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

[barchamb]

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

I got it working, took forever to get the phone open, though (then I forgot to put the lock button back on). Even on GummyNex it takes about 10 second for it to start. It still won't recognize NFC tags though.

We explained the reason it takes 10 seconds back a few posts -> 4.0.3 and 4.0.4 have this issue. 4.0.2 does not. So, if your stock, it shows charging right away. If you're on a custom ROM, it takes about 10 seconds. No biggie.

Also, on the NFC tag thing, did you try putting the tag up to the phone when it's not on the touchstone, or unplugging the touchstone? My tags work flawlessly if my phone isn't on the touchstone, or if the touchstone isn't plugged in.

 

[Lithoss]

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

Why not? Current from the battery could flow back through the coil when the phone is not on the Touchstone dock unless there was a diode somewhere in the circuitry to prevent this.

Are you certain some type of discharge prevention circuitry is present?

I'm sure palm was smart enough to design the control circuitry just below the coil to prevent this.

 

[Rickhuizinga]

I'm sure palm was smart enough to design the control circuitry just below the coil to prevent this.

I'm sure that Palm thought about this issue, but I wouldn't know if they designed circuitry into the phone or into the coil assembly.

After another day of use, the battery life does feel more like normal. There's probably nothing to worry about.

 

[chessmaster24]

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

We explained the reason it takes 10 seconds back a few posts -> 4.0.3 and 4.0.4 have this issue. 4.0.2 does not. So, if your stock, it shows charging right away. If you're on a custom ROM, it takes about 10 seconds. No biggie.

Also, on the NFC tag thing, did you try putting the tag up to the phone when it's not on the touchstone, or unplugging the touchstone? My tags work flawlessly if my phone isn't on the touchstone, or if the touchstone isn't plugged in.

My tags aren't even on the touchstone though :/

 

[barchamb]

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

My tags aren't even on the touchstone though :/

Perhaps you need to reposition your coil or be more precise about where you touch the phone to the tag? The NFC antenna is in the battery, so you need to touch the phone to the tag on the lower half of the back of the phone. If I touch the phone to the tag on the upper half, it never works, but the lower half works every time. Maybe your coil is mounted too low and interferes with the antenna in the battery?

What happens if you take the back cover off and put the tag right up to the battery?

 

[chessmaster24]

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

Perhaps you need to reposition your coil or be more precise about where you touch the phone to the tag? The NFC antenna is in the battery, so you need to touch the phone to the tag on the lower half of the back of the phone. If I touch the phone to the tag on the upper half, it never works, but the lower half works every time. Maybe your coil is mounted too low and interferes with the antenna in the battery?

What happens if you take the back cover off and put the tag right up to the battery?

I have the coil up as far as it can go, even when I just had the magnets in, it wouldn't work every time. It works when I take the back cover off, and I always touch the bottom of the phone.

Edit: Also it seems that some coils have the ~10 second delay, because I tested it with an LED, and it still took the time before it lit up.

 

[barchamb]

Re: Dash mount ideas and temperature warning

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.

I finally got around to mounting one of my touchstones in my truck yesterday. Due to the advise above, I did not mount on the dash, but instead near the front vents, like ohiomoto in the OP. It worked flawlessly all day yesterday. However, when I got in the truck this morning to come to work, it would not charge until about 15 minutes into my trip. So, in addition to heat, the touchstone must also be sensitive to cold (it was about 50 F out). Just FYI...

 

[ohiomoto]

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

I have never had an issue with cold weather here in Ohio. Mine has worked in single digit temps.

 

[Runningwarrior08]

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

I have never had an issue with cold weather here in Ohio. Mine has worked in single digit temps.

When I had one mounted in my car with my Pre it also worked in single digit temps. Waiting on my magnets and tape to mod my nexus this week. Thanks for the write up.

 

[bike2deth]

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

Took a long car trip this weekend with my touchstone/diztronic setup (see previous posts). Here is what I found out:

-Navigation and pandora running through bluetooth will still kill the battery if the screen is on. Had to make sure for long stretches to turn the screen off and only use it when needed.
-Heat is the enemy, once the back of the phone case heated up, I saw charging/discharging alternating back and forth. It would only get this hot after 60-90 minutes, and at that point I would use the vents to blow cold air on the mounted phone (I strategically placed my mount so the bottom of the phone is over the vents). About 2 minutes of cooling is all that was needed.

All in all, over a 6 hour drive, I lost just under 10% battery, with extensive music and navigation use. My only gripe is not being able to use the screen all the time for Trapster :-\

Not sure how this mod will fare during the summertime. Still extremely convenient.

Anyone running this mod with ICS 4.0.4 yet? Or any other 3rd party ROMs that promise better battery life?

 

[ScooberJake]

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

Just a little more charging info.

My phone on the touchstone in 4G, screen off, charges around 0.5% per minute. That is plugged into the wall with the touchstone cable and power block.

Yesterday I was driving with the screen on (car mode, mostly black screen, 4G), but no navigation or music, and it charged at around 0.25% per minute. That is with a cig lighter adapter that does give AC charging when plugged directly into the phone.

 

[ellesshoo]

I just tried something with interesting results.

I plugged an AC charger into the USB port and as usual the phone reported "Charging (AC)". Then, still plugged in I put the phone on a touchstone, still charging AC. Finally, I removed the AC charger from the USB port and the phone still reported AC charging with only the touchstone.

I reversed the order, starting on the touchstone (USB charging). It remained as USB charging in the same way it remained as AC charging in the previous experiment.

Could be a quirk in how the phone reports charging or it could be real. I don't have time at the moment to test the actual current flow.

Thought this might be of some interest.

 

[ScooberJake]

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

I saw today that the desk dock for the Nexus is finally available... at $90! Just another reason this MOD is amazing. Thanks again Ohio!

 

[acaplinger]

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

Sounds like Duracell may have arrived at an amazing idea: Duracell Powermat WiCC could bring wireless charging to any smartphone, we go hands-on (video) -- Engadget I wonder where they got that amazing idea?!

 

[nkk2008]

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

Has anyone gotten this to work with the coil inside the back cover and the phone in the diztronic case? I have read a couple people who have similar configurations that say it work, but I cannot get it.

When I have the coil+palm circuitry in the back cover on the touchstone I get a stable 5.6V across the two pads. However, when I put that in the diztronic case, I get an oscillating voltage ranging from ~0.3V to about 4.2V. Did anyone do something special? OR am I an idiot? I ordered another touchstone to test, but I doubt that is the problem.

Thanks,
Nkk

 

[ellesshoo]

Has anyone gotten this to work with the coil inside the back cover and the phone in the diztronic case? I have read a couple people who have similar configurations that say it work, but I cannot get it.

When I have the coil+palm circuitry in the back cover on the touchstone I get a stable 5.6V across the two pads. However, when I put that in the diztronic case, I get an oscillating voltage ranging from ~0.3V to about 4.2V. Did anyone do something special? OR am I an idiot? I ordered another touchstone to test, but I doubt that is the problem.

Thanks,
Nkk

Did you keep the palm plastic cover on the coil (with the metallic insert as well)? I've noticed an on-off oscillation when putting a bare coil on a touchstone but it becomes steady when the plastic and metallic shielding are placed over it.

 

[nkk2008]

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

Did you keep the palm plastic cover on the coil (with the metallic insert as well)? I've noticed an on-off oscillation when putting a bare coil on a touchstone but it becomes steady when the plastic and metallic shielding are placed over it.

Yes. As I said, if I have the assembly in just the back, it is fine. But if I then put that back in the case on the touchstone (having not touched anything else), it oscillates.

It is the oddest (and most annoying) thing.

Nkk

 

[Qubex]

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

Good news on the USB charging rate problem. A thread on XDA has a method of forcing AC charge rate on the standard charge port as well as the POGO pins which we are using for this mod.

USB Fast Charge mod - Page 7 - xda-developers

I received a beta version of the kernel mod and app to make this work and can confirm that my Touchstone mod charges at AC rate now with an estimated charge rate of 1010 mA with the screen turned off!

I'll do some testing tomorrow with Google Music streaming over 4g and Navigation running with the screen on and post results.

Thanks for the instructions OhioMoto.

 

[ohiomoto]

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

Fantastic! I'll have to carve out a bit of time to test it out this week, but please update us with your results.

@nkk, Sorry, I got nothing for you there. I have only briefly tested this mod with a case on a Fascinate because my wife has a case for her's. My phones run naked.

 

[ChocolateBaker]

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

Did this over the weekend. Works great! I used the normal magnets since I don't plan on using it in the car don't have a car. I used the standard battery door, and while I can tell there is now a small bulge, it's not really noticeable.

Since this is the only time I plan on opening the phone, I took a lot of pictures. Maybe they'll help someone.

https://plus.google.com/118411893476653106500/posts/VggTBt3pgJV