VZW GN pogo pins not charging

[whitehat09]

So, like many of you other GN owners I wanted a desk dock that uses the pogo pins to charge, and after seeing price tags on the UK versions I thought that even if VZW does sell a CDMA dock I wouldn't be spending that much. So I did some searching and decided to try to build my own. So far I have made a custom mold that fits the phone, ordered pogo pin headers, and ordered some microUSB extension cables. The plan is to just cut an extension cable in half, solder the pogo pins, and voila. A nice DIY desk dock. However, I cut the microUSB cable in half and decided to just probe the pogo pins to make sure everything works. From the palm touchstone mod I got the pin layout (+5V to pin closest to bottom, and ground to the pin closest to the power button). But when I probe it nothing happens, even after holding it there for a few seconds. So I guess my question is does anyone know of a forum thread or anything related to the pogo pins that states the CDMA GN can be charged through it? The palm touchstone mod use the contacts on the inside of the phone, I'm wondering if maybe the outside contacts don't really work (which sounds really stupid but holding the +5V and 0V to the pins should work).

Once I get this working I'm hoping to post a little show and tell on my home made dock.

 

[choocar]

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress please.

 

[ohiomoto]

It's been pointed out somewhere in that thread that it can take up to 10-12 seconds before the phone shows that it's charging with the TS mod. Maybe you just need to keep the power there longer?

 

[whitehat09]

It's been pointed out somewhere in that thread that it can take up to 10-12 seconds before the phone shows that it's charging with the TS mod. Maybe you just need to keep the power there longer?

I must have missed that, thanks for pointing it out.

 

[NNate]

Yes, please keep us posted on your progress.

 

[ohiomoto]

I must have missed that, thanks for pointing it out.

It's buried in there somewhere! I just made a note of it in the OP near the end of the guide. I wonder how many people got finished and thought it didn't work. LOL

Please post your progress and pictures if you get it working.

 

[ScooberJake]

I cut the microUSB cable in half and decided to just probe the pogo pins to make sure everything works.

Just to be clear, are you checking the voltage between the two pins on the phone? Maybe I don't understand fully, but I wouldn't expect to read 5V between the two pins. You are supposed to apply 5V across those pins, but I don't think they will read 5V when the phone is there by itself.

 

[whitehat09]

Just to be clear, are you checking the voltage between the two pins on the phone? Maybe I don't understand fully, but I wouldn't expect to read 5V between the two pins. You are supposed to apply 5V across those pins, but I don't think they will read 5V when the phone is there by itself.

Sorry, when I say "probe" I mean apply the power to the pins by just holding the wires in-place. So I dont mean that I'm reading with a voltmeter, but applying +5V with the red and black wires in the usb cable.

Side note, I actually did 'probe' the pins with a voltmeter and found that there was a 0.9V difference between either of the outside pins and the center pin. Not sure exactly how that could be used, I've read in a couple of threads from other forums that the center pin is some kind of dock detector and should be grounded.

 

[whitehat09]

Ok so I worked on it a little more and ohiomoto was right, if I held the pogo pins in place for 10-12 seconds the phone would start charging.

So I'm not completely done yet but I have most of the pieces ready so I'm going to share some photos of my progress so far.

So I wanted to make a desk dock that could charge my GN with the pogo pins while my phone is in its case (I got the high gloss case from vzw). I've never really made anything like this before so it was a rough first attempt. First I needed to make a mold to sit the phone in, after talking with some friends who have more experience with stuff like this I decided to use acrylic resin to make the mold. Using wood and plexiglass I made a frame for the mold.

Next I took my phones case, wrapped it in saran wrap, and covered in masking tape.

The toothpicks taped on the side are for elevating the case a little bit so that some resin would get underneath it. I placed the case in the frame and poured the resin & hardener mix into it, while it was curing I had it resting at about a 45 degree angle.

The result was pretty good, a little rough but it stood the phone up without any issues.

Next thing to do was figure out the USB stuff. I didn't want to cut the tip off of a perfectly good charger so instead I found a microUSB extension cable on ebay (this was surprising difficult to find, even harder to find cheap. I got them for about $3/cable). Then the pogo pins, I went to digikey and searched for 'pogo pin header' and all the results it found were from the Mill-Max Manufacturing Corp. Instead of paying for the pins I applied for a free sample at the manufacturers website, but the only free samples they offer are on 9 or 10 pins.

So I got the 9 pin header and cut it into sections of 3.

After cutting on of the extension cables in half I soldered the red (+5V) and black (GND) wires to the pogo pins. As stated before, the pin closest to the bottom of the GN is the 5V and the pin closest to the power button in the GND.

The only thing left to do is to find a good base where the pins can be mounted, however its proving to be more difficult than I expected to mount the pins in just the right way. The pogo pins are pretty small, the case adds a layer that makes it hard to see if the pins line-up, and the fact that it takes 10+ seconds for the GN to indicate that its charging doesn't help either.

If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears, like I said this was a first attempt and hope to improve on it. Hope this was helpful.

 

[ohiomoto]

Pretty cool! When you apply power, are you getting the USB or AC charging rate.

As for the pins, could you somehow attach them to the phone before you pour your mold?

 

[NNate]

This is looking promising! I think I'd be more comfortable doing something like this as opposed to the Touchstone mod. Thanks for the update and pics!

 

[Jasper]

Wow, someone should share this thread with Samsung. It would be awesome if Sammy was able to make a charging dock using the pins they incorporated into the phone (for some unknown reason, oh wait.. they are awesome we just cant use them), or are we asking for too much???......

 

[ohiomoto]

Samsung? (OEM) Multimedia Desktop Dock For Verizon Samsung GALAXY Nexus SCH-I515,Verizon Google GALAXY Nexus SCH-I515

 

[muzhik]

Samsung? (OEM) Multimedia Desktop Dock For Verizon Samsung GALAXY Nexus SCH-I515,Verizon Google GALAXY Nexus SCH-I515

verizon needs to get them in stock... asap (get corp. discount )

 

[whitehat09]

Pretty cool! When you apply power, are you getting the USB or AC charging rate.

I actually forgot to check this, I was just using the icon on the home screen to tell if it was charging. I won't be able to look into this until Monday, I accidentally left it on my desk at work.

As for the pins, could you somehow attach them to the phone before you pour your mold?

I'm not really sure I'd be able to do that without screwing something up, but it might be possible.


I forgot to mention that I ended up buying a second case because I didn't anticipate the case absorbing the odor of the resin during the curing process (even tho it was wrapped in saran and tape). Thankfully its a cheap case (found one on ebay for $10). So just a fair warning to anyone who might try mimicking this.

 

[mca312]

Where did you get the pogo pins?

 

[whitehat09]

Where did you get the pogo pins?

from the manufacturers website, here. I got the free sample.

 

[mca312]

I ordered some pins from Yokowo, that were already set up with a 3mm pitch. Should be a fun project.

 

[Sweetbaboo]

from the manufacturers website, here. I got the free sample.

can you post the part number you ordered?

 

[whitehat09]

can you post the part number you ordered?

I ordered Part # 829-22-009-20-001101. The only reason I picked that was because it was the one I saw on digikey, after looking around the mill-max websites they have similar products of varying height.