iBOLT Vehicle Dock for S III

[tbarbs169]

I am in the same boat. Audio out was nice and clean for the first 3 days, then this morning on my way to work it was all "hissing" which is really annoying listening to an audio book.

I hope that is all it takes, a "better" USB adapter. Maybe unplug everything and reconnect it all.

 

[bryanbcorny]

I am having a problem with getting my call audio to come through the speakers. My car does not have bluetooth and i don't have a blue tooth device for my calls. Is there a setting that I am missing or is this not possible? I am able to get Rhapsody and other audio to work, just not the calls

 

[MikaelPe]

Byanbcorny, fundamentally you have to use a Bluetooth headset, or some kind of Bluetooth device in order for everything to work as intended. Connecting a hands-free device not only means that you can hear the caller in the headset or speaker of your BT device, but more importantly, the microphone is "routed" to such hands-free device and this means the other party can hear you well.

Without a BT hands-free device you are using the microphone in the handset (phone), which is mostly not ideally placed while driving, nor is is designed by Samsung (or any OEM) to remove background noise and echo. All good hands-free devices are relying on some sort of "DSP" (Digital Signal Processor) for removing the background road noise and also minimize echo, that is why the phone itself is only good to use as a speaker phone during low speeds, when holding it near your mouth and/or in very quiet cars.

We will arrange some additional testing this week with the scenario you are describing where you have AUX-in on the car stereo but you want to use the S III handset speaker for phone calls. Since we have always believed everyone (?) is using a Bluetooth device/system for hands-free we need 1-2 days to check this out and revert back... Thanks!

 

[Neotravy]

I am in the same boat. Audio out was nice and clean for the first 3 days, then this morning on my way to work it was all "hissing" which is really annoying listening to an audio book.

I hope that is all it takes, a "better" USB adapter. Maybe unplug everything and reconnect it all.

What USB adapter did you use? I am going to buy the Verizon one today and see if that is better..... I've tried two so far but both were inexpensive. I guess there may be a difference.

 

[deputydog95]

Anyone else find that if you're running the gps with the screen on all the time, that the phone doesn't really charge? The phone shows it's charging, but it's almost as if the screen and gps and internet connectivity are such a drain that it basically just maintains. My battery went up about 5% after being plugged in for an hour. It's not losing, so that's a good thing, But it would be nice if you had a fresh charge when you were done with your road trip.

 

[Neotravy]

Typically you'll find that with GPS and screen on, you will lose some power so it's good for you that you actually gained. I see maintain or just a little drop but maybe that's because I play MP3s as well.

 

[tbarbs169]

What USB adapter did you use? I am going to buy the Verizon one today and see if that is better..... I've tried two so far but both were inexpensive. I guess there may be a difference.

I don't know what brand usb adapter i have, but from what I have read, it sounds like I need: Kensington Noise Reducing Car Audio AUX Cable for MP3 or SmartPhone (see amazon.com). costs about $12.

 

[Neotravy]

I am in the same boat. Audio out was nice and clean for the first 3 days, then this morning on my way to work it was all "hissing" which is really annoying listening to an audio book.

I hope that is all it takes, a "better" USB adapter. Maybe unplug everything and reconnect it all.

I don't know what brand usb adapter i have, but from what I have read, it sounds like I need: Kensington Noise Reducing Car Audio AUX Cable for MP3 or SmartPhone (see amazon.com). costs about $12.

Just bought the Verizon power adapter and still have the same problem.

This is REALLY disappointing. I'll be taking it back for a return tonight. I'm not sure why it would work for several days and then all of the sudden, it doesn't.

TBarb,

You shouldn't have to buy anything additional to make it work. It should work because that's what you paid for.

 

[tbarbs169]

[QUOTE\]TBarb,

You shouldn't have to buy anything additional to make it work. It should work because that's what you paid for.[/QUOTE]

I agree, but it may have more to do with the vehicle and less to do with the dock. That is the feeling i got reading other posts on the issue (from a variety of devices).

Not sure why it would be fine and then all of a sudden it is not though. I could see if it was that way from day one, but after a few makes me wonder...could something have come apart on the inside?

 

[Neotravy]

Inside of what? The actual dock is just 2 different cables. It works fine if you DON'T plug in the USB/AC so I would think it has something to do specifically with that.

Yeah, the first 3 days or so it was perfect. The last day or 2 it has degraded. I'm not the only one this has happened to.

It really sucks because I really like the Dock.

 

[tbarbs169]

I wonder if MikaelPe has any info on this???

 

[Neotravy]

I'm not sure what to make of the issue. Obviously something degrades or goes wrong.

It works great as a dock.

It works great to fix the Bluetooth issue while using AUX

It works great to charge your phone.

But it doesn't not work great to do all of those things at once (which, ironically, is what it is exactly meant to do).

I'm keeping it and I guess I'll just plug it in to charge my phone when I don't mind static in my left speaker and sound in my right. Everything short of that, it works fine.

Oh well.

 

[rbruceporter]

Can anyone confirm if the dock will accept the phone with an Otter Box Defender case? I have seen references to the commuter case but not the defender.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[MikaelPe]

Unfortunately the Otterbox Defender does not work. The Commuter is the largest case that works with our Dock... Sorry!

 

[MikaelPe]

Deputydog95, the fact that the battery charge goes up about 1% every 10 minutes or so when you are running everything has nothing to do with the Dock or the charger. The phone itself draws a lot of power with the screen turned, GPS chipset, WiFi, cell radio and whatever other applications that we all have running. When running especially Navigation and streaming music the phone processor itself is also working constantly, thus the heavy draw on the battery.

To optimize battery life when driving I have found the following to work well: Download an application like "Advanced Task Killer" and make sure you are actually running only the apps in the background that you want to run. Many of us have 10 or 20 apps "open" in the background, consuming unnecessary power.

2:nd: Turn off WiFi when driving. This is quick since you just have to pull down the screen, no reason to go into settings and mess around. If you are not actively using GPS, turn this off as well.

3rd: Go into settings-Display-Brightness and set the screen to automatic or to 2/3 brightness.

I hope the above tips helps...?

 

[MikaelPe]

Notravy, fill out the form available on our ibolt.co website under "contact us" and we'll make sure we take care of this. As other people have said, you paid for and it works great for 1.000's of people already.

 

[camiller]

Anyone else find that if you're running the gps with the screen on all the time, that the phone doesn't really charge? The phone shows it's charging, but it's almost as if the screen and gps and internet connectivity are such a drain that it basically just maintains. My battery went up about 5% after being plugged in for an hour. It's not losing, so that's a good thing, But it would be nice if you had a fresh charge when you were done with your road trip.

Deputydog95, the fact that the battery charge goes up about 1% every 10 minutes or so when you are running everything has nothing to do with the Dock or the charger. The phone itself draws a lot of power with the screen turned, GPS chipset, WiFi, cell radio and whatever other applications that we all have running. When running especially Navigation and streaming music the phone processor itself is also working constantly, thus the heavy draw on the battery.
...

It really gets to the point I was trying to make in post 37. The way the USB charging spec is written a (non-apple) USB charger tells the device (be it phone/tablet/or other) that it is OK to draw more than 0.5A by shorting the data lines together. So if the data lines are shorted the phone knows it can draw up to 1.5A, and if the data lines are not shorted together the phone will only draw 0.5A.

Since in this instance the data lines carry the left and right audio channels I don't think the phone CAN know that it is attached to a dedicated USB charger so the phone's charging circuit won't draw the maximum amount of power it otherwise could.

MikaelPe, you might run this by one of your engineers and confirm this, but I'm pretty sure that this is what is going on.

 

[rbruceporter]

Largely based on the recommendations in this forum I changed my phone case to the smaller Incipio case and acquired the iBolt dock for my Galaxy S III. The 9 foot cable if plugged directly into the phone does play audio through my AUX in, and does charge the phone. If I plug the 9 foot cable into the dock, the blue light does come on.

When I connect the short connector to the phone, even with the blue light on, I get no audio, and it does not charge, S-Voice does not launch and the phone does not recognize it is docked. In short the dock itself appears to be defective.

As I say, with the 9 foot cable connected directly it charges and audio works so I am fairly certain it is the short connector having the issue. Very disappointing. For now I will just plug the 9 foot cable directly in and use the dock as a glorified hands free holder but I have to say I don't think I will buy another iBolt product.

Robert Porter

 

[duhrman]

Largely based on the recommendations in this forum I changed my phone case to the smaller Incipio case and acquired the iBolt dock for my Galaxy S3. The 9 foot cable if plugged directly into the phone does play audio through my AUX in, and does charge the phone. If I plug the 9 foot cable into the dock, the blue light does come on.

When I connect the short connector to the phone, even with the blue light on, I get no audio, and it does not charge, S-Voice does not launch and the phone does not recognize it is docked. In short the dock itself appears to be defective.

As I say, with the 9 foot cable connected directly it charges and audio works so I am fairly certain it is the short connector having the issue. Very disappointing. For now I will just plug the 9 foot cable directly in and use the dock as a glorified hands free holder but I have to say I don't think I will buy another iBolt product.

Robert Porter

I have the EXACT same issue. I have a prior issue with my car not working with this phone via the headphone input to the car's AUX so I was excited about this unit as it would give me another way to route sound to the phone that might work. Sadly, I noticed that my phone never enters dock mode when directly connected to the little cable on the dock(although the dock is plugged in with a blue light). The phone actually doesn't even charge or transfer sound to external speakers. It doesn't even seem to know it's plugged in. When plugged into the 9ft cable directly, it charges but that's it. No docking, no sound transfer. I tried this on a home speaker system as well to verify that it's not my car which I have had issues with.

Quick question to the group. I see no setting on the phone for turning on/off docking. If my ibolt was working correctly, would it automatically dock the phone? I've never used a dock so I'm unfamiliar with this process and wasn't sure if there was some setting that might be preventing it.

I'm hoping this is just bad luck and that we got a couple bad units. I guess I will try and get an exchange and if it fails again ask for a refund.

 

[Prozak]

Largely based on the recommendations in this forum I changed my phone case to the smaller Incipio case and acquired the iBolt dock for my Galaxy S III. The 9 foot cable if plugged directly into the phone does play audio through my AUX in, and does charge the phone. If I plug the 9 foot cable into the dock, the blue light does come on.

When I connect the short connector to the phone, even with the blue light on, I get no audio, and it does not charge, S-Voice does not launch and the phone does not recognize it is docked. In short the dock itself appears to be defective.

As I say, with the 9 foot cable connected directly it charges and audio works so I am fairly certain it is the short connector having the issue. Very disappointing. For now I will just plug the 9 foot cable directly in and use the dock as a glorified hands free holder but I have to say I don't think I will buy another iBolt product.

Robert Porter

Sounds like you guys got bad docks.... I had same issue, replaced, and is now fine. Sounds like the first batch of docks that went out weren't of the best quality.

To my knowledge, dock mode should only launch when the dock is plugged into the phone, not if the 9ft cord is plugged directly into the phone.

I have the EXACT same issue. I have a prior issue with my car not working with this phone via the headphone input to the car's AUX so I was excited about this unit as it would give me another way to route sound to the phone that might work. Sadly, I noticed that my phone never enters dock mode when directly connected to the little cable on the dock(although the dock is plugged in with a blue light). The phone actually doesn't even charge or transfer sound to external speakers. It doesn't even seem to know it's plugged in. When plugged into the 9ft cable directly, it charges but that's it. No docking, no sound transfer. I tried this on a home speaker system as well to verify that it's not my car which I have had issues with.

Quick question to the group. I see no setting on the phone for turning on/off docking. If my ibolt was working correctly, would it automatically dock the phone? I've never used a dock so I'm unfamiliar with this process and wasn't sure if there was some setting that might be preventing it.

I'm hoping this is just bad luck and that we got a couple bad units. I guess I will try and get an exchange and if it fails again ask for a refund.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums