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

[Knolly]

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

I finally got an extended battery cover to get this mod working (I couldn't get everything to fit with the standard door).

The charging definitely works, however sometimes it will start charging for a minute or so and then stop... Has this happened to anyone else? I'm on a GSM Galaxy Nexus running Kang milestone 4. I'm going to try to roll back to stock since I know the software can affect charging as well and see what happens.

 

[ohiomoto]

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

Sounds like it could be the contacts on the back cover. Try "pinching" the phone by the pogo pins and see it that gets is going.

 

[Knolly]

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

Sounds like it could be the contacts on the back cover. Try "pinching" the phone by the pogo pins and see it that gets is going.

I readjusted the copper strips on both sides and added some foam and now it charges perfectly! Success!!!

 

[eventnick]

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

FYI for those trying to use an NFC tag on top of the Touchstone like I was for initializing a Car Mode type automation....

1) using an unshielded tag directly on top of the touchstone will destroy the tag. I do not know why I was surprised by this... pretty much the touchstone induces a large current in the loops of the unshielded tag and well you know, does bad things. So don't put an unshielded nfc tag on the touchstone.

2) Using a shielded tag directly on the touchstone... (a) prevents the touchstone from charging if its occupying too much surface area (b) causes the tag to read continuously on-off-on-off .. due to interference from the touchstone (speculating).

So pretty much you can have the NFC tag hanging off one side of the touchstone (mine is 30mm in diameter) which ...looks ret@rded and prevents you from triggering the tag if you put the phone in the opposite orientation.

Looks like my dreams of having the touchstone charger in my car with an NFC tag triggering bluetooth etc automatically (and looking nice), dashed by a good old fashioned catch-22.

 

[freeskier44]

FYI for those trying to use an NFC tag on top of the Touchstone like I was for initializing a Car Mode type automation....

1) using an unshielded tag directly on top of the touchstone will destroy the tag. I do not know why I was surprised by this... pretty much the touchstone induces a large current in the loops of the unshielded tag and well you know, does bad things. So don't put an unshielded nfc tag on the touchstone.

2) Using a shielded tag directly on the touchstone... (a) prevents the touchstone from charging if its occupying too much surface area (b) causes the tag to read continuously on-off-on-off .. due to interference from the touchstone (speculating).

So pretty much you can have the NFC tag hanging off one side of the touchstone (mine is 30mm in diameter) which ...looks ret@rded and prevents you from triggering the tag if you put the phone in the opposite orientation.

Looks like my dreams of having the touchstone charger in my car with an NFC tag triggering bluetooth etc automatically (and looking nice), dashed by a good old fashioned catch-22.

Dang this sucks..... this was my next project.... shoot. There has to be a way....

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Knolly]

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

My workaround was I just put a tag on my dash that I quickly hold my phone over before putting it on the Touchstone. By no means perfect, but still at least a bit more convenient than opening up the apps manually.

 

[ellesshoo]

FYI for those trying to use an NFC tag on top of the Touchstone like I was for initializing a Car Mode type automation....

1) using an unshielded tag directly on top of the touchstone will destroy the tag. I do not know why I was surprised by this... pretty much the touchstone induces a large current in the loops of the unshielded tag and well you know, does bad things. So don't put an unshielded nfc tag on the touchstone.

2) Using a shielded tag directly on the touchstone... (a) prevents the touchstone from charging if its occupying too much surface area (b) causes the tag to read continuously on-off-on-off .. due to interference from the touchstone (speculating).

So pretty much you can have the NFC tag hanging off one side of the touchstone (mine is 30mm in diameter) which ...looks ret@rded and prevents you from triggering the tag if you put the phone in the opposite orientation.

Looks like my dreams of having the touchstone charger in my car with an NFC tag triggering bluetooth etc automatically (and looking nice), dashed by a good old fashioned catch-22.

I have been using tasker for months to start Bluetooth when connected to power, have it automatically turn off if not paired for within 20 seconds, and leave it on if it is paired but power removed (like if I grab it off the touchstone to do something while music is playing). It's perfect and doesn't require any manual intervention to turn it off or on when starting/leaving the car, no need to even swipe a tag.

Also, I think most people would be very surprised how little power is used by bt just being in standby all the time (same with wifi). I know there are a lot of OCD types that just can't deal with it but it's true. I'm a little less OCD than most, I mostly set things up the way I did simply because I could (w/ insignificant hassle).

 

[Pr3mier]

I have been using tasker for months to start Bluetooth when connected to power, have it automatically turn off if not paired for within 20 seconds, and leave it on if it is paired but power removed.

Can you please tell me what profile you use to set up this action? Or send me the backup? I know I can turn on BT when it is being charged, but when I take it off the touchstone it turns off BT. I didn't set any exit task for it.

 

[ellesshoo]

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

Can you please tell me what profile you use to set up this action? Or send me the backup? I know I can turn on BT when it is being charged, but when I take it off the touchstone it turns off BT. I didn't set any exit task for it.

I took a bunch of unrelated personal stuff out but this should still work. Contains 2 profiles with unnamed tasks and a named task.

 

[gobigred303]

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

I am really struggling. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. This is the first time I've ever tried to do a mod like this, and the first time I have ever soldered something. I may be in over my head.

For some reason, my multimeter shows no continuity between my top pin and bottom pin. Is this normally? It isn't my multimeter because I tested it on a 1.5v battery and it gave the correct reading. When I use the multimeter on the pins I get a steady 1 mV. I'm also not getting any continuity on the coil by itself? Is it possible that my 3 pin charger is broken AND my coil is broken? I doubt it. I'm probably doing something wrong. Any ideas? Better yet, anyone in the Denver area that can help me?

 

[eandcent]

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

I am really struggling. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. This is the first time I've ever tried to do a mod like this, and the first time I have ever soldered something. I may be in over my head.

For some reason, my multimeter shows no continuity between my top pin and bottom pin. Is this normally? It isn't my multimeter because I tested it on a 1.5v battery and it gave the correct reading. When I use the multimeter on the pins I get a steady 1 mV. I'm also not getting any continuity on the coil by itself? Is it possible that my 3 pin charger is broken AND my coil is broken? I doubt it. I'm probably doing something wrong. Any ideas? Better yet, anyone in the Denver area that can help me?

An easy way to test your coil: Put it together the way it is supposed to on your GNex battery cover. Make sure that the black tape/foil that covered the coil originally on the Pre cover is installed as it won't work without that black tape/foil. Once all together, put the GNex cover with coil on the touchstone, making sure your touchstone is plugged in, and test the voltage across the two leads. You should be reading about 5V. Check that first since it's easy.

 

[eandcent]

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

I am really struggling. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. This is the first time I've ever tried to do a mod like this, and the first time I have ever soldered something. I may be in over my head.

For some reason, my multimeter shows no continuity between my top pin and bottom pin. Is this normally? It isn't my multimeter because I tested it on a 1.5v battery and it gave the correct reading. When I use the multimeter on the pins I get a steady 1 mV. I'm also not getting any continuity on the coil by itself? Is it possible that my 3 pin charger is broken AND my coil is broken? I doubt it. I'm probably doing something wrong. Any ideas? Better yet, anyone in the Denver area that can help me?

This might help... here's a good video to watch regarding soldering to make sure you're doing it right: How and WHY to Solder Correctly - YouTube

 

[eventnick]

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

Ok. I have some more useful tech data to add. This is for folks who want to be able to use Force Fast Charging (FFC) or AKA AC Charging mode on the touchstone in their cars primarily. But it also applies to people trying to use non-OEM wall chargers as well.

Ok so I am not sure where to begin this rant so I will just word vomit it out. If you want to use the Touchstone in your car the charger/cable you use is important depending on which charging mode you want to utilize.

Background info:
The TS needs more current to function than a lot of chargers can provide - which is why they tell you not to plug it into your computer and why it won't work with a lot of chargers. I am going to tell you why and how to work around or avoid the problem. If you do not have enough current to the Touchstone it will do a weird on/off/on/off dance. The touchstone looks for a charger/cable combination that indicates the data pins D+ and D- are shorted together - this is used by the USB Spec to indicate a charger that is capable of providing >500 mA. If you do not have this, then the touchstone will not work at all. This is done internally for the OEM Palm Chargers. If you have an amperage-capable charger you can short the pins together yourself and it will work ***however*** it depends on which mode you want to charge with. There are two modes, USB Mode (slow - ~ 450 mA to phone - sometimes inadequate) and AC Mode (fast ~ 650 mA to phone - much better but not as good as a good car or wall charger plugged in directly ~1000mA).

If you are just wanting to charge your phone in USB Mode on the TS: my 850 mA Motorola Car Charger is adequate. I am guessing that you need at least a 650 mA rated charger. Remember it must have D+ and D- shorted to work at all.

If you desire to use AC Mode on the TS: You need a charger capable of 1A. My 850 mA Moto Car Charger just causes the TS to on/off/on/off every few seconds. Remember even if the charger is rated for 1A it must have D+ and D- shorted to work at all.

Here is a list from the WebOS forums that lists working CAR and WALL chargers for the TS: Here

For my Car TouchStone -I have purchased the Palm Car Charger 3453ww which is 1000ma rated from Amazon for $12. This already has D+ and D- shorted internally. Here @ Amazon Plus its OEM so quality of the power delivered will most likely be much cleaner.

I hope this is useful to folks who can't get it working in their car especially with the FFC (AC MODE) mod going. If you're seeing an on/off dance with the touchstone you are using an inadequate car/wall charger.

 

[matagilb]

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

Thanks for the idea i finally got this to work with my otterbox commuter case with extended battery.

 

[freeskier44]

What happens if I were to have the nexus connected to MHL and on the touchstone? Would it be safe?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[gobigred303]

An easy way to test your coil: Put it together the way it is supposed to on your GNex battery cover. Make sure that the black tape/foil that covered the coil originally on the Pre cover is installed as it won't work without that black tape/foil. Once all together, put the GNex cover with coil on the touchstone, making sure your touchstone is plugged in, and test the voltage across the two leads. You should be reading about 5V. Check that first since it's easy.

Thanks for the tip. I tried this today and I'm still not getting a reading. Is there a way to test to make sure my multimeter is working by using the 3 pins on the GN? I think my coil might be fried or my multimeter isn't working correctly. I ordered another coil just in case, I'm super anxious to get this done. Thanks in advance.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[eandcent]

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

Thanks for the tip. I tried this today and I'm still not getting a reading. Is there a way to test to make sure my multimeter is working by using the 3 pins on the GN? I think my coil might be fried or my multimeter isn't working correctly. I ordered another coil just in case, I'm super anxious to get this done. Thanks in advance.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

The easiest way is to use a regular 9V battery. The multimeter should read, as you might guess, 9V when you test the leads.

 

[piroko05]

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

So I know this is buried and you most likely will not see this, but anyways....

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

This mod is absolutely incredible. It took me an hour and a half to implement and I am very satisfied with the results. The only thing I had to do a little differently was add some solder to the tape on the inside of the battery cover to ensure contact was maintained with the base (See here). Also, I lined up the copper leads while I had the enclosure off of the phone, it made it a lot easier (I didn't get a pic of this, sorry).

...now what to do with this extra 8m of Copper tape...

 

[Pr3mier]

After recently updating to stock 4.0.4, I noticed that it takes about 11 seconds to indicate touchstone charging whereas it used to take only 2 seconds on stock 4.0.2. Just an fyi
GSM gnex

 

[kuchar09]

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

This mod looks very simple!! I just have a question about voiding the warranty. Does this void the warranty because you need to open your phone? I ask this because I see no stickers around the housing for them to know that the housing was opened.
As long as you don't solder the strips to the pogo pins I see no reason why this mod couldn't be undone for warranty replacement.
Am I missing something?