Develop Bugs

S3/S2 (maybe S1?) desktop dock with audio out

My aim was to make a desktop dock that has audio out. No need to hook up the headphone jack to the top of the phone. My other aim was to get it working on my S3 and my Wife's S2 (Epic 4G Touch to be precise).
A lot of the info I used came from http://cleanimport.xda/index.php?threads/1754102/
Parts:
I used the ZENiS desktop dock http://www.ebay.com/itm/110893901462 Paid for it on July 31, it arrived Aug 9. I actually bought two of them because I'm making two of these docks.
I wanted to get going on making the dock so instead of waiting for my local *REAL* electronics store to open, I ran over to radio shack and got a resistor multi-pack http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062303 Great thing about resistors is you run them in series and they just add up.
While at Radio Shack I also grabbed a two pack of stereo plugs http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103452 Big win - these can be flush mounted and make the whole thing look professional-ish
A little bit of wire. I yoinked a couple inches of CAT5e from a spool and pulled out some individual wires so I could hook up the audio plug.
Multimeter. I think I got the one I used free with a coupon http://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-multimeter-98025.html Couldn't find my auto-ranging one. The multimeter is so you can make sure you're getting the right resistance.
1/4 inch drill bit. For the audio plug hole.
Soldering iron and solder.
To start off I opened up the dock and found that indeed it was perfect for this: lots of empty space, exposed solder points, conveniently labelled pins. Perfect. Now using my multimeter I went through the resistors in the pack and put together a combination that came *really* close to the 365k ohm needed to trigger desktop dock mode. While at it I also made one that's 619k ohm so I can make one of these http://cleanimport.xda/index.php?threads/1321491/.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Car dock resistors on the top (4) desktop dock resistors on the bottom (3).
View attachment 1253055
I did quite a bit of testing to make sure I was getting the right pins, right resistance etc... In the end you simply solder one lead of the resistors to pin 5 (the ZENiS pin labels are accurate) and the other to pin 4. You can do it on either of the little boards. I chose to do the resistors on one board and the audio on the other. The "tip" on a stereo connector is left, the middle is right and the bottom is ground.
View attachment 1253054
The 1/4 inch hole I drilled in the casing. The audio plugs have a thing you can screw off then on to hold it very tightly in place. Works perfect.
View attachment 1253057
My Galaxy S3 (with extended battery and in a case for the extended battery) fits perfectly. It also fits with the normal battery/back/case. My Wife's S2/E4GT also fits... if she takes off her case. The E4GT is wider than a normal S2. I guess my next modification is to widen the hole just a tiny bit so hers will fit in the case.
View attachment 1253056
Front view. The orange arrows are pointing to a little on-screen button that switches the phone between audio out over the dock and audio out over the phone's speakers. I'm assuming that in the latter it would go out over the normal headphone jack if I had something plugged into that.

As noted on http://cleanimport.xda/index.php?threads/1321491/ you can also change the audio output mode in Settings > Dock Settings > Audio output mode

Thanks for the guide. I've already added a resistor to my zenis dock for dock mode, but might add an audio port now as well
I just bought a couple of 500K multi turn pots and tuned one to 365 k ohms
As a fairly cheap alternative for peeps who cannot be bothered modding, I received one of these docks the other day, which already has audio out and dock mode:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120948670614?

man, I looked for something like that for *weeks*!

you're not the only one, lol
if i had seen these docks first, i would not have purchased the zenis one
i prefer it to the zenis one too as there are no sides to rub on the cases
i ended up filing the sides of the slot on the zenis dock because of the rubbing.
i was using a case similar to the rock ones and noticed the coating had worn off one of the sides right where it was making contact with the dock.

[DIY] Galaxy Note (or any Phone) Dock under $15

Hi All,
As Promised I am putting a little a guide here.
Any Suggestion, Question, curse words keep in Thread only.
This MOD is not hard anyway. So here we go.
Sometimes ago I posted THIS, Its a nice little Dock for about $7.
Only Down side is it dosent do MHL or USB OTG. The Reason is pin4 and pin5 are shorted together. But unfortunately there is no way just to use one extra wire and solder it a two ends.
So I boutht THIS, Its true Micro USB cable Extension for about $5.
** You can use this Guide to MOD any DOCK to make it work with your MHL or USB OTG cable.
All You have to do is, Open the Dock (There are 6 screws in the bottom of Dock) take the existing micro USB Male to Female extension out and replace it with the Motorola SKN6258.
I have used THIS dock for this tutorial. But you can MOD almost any Dock this way.
1. Unscrew the Dock from bottom. To do that you have to peel off the Rubber Pad stick to the bottom. Do it little Slowly so you can stick back the Rubber Pad.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
2. Take the 3 pieces apart and take off the Micro USB male to female part. Which is almost useless. And also remove the part shown in Circle.
3. Take the Bottom piece and using Knife cut the Groves as Shown for the Back Female Micro USB Connector.
4. Now Take the Motorola Micro USB Extension Cable and remove the Protective Plastic Ends.
To do this Cut along the line where two part are stick together. Please refer to the pics below.
And also remove the Black outer cover around the wires. You can do this later too but this gives more flexibility while working.
5.This is the ONLY HARD PART. Be very careful and remove the WHITE plastic part around Female USB connector PCB covering the wires soldered to PCB. Please be Very patient
while doing this. Use the sharper blade(The Sharper the Safer). Removing all the plastic really helps putting it in place with bottom of the Dock.
Also as shown in the pictures, trim the plastic Under and on Both Sides of Female Micro USB Connector so it fits perfect in the place.(See pictures)
Otherwise it will not align with bottom edge.
6. Be little Extra Careful. As you can see in Pic 1 our new Male Connector is thicker and little shorter compare to the original Connector came with Dock.
So Using pliers we are going to take the Metal Housing around the Male Micro USB. This will lessen the thickness of the end so we can slide it easily
into existing housing without further modifications.
7. Cut some rubber pads to keep things in place. Use the two tiny pieces as shown in picture to place it around Male Micro USB Connector.
8. We almost there. Now as show in pic below you have to make another cut to make space for Male connector to fit right. Also Cut a little piece of rubber pad
to put in that groove to give cushion as shown. Also remove the little T like plastic under the tiny female connector Cover,
9. Put Everything in place and Carefully close the dock. Put couple of screws and check to see everything works as it should.
10. In my case I had to open the Dock again and trim the Front Part of Female Micro USB connector. Because if you have MHL or Micro USB cable with short length Connector
it dosent stay connected in the Dock. And this way removing unnecessary plastic housing, you can connect the cables firmly. Refer to pics below for better understanding.
The Only Reason Stock Dock dosent work is pin4 and pin5 are shorted together.
And there is no way to use an extra wire because they are shortened right on the tiny PCB attached to both the Ends.
Enjoy your New MHL and USB OTG compatible Dock.

the guide is ready to go guys.

i bought this docks from the deal you posted. opened it and was thinking about how to make things work. so thank you so much for this guide.
how long dose it take to get motorola micro usb cable?

Yet another Inductive Charging Mod (Minor mod to the device, coil in the cover)

Hello Guys!
First of all, sorry for my English, it is not my native language.
After a lot of reading about modding the Galaxy Nexus in order to add inductive (i.e. wireless) charging capability, and seeing that most of the mods around required opening the device, I decided to make my own flavour of this mod. So here it is, with some photos and a small tutorial.
I have used the usual Palm Pre Touchstone combo, so there is nothing new here.
However, I decided to use the pogo pins for the dock station to connect the charging coil to the device, and have added the coil on a hard cover. Lastly, instead of copper wire, I used a thin self-adhesive copper tape.
Here is the cover:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I got it from eBay for a few dollars.
First,from the Palm Pre cover I took out the coil with the charging circuit and the magnets, they are just glued below an adhesive. Use a heat gun or a hair dryer to soften the glue and a knife or something to pry it off. Then I have aligned the magnets on the cover with the help of the Touchstone dock, and superglued them.
Next step: I aligned the coil with the magnets the same way it was on the original Palm cover, glued it with double sided adhesive tape and added a few straps of of insulating tape (it's a high temperature insulating tape, which is perfect IMO because it's very thin and it can handle temperaturse up to 280C - so I could solder very close to it without melting it). :good:
To close the hole on the cover that let the pogo pins accessible I have put a piece of tape on the inside, then inserted the phone in the cover, and lastly added a good amount of epoxy. Sorry, I don't have a photo of this step.
Then, when the epoxy had settled, I took out the soldering iron.
I put two pieces of copper tape, as in the photo below, then I tinned the contacts on the coil and the copper tape, and lastly used two other small pieces of copper tape to bridge the contact and the copper. [See below] You could probably bend the tape at 90° flipping the adhesive side up, that's up to your taste. This way it's possible keep the solder joint very thin and neat.
Please notice, this image represent the first alpha version of the mod, I had to change a few details on the go and after some trial and error.
At first my plan was not to do any mod on the phone at all, but after one hour of failures, I decided that the only feasible way to make a good contact was to rise the pogo pins with some small solder blobs, such as here:
You have to take your time, don't hurry. I put the phone on a side to expose the pins, then heated the iron to the max temp and let a small solder blob fall from the point of the tip to the pin.
This is how the cover looked like at the end of the process.
Some black spray paint to make it look more professional:
And now, how it looks:
The cover still fits well, because the thickness of the circuit is a couple of millimeters at most.
Thanks to my sister for helping me with the photos.
Yep! It's charging!
Please notice: the charging rate is NOT AC, but USB (thus, a lot slower). This only happens because the circuit does not communicate with the phone through the central pin (it would require a PIC or something else to transmit two timed pulses, which is in short not doable). You can override this with a kernel capable of fast USB charging (such as franco.kernel).
To the mods: if I have done something wrong, please tell me and I'll try to fix it.
I have not posted any link to the products I have used, because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to, however you can get most of that stuff from eBay (not sure about the high temperature adhesive tape).
What do you think about this mod?

Can you upload your pic to another pic uploader like photo bucket?

Done. I had used ImageShack just because it was the only photo uploader I was registered to.

After a week of testing I found out that the touchstone dock (at least mine) seems a bit picky about the charger it is connected to. I found out that the original Samsung 5V 1A charger works fine for charging at AC rate, but the USB data cable has a fatty microusb connector that doesn't fit in the touchstone dock unless you open it up and remove some plastic (not a big deal, just three screws). I also tested a 5v 0.7A travel charger (not original) and it does work only at USB rate; if you enable fast charging in the kernel the phone refuses to charge at all).
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Touchstone only transmit around 400+mA iirc.
Btw this belongs in the Accessory sub forum

I've planned to do a charging time test between wired charging and wireless charging.
And I have also reported my thread to see if a mod can move it.

This is cool. Now with the Daydream settings its like having webOS 2.1.0 on the GNex! Nice work!

[Review] Inateck USB / Lightning Adapter

Inateck USB / Lightning Adapter Review (EC2001L)
Overview
Hi all. So i’ve got my hands on another product from Inateck, one of the new up and coming tech firms that seem to do a little bit of everything. Today I'm reviewing their answer to a problem for households that use both Android and Apple devices - a USB cable that had both adaptors!
Unboxing
The cable arrived in a plastic bag, labelled up with all the specs. Its 120cm long and has USB A Male to USB micro B and Lightning port for Apple products. There isn't much else on the packet so I guess its time to open it up!
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Honestly I wasn't really very excited about reviewing a cable. Its a cable, something I have hundreds of that has come with every smart device and all seems to be the same to me. How wrong I felt when I first opened this up, the cable looks and feels really premium, I was actually planning on giving it to a friend and now i'm going to keep it for myself, honest truth!
Hands on
Holding the cable, the wire is flat, about 6mm wide covered in a soft rubber similar to the back of a Nexus 7 or a Kobo e-reader, feels quite nice to the touch. The cable doesn't really have much memory, so you can lie it flat without it coiling itself up again too much.
The USB connector housing is covered in a soft feeling gray plastic type material that feels really premium. On the end of the USB A Male connector is a tinted brown dust cover which fits tightly and im not worried about it falling off any time soon.
On the other end is a USB micro B connector plugged into a Lightning connector adaptor, on the end of the Lightning adaptor there is another tinted brown dust cover. The Lightning adaptor unplugs to reveal the micro USB B connector. As I don't own any Apple products I do like that the lightning adaptor can be removed and basically go in a draw until I do take the plunge into the Apple universe, what did upset me was that the little dust cover won’t also fit over the micro USB connector which feels like a bit of an oversight and would have rounded things off nicely for me.
Im a little confused as to its purpose, the little dust caps suggest to me that this is a travel cable but the length is 120cm (1.2m) so its pretty long and more suited to a desktop PC being permanently cabled in.
Testing
There isn't much I can actually do to test a cable other than plug it in and it works! When i plugged it into my trusty Samsung Galaxy S4 the micro USB connector clicked in very firmly and it was immediately detected as a media device so all works fine, I gave it a little wiggle and no issues! I’ve never had a flat cable before and i noticed it sat quite nicely and was easier to orientate the connector to the right orientation without too much guessing.
If you do use Apple products the Lightning adaptor has a little arrow on it to light up the correct orientation to the micro USB connector which felt like a nice touch.
Positive points
Really premium feel
Dust covers for USB A and Lightning adaptor
Flat cable with little cable memory
Decent length, I wouldn't want it any longer
Well made micro USB connector, feel very secure when connected.
Alignment arrows for the Lightning adaptor.
Negative points
The cable ties used to pack the product seem to have eaten a bit into the cable sheath, hopefully the dents will work themselves out but takes away a bit from the premium feel.
The little cable cap only fits on the Lightening adaptor and won't work to cover the USB Micro B adaptor if im not interested in carrying round the Lightning adaptor end or I lose it.
Because its a flat cable it does mean it doesnt ball up very small
A bit long for travel use.
Conclusions
Overall a very nice little product at a reasonable price. I feel like I can trust this to be left alone to charge my expensive products without any problems.
Score
My Score out of 5:
:good::good::good::good::good:
5 out of 5 - it didn't feel like any points should be knocked of for my minor annoyances.
Bottom Line
I’ve never been impressed by a cable before, this feels very nice and maybe I’m starting to realise the value in buying premium cables.
Links
Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KV80WYA
Manufacturer Website
http://www.inateck.com/inateck-ec20...-including-adapter-with-lightning-plug-white/

Thanks
Thanks for your review :good::good:

[DIY] High Current Micro USB Charging Cable From Cheap China Cable

WHY
I use Waze on my N5 every day during my commute to and from work. I find that the only micro USB cable I have that can still charge my N5 while running Waze is the OEM LG cable that came with it. I don't like the current state of affairs - where I'm reliant on just one cable with no backups.
WHAT
I've tried the regular 'Genuine' micro USB cables from China via Ebay that purport to handle Galaxy Note level charging, as well as 24/28 AWG cables that are supposed to handle increased currents. No joy.
NEED
- Pocket Knife
- Soldering iron + associated materials
- Electrical tape
HOW
I used a cheap, China, Ebay, micro USB cable that has a hard plastic casing around the connectors on either end of the cable; this makes it easier to pop the casing off, fiddle with the wires, and close everything up again.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/381034218782
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(1) You begin by using a pocket knife to pop open the casings around both the USB A male and micro USB male connectors. Do this by firmly putting pressure via the blade edge on the seam between the casing halves. Once the blade has sunk about .5mm into the seam you then wiggle it to widen the gap. It may help to increase pressure on the seam by hinging the metal connector against the plastic (as if it was plugged in and someone decided to sit on the plastic). You'll see this when successful.
(2) Next, you take your soldering iron and move the green wire over to join the black wire, and the white wire over to join the red wire; on both connectors.
(3) Add a bit of a jumper between the D+ and D- connections on the micro USB connector (where the White and Green wires used to be) You'll see this when done.
(4) Finally, put the plastic connector covers back on and cleanly wrap them with some electrical tape.

Seems easier to just buy a reputable cable at a modest price. Amazon basics has fine offerings. I'm able to run waze and Pandora while driving and still get a charge. Its mostly going to be contingent on the car charger, not the cable.

I tried just getting a proper cable - ended up with a bunch of cables that couldn't cut the mustard. Thus, I took the lemons I had and made lemonade. The cable I made is also independent of whether the charger shorts the D+ & D- pins together; which lets your phone know if it can pull full amps or not.

You can also make your cable with 25AWG

You can try to buy a pisen cable, you can read my review here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/goo...ro-usb-cable-improving-charging-time-t3068562
It s cheap and made of good materials... I sold 20 of them to my customers and everyone confirmed a great improvement over the original cables ( I m a computer technician) and the difference with the original one from nexus 5 is great

I made a similar cable once, out of 2 thick wires ( can´t remember the AWG size though but this wire was used for 230V connection so it had at least a diameter of 1+ mm ) and had similar results.
The lower resistance on this cable can actually help a lot but you need a power supply which can deliver a higher current too in order to benefit from it.
I see one benefit though, in comparison to a really cheap cable with thin wires and crimped contacts, the DIY one is more reliable ( though it looks horrible )

Just got my Charger Doctor USB volt/current meter today. Attached are pictures of the current going into my N5 via the OEM cable (1.16A), unmodified China cable (0.36A), and modified China cable (0.68A).
The mod is a definite improvement - but still not even close to what the stock cable can do. Looks like the wires in the China cable are seriously undersized.
My next step will have to be using two proper gauge wires as mentioned above by Gorgtech to finally achieve OEM cable throughput.

Here are some pictures of my DIY cable
Not very pretty but functional :angel:

Looks good to me! I think I'm going to source some speaker wire for my next one.
Gorgtech said:
Here are some pictures of my DIY cable
Not very pretty but functional :angel:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

zuberio said:
WHY
I use Waze on my N5 every day during my commute to and from work. I find that the only micro USB cable I have that can still charge my N5 while running Waze is the OEM LG cable that came with it. I don't like the current state of affairs - where I'm reliant on just one cable with no backups.
(3) Add a bit of a jumper between the D+ and D- connections on the micro USB connector (where the White and Green wires used to be) You'll see this when done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm happy that I found this thread and the other ideas in the replies though in just wondering, where you have the jumper how would this apply to the micro USB pinout with 1+2 on the top and 3+4+5 on the bottom, rather than all on the same plane.
As it turns out when I'd completed the USB A end and started on the other this was the case. Typical.
Thanks if any insight.
I'm currently using my power bank cable in the car which allows charging at a faster rate than discharge.
Thanks.

Tallika_Fan said:
I'm happy that I found this thread and the other ideas in the replies though in just wondering, where you have the jumper how would this apply to the micro USB pinout with 1+2 on the top and 3+4+5 on the bottom, rather than all on the same plane.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent and very valid question! Reference the attached picture.
1 - connect to red & white wires
2 - jumper to 3
4 - not connected
5 - connect to black & green wires

zuberio said:
Looks good to me! I think I'm going to source some speaker wire for my next one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use 12 gauge...

Just for the fun of it, I measured the spare cable I have
The diameter is about 1.3 mm which corresponds AWG 16 if I´m right :angel:
Ofc you can use a even stronger cable if you want but keep in mind that the limiting factor will be the pins of the USB connectors itself, also from a physical side of view ( you cannot fit the strongest cable inside the case of the connectors, not even if you modify them. )
I used hot glue to keep the pins in place after I soldered my cable and used shrinking hose after :good:
Basically every strong wire should work ( eg. speaker cable ), just use whatever piece of junk you have laying around :laugh:

zuberio said:
Excellent and very valid question! Reference the attached picture.
1 - connect to red & white wires
2 - jumper to 3
4 - not connected
5 - connect to black & green wires
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks very much for that, I shall give that a go over the weekend and report my findings.
Cheers.

I did it but my Nexus 5 is still not getting above 500 ma from a 1 amp charger.
I have another cable from old Nokia phone that gives me solid 1000ma.
That cable is hardly 8 inches. And is a usb cable not charging only cable.
I have notes that the wire strands in my usb cable are of aluminum.
What were yours?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

peachpuff said:
Use 12 gauge...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I built mine using 20 gauge power supply cables

Will it cost damage to the battery?

I recovered one soldering microusb connector pins 1 and 5 to 220V cables, and shorting 2 and 3 on the opposite side, with great effort considering the small tabs.
Well, I still couldn't get higher than 650mA, to my surprised disappointment.

would 12 gauge be to big to work with ?