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

[bulls96]

It must be the quality of th e contact your copper makes with the phone contacts. I changed from copper tape to copper wires for this reason.

- Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SIII using Tapatalk

 

[jjbrotherton]

Re: [GUIDE] Galaxy Nexus MOD/Palm Touchstone-No soldering on phon

I did this mod in about 10 minutes this afternoon. I didn't use any solder and used an upside down Pixi coil instead. The phone is charging in A/C mode w/o fast charge enabled and everything seems to be working fine other than a slight bulge on the left side of the phone where the foam pads are. I think I may trim them down a bit.

Really easy and handy mod for under $20. Now I need some metal friendly NFC stickers to throw on the touchstones.

How did you confirm that you are charging in A/C mode? App?
Are you using this in a car? What charger are you using?

 

[mirage2k6]

So I got this mod to work pretty well, but with 1 issue. I have a GSM Galaxy Nexus running stock Jelly Bean. When the charging gets to 100%, it looks like it stops charging, and the screen turns on (which happens when phone is disconnected from charge). Then, it starts charging again, since it's <100%, and again the screen turns on to show that it's charging.

This cycle just keeps on happening. Any ideas why it looks like the phone "disconnects" from charging once it reaches 100%?

 

[ohiomoto]

I have the same issue with JB on mine. It's annoying.

 

[mirage2k6]

I have the same issue with JB on mine. It's annoying.

Do you know of any solutions? Was thinking of putting AOKP on it, seeing if it's a stock JB issue.

 

[ohiomoto]

Well, oddly enough. Mine stopped doing it. I'm using Codname 3.6.0 but I swear it was doing it this morning. Maybe it was yesterday, but I haven't flashed anything new so I shouldn't matter.


EDIT: I just checked and even though my lock screen says it's charged, the battery usage is showing 98%. Maybe that's why it's not "bouncing". I refreshed it and now the lock screen shows 98%. We'll see what happens.

 

[ohiomoto]

Yeah it bounces from "charging" to "charged" to "discharging" to "charging". It did this a few times and then stopped. Now it shows charging 100% in the battery usage screen. Try letting it run it's course for a bit and see what happens.

BTW, this seems to be a JB issue. Never had this with ICS.

 

[mirage2k6]

Yeah it bounces from "charging" to "charged" to "discharging" to "charging". It did this a few times and then stopped. Now it shows charging 100% in the battery usage screen. Try letting it run it's course for a bit and see what happens.

BTW, this seems to be a JB issue. Never had this with ICS.

Mine definitely doesn't stop. I woke up this morning to the screen being on, I guess it was doing it all night. I wonder what kind of damage this does to the battery to constantly charge/discharge.

 

[ohiomoto]

Well mine started bouncing again too.

 

[lionelhuts]

I (finally) did the mod today on my VZW GN. I soldered leads like the guy in the HardForum thread. Sadly, it will only charge when I have "USB Fast Charge" disabled in Franco's app. For the record, I'm running LiquidSmooth Beta 1.

Also want to add that with the wires, there is not enough room for me to close the stock door. I'm going to try later tonight to use the stock 1850mAh battery with the extended door and see if that gives enough room.

 

[ohiomoto]

Mine definitely doesn't stop. I woke up this morning to the screen being on, I guess it was doing it all night. I wonder what kind of damage this does to the battery to constantly charge/discharge.

OK I think I see what's going on. When mine was going from "charging" to "charged" to "discharging" to "charging", it was showing 100% charged on both the lock screen and on the battery usage screen. It has been a couple of days since it last did that and has been working properly. During this time I have observed that the battery usage screen never shows more than 99% full. So even though the lock screen shows charged, the usage report shows 99% full (not charging or discharging) and there is no bouncing.

Why it's working this way now, I don't know. I'm just happy it can sit on the Touchstone while at work and not annoy me.

 

[lionelhuts]

Just wanted to update my previous post:
Everything fits almost perfectly with the stock battery and extended battery cover. You can only see a VERY slight bulge on the back cover where the POGO pins are located. For reference, I used 26 gauge straight wire, and they don't seem to be bothered with the bigger cover.

Also, where that little circular opening is to feed the wires through, I took my soldering iron and melted down a tiny bit of the plastic so the wires could rest in a small canal. (It's the few mm of plastic that separate the circular opening and the battery compartment.)

Has anyone had any luck with fast charge on JellyBean? No go here with Franco nightly r276.

 

[ohiomoto]

Fast charge has worked for me with the JB ROMs I've used. I'm using CNA 3.6.0 now and Euroshank before that. I've always used the stock kernel and never used Franco's. Faux 123 version 21 is the one I'm using now.

 

[mirage2k6]

Lucky. In the battery section of settings, mine says "100% - Charging (USB)". But on the lock screen, it just says "Charged." Then it cycles off "Charged" and shows no status, and the settings then show "100% - Charged".

Here's the pattern.... if anyone else is getting this issue and knows how to fix it, please post!

[table="width: 500"]
[tr]
[td]Lock Screen Status[/td]
[td]Battery Settings Status[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Charged[/td]
[td]100% - Charging (USB)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Charged.[/td]
[td]100% - Full[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]None[/td]
[td]100% - Full[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Charged.[/td]
[td]100% - Charging (USB)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]etc...[/td]
[td]etc...[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

OK I think I see what's going on. When mine was going from "charging" to "charged" to "discharging" to "charging", it was showing 100% charged on both the lock screen and on the battery usage screen. It has been a couple of days since it last did that and has been working properly. During this time I have observed that the battery usage screen never shows more than 99% full. So even though the lock screen shows charged, the usage report shows 99% full (not charging or discharging) and there is no bouncing.

Why it's working this way now, I don't know. I'm just happy it can sit on the Touchstone while at work and not annoy me.

 

[Btesser]

Just thought I'd comment. I was able to complete the mod using a powermat and a blackberry bold 9700 charger. I was able to get the mat and charger that I tore apart from this ebay auction for $15 including shipping (the price is definitely right). I followed the guide, but when it came down to figuring out which connector on the blackberry/powermat side was positive and which was negative I had to take an educated guess. I held my breath, put everything back together, put the phone on the mat and boom 8 seconds later CHARGING!!!! The blackberry back was relatively easy to take apart and very thin once all the excess plastic case was removed. If anyone has specific questions or really wants some pictures I'm happy to indulge. Thanks for the original guide. Now I don't have to remember to plug my phone in haha just pop it right on the mat.

 

[ohiomoto]

Please post pictures. I'll add your post to the reserved post on the front page.

 

[DJeremyC]

I am working to get this mod working for my Galaxy Nexus. One thing I am having trouble getting without having to buy a bunch for more money than what I need is the copper tape (and being that some dont specify if it is the copper conductive, or just the cheap copper crafting tape). I do on the other hand (without spending $20 on tape) have some highly industrial aluminum foil (solderable), will this work for using in the touchstone mod? I would think the only reason most people use copper is that it is more conductive than aluminum, though more expensive. So free aluminum or $20 for copper tape? Any reason why this wouldn't work? If not, then anyone know where to get copper tape locally for cheap and by Thursday?

 

[ohiomoto]

I would go with the copper. I think someone found some copper at Lowe's or Home Depot that is used to repel slugs around the exterior of your home. Look on the first page. I think I posted it there.

Or if you find someone in you area that did the mod, they probably have extra.

 

[DJeremyC]

Yah, thought about that too...unfortunately both my Lowes and Home Depot don't carry it...SUCKS!

But thanks for the help...currently looking around town to see if I can snag some somewhere, was hoping to do the MOD this weekend so heres to either finding copper tape, using aluminum foil, or 26-30AWG wire (think that should be thin enough yet hold the current needed).

 

[DJeremyC]

Finished my Touchstone MOD this weekend. Ended up using a coated 28AWG copper wire that I basically lodged between the dock contacts and the plastic bar...then routed these up through one of the open port holes in the casing. I also ended up running this wire up and out the top of the phone back where the notch is and then attaching the Palm coil to the back of the inside of my Seidio hard case to ensure charging without taking the case off.

Thuss far so good, but I cant get AC charging to work yet. I unlocked the bootloader, rooted, and install the free version of Franco Kernel Updater, but no luck. I take it the change I need is in the paid version, just didnt want to purchase it first and then it not have it either. Can anyone verify that this is the case? I am looking for the option to allow fast-charging (or something like that) for using the Touchstone Mod to charge at AC rate.

Thanks in advance as always for helping with expert advice!