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

[imomperousse]

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

has anyone had any issues using the touchstone when the phone is at really low battery levels, My phone got all the way down to 1% and I couldn't get it to charge using the touchstone. Had to plug into the usb last night.

 

[ohiomoto]

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

Yeah, that happened with my Palm Pre+ also.

 

[hyddyn]

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

I just did this mod, went to Home Depot to get copper tape for keeping snails away. And it was pretty cheap.


15 ft. Slug and Snail Copper Tape-715 at The Home Depot

 

[Knolly]

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

Does anyone happen to know what the most common way to "break" the coil is? I've gone through two Pre coils, the first one I removed and it still worked until my constant fidgeting broke it, the second it broke immediately after being removed. Am I bending something that I shouldn't maybe?

EDIT: Turns out I actually just didn't plug the touchstone into something giving it enough juice.

 

[nkk2008]

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

Ok...I now have another problem. I got my coil to work (just replaced it--I must have bent it or something).

Now, I cannot get my phone to charge. When just the back is on the Touchstone, I get a nice constant 5.6V across the two contacts that I made to connect to the phone (i.e. all my copper wire traces on the back are correct). When I put the back on the phone, it does not charge. However, when I connect the back pads to the pads I made on the phone, it charges. So my problem is in the back cover to phone contact. I raised each of the pads a little by putting a nice flat-ish coating of solder on both the cover pads and the phone pads, but that did nothing. I am as certain as I ever will be that my alignment is correct, so is there any other thing I am missing?

Thanks,
Nkk

 

[comprocket]

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

I have not been able to re-produce the issue you are having at all....But try this.

1) In post 1, the OP mentions that they used the foam from the Palm case under the wire on the phone side. This will raise the wire and increase the likelihood that it makes contact with the door
2) Put a drop of solder on each copper strip (on the door side) where it makes contact with the phone side. This will guarantee that you get a good connection between the phone and the door. You will also be able to see a round indentation on your copper (phone side) from the solder beads.

It simply sounds like your leads are not connecting properly when you put the door on the phone.

 

[comprocket]

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

Can someone who confirmed their NFC as working post a picture of where you mounted the coil? I have been unable to get NFC to work on my phone! I placed the coil as high as I could, but it cannot be too high because the phone will no longer fit on the dock!

I confirmed that my NFC works without the cover, so it is the pre receiver blocking it!

 

[ellesshoo]

Can someone who confirmed their NFC as working post a picture of where you mounted the coil? I have been unable to get NFC to work on my phone! I placed the coil as high as I could, but it cannot be too high because the phone will no longer fit on the dock!

I confirmed that my NFC works without the cover, so it is the pre receiver blocking it!

NFC works for me and I put my coil so that it would be dead center on the phone (certainly not the highest up it could be). I have a GSM nexus so my battery is a slightly different shape than LTE nexus but I highly doubt that difference would matter.

Attached photos. I lifted the insulation to show the coil better on one of them.

 

[comprocket]

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

Do you have stock magnets or stronger?

 

[ellesshoo]

Do you have stock magnets or stronger?

I have 1/4" neodymium magnets (I made indentations in the cover where they are to keep things thin).

I don't think going bigger than that will help much because the magnets in the touchstone have both N & S poles in close proximity and if you go much bigger you'll end up with some N-N or S-S repulsion force. Inside they actually have two magnets in each corner, parallel opposite polarity, yoked together effectively making it a U magnet. Probably the strongest way to stick to the touchstone would be to get use two small rectangular (touchstone magnets have a rectangular profile) magnets in each corner yoked with a thin piece of soft iron with polar orientation complimentary to that inside the touchstone.

 

[comprocket]

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

Darn... I have the same magnets. I will do some experimenting tonight and see if its my coil or magnets preventing NFC!

 

[hhairplane]

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

Is it really necessary to solder the copper foil to the Palm Touchstone back, as I don't have a soldering tool?

 

[Rickhuizinga]

Is it really necessary to solder the copper foil to the Palm Touchstone back, as I don't have a soldering tool?

I've had mixed results, on my first attempt there was good conductivity through the adhesive. On my second attempt, I could not get good conductivity without soldering.

 

[ellesshoo]

Is it really necessary to solder the copper foil to the Palm Touchstone back, as I don't have a soldering tool?

Step 1: drive to radio shack
Step 2: buy cheap soldering pencil & solder
Step 3: solder foil
Step 4: use iron in future & become handy
Step 5: get laid by your wife for being handy


Profit?

 

[imomperousse]

Is it really necessary to solder the copper foil to the Palm Touchstone back, as I don't have a soldering tool?

Get one it's worth it....you will be amazed by what you will find yourself fixing after you practice a little

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[imomperousse]

Darn... I have the same magnets. I will do some experimenting tonight and see if its my coil or magnets preventing NFC!

Spent like $100 today using NFC, also my NFC tags all work. In addition to that my compass seems totally unaffected by the bigger magnets.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Lithoss]

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

(Not sure if a similar post has been posted on here yet, but either way, more pics is better right?)

For those of you interested in using this with a case, I went ahead and modified my Seidio Surface case with this mod. Instead of mounting the coil in the battery cover, I cut away some of the felt lining on the inside of the case, and mounted everything in there. Then used copper tape run outside of the battery cover that connects with the copper tape on the case when everything is put together. I did this with the LTE extended case and it works just fine with the extended battery/battery cover as well.

I also tried this successfully with a Seidio Active case but wasn't happy with the flimsyness of the case... but that's another story...

I think this could work with a TPU case as well. I tested my wife's Gnex diztronics case and the coil + touchstone does work through the thicker TPU material. Not sure if the TPU case can hold the phone as well when being pulled by magnets. I'm sure it would be fine...

This also might solve some the NFC problems some people are having as you can put the coil higher up on the phone so that the battery is completely unobstructed. That was one of my priorities... One of the main reasons i bought the phone was NFC and I couldn't bring myself to lose that ability.

Pics below.

 

[ohiomoto]

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

@Lithoss, thanks for sharing. Looks good.
@ellesshoo, LMAO!

 

[ohiomoto]

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

I have 1/4" neodymium magnets (I made indentations in the cover where they are to keep things thin).

I don't think going bigger than that will help much because the magnets in the touchstone have both N & S poles in close proximity and if you go much bigger you'll end up with some N-N or S-S repulsion force. Inside they actually have two magnets in each corner, parallel opposite polarity, yoked together effectively making it a U magnet. Probably the strongest way to stick to the touchstone would be to get use two small rectangular (touchstone magnets have a rectangular profile) magnets in each corner yoked with a thin piece of soft iron with polar orientation complimentary to that inside the touchstone.

That explains why the magnets can be placed in two different positions (inner and outer) depending on which side is placed down and the original non-magnetic discs land somewhere in between.

EDIT: File this under the "Why didn't I think of that before?" category: I just removed the magnet from one corner, flipped it over and placed it next to the magnet in another corner. So why not use 2 magnets in each corner (without yoking them together)? Seems reasonable that this really make it stick to the Touchstone! I'll have to experiment when I get home from work today.

 

[nkk2008]

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

I'm back. I got it all working. My problem was that I did not use the foam as I could not find it in the case (for some reason I thought it was at the top, not bottom). After I found it and used it to raise the contacts, everything worked.

Also, I mounted my coil as high up as posslble under the battery cover (just under the camera opening), and my NFC works perfectly.

Thanks to all who helped me and to the OP. My phone is now almost perfect.

-Nkk