Where to buy car dock now?

fk122

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I was on the fence about picking up the car dock for the nexus one, and now that google's store has closed, I'm having a hard time finding one. Any ideas where I can pick one up? Or, for that matter, are there any alternatives that work almost the same way? Thanks!
 

icebike

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Android Central has one.
Problem is, it charges thru the USB port which means it does not charge very fast, nor does it trigger the special clock modes.

On the other hand it does allow sideloading for the entire time its sitting there.

I'm kind of looking for one as well.
 

melwan

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The official dock gave me all kinda troubles including overheating the phone, non-responsive screen, etc... and apparently it's a known issue with their car dock. This is my ideal setup:

- Kensington Car Mount The arm on this one is long, so it extends the phone all the way to an AC vent for those hot days and it makes Navigation easier to see.
- Griffin Micro PowerJolt for iPad (or the full size version): This is a 2Amp charger that will charge you N1 while Google Nav is running, music playing, and Bluetooth is on. Here is the thing though, you NEED a charging-only USB cable for the 2Amp to work. If you use the supplied USB cable that came with the N1, the charging will drop to 500mA (0.5A) instead. It's harder to find that charging-only cable, but you can try the smaller electronics/cell phone accessories stores or shacks.

Hope this helps.
 

icebike

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Ah, no way you are going to get two amps thru the USB port for a nexus one.

One amp max, regardless of cable. If you want two amps you have to use the dock pins on the bottom.
 

melwan

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I tried the 1Amp A/C car chargers and they cannot charge through music, Google Nav, and blutooth with screen at 50% brightness. These 1Amp chargers were losing battery %. Only the above mentioned 2Amp charger was able to give me battery % quite rapidly while using all the above services/features.

Now whether it's using the full 2 Amps or not, i'm not sure, but definitely it was giving my phone a lot more than 1Amp.
 

melwan

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@RogerPodacter No over heating with my current setup. Besides, the stock car dock provides 2 Amps as well.
 

melwan

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@carolinaguy99 Maybe, but definitely not in my experience. Dock pins were the only way I got my phone over heated to the point it became unresponsive and rebooted itself. And that's 3 different docks. The charger I'm using above had been used for few months now and not a single issue.

Can you back your claim above please? How is using more than 1Amp charger through USB port is not safe?
 

Bulldogge

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I found a nice solution but I dont have enough posts to submit the link. If you want I can PM it to you. It's a Garmin Nuvi Dock ordered thru eBay, as well as a hard case for the N1 that you modify slightly. I am going to route the USB cable thru my dash to clean up the look of it a little. The bonus is not only is this dock secure and stable but you can keep it with any phone you have. You just have to buy a new hard case.
 

icebike

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@carolinaguy99 Maybe, but definitely not in my experience. Dock pins were the only way I got my phone over heated to the point it became unresponsive and rebooted itself. And that's 3 different docks. The charger I'm using above had been used for few months now and not a single issue.

Can you back your claim above please? How is using more than 1Amp charger through USB port is not safe?

You Can't get more than 1 amp thru the usb port.

Doesn't matter what your source puts out, the phone will not pull more than one amp thru USB period. No phone is going to let the source dictate the maximum draw. That's not how electronic devices work.

If your battery info says Charging AC, Power Plug AC, all it means is that it will pull up to 1 amp at 5 volts and the source is wired to tell the phone it can pull more than .5 amps (AKA charging only cable).

People have already demonstrated you can not be assured that this will be enough to run Navigation and yack on the phone via bluetooth or play streaming music at the same time withoug battery depletion.
 

melwan

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@icebike

Well, that's what is confusing me. When I use 1Amp charger (that states 1Amp), even though it says AC charging, I lose power when all these services are running. I tested this with different 1Amp chargers and it supports what you wrote above.

Now, this is the puzzling part. If the USB port provides 1Amp max, how come the PowerJolt for iPad (2.1Amp) is keeping up with the battery and in fact charging it while running all these services? And no over heating issues or weird problems. I am using it daily and I can confirm it's keeping up just fine where other 1Amp (AC) chargers failed. If you don't believe me, try that charger with charging-only cable yourself.

Can you please explain this mystery to me? If I'm damaging my phone without knowing, I would like to know about it please.
 

icebike

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The obvious answer is the other car charges can't really put out 1 amp, regardless of what they say on the label. There is no way to actually tell what power the phone is consuming, short of building an ammeter shunt cable. But I suspect when you pull high amps (near 1 amp) the voltage falls off.

When the voltage falls off, the charging circuit has to boost it, and the only way to do that is to draw more amps. So its a vicious cycle.

Plug your Nexus One wall charger in and run all those services and see if it keeps up.

My experience is that it does, no matter how hard I'm using the phone. The N1 wall wart produces a full 1 amp. And it is certified to do so by a third party. Its a Linear Power Supply, which means it keeps the output voltage constant. (Usually done with a 78xx voltage regulator chip). These things are rock solid stable.

Now when you use a high amperage charger, you never tax it to the point that it can't maintain its voltage (you are running it at half power so to speak), so your N1 can pull a true 1 amp all day long. The two amp charger has no problem keeping up.

The phone's internal regulators won't let it pull more than an amp thru the USB ports, so its not going to heat up, and you aren't doing any damage.

If the truth were known, you would probably be incurring MORE risk using those cheap-*** power supplies that can't really keep up, because the on board charge chip in the phone has to work harder.
 

Doyer

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The official car holder is $60 and it's not even a dock. I'd reccomend something like this Arkon Mega Grip, since I can use it with different phones and its way cheaper. Just use a car charger and your good to go.

Arkon Mega Grip Smartphone and Superphone Car Mount

YouTube - Google Nexus One Car Mount | Arkon Mega Grip Mounts and Holders for Google Nexus One

Here it is with the Incredible:

ucGPB.jpg
cbU6Y.jpg
 

Mamba24

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I got the Arkon Mega Grip mount and it works great. I can use a case with it too. No way I'm spending $60 for the HTC one. The Arkon dash mount is only $20 and it's 2 mounts in 1!
 

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