mm spacing)
I had a hell of a time to just resolder the data cables on the cable, and the points are located on the PCB so theres only 2 'pins' near there. Soldering those cables on the connector itself would be.. ugh... *nightmares*
Lol no, no micro soldering for me. Just wondering if there has been or is or what miss match parts could possible go together to go from the existing 40 pin port down and back. Like a right angle but coming down and away from you. The ipads have em. But we arent comparing that crap here. I want to make a dock of sorts, to have fiberglassed in. Tab slides down and plugs in to charge. Thats why i mentioned hacking up a keyboard if need be.
Sent from my Transformer
Yeah ok. No I dont think theres any such cable.
But if you just want to angle the cable its quite easy, and if youre careful wont require any soldering.
All you need to do is open the cable up, cut a new hole for the cable in the casing, align it and reassemble it (it will probably have to be glued together again, or plastic welded, simple stuff really).
And even if you would manage to rip off the cables, the + and - cables are (relatively) big. ground is just soldered directly onto the shielding, and + is soldered to 3 pins next to each other, and theres only 1 other pin nearby you have to look out for, but that pin is sortof protected by some plastic thing (which will probably melt from the heat of the soldering iron though lol).
The hardest part of all this is actually opening the damn casing without damaging it too much
First I made my custom car dash mount.
Now, I made a custom wall mount. But this one I made from total scratch using another design I saw on the web as my inspiration, and then improving upon it. I used aluminum from an old cookie sheet - yes, a baking pan. Perfect material as it had the modern look I wanted and easy to work with (strong yet flexible and easy to cut & bend). I drew up my design, cut out a template on paper and transfered it to 2 templates (left side and right side) on the cookie pan and cut them out using a jewelers saw slowly by hand to get precise lines and cuts. I then sanded and buffed it down to get than neat brushed aluminum feel that runs throughout my house. I then bent up the folds by hand and with a vise. I then epoxied in some scrap rubber pieces I cut to fit and that I had from another project to make some protective bumpers on the inside of each mount. I then spent $2.50 and bought some of the large sized 3M Command Strips and leveled it up on my wall and presto.. 1.5 hours later I had this setup.
It's a little raw up close and personal if you examine them close, looks a little more polished standing back, but it's hard to be perfect by hand on this as I totally did it on the fly in my garage after literally thinking about it for 7 minutes, sketching out my patterns and then started cutting at 10pm at night. But all in all, I saved over $20 and got something out of metal (not plastic) and I made it myself and it fits the vibe of my house.
Now I can have my tablet up off the kitchen counter and on the wall in a more usable, easier to access method.
And yes, next to it you will see a dual USB wall outlet I also installed so I could charge this or my phone. I got that off Amazon for about $15.
That's pretty cool. I like the wall USBs.
Sweet! Good work man!
Now you need to mod the USB supply with the Asus specific voltage logic used in our USB 3.0 chargers! haha I know that would be QUITE the pain - but that would be amazing!!!
Yeah the USB outlets are more for phones than the tablet
Curious if anyone is using the Palm Touchstone wireless charging mod for the SGS3. I got everything for a Palm Pre, touchstone, cable, etc.. Did the mod which was stupid easy... but the buldge of the back cover is driving me nuts. I have no idea how to make it more flush again. There is ZERO chance of putting an case on here now, for 1 it seems like the charging signal wouldn't be strong enough... and the buldge would absolutely prevent it.
Any help would be appreciated.
BTW: I used super thin 24 gauge wire out of a cable (like a usb cable/printer cable) to go from the palm pre charging pads to the pins of the sgs3.
I used the palm pixi's back for my mid. It is thinner that the pre's so there is less bulge.
Edit: I also used copper foil/tape to make my connections. I don't know if that would reduce bulge or not though.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
I read somewhere the pixi back was thinner but I read that after I ordered the pre back. I didn't have any copper foil tape so I used wire from a usb cable, and if I did use foil tape it seems like I would need something to push down into the phone connectors as they seem a tiny bit recessed.
Don't get me wrong, everything works, and charging works, but the bulge is noticeable and there is no way I could use a case back now. Glad I got the whole body Zagg invisible shield. :thumbup:
How did you address the phone connectors being deep inside? What did you use to make your foil tape touch the leads in the phone? I just kind of pushed the wires in there and used a little rape to prevent shorts.
T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S3 SGH-T999 Tapatalk 2
On the Sprint model there is no sim card. If you cut a square out of the internal cover to the right of the microSD card you have a nice little space to hide the circuit board that causes the buldge. I just posted a question- where to buy the internal plastic cover? I don't want to risk screwing up my original.. BTW I used copper tape. On the pixie back I soldered the tape to the leads. For the phone connection I cut the tape too long and rolled it up to the spot it needed to be to make contact with the S3 contacts.
I have the touchstone and palm charging back. Is it possible to do this mod without soldiering the GS3?
Roll the tape up...:fingers-crossed: Sometimes I hate myself, I always think of the hardest way to do something.... Of course - why not roll the tape into a little ball. DUH!
I think I could probably get the bulge down a little, but I'm not sure it would make a lot of difference... I guess I could always just buy a pixi back and try again? or just wait for Sept and get the samsung kit.
I had read that the samsung kit will charge when the phone is relatively close by - I read 2 meters, but that doesnt sound right - that would be like 6ft... I would settle for 1 ft. The touchstone has to be RIGHT on it... If I had an otterbox case, I am 99% sure the magnetics wouldn't catch and I doubt think the charging field would work, because I can hold it just above the reach of the magnets and no charge. Touch it to the touchstone and BINGO.
I've read many horror stories about magnetic chargers tearing off the port from Z3's. I don't want to go there so I thought I ask if anyone had some DIY tricks to prevent such issues.
I have a cheap noname cable which has a decent magnet. It keeps the thing in place, the phone charges, but I have no idea if its strength is considered too strong or not. The phone is standing in a home made "dock" (an opened 8mm cassette case so probably doesn't really need that much adhesion to keep things attached.
My best idea is to fix the charging cable to the case so the stiff-ish cable holds up the head at level with the port. Then I'd file the magnet on the head until it's just enough to snap the head the right place when the phone is pushed against it. What do you think?
I bought a weaker magnetic that still took a bit of pull or wiggle to remove. Funny enough the magnetic charger itself broke, I just avoid them now
I've just compared the noname z3 mag cable to the one from the DK31 dock for the Z1: While their physical dimensions are exactly the same the 3rd party cable sports a decidedly stronger magnet.
It charges my Z1 fine, even from a PC usb port. (The DK31 doesn't have a limiter apparently so through it the phone tries to suck as much power as it can which makes the mobo turn off that USB port.)
I've just finished filing the magnet, now it's like an up side down arch, so has a curved valley in the middle, deep down to the level of the plastic casing. ~2mm (0.08 in) left untouched on both ends. It's keeps things in place roughly as strongly as the cable from a DK31 dock. And that is rather weak as the cable pushing against the table can twist off the head. Interestingly since the magnet now has two "feet" at the ends and is not a continuous surface it comes off more "softly", more gradually, kind of rolls off as opposed to the DK31 cable which you pull pull and suddenly the whole thing fully pops off.
I tried and the 3rd party cable fits nicely in the DK31 box. The only thing preventing me from using it to charge the Z3 is that the holder insert is 2mm too wide. It shouldn't be too much of a problem gluing textile in there to secure the phone but for now I'll see how the weakened head works just lying on the table.