Has anyone thought about stuffing the touchstone coil into the nexus4? It sounds stupid i know since the n4 already has wireless charging built in, but the chargers are expensive and hard to find while the touchstone chargers are cheap and plentiful.
peachpuff said:
Has anyone thought about stuffing the touchstone coil into the nexus4? It sounds stupid i know since the n4 already has wireless charging built in, but the chargers are expensive and hard to find while the touchstone chargers are cheap and plentiful.
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Click to collapse
The Qi protocol requires that the receiver send a handshake to the transmitter to start charging. If a non-Qi device is on the plate, then it will do a start and stop every 20 sec to poll for the signal. I am working on changing the Touchstone coil to a Qi transmitter coil and see what happens. I received the Qi coil, Qi inductive charging sleeve (for testing) and waiting on a Palm touchstone sleeve. My concern is that the touchstone without the Qi communication on charging status may overheat the N4 if it doesn't stop the power transmission properly.
terracode said:
My concern is that the touchstone without the Qi communication on charging status may overheat the N4 if it doesn't stop the power transmission properly.
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Click to collapse
People have put touchstone coil's in other phones and had no issues, i don't see how it would be any different here. There are 4 contact points that connect the qi coil and nfc on the rear cover, attach the touchstone coil to 2 of them and hope you can close the cover with everything inside.
peachpuff said:
People have put touchstone coil's in other phones and had no issues, i don't see how it would be any different here. There are 4 contact points that connect the qi coil and nfc on the rear cover, attach the touchstone coil to 2 of them and hope you can close the cover with everything inside.
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Click to collapse
He's doing the opposite; he's replacing the coil in the touchstone charger with a QI charging coil.
I connected the Qi compliant coil to the Touchstone board and it didn't recognize the Qi receiver so it didn't start energy transfer. I then moved the thin wire coil that the Touchston uses to sense a Palm Receiver to above the Qi coil. The transmitter didn't start with a Qi receiver, but did recognize the Palm receiver and started energizing the coil. Issue was the voltage was very low due to the mismatched coils (Qi transmitter and TS receiver). I need to take apart the Touchstone receiver to see what it uses to activate the transmitter. More tinkering is needed.
I think QI controls the charging level from the phone, by communicating back to the charger. It may not be a good idea to disable this mechanism by swithing a charge coil on manually (though I'd think that the phone would not charge at all, then).
If you want to try, I think QI uses 141 KHz. Supply that to a coil at the correct power and see if it charges.
jutezak said:
I think QI controls the charging level from the phone, by communicating back to the charger. It may not be a good idea to disable this mechanism by swithing a charge coil on manually (though I'd think that the phone would not charge at all, then).
If you want to try, I think QI uses 141 KHz. Supply that to a coil at the correct power and see if it charges.
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Click to collapse
I am actually doing the opposite. The Qi coil is on the transmit side attached to the touchstone charger power board. I need a way of sending a proper signal to the Palm Touchstone so that it energizes the coil. The Qi receiver doesn't have the proper interface to send a signal to the Touchstone to power up.
$50 is hardly expensive.... Wall Mart wanted $50 for a plug in travel charger for my galaxy tablet. Just find the lg one.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Qi coil
terracode said:
I am actually doing the opposite. The Qi coil is on the transmit side attached to the touchstone charger power board. I need a way of sending a proper signal to the Palm Touchstone so that it energizes the coil. The Qi receiver doesn't have the proper interface to send a signal to the Touchstone to power up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So are you able to replace the qi coil successfully to TS?
For someone who want's multiple docks around, $50 does add up. For someone like me who has 2 or more touchstone chargers laying around from previous mods/palm phones this would be useful.
I've tried to do the following to my Nexus 4, but couldn't get off the back cover without damaging the phone (I could get everything but one corner of the phone to pop open, I noticed I was beginning to damage the body a bit and stopped trying).
Mind you, the following needs to be used with a case; works best with rugged cases/hard cases.
If anyone is able to open their phone up you can try my following idea:
1. Remove the back of the phone
2..There should be 4 pins, 2 for NFC, and 2 for the QI coil.
3. Use a voltmeter to find out which pin is positive and which is negative.
-- I am not sure if the touchstone coil could fit INSIDE the phone, so I assumed it would not fit, and came up with this solution--
4. Using copper tape (if you've modded your GNEX before, you probably have some left over) stick it onto the pins, and lead them outside of the back cover, wrapping around so you see the copper tape on the OUTSIDE of the phone
5. Close the phone back up, the copper tape should now be hanging outside of the side of the phone.
6. Get your touchstone coil and tape/adhere it to the inside of your selected case.
7. Take your copper tape yet again and solder it to the leads of the touchstone coil, and position the copper tape so it touches the existing tape (from the nexus) when you put the case onto your phone.
That's it. The touchstone should be thin enough so that it doesn't interfere with the fitting of the case. This was the situation for my previous two mods with Galaxy Nexus's, the fit of the case was no problem. (Otterbox Commuter, and SGP Neo-Hybrid).
DDRFAN said:
For someone who want's multiple docks around, $50 does add up. For someone like me who has 2 or more touchstone chargers laying around from previous mods/palm phones this would be useful.
I've tried to do the following to my Nexus 4, but couldn't get off the back cover without damaging the phone (I could get everything but one corner of the phone to pop open, I noticed I was beginning to damage the body a bit and stopped trying).
Mind you, the following needs to be used with a case; works best with rugged cases/hard cases.
If anyone is able to open their phone up you can try my following idea:
1. Remove the back of the phone
2..There should be 4 pins, 2 for NFC, and 2 for the QI coil.
3. Use a voltmeter to find out which pin is positive and which is negative.
-- I am not sure if the touchstone coil could fit INSIDE the phone, so I assumed it would not fit, and came up with this solution--
4. Using copper tape (if you've modded your GNEX before, you probably have some left over) stick it onto the pins, and lead them outside of the back cover, wrapping around so you see the copper tape on the OUTSIDE of the phone
5. Close the phone back up, the copper tape should now be hanging outside of the side of the phone.
6. Get your touchstone coil and tape/adhere it to the inside of your selected case.
7. Take your copper tape yet again and solder it to the leads of the touchstone coil, and position the copper tape so it touches the existing tape (from the nexus) when you put the case onto your phone.
That's it. The touchstone should be thin enough so that it doesn't interfere with the fitting of the case. This was the situation for my previous two mods with Galaxy Nexus's, the fit of the case was no problem. (Otterbox Commuter, and SGP Neo-Hybrid).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was this simply the metal coil or the entire assembly including board from a Pre charging cover? very Interested as I have a Nexus 4 I will be receiving Monday
singularityq said:
Was this simply the metal coil or the entire assembly including board from a Pre charging cover? very Interested as I have a Nexus 4 I will be receiving Monday
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Click to collapse
You should only have to replace the metal coil.
OP, a simple google search would have sufficed http://www.webosnation.com/nexus-4-gains-touchstone-charging-thanks-clever-hacking
Related
This makes the phone much more enjoyable. Take a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ-KUgDNrwM
Whole phone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMWgaSfwSrI
You keep posting links to this video, but is there a step by step guide for this method? Looks awesome BTW. I found guides using wire and using the copper tape on the Nexus, but none that put it all together for this phone. I have several touchstone and my Palm Pre back, but am going to try the Pixie back.
Thanks so much! The pixi back is best because the positive and negatives line up with the phones positive and negative. The pres back has the negative on top so its more difficult.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ-KUgDNrwM
Whole phone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMWgaSfwSrI
I saw your posts/videos over in the international thread. Finally got my stuff in yesterday to try this out and got it all working today. So far the touchstone seems to work great and there is only very minimal bulge showing in the back (small enough that unless you point it out most people wouldn't notice it)
Great job. Any pics? You live so close to me. Lol
Here are some pictures.
As you can see there is almost no bulge. It can only really be seen when reflecting light off the back's glossy surface.
I used the pixi coil and some copper tape. The hardest part was getting the proper placement of the contact points.
<facepalm>
I was just going to post how my NFC stopped working after I did this but just found that NFC got turned off on my old GS2 (only other NFC device I have to test with)
Turned it back on and everything works....
</facepalm>
so is there a how to or a site you can buy the modded back covers or something other then pics?
would be nice to let everyone know.
So sorry blownco as there is no tutorial as i did not personal mod my phone. I bought a spare cover that i will try and mod myself as soon as i receive my rare earth batteries.
Pmentior greay job with the mod. Looks so clean too!
BLOWNCO said:
so is there a how to or a site you can buy the modded back covers or something other then pics?
would be nice to let everyone know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
**Update**
I have removed this mod temporarily as I was have some issues with the connection between my pixi coil and the copper tape. I should have this fixed in the next couple of days. Use the following steps as a frame work for your own mod not as a comprehensive guide!
**Update 2**
I have redone my mod and have updated this posted with new or modified steps.
My new build adds a little more bulge due to using a shot section of soldered wire.
There isn't really all that much to it.
Material needed:
Galaxy S3 (obviously)]
Palm Touchstone - I got the kit that includes the power supply and usb cord because some people have been having trouble with using other cords
Palm Pixi Touchstone Back
Copper Tape
Soldering Iron
Other Materials:
Double Sided Tape
Electrical Tape
Steps:
1) Peels the Coil out of the Pixi Back
After you get the black sticker off you will see all the pieces of the coil still stuck to the Pixi Back.
The 4 small metal disks spaced around the coil are important so move them too.
Carefully remove all these pieces and reassemble them back onto the black sticker
Tip) I used the touchstone base (Unplugged!) to help align the metal disks correctly. This helped the magnetic attachment between the phone and the dock. Just reassemble the coil assemble on the touchstone dock and the magnets in the dock pull the disk into the correct place on its own.
2) The copper tape is used to 'move' the leads on the Pixi back to the correct position so they line up with the contact points of the GS3
Don't let the 2 leads touch each other!
You need to add a little cushion under the ends of the copper tape so they connect properly.
3) Required step:The contact between the original pixi contact point and the copper tape needs to be soldered to maintain the connection.
Note) I had trouble getting the copper tape soldered directly to the pixi contact point. I used a small wire to connect the pixi contact with my new copper tape contacts. The wire was scavanged from an old extra USB cord I had laying around.
4) Use some electrical tape to cover the soldering points to make it look nice and to reduce risk of shorting.
5) Put the GS3 back back on and check the fit then place the GS3 on the touchstone and see if it works.
6) Adjust positioning if needed.
**edit**
I just went off the pictures/videos stu5797 has posted.
I may have missed something as I wrote this from memory of what I did. The mod was a lot of trial an error as I only went off of a few pictures.
What did you use to make the bumps for the contacts?
I just used a little bit of wadded up electrical tape underneath the copper foil. So far that part at least has made consistent contact.
I have been have trouble with the connection between the coil and the copper tape (this connection is under some black electrical tape in my picture, not the part that has the cushion under it.)and need to work on that the next few days. It will probably be solved with a bit of soldering (no modification will be done to the main part of the phone only the back cover and will be fully reversible) as I was too lazy to do it that way the first time.
i'm hoping that somewhere deep within China some eager little entrepreneur is making a cheap back cover that has the contacts already in it and they will appear on Ebay shortly.
Don't really want to wait until September for the Samsung and the thought of rigging it myself with tape and thin wires makes me nervous.. i take the back cover off too often to change out batteries and figure eventually i'd cross the wires and maybe ruin the phone.
Just ordered a pixi back and touchstone for about 8/9 bucks shipped on Amazon.
Unfortunately soldering is needed on the pixi back with copper tape to give the phone a constant great charge. Dont forget to get magnets and copper tape
I was hoping to avoid soldering with my first install. It work great for a while but then started to lose connection. I figured that I was probably going to have to solder it so I ordered 2 pixi backs to begin with in-case I screwed one up.
I don't think adding more magnets are really a good idea. Adding them to the phone will probably mess with the compass pretty badly. The touchstone system has the mags built into the base and just some metal pieces in the phone. If I can find something to replace the tiny metal disks in the cover though it should help keeping the phone onto the dock.
Does one of these exist? I have a cheap TPU S-line case from ebay that I bought when the phone was first released. It works with the QI charger but it does not keep the dust out of the ports.
I bought two cheapies off ebay to test if something a little thicker would work with the QI charger and so far nothing does. Seems that any case that covers ports are thick and may not work with the QI charger.
BTW its the Energizer charger, not the official Google one.
Have you considered just getting a microusb port cover? http://www.moddiy.com/products/modDIY-Micro%2dUSB-Protective-Jack-Cover.html for example
ziddey said:
Have you considered just getting a microusb port cover? http://www.moddiy.com/products/modDIY-Micro%2dUSB-Protective-Jack-Cover.html for example
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have but if a case exists that will work then I would like to give that a shot first. I notice the covers for the cases are snug fit so it wont allow dust in at all when a plug may leave room between it and the case. I work in a very dirty environment and would like to keep the phone itself as clean as possible.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+6+Teardown/32877?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Nexus+6+Teardown&utm_content=Nexus+6+Teardown+CID_4c0816d3ad3ab173f994a26d0641e23f&utm_source=CampaignMonitor&utm_term=Nexus%206%20Teardown
Looks like the back cover is easy to remove. Nothing attached to it so if there are 3rd party covers to be made. replacing it should be easy but may be a one time thing as not sure how well the back would stick again once the adhesive has been compromised.
As I suspected, the qi charging coils are on the battery, not the back cover, which explains why some qi chargers are having difficulty with the N6, especially if it's in a case. The slight curve of the back, and that secondary cover mean that the coils will be a bit farther away from the charger as, say, those in a N5 would.
Also, no magnets (or even metal plates) around the qi charging coils. Now we know why the Nexus Charger won't stick to it (and why those mobile wireless charging docks won't hold it). Looks like there might be enough room to add some though, so that's one possibility.
jt3 said:
As I suspected, the qi charging coils are on the battery, not the back cover, which explains why some qi chargers are having difficulty with the N6, especially if it's in a case. The slight curve of the back, and that secondary cover mean that the coils will be a bit farther away from the charger as, say, those in a N5 would.
Also, no magnets (or even metal plates) around the qi charging coils. Now we know why the Nexus Charger won't stick to it (and why those mobile wireless charging docks won't hold it). Looks like there might be enough room to add some though, so that's one possibility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not even sure you would have to add magnets. You might be able to get away with putting some small metal plates under the back cover for the magnetic docks.
How much force would I need to exert for the connector to break? I'm asking this because I've heard that the connector isn't replaceable without replacing the entire motherboard, and I'm a bit paranoid about it breaking:silly:. Thanks in advance!
p7810456 said:
How much force would I need to exert for the connector to break? I'm asking this because I've heard that the connector isn't replaceable without replacing the entire motherboard, and I'm a bit paranoid about it breaking:silly:. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Owned g3, g4 and now v20. Totally normal to ask about this. Even if you protect your phones with cases and tempered glasses, two primary weak spots remain: motherboard battery contacts wearing out and breaking off (happened to me on my G4) and USB-C troubles. As both the battery connector and the USB-C port are soldered onto the motherboard, even if your phone is under warranty, the only fix is installing a new motherboard, losing the data (back up your data often!) As I was explained in the service center, taking the parts off the motherboard and soldering the new ones back on (that's only if you have a donor motherboard or parts to begin with) results in heating the surrounding circuitry area to the temps of up to 400c, risking damaging the metal tracks (or ripping the seating metal pucks for the parts off the board altogether on removal).
Since the g4 mishap, my solution for effectively protecting the USB port from wear, pulling and yanking damage is the permanent (but easily removable) magnetic USB-C insert that lives in your phone all the time and has magnetic studs on the outside plane that the charging cord snaps to. There are several manufacturers of those on Amazon, none are perfect but any of them is better than using your port "raw" daily. WZKEN makes tangle-free USB-C cords with strong contact between the insert and the cord. The cords (at least in my case) support Qualcomm quick charge 2. When connected through a WZKEN cord, my Anker QC2 charger plug changes light from blue to green to indicate QC and my phone notifies me QC is on, so the QC handshake works as expected.
One thing though if you go the magnetic rout - order MORE inserts than cords, if your USB-C port is loose, the inserts might fall out every once in a while, you'll lose them. Also I haven't seen any magnetic cords with light indicators that change color when QC kicks in, all the light shows is that there's electricity in the port on the wall charger that your cord is connected to. Also, WZKEN cord heads snap to the inserts the right side up only, not on either side.
Whatever the quirks, beats the every day pounding that USB-C ports take by far, especially knowing v20 doesn't charge wirelessly! Inserts are small enough to fit into all port cutouts on all cases I have, so no problem there, either.
The solution is so simple that I charge most of the micro-USB and USB-C devices in my house this way.
p7810456 said:
How much force would I need to exert for the connector to break? I'm asking this because I've heard that the connector isn't replaceable without replacing the entire motherboard, and I'm a bit paranoid about it breaking:silly:. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very very hard.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
Never got into wireless charging on my S7. Always had a magnetic mount on the vent with a metal plate between the phone and the case. Now that I'm hooked on wireless charging, I'm on a similar setup but with a wide ring magnet between phone and case so it doesn't interfere with wireless charging. My one issue is that when the phone is flat on a desk, it rocks just a little (and I like a thin case). So what I'm looking for is a thin case, with an embedded magnet (so it's a flat bottom surface) and where the magnet is in a configuration where it doesn't interfere with wireless charging (whether it's a wide ring, or a few magnet points spaced out, etc.) I've thought about digging into my case as a DIY but not there yet Pitaka MagCase looks like it would so the trick but it hasn't been released yet. Any out there that I'm just not finding?
Thanks!
And, this is on an S9 plus.
Can you post pics of your setup? I'm looking for a magnetic wireless car charger that holds up via the vent.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
thx for the tip.... now i want one too
https://www.ipitaka.com/collections/magcase-for-samsung-galaxy-s9
Search on Amazon for "Magnetic Wireless Car Charger, ELEGIANT Fast Wireless Charging Car Mount Phone Holder". Looks like it's now out of stock but there's dozens just like them. I went with something inexpensive to make sure it worked. And it did- fast charged on the mount as well as the Samsung official desktop wireless charger. Although the swivel ball joint on the vent mount was a little flimsy. I placed the magnetic ring such that the top of it was about 1/4" below the bottom of the fingerprint sensor (I spent a lot of time trying to figure out exactly where the coils in the phone were; you can take a good guess by knowing that the desktop Sammy wireless charger woks with both the phone standing upright as well as on it's side and that it's got two coils).
Even though the ring is very thin, it still adds a slight bulge in the middle and makes it "wobble" a bit. I don't have the right shop equipment to shave a circular channel on the inside of the case to place the magnetic ring
Found one made by Nillkin. Have to use their own charging mount (which makes perfect sense as it uses four small magnets at four corners of the mount). Reviews aren't great, it's standard (not fast) charging, and the I like my side buttons uncovered.
Xvida makes one as well (a little bulkier than the Pitaka) but S8 is the most recent they support as of now.
hey guys,
you might wanna hold off getting the pitaka magmount, I received info from pitaka that the s9+ position of the wireless charging coil of S9 therefore the position of the built-in metal plate is different from other cases, they are still testing there new wireless charging mount, it will come out later.
I will be getting a review unit of the case later and I will let you know how I feel about the case. cheers guys.
xzr3b0rnzx said:
hey guys,
you might wanna hold off getting the pitaka magmount, I received info from pitaka that the s9+ position of the wireless charging coil of S9 therefore the position of the built-in metal plate is different from other cases, they are still testing there new wireless charging mount, it will come out later.
I will be getting a review unit of the case later and I will let you know how I feel about the case. cheers guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the iOttie magnetic mount/quick charger in my car.
It worked really well with my S8 and note 8.
I put the small metal ring inside the case on my S9+ and it was very finicky.
Sometimes it would only charge (not fast charge) and other times it wouldn't charge at all.
I found that by placing the ring up higher near the camera, it maintained position to quick charge the phone and hold it securely.
The qi coil in the S9+ seems to be a bit closer to the camera than the other devices I've used.
I hope this helps.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Great- thanks- similar to my current setup- I'm just looking for a case where the ring is actually embedded in the case, so the back of the case is perfectly flat.
Looks like from another thread the S9+ MagCase has launched- not on Amazon yet but on the Pitaka site- would love to see a review to make sure it quick charges wirelessly (as opposed to not quick). Sounds like they had issues with magnet placement originally and that might affect it.
Nillkin makes one. It's on Amazon as well.
y2k1ltd said:
Nillkin makes one. It's on Amazon as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes- thank you- the Nillkin looks great- and a lot less expensive than the Pitaka- but the case has full edges that cover the buttons which I'm not a fan of.
texasmax said:
Yes- thank you- the Nillkin looks great- and a lot less expensive than the Pitaka- but the case has full edges that cover the buttons which I'm not a fan of.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha, it's not bad.