[GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD/Palm Touchstone-No soldering on phone!!

[ohiomoto]

Re: Dash mount ideas and temperature warning

For those of you planning to put a Touchstone in your car once you mod your Galaxy Nexus, you may want to read this huge thread over at webOSNation.

Also, in my 2-year experience with a dash-mounted Touchstone, they are very sensitive to heat. They will not charge when the temp in the car is over 75 or 80. I'm not sure if this was a battery protection circuit within the Pre or within the Touchstone, or possibly within the little board attached to the coil, but the phone would bounce between charging/not-charging every other second, which obviously meant it couldn't keep up with anything.

Thanks, OP for posting this. My modding supplies are due to arrive Thursday. I've really been missing my Touchstones!

-Andrew

I've been missing webOS!! But having the Touchstones back is nice. Plus I never knew just how well GPS could/should work! That was probably the one thing that just never worked reliably for me. I think it would be hard to go back to the Pre Plus after having the GN, but if someone put webOS on a 4.3" or larger slab and could get it to work reasonably well I'm in. LOL

Thanks for pointing out the heat issues with the Touchstone in the car!!! Since it's winter, I forgot about that. I have found that it's not the actual temperature of the air, but how hot the little black touchstone gets sitting in the sun all day long. I place a hat on mine while I'm at work and keep my windows cracked a bit. That has worked well for me. I'll update the OP.

 

[ohiomoto]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

At the beginning of the guide the last tape source listed is for tape just under 1/8" wide.

Is there any problem using the more narrow tape? Is there enough copper to carry the current?

I guess we'll find out when you try it! LOL

My guess it that it will work. If you already have the tape, give it a try. You can always test the voltage on the back cover before disassembling the phone. If you not getting ~5.6 volts try doubling up the tape or buy the wider stuff. I just bought what I could find and it worked.

 

[mikemck]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

I don't have tape yet. I was interested it the 1/8" tape because I could buy 1 ft. instead of 108 ft.

I'll look into the wide eBay stuff.

 

[ohiomoto]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

I don't think the width of the tape matters much.

 

[Step666]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

I don't think the width of the tape matters much.

Agreed - think about how thin the conductive traces are on PCBs.
The tape will be fine.

 

[acaplinger]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

SUCCESS! Thank you Ohiomoto, thank you iFixit, thank you AndroidCentral!

I barely got it to snap shut with the standard battery and battery cover, but it is quite bulge-y back there.

I can report that the compass appears to be unaffected by the stronger magnets. Also, from what I can tell, the little metal disks in the stock Palm Pre back don't seem to be magnetic (or they've weakened to the point of being unnoticeable in mine.)

I did have to solder the tape to the coil's contacts. I even had to redo it because the solder joint was hindered by the adhesive back so I folded it over to make a copper-on-copper connection before soldering.

Thanks again, Ohiomoto and AndroidCentral community!

-Andrew

 

[ellesshoo]

Not sure if posted already but I can confirm that the pogo pin contacts work fine with this mod not using solder on the contacts inside the phone.

 

[Rickhuizinga]

One thing that I'm unclear on: will this fit into a GSM GNex with the standard battery cover, or will I need to order the extended battery cover?

 

[dmmarck]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

This is one of the most awesome--yet intimidating--things I've ever seen. Maybe next weekend lol

 

[dano272]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

As we all know - this mod is awesome - especially as a seemingly floating car dock. I've been very happy with the home dock situation as I place the phone on the dock and it's charged full the next day. What I'm having a hard time reconciling is the lack of charging power when used as a car media/navigation unit. For me - even with screen off - if I stream music via bluetooth with only 3G (mostly with good/great signal) I at best stay charge neutral and usually lose a percentage every 15-20 minutes. I realize that at that rate - I'd still get over a day on a charge with non-stop use - but when the phone's on the charger you want the battery to go in the other direction. I've scoured the palm boards and it looks like inductive charging can only give so much. So my question is - are people getting similar results as me (I'm running Kang milestone 3 with whatever the latest franco kernal)? If not - what's your setup?

Again - I love this mod - I just want a little more juice.

 

[anon(42011)]

Success for me as well! Loving this mod and the freedom it provides. Ordered extra touchstones now and looking forward to installing one in my Audi. The charge isn't fast but with easy access to the dock should be able to keep the battery topped off, worst case if I need faster charge I still can charge it normally. I'm very happy with this. Thanks Op!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[ohiomoto]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

Not sure if posted already but I can confirm that the pogo pin contacts work fine with this mod not using solder on the contacts inside the phone.

I found that the adhesive side of the tape wasn't as conductive as the shiny side. That is why I needed to solder the connections to the Palm PCB and stated that you might want to solder the pin connections. I did not solder mine and I cannot confirm that the pins work. I can confirm that I have voltage at the pins.

The tape is sandwiched between the contacts and the adhesive is advertised as being conductive so in theory it the pins should work. Also, you could could fold the tape so that the shiny side of the tape makes contact with both sets of pin contacts when the phone is reassembled. I added that idea to the guide a while ago, but didn't think of it when I first did the mod so I didn't do it that way and I don't have pictures.

 

[ohiomoto]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

One thing that I'm unclear on: will this fit into a GSM GNex with the standard battery cover, or will I need to order the extended battery cover?

Yes it will fit under the standard cover.

 

[ohiomoto]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

As we all know - this mod is awesome - especially as a seemingly floating car dock. I've been very happy with the home dock situation as I place the phone on the dock and it's charged full the next day. What I'm having a hard time reconciling is the lack of charging power when used as a car media/navigation unit. For me - even with screen off - if I stream music via bluetooth with only 3G (mostly with good/great signal) I at best stay charge neutral and usually lose a percentage every 15-20 minutes. I realize that at that rate - I'd still get over a day on a charge with non-stop use - but when the phone's on the charger you want the battery to go in the other direction. I've scoured the palm boards and it looks like inductive charging can only give so much. So my question is - are people getting similar results as me (I'm running Kang milestone 3 with whatever the latest franco kernal)? If not - what's your setup?

Again - I love this mod - I just want a little more juice.

Sounds like you aren't getting the full 5.6v charge for some reason. I recently modded a Nexus S for someone (soldered to the USB port method) and one of the Palm PCBs wouldn't give me more than 4.3v for some reason. Maybe you have a bad PCB or a weak connection.

I'm on the "stock" Codename ROM with no other mods and I get ~25% per hour in the car with phone idle, ~15-20% with heavy use (BT, Music, Navigation) with screen OFF and -?% with Navigation screen ON. Something doesn't seem right with your MOD (or ROM??). It should be able to keep up with your phone.

 

[ohiomoto]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

This is one of the most awesome--yet intimidating--things I've ever seen. Maybe next weekend lol

You will find that its easier and less stress inducing than rooting your phone was! Just make sure you have the guitar picks!

 

[dmmarck]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

You will find that its easier and less stress inducing than rooting your phone was! Just make sure you have the guitar picks!

Plenty of those. Last time I did something like this I was routing my Strat's cavity .

 

[ohiomoto]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

You'll be fine then. It's really a really nice feature to have and it's not very expensive or difficult to do. The risks are low. Just take your time working the cover off of the screen. I don't say that because I think the screen is delicate or anything. It's just that they are expensive. If for any reason you needed to exchange the phone, the mod can easily be undone.

 

[dmmarck]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

You'll be fine then. It's really a really nice feature to have and it's not very expensive or difficult to do. The risks are low. Just take your time working the cover off of the screen. I don't say that because I think the screen is delicate or anything. It's just that they are expensive. If for any reason you needed to exchange the phone, the mod can easily be undone.

Gotta look to collecting the stuff first. I don't think I have anything other than the picks lol

 

[ame29]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

One thing to add about the guitar picks. I went to pick some up and found out the only place nearby had them at 2.50 each. So i tried the "credit card" route that somebody else mentioned. Actually, it was an old GNC gold card that I cut into 4 pieces. If you decide to do something like this take your time and be as gentle as you can. It took a little finessing, but after about 5 minutes the thing slid right off. Otherwise, guitar picks would probably be a little easier.

Just an update, I mentioned that mine would charge through the Diztronic case. Well, it still does and actually charges the same with it off. The only problem is that the magnets don't hold the phone as tight to the dock. This isn't a problem at the desk, but definitely would be a problem on a dashboard.

As a side note, I was never able to get the extended cover on the extended battery, so I put the ext. cover on the stock battery. I know it has nothing to do with the setup, but just to let you know I have not noticed a difference in life between the two.

 

[mikemck]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD for Palm Touchstone without solderin

If you read the long pre thread referenced in another post there is a long discussion about charging rate in the car. It seems like it is possible to get the 1 amp charging rate with the right charger and/or a usb cable mod.