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I made a USB dongle that plugs into the USB port on the touchpad and provides a powered female USB-A port. It is basically a portable USB charger/battery with an OTG cable soldered to the USB port. Attached is a quick pdf showing the process. It's much smaller and more portable than using a y-cable and powered hub or battery pack.
The charger is $13 on Amazon with free prime shipping and OTG cables around $2 on ebay.
It's nice because it's small and I can secure it to the my case with a rubber band, providing a quick connection to a keyboard/mouse or usb flash drive. The particular charger charges via any powered USB port with a provided cable.
This is the battery pack I ordered, note the picture on the amazon page is not 100% accurate:
http://www.amazon.com/T-Mobile-Port..._1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1325984238&sr=1-1
This is the cable I purchased, there are cheaper ones, but they ship from China:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-USB-O...ccessories&hash=item1e69fbb3c5#ht_1336wt_1398
Would that be powerful enough to power external portable hard drive like WD Passport?
gedas5 said:
Would that be powerful enough to power external portable hard drive like WD Passport?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I don't have the power specs on the battery pack. If I come across a USB-powered hard drive, I'll test it.
scarletwahoo said:
I made a USB dongle that plugs into the USB port on the touchpad and provides a powered female USB-A port. It is basically a portable USB charger/battery with an OTG cable soldered to the USB port. Attached is a quick pdf showing the process. It's much smaller and more portable than using a y-cable and powered hub or battery pack.
The charger is $13 on Amazon with free prime shipping and OTG cables around $2 on ebay.
It's nice because it's small and I can secure it to the my case with a rubber band, providing a quick connection to a keyboard/mouse or usb flash drive. The particular charger charges via any powered USB port with a provided cable.
This is the battery pack I ordered, note the picture on the amazon page is not 100% accurate:
http://www.amazon.com/T-Mobile-Port..._1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1325984238&sr=1-1
This is the cable I purchased, there are cheaper ones, but they ship from China:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-USB-O...ccessories&hash=item1e69fbb3c5#ht_1336wt_1398
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that looks nice.. but you re saying that its plug and play?..
you dont have to mount/unmount?
why didnt you get one w/ more usb ports?
your pics are clear.
i wonder how easy it is to do the battery hub like yours but w/ 4 usb ports
Nicely done, very good solution and tutorial. again excellent!!!!
amkaos said:
that looks nice.. but you re saying that its plug and play?..
you dont have to mount/unmount?
why didnt you get one w/ more usb ports?
your pics are clear.
i wonder how easy it is to do the battery hub like yours but w/ 4 usb ports
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Click to collapse
http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Powered-Battery-Charger-Adapter/dp/B006DVMW92
This hub has 4 ports, a battery plus solar charging. That said, if I buy it I'll probably just plug it directly into the OTG cable rather than solder them together. Then again my soldering can be a little rough.
- Sent from a Prime terminal using a friends account
So can we only use the Micro Usb OTG host to connect to a USB drive/keyboard?
tpcm said:
So can we only use the Micro Usb OTG host to connect to a USB drive/keyboard?
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Click to collapse
yes plus 10char
Deserves sticky, love mods like this even if not always practical.
Cant believe they didnt give the touchpad a powered usb host. I guess they figured people would have issues with not enough power or drain the battery too quick with it.
So I think when I have some spare time I may mod your mod and show how to make a powered usb host that plugs into the wall charger so when your "docking" somewhere to charge you can hook up a keyboard and use it without restriction and even be charging the touchpad at the same time.
Probably don't even need to be too creative a proper Y cable may do the trick out the gate. Just to track one down.
Probably a stupid question, but it wouldn't be my first one...
Could you simply use a USB male-to-male cable to go between the battery pack and the OTG cable? Eliminate the soldering that way?
Or am I missing something?
I found a cable that I think will work perfectly for my idea of doing this from the charger instead of from battery: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-fe...gb-tf-card-card-reader-kit-for-xtc-clip-82289
You can do it much cheaper with adapters and a regular y adapter though, and you may want to do so, so that you can have a longer cable from the charger to the y split, but yeah I will try this out sometime soon and let you know how it works.
The charger probably gives enough power to easily run things like a external HDD and such while the battery pack may not.
@Vicious ... couldn't that possibly put too much power to a USB device? Just saying since it is probably meant to be hooked up to a regular USB 5v port and (I don't know the specifics but) the touchpad USB power adapter has a high AMP output (might be talking sht here).
Nothing to worry about a device only "pulls" the amperage it needs so you can have extra with no harm to the device. It is the voltage that needs to match and usb is standard 5v.
Having too little amperage can actually cause a device harm due to malfunction, like a head crashing on a 2.5" hdd during use or a thumb drive failing to flash properly corrupting a sector.
I feel anybody that uses the touchpad in a docked setting that wants to use a keyboard may very well make use of my idea, that I of course got from the OP's idea.
I'll part it out for the cheapest way to make it without any cutting/soldering and test it soon enough.
mountaindewmi said:
@Vicious ... couldn't that possibly put too much power to a USB device? Just saying since it is probably meant to be hooked up to a regular USB 5v port and (I don't know the specifics but) the touchpad USB power adapter has a high AMP output (might be talking sht here).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That cable will work fine. I wasn't doing anything special, only eliminating the y-cable. I mainly wanted a small form factor way of adding a USB port to my case for portability. Now I can put a movie on a usb drive and watch it on the go.
You generally don't have to worry about using a supply that is to powerful. As long as the voltage output is 5 V, the device will only draw a certain current and consume the corresponding amount of power. The rating on a constant voltage supply is simply the maximum current it can provide, the amount it provides depends on the properties of the device.
Say you have a device, it states it operates at 5 V and draws 100 mA of current. That means the impedance of the device is R = V / I = 50 ohms. So if you use a 5 V supply rated to at least 100 mA, the device will only draw 100 mA. The supply can be rated for 100 mA or 1000 amps, it does not matter. (Although you wouldn't want to use 1000 A source as if something breaks or shorts it can draw a higher current)
Wikipedia "ohms law" if you are not familiar.
I tried to do this but can't get it to work, the touchpad shows the charging battery icon only it's not charging, and running dmesg it say source=charger mA=100 and usb otg exited low power mode and then right after says it entered low power mode... Not sure what the issue is...
edit: I'm thinking it may be my soldering work, gonna give it another pass...
joenathane said:
I tried to do this but can't get it to work, the touchpad shows the charging battery icon only it's not charging, and running dmesg it say source=charger mA=100 and usb otg exited low power mode and then right after says it entered low power mode... Not sure what the issue is...
edit: I'm thinking it may be my soldering work, gonna give it another pass...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may have the two data pins shorted together. To the best of my knowledge, this tells the touchpad to go into charging mode. The touchpad charger does this, because in order to charge, it must draw more power than USB ports are designed to provide.
You need to remove the two resistors circled in the PDF. These keep the data pins shorted together as well.
This is a really great idea I think I might try it and your tut is very well explained thanks for taking the time out to put it all together
Thanks
Mouse works fine, keyboard hasn't been tried yet. How do you access a flash drive through this? What are the steps?
If you just cut out the resistors in the battery hub, could you just use the TP's regular cable to plug into one of the ports on the hub?
tpcm said:
Mouse works fine, keyboard hasn't been tried yet. How do you access a flash drive through this? What are the steps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stick mount works great
Sent from my CM9 TouchPad
So i tried to fkash something using odin about a week ago...and no matter what i tried, odin and the phone would connect, but the transfer would lock up. It wouldnt fail...it just would lock up.
After a while of futzing around, i tried a couple other cables until i came upon my stock Samsung cable, and Voilà. It worked.
How do we ensure that the cables we buy will work as the stock ones do? Does Samsung do something to alter their cables? Or are the cables i tried using altered by the manufacturer of the device they came with?
If you have some USB wisdom, please share it.
I'm no pro and don't know specifics, but from my experience and from what I've gathered from reading people talk about it, there are multiple types of USB cord types. The way it is wired apparently differs from cord to cord. Some Usb to Micro Usb will only allow you to charge, but not transfer data. My last phone was an HTC Touch Diamond, same deal. I used the stock one for a long time until a friend lent me a much longer and apparently high quality one. I don't know what the different types are called, or anything like that, you could probably google it though.
I can't remember the exact details, but IIRC there is some kind of intentional short between two of the leads on Samsung's Note USB cable. It's basically what tells the phone that it's ready to connect for data transfer. Not sure if it has to do with the new MTP mode or something else, but that is probably what caused your problem.
It's ironic that they universalized the micro-USB standard a few years ago specifically so there wouldn't be so much variation among chargers, but now there are multiple types of micro-usb cables and connectors that work with certain phones and not others. Oh well.. could be worse i guess
zoso28 said:
it's ironic that they universalized the micro-usb standard a few years ago specifically so there wouldn't be so much variation among chargers, but now there are multiple types of micro-usb cables and connectors that work with certain phones and not others.
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exactly! +1000
I rooted my note the other night using a microUSB that was sent with a Mophie Juice Pack Air for an iPhone. I don't think there's anything special between that cable and the one Samsung sent.
From what I've gathered on the forums here, the Samsung cable is just a regular microUSB. The difference is in the charger, which has the USB port's data pins shorted. This tells the phone to fast-charge if the current supplied is of sufficient amount. If you shorted the data wires or pins in the cable itself, that cable couldn't transfer any data - it would only be good for charging.
Length and shielding amount can be a factor in data transfer. Any chance the cables that didn't work were of greater length or not certified for USB 2.0? I haven't had issues with any of my cables.
I'm starting to think that the Issue isn't with standard cables, nor with the Sammy supplied one, but rather with the other twobi used. Specifically, it was a kindle microusb and a logitech microusb and supplied by the respective device makers.
zoso28 said:
I can't remember the exact details, but IIRC there is some kind of intentional short between two of the leads on Samsung's Note USB cable. \
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any cable that does this should be thrown in the trash. This should be something that's on the charger not the cable.
Anyway, I've used 3-4 various microUSB cables with my Note, no problems, except that I've found that adb randomly isn't working, even though USB otherwise is. Reboot fixes it. I haven't looked into it much.
I have a MHL Adapter and I get video just fine. Now I want to be able to sit on my couch while i use the adapter. Seems to me the simplest way would be to use a 15-20 foot Micro USB Male - Micro USB Female extension cable.
Does anyone have any experience with such a setup? Do you have a recommendation for such a cable?
TIA!!
Why micro USB? You can get a HDMI cable as long as you might want (Monoprice is particularly good). If it's not enough you can carry a HDMI signal over a single or (simpler to find) two CAT5 cables w/ RJ45 jacks for hundreds of feet.
I guess the thought was that if I have the Micro USB Extension, then it's one thin lightweight wire that has to travel across the floor.
If I did HDMI, I'd still have to be near power whereas with Micro USB, I could set the power adapter, and HDMI, and MHL Adapter all together and then have a thin and lightweight wire traveling across the floor.
But if it's not possible, (micro USB limitiation??) then HDMI it would have to be.
bean1975 said:
Why micro USB? You can get a HDMI cable as long as you might want (Monoprice is particularly good). If it's not enough you can carry a HDMI signal over a single or (simpler to find) two CAT5 cables w/ RJ45 jacks for hundreds of feet.
Click to expand...
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If the micro USB works it would be much cheaper than a comparable length hdmi cord.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk
I would test http://www.amazon.com/Extender-over-CAT5E-CAT6-connection/dp/B003L14ZTC this. It's hard to get cheaper than cat5e.
Just bought 10 feet on amazon! Lovely!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk
I wanted to do exactly this - extend the cable but at the micro-USB end to avoid having the Micro-usb power supply line and the bulky MHL adaptor all where the phone is - much cleaner to just have a thin cable coming out of the phone and headed towards the TV.
I did get hold of a micro-USB extension cable (2m/6ft) but unfortunately it does not work. Directly plugging the phone into the MHL adaptor works perfectly, as soon as I insert the micro-USB extension it doesn't work. I need to have a closer look to check the pins are populated etc, but not sure why this would be an issue - don't think it can be signal strength and if all the pins are populated I don't see why the adaptor would care.????
Any thoughts?
Micro B USB extension not working
I, too have been trying to figure out why an extension cable doesn't work the way you think it might. Today, I tried cutting my 6 foot cable, first making sure I had the right power leads working. Then I went through all the possible combinations of connections to see if one would work. None do. I'm at a complete loss on this wondering what I should try next.
Thanks for info....similarly baffled but at least you have ruled out something!
Like the other guy said, get your x for of hdmi cable, then just plug your AC charger in where you are. Mhl might use additional connectors/pins/whatever vs micro USB. Or you can go totally wireless and use a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
Also I remember I had a charging issue with an extension. Sometimes one product works better than others. I can't charge my phone with my 20 dollar AC charger from best buy since the ICS leak. It's weird. Hdmi cables are pretty uniform, I would just extend that.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Yes, that works, always has, but that's not the point. Would rather have just one long cable connected to the phone in front of the TV rather than three cables, the device and the phone in a kludge setup.
A partial answer
This allows connecting 6 feet away with a thin, flexible single cable..Also cheap, but shipping takes 15 days.
goo.gl/NzCik
Gavdroid said:
I did get hold of a micro-USB extension cable (2m/6ft) but unfortunately it does not work. Directly plugging the phone into the MHL adaptor works perfectly, as soon as I insert the micro-USB extension it doesn't work. I need to have a closer look to check the pins are populated etc, but not sure why this would be an issue - don't think it can be signal strength and if all the pins are populated I don't see why the adaptor would care.????
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took apart the two cables and the USB has four wires while the MHL cable has ten.
are the mhl wires easily extendable themselves by splicing? I'm thinking strip out a few usb cables and use the wires? Or just go purchase some extremely thin gauge wire (22 gauge) and make it yourself?
Micro B USB extension not working
The Micro B USB connector only has 5 connections, so there is no way you can connect 10 from the MHL cable to it, so something else is going on.
pinoutsguide.com/PortableDevices/micro_usb_pinout.shtml
amblix said:
are the mhl wires easily extendable themselves by splicing? I'm thinking strip out a few usb cables and use the wires? Or just go purchase some extremely thin gauge wire (22 gauge) and make it yourself?
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Click to collapse
I bought splices and thought about extending the cable. It's possible.
galaxy s3
I did wanted to do the same but the extension cable didn't work. I looked at the connecting points and felt that the micro usb from Mel adaptor is to bit longer than usual so I thought that may be the reason and I shorten it resulting damaging my Mel adaptor itself. Now I am going for allshare cast wireless hub. So everyone please don't try to cut the micro usb pin from your adaptor or u will better decide to for my option to for complete flexibility.
I want to do this EXACT same thing but slightly more extreme:
I want an MHL adapter with 10-25 feet of micro USB cable on the end so I can use it from anywhere in my living room.
Is there any such cable/adapter?
Why do all MHL adapters come with only a 5 inch cable??? It is maddening!
*bump* I am looking for this too.. but I have a reason slightly different.. I have an AppRadio in my car that I connect my phone to. The MHL cable end is rather bulky and does not fit into the opening of my otterbox that is on my phone... most microUSB wires fit into the opening just fine.. Taking my phone out of the case every time I am in the car is rather ridiculous so I bought the micro USB extension (bought a 6" one).. didn;t even register except to charge... So, and ideas would be greatly appreciated..
Teej53214 said:
*bump* I am looking for this too.. but I have a reason slightly different.. I have an AppRadio in my car that I connect my phone to. The MHL cable end is rather bulky and does not fit into the opening of my otterbox that is on my phone... most microUSB wires fit into the opening just fine.. Taking my phone out of the case every time I am in the car is rather ridiculous so I bought the micro USB extension (bought a 6" one).. didn;t even register except to charge... So, and ideas would be greatly appreciated..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get a different MHL adapter. I use an adapter close to the one 7 posts up by hedaleth with my kenwood system in my truck.
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]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
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)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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)
)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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!
Firstly, whats the correct term? Is it a magnetic port/plug/connector????
Anyway Main question: What can it do?
Can it be used for connection to laptop for file transfers etc????
If yes to that, what about MHL (think thats right, the micro usb - hdmi)?
Just wanna keep them little doors shut at all times, if it cant do data then that doors gonna get opened a lot and probably damaged rather quickly
numskull said:
Firstly, whats the correct term? Is it a magnetic port/plug/connector????
Anyway Main question: What can it do?
Can it be used for connection to laptop for file transfers etc????
If yes to that, what about MHL (think thats right, the micro usb - hdmi)?
Just wanna keep them little doors shut at all times, if it cant do data then that doors gonna get opened a lot and probably damaged rather quickly
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Click to collapse
It connects to the magnetic dock. Yup, you can do file transfer between laptop and phone WITH the dock.
There's also a wi-fi dock by Sony, with which your phone charges and you can also transfer files via wifi while doing so.
KyleSforza said:
It connects to the magnetic dock. Yup, you can do file transfer between laptop and phone WITH the dock.
There's also a wi-fi dock by Sony, with which your phone charges and you can also transfer files via wifi while doing so.
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Click to collapse
Pretty sure the Magnetic Dock only charges the phone.. To make use of the magnetic charging port on the phone, you can either get Sony's official DK36 magnetic charging dock, or you can get an after market magnetic charging cable... But you can never transfer data out of the magnetic port - it can only be used for charging.
The only way to get data from a physical cable out of the phone is via the microUSB port on the phone which is covered by the big flap. This will also charge the phone at the same time.
invision1 said:
Pretty sure the Magnetic Dock only charges the phone.. To make use of the magnetic charging port on the phone, you can either get Sony's official DK36 magnetic charging dock, or you can get an after market magnetic charging cable... But you can never transfer data out of the magnetic port - it can only be used for charging.
The only way to get data from a physical cable out of the phone is via the microUSB port on the phone which is covered by the big flap. This will also charge the phone at the same time.
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Click to collapse
That leads me to the question (just curious): Can you connect the micro USB and the magnetic charging port at the same time?
illphone said:
That leads me to the question (just curious): Can you connect the micro USB and the magnetic charging port at the same time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not too sure on that one. I suppose if you wanted to charge the phone as fast as possible by using the dock and you wanted to do file transfers at the same time by using the USB port.
But i'm not too sure what would happen if you use both the magnetic port and the microUSB port on the phone at the same time.. You'd certainly hope that the phone wont explode.. I can only assume the phone will only let one one source [ie: the Micro USB port or the Magnetic Port] charge the battery at any given time. But i have no idea : )
cheers guys, thats a shame. i suppose it will help with the lifespan of the doors but woulda been a hell of a lot more use if it could transfer data...... oh well lets hope sony have that sorted by the time the z6 comes out (at the rate of one every 6 months thatll be my upgrade in 2 years) or that in that time they manage to make an open waterproof micro usb socket
numskull said:
cheers guys, thats a shame. i suppose it will help with the lifespan of the doors but woulda been a hell of a lot more use if it could transfer data...... oh well lets hope sony have that sorted by the time the z6 comes out (at the rate of one every 6 months thatll be my upgrade in 2 years) or that in that time they manage to make an open waterproof micro usb socket
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can check out wireless (WiFi) transfer apps. I know AirDroid is a popular one:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid
It has pretty amazing capabilities. Maybe it will be good enough for you so you won't even have to use the USB cable very often...
JMonkeYJ said:
You can check out wireless (WiFi) transfer apps. I know AirDroid is a popular one:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid
It has pretty amazing capabilities. Maybe it will be good enough for you so you won't even have to use the USB cable very often...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i suppose thats an option, i tried them before on my note, but they werent that good, took forever..... maybe theyve improved somewhat by now