My phone was charging great on the orb until I peeled the plastic backing off the phone. Now it slips right off - tried cleaning and piling crap under the phone to support it - came to the conclusion it is like anything round Google makes- it's a piece of crap.
N4 Wireless charger disaster
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ChromeJob
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What bumper?
Actually it's the HEIGHT of the bumper on the rear that can do this . If a bumper is more than 1-2mm thick in the back it will lift the phone off the sticky hub.
I hadn't noticed if other videos showed phones with bumpers, if so they're misleading.
I've tested a Google bumper, it doesn't lift the phone off the center, but a phone can slip if there's lint on the orb. See my previous suggestions.....
// Tapatalk HD for Android - Nexus 7 //
I've gone through two orbs and the first week or so it had no slippage. For the 2nd orb, I covered the face with a used gift card (credit card size) when my phone wasn't on it to eliminate dust/lint from accumulating. Still found slippage happening, though the phone was only sliding a few millimeters by morning instead of to the point where the phone made contact with the table.
Glass back, no protector, free of oils and such, same behavior with and without official bumper on it. I think the low winter humidity is reducing the friction between the orb and the back glass enough to cause occasional slipping.
So I tried the mod that someone posted on here earlier: removing the rubber ring on the bottom of the orb, removing the two nubs that are used as a guide to attach to the bottom of the orb, and reattaching it 180 degrees from the original orientation. Using the pitch meter from the Smart Tools app on the phone, I see that I have reduced the pitch of the orb by about 5 degrees, and this seems to be enough to stop all my sliding issues.
I think the pitch of the orb was designed to be as high as possible without slipping in lab conditions, but the tolerance is too high and becomes an issue for some users with less-than-ideal environmental conditions. It seems most prevalent for users without a back screen protector. Users with back screen protectors or cases have a higher coefficient of friction with the orb surface and the phone and rarely report an issue with sliding.
This is the survey I ran about a month ago.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JSyLy3jWC1_WBJCc7qcJsofsTtzYAqTpi2WNUgMejUc/viewform
Roughly half the respondents reported slipping, and the majority of those have the bare back glass against the orb.
ChromeJob
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Hehe... Thanks! At first I just draped a microfiber cloth over it, but then thought that the gift card would basically seal out the dust.
And since it's a used gift card, no worries about what happens to the mag stripe on it
I also thought about finding a camera lens cap that was just the right size. Might be a good way to go when I have to pack the orb for travel.
Addendum:
Ok, so the gift card works very well for a quick swap with the phone. What I found that will work for when I travel with the orb is the lid from a can of tennis balls. And just my luck, I have a canister with a black lid...
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ChromeJob
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Brilliant. Lids from cans of Penn tennis balls are a perfect, snug fit.
Unfortunately, my name is Spalding.
My wife and I both have a the wireless chargers for our Nexus 4s. We're both having problems.
Her's will make the toggle sound as it decides to charge then not to charge over and over again. This happens repeatedly. Very annoying.
Mine will stick to the charger over night and will only charge 40% of the battery... or 20%... I do make sure the screen says that its charging before I slumber. This has happened twice in 3 nights.
Has anyone had these symptoms?
Any suggestions?
Her's will make the toggle sound as it decides to charge then not to charge over and over again. This happens repeatedly. Very annoying.
Mine will stick to the charger over night and will only charge 40% of the battery... or 20%... I do make sure the screen says that its charging before I slumber. This has happened twice in 3 nights.
Has anyone had these symptoms?
Any suggestions?
Have your wife reboot her phone. Sometimes that seems to fix the toggling issue. Aside from that, I'd just make sure the phone is set properly on the wireless charger. In portrait orientation, the center of the phone should be higher than the center of the orb. From a side view, I can tell you that the bottom of my volume rocker is aligned with the top edge of the orb.
Make sure you are using the supplied charger for the orb, not the N4's charger. The orb's charger outputs 0.6A more current than the N4's charger.
Are the two phones being set on their orbs directly on the N4's back glass, or do you have back glass screen protectors or cases? I ask this only because several people that use the phone 'naked' have found that their phone slowly slides down the charger, which can interrupt proper charging.
I have to reiterate earlier comments - you *must* use the included cable and power adapter included with the orb, using anything else will cause the orb to not function properly. In my case, it was charging fine, but would max at 95% when using another cable; once I changed it out with what came with the orb, it charged to 100%.
I am using my phone with a back clear skin and it doesn't move when on the orb.
I am using my phone with a back clear skin and it doesn't move when on the orb.
ChromeJob
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Pretty high IMHO. Center the orb between the nexus and LG logos. The Nexus logo could be resting right on top of the orb.
I position it with the phone hanging about 5-10mm above the tabletop with no problem charging.
// Tapatalk HD for Android - Nexus 7 //
Having the sliding issue and call and got a new charging orb. The new one had the same problem.
If I altered the angle by putting a pencil under the front of the orb, the phone will stay on.
Took your advice and removed the bottom rubber ring and rotated it 180 degrees and put it back on. So far that seems to also work.
At this point I am not really that happy with LG & Google.
If I altered the angle by putting a pencil under the front of the orb, the phone will stay on.
Took your advice and removed the bottom rubber ring and rotated it 180 degrees and put it back on. So far that seems to also work.
At this point I am not really that happy with LG & Google.
I had the same sliding issue early on also. On one of my calls to google play support, the agent suggested I try the rubber ring
trick (i.e. 180 degree rotation of the rubber ring on the bottom of the orb). About that same time I found this thread and also tried
the adhesive lint roller (mine was made by 3M) trick to clean the orb. Well, those two tricks seemed to fix things so I didn't bother
using my RMA for the ORB. That success lasted about three weeks before the slipping issue returned (all or part of the way off)..
In other words, the ORB returned to its natural state of being completely unreliable as a charger.
However, I finally solved the problem. I unplugged the orb from its USB cable and plugged the ORB's USB cable directly into the
NEXUS-4. I now have a $59 ORB USB charger which has been extremely reliable for over a month!!! Quite impressive by ORB standards.
I was thinking of calling google play support to see if I could trade the ORB portion of my charger for a couple more of the power
adapters and USB cables that came with my ORB . Either that or use the ORB body as an elegant paper weight.
trick (i.e. 180 degree rotation of the rubber ring on the bottom of the orb). About that same time I found this thread and also tried
the adhesive lint roller (mine was made by 3M) trick to clean the orb. Well, those two tricks seemed to fix things so I didn't bother
using my RMA for the ORB. That success lasted about three weeks before the slipping issue returned (all or part of the way off)..
In other words, the ORB returned to its natural state of being completely unreliable as a charger.
However, I finally solved the problem. I unplugged the orb from its USB cable and plugged the ORB's USB cable directly into the
NEXUS-4. I now have a $59 ORB USB charger which has been extremely reliable for over a month!!! Quite impressive by ORB standards.
I was thinking of calling google play support to see if I could trade the ORB portion of my charger for a couple more of the power
adapters and USB cables that came with my ORB . Either that or use the ORB body as an elegant paper weight.
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ChromeJob
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I don't have to clean my orb very often, because I keep tennis ball can lids on them (or a compact disc) when the phone is not charging. Now, if you DON'T keep the orb covered, you will have to clean it from time to time. So keep that lint roller handy, and clean off dust every few weeks.
I'm not being sarcastic like some. At work, my orb collects dust while I'm in meetings (I only cover it at the end of the day), so once or twice a month I roll it off with some reverse rolled up Scotch tape or shipping tape. Makes it good as new.
I'll have to see what you guys are doing to reverse the "bottom rubber ring" (the base). That sounds like a good way to invalidate warranty by mucking about with the product. If the problem is that bad, RMA it. Or sell it on eBay to someone like me for $40 (okay, that IS sarcasm, though I've bought three orbs this way).
I'm not being sarcastic like some. At work, my orb collects dust while I'm in meetings (I only cover it at the end of the day), so once or twice a month I roll it off with some reverse rolled up Scotch tape or shipping tape. Makes it good as new.
I'll have to see what you guys are doing to reverse the "bottom rubber ring" (the base). That sounds like a good way to invalidate warranty by mucking about with the product. If the problem is that bad, RMA it. Or sell it on eBay to someone like me for $40 (okay, that IS sarcasm, though I've bought three orbs this way).
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