can someone mod a photon back to work on the Touchstone? - Motorola Photon 4G

curious if it is possible

I was interested in this as well. It looks like the contacts required to charge from the touchstone back don't exist on the phone. you'd have to solder contacts onto the pins of the usb port.
Sent from my MB855

so it would be possible?

stu5797 said:
so it would be possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it's possible, but it would not be very economically feasible. You would have to mount the magnets a certain way then make contacts on both the phone and the back. (Unless you want a wire on your cover.) Plus you would have to regulate the power going into the USB connection via bridge/filter. (Or risk it.)

I was really hoping for a better/easier solution. Thanks for the input

Lol. Forgot I had an account. Touchstone modder here.
First, see this post from a while ago on a test I did. Yes it is possible to use the touchstone (on most usb devices). If Govnah gives the correct readings, it should give about 500mAh of current (phone use, even standby will lower this amount. Consider it will get 500mAh if the phone is off). I will review this number when I get home... don't have a touchstone on hand. On vacation for one more week : ). Please copy the link.
forums.precentral.net/2552337-post1.html
Easiest way - if powermat releases a back door for the photon, rip out their internals and replace them with the touchstones.
Second easiest way - steal a right angle USB connector from the EVO or similar powermat back and wire it to the touchstone sticker. I don't own a powermat, but the angle connector simply looks to be the lowest profile micro USB connector. Put a case around your phone and hide the touchstone sticker in there.
PLEASE NOTE - if I remember the pre touchstone sticker and the pixi touchstone sticker have different +/- orientation. Be sure to test first
Hard way, historically done on the EVO 4g and other phones - solder the touchstone sticker to the internals of the phone.
When I say the touchstone sticker, I an referring to the sticker, coil and magnet combo removed from the palm case.
I have a herd of touchstone pucks at home. And in my car. I will absolutely get this working with no internal modification. It might require a $30 case just to steal the USB connector, but that option is up to you.
Why would you want to go through all the trouble if you don't own them already? The touchstone pucks are STILL $5 at verizon's web store... you could put them EVERYWHERE!!!! : D

I've done some work on this modification and hit a wall. I would welcome additional thoughts on this or the Androidcentral.com forum.
The positive and negative contacts were found. However, the voltage is different and this may be an issue.
More details on Androidcentral forums:
I had to add some spaces to the URL below
forums . androidcentral . com / introductions / 112044-photon-touchstone-mod . html

Related

[Q] Broken pin on USB Need Solder Location On Board

Hello , When I first Purchased my Evo 3D, I noticed that any usb cable attached to it would never fit snug it always had movement like wiggled alot. I should have exchanged it but didn;t think it would eventually lead to serious damage until now, well, somehow the first pin on the right broke off and checking online with research it apparently is the +5 of the usb. Which basically screwed me.
I don't have much of an issue with no longer having the usb data sync ability since I can just use a micro SD adapter, and I have an External Battery Charger from Radio shack which helps because I can just charge the batteries with that and insert in my evo3d But the issue I have now is I realize i rely on the 4G tethering ability which i use constantly and it has become a pain to have to run and switch over batteries so my wifi tethering can maintain my computers online.,
Anyway so noticed a few evo 4g mods online where the person would solder two wires one to the negative and other to the 5v positive where the usb is located and then shape the wires nicely and make a custom usb hole somewhere else on the phone and eventually have a usb charging ability similar to one of the attached pictures ( for evo 4g of course not for the 3d)
So anyway i would like to try something similar where i can just locate some solid solder points on the phone and wire up two 5v and ground wires and relocate a custom usb slot somewhere else on the phone, Below is also some zoom closeups of the evo 3d board so my question is any advice to where I can solder the 5v and ground to, I am clueless to where and what points i should try the underside of the usb slot is all metal so seems like not able to solder there maybe on one of the little chips or something perhaps
,, thanks for any help
in reference to the attached images:
the one with the 5v writing is for an Evo 4g Not 3d But Im putting this picture i found online just to give a similar idea of what i need to find on the 3d
the one with the wired shell mod us just Another photo online of what I want to do but once again need the solder points
the other two are the best closeup pictures I could find of the 3d which maybe someone can just point out to me the locations by looking at it, I will take clear zoomed in photos if needed when I have access to a camera at home
thanks anyone for your help!
Why don't you just take it to Sprint and have them repair it? They'll do it for free.
Not from I heard. They charge 100 to fix it. And not even sure they would give me a loaner phone in the meantime. Also , I went into RADIOSHACK and showed and.spoke to one of the reps and he.told me.I wouldhave to pay unless I had their extended warrantee.. I noticed a resistor like chip above.and in front of where the 5v pin is.I wonder if I can solder on that
Sent from hell
suddene said:
Not from I heard. They charge 100 to fix it. And not even sure they would give me a loaner phone in the meantime. Also , I went into RADIOSHACK and showed and.spoke to one of the reps and he.told me.I wouldhave to pay unless I had their extended warrantee.. I noticed a resistor like chip above.and in front of where the 5v pin is.I wonder if I can solder on that
Sent from hell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Call sprint and talk to a supervisor. They will send you a new phone or set up repair for free. Call and hang up twice, then call again to get sent directly to a supervisor.
Unfortunately me being a tinkerer ended up breaking off the ground pin and was not able to get serviced , even tried the supervisor and no go, I tried another radioshack and sprint store and of course they noticed it was opened so screwed me out...
anyway,, I taken some fair quality images of the board surface. maybe a +5v location can be pointed out from the images? thanks again
suddene said:
Unfortunately me being a tinkerer ended up breaking off the ground pin and was not able to get serviced , even tried the supervisor and no go, I tried another radioshack and sprint store and of course they noticed it was opened so screwed me out...
anyway,, I taken some fair quality images of the board surface. maybe a +5v location can be pointed out from the images? thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is old. But did you ever figure it out? I need a 5v+ location as well. I want to do the inductive charging mod on the 3D.
xkravenx said:
I know this is old. But did you ever figure it out? I need a 5v+ location as well. I want to do the inductive charging mod on the 3D.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of making a new thread, I figured I would add to this... I too am trying to mod mine with inductive charging, unfortunately my hands are a little too shaky to solder to the point that I discovered to be continuous with the +5v on the usb port.
I can't really find a clear picture of the PCB anywhere otherwise I would show you, but its about a centimeter or two down from the top left when you open your phone, run your multimeter through those points and you'll find it.
I guess I came here looking for another point..
suddene said:
Unfortunately me being a tinkerer ended up breaking off the ground pin and was not able to get serviced , even tried the supervisor and no go, I tried another radioshack and sprint store and of course they noticed it was opened so screwed me out...
anyway,, I taken some fair quality images of the board surface. maybe a +5v location can be pointed out from the images? thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xkravenx said:
I know this is old. But did you ever figure it out? I need a 5v+ location as well. I want to do the inductive charging mod on the 3D.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bronx623 said:
Instead of making a new thread, I figured I would add to this... I too am trying to mod mine with inductive charging, unfortunately my hands are a little too shaky to solder to the point that I discovered to be continuous with the +5v on the usb port.
I can't really find a clear picture of the PCB anywhere otherwise I would show you, but its about a centimeter or two down from the top left when you open your phone, run your multimeter through those points and you'll find it.
I guess I came here looking for another point..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PLEASE PM me.. those fo you with a broken port, I might have solution for you (nothing shady promise just trying to help where I can, I'll explain once I'm PM'ed). The other guy if all your trying is inductive charging sorry LOL
bronx623 said:
Instead of making a new thread, I figured I would add to this... I too am trying to mod mine with inductive charging, unfortunately my hands are a little too shaky to solder to the point that I discovered to be continuous with the +5v on the usb port.
I can't really find a clear picture of the PCB anywhere otherwise I would show you, but its about a centimeter or two down from the top left when you open your phone, run your multimeter through those points and you'll find it.
I guess I came here looking for another point..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm thanks. I will try it when I open the phone. The soldering point should be bigger than the micro-usb pin I would hope.

Anyone modded sgs2 dock to get it syncing?

I have the official samsung dock and it only charges the phone. If i pull the usb cable out of the dock and connect to the phone it will allow mount of SD and copy / sync of files.
I'm sure a small wiring / circuit change inside the dock is all I need, and I'm pretty sure someone has blazed this trail before. I just can't find their notes on the forums or web.
Any assistance appreciated.
papashex said:
I have the official samsung dock and it only charges the phone. If i pull the usb cable out of the dock and connect to the phone it will allow mount of SD and copy / sync of files.
I'm sure a small wiring / circuit change inside the dock is all I need, and I'm pretty sure someone has blazed this trail before. I just can't find their notes on the forums or web.
Any assistance appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which dock? If it's the one that has audio output - no you can't use it to sync because it uses D+ and D- for audio L/R.
If you wanted to use it to sync you'd have to remove the ID resistor and reroute D+ and D- back to the USB cable.
Thats what I'm talking about. Are those changes documented somewhere? I don't care about audio out (the dock does have that output jack).
Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA App
Easiest way to do it is to break off the bottom part and just use the standard cable directly to the phone.
If you were interested you could always try this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAMSUNG-GAL...475010?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item1c1e2ee8c2
I ordered one, I havent received it yet but will post results when I get it.
K Rich said:
If you were interested you could always try this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAMSUNG-GAL...475010?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item1c1e2ee8c2
I ordered one, I havent received it yet but will post results when I get it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw many of those docks for the 9100 also. When I pressed the vendors for 777 compatibility the answer was always "NO". Probably because they just don't know enough for a definitive "YES". Let us know how it goes.
I may just have to break out my kids legos and build something around the plain cable
(that way it can accomodate a case)
The description says it can be used to charge/sync. For $10, I'm willing to take that bet.
It'll be nice to actually have my phone sitting in something while charging over night instead of just laying on my desk.
Our phones are pretty much the same as the international version (with slightly rounded corners and 2nd mic placement) but theoretically the bottom should be exactly the same, so I don't see why that wouldn't work.

General Discussion about what mods / hacks to do with an extra GPS dongle

Ok, i know theres a sticky for the GPS dongle but this isnt one of those "Wheres my dongle" or how to sign up threads so i thought it diserved its own thread. If you have questions about how to acquire a GPS dongle or want to say you got yours or whatever this is NOT the place to do it. See the sticky. kthxbie.
Still with me? Awesome! In having multiple primes i have recieved multiple GPS dongles. Since i rarely use one as it is, let alone them all at once i was wondering what sort of tweaks / hacks / mods have people tried (or wanted to try but were too afraid of screwing up their only dongle) that i might do on my extra one?
I already plan on doing a full teardown, taking highres macro pictures of the connector as well as unsoldering the shielding on the PCB and seeing whats underneath. Anything else you guys can think of?
Im not too worried about ruining the device if it means i can try something cool! Lets hear those ideas!
UPDATE: isolated the dock connector. Thus far with my tester these pins are grounded: (back view)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ G _ G
G _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ G
I know theres an official dock connector thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630300 but im not sure which pins according to that thread match what i have here.
UPDATE 2: removed dock connector, looks like only the bottom row goes to the dongle, not sure yet if any of the top row go anywhere inside the dongle or if it terminates at the connector. Will continue to test.
UPDATE 3: Ok, uploaded my work for tonight, traced a few of the connections just to see where everything is going. There WERE a couple that were coming out the top row, the two resisters on top, that MIGHT be the trigger to tell the prime its connected to an external device? who knows. anyways, its very late here, i will continue to test as i have time and as people show interest.
UDATE 5/5/2012
Ok, been doing some research and testing and whatnot, i have some very bad news. In order to attach any kind of connector to charge the tablet with the dongle attached it would mean soldering a wire to four of the pins on the connector on the TABLET SIDE of the pcb, UNDERNEATH the connector (the really fine pitch pins). Maybe i will have to take a picture to show what is needed.
Suffice to say chances of a mod that can be completed by most people out there is very low. I will continue to try to find a solution.
The red square shows which pins would need to solder the 15v+, the ground could be soldered to any of the grount points. (+5v to each of the three pins or +15v to all three)
Additionally, i have been doing some work on the pinout, trying to clean up the information we currently have. No offence to bjonston115 but his thread is confusing since every source has pins labled differently and there is info scattered everywhere. Bear with me as i try to sort the mess out and make something we can all use
You are so lucky. Wish I had a spare. My main hope is to determine who makes the connectors (if possible), and what pins are used inside that connector, along with how it's mounted.
My desire, is to procure a connector, to add to the dongle shell, and the wiring, so I can permit the tablet to be charged while the dongle is in use.
When I drive 14 hrs to FL, my battery will run out, mid trip. So far, my only solution is to carry an external GPS to use while the TP charges.
Looking forward to your teardown.
Bob
Images. Took as many pics as i could as i was removing bits n pieces. If you want a picture of a specific part let me know. Pictures uploading, give me a minute or two...
I think a power mod should be straightforward. The dongle shell looks "thick" enough to accomodate a USB female Type A connector, mounted orthogonally. You'd want one with right-angle contacts similar to the one below, so you can let it "bottom out" against far side of the dongle shell. For aesthetics, I'd dremel the opening at the back side of the dongle rather than front, but this depends on your car mount.
The next step is to solder jumper wires from USB's power and ground pins to appropriate pins on 40-pin connector. Since USB adapter for TF101 is same for Prime/300, we can assume pin-out for USB functions is still same. Somebody already posted partial pin-out in another thread.
Soldering to the USB contact isn't a big deal, but to the finer-pitch 40-pin connector would take a bit of finesse.
Note: TF101/201/300 can charge with [email protected]
@pileot: Suggest taking a caliper and measure inner and outer thickness of dongle (ie w/ and w/o the shell thickness).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-USB-sh...ale-socket-Connector-PCB-Socket-/260991770971
unfortunately i dont have access to calipers, far as i can measure outside thickness is about 3/4 maybe slightly less, inside thickness is about 1/8 inches. sorry i cant be more accurate.
im assuming you want to throw a USB on the PCB? im not exactly sure how you want to connect that usb female connector, or what the purpose would be to do so.... Mind explaining just a little more?
Mount: Use dremel to create a rectangular hole (12.5mm x 5.2mm) at the back (or front) of the dongle. Use a short-body USB connector w/ right-angle contact like the previous, and mount it orthogonally, eg perpendicular to dongle facing. I think the short-body one has a length of about 0.5" so it should flush-mount. But if not, having it sticking out a bit isn't a big deal.
Purpose: To charge tablet w/ either [email protected] or [email protected] I would go with the second, since USB car chargers for it are widely available (that's what the iPad uses).
e.mote said:
Note: TF101/201/300 can charge with [email protected]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that the PC USB charge @~500ma takes forever and the TP has to be shut off, but what would the deal be with [email protected]
Would I be able to continue to use it as it charged, or would it need to be shut down too.
I'd probably use a USB 3 connector in place of the pictured USB 2
Thanks for the idea...I never thought of that....now all I got to do is to wait till I get my dongle.
Bob
ahh! makes sense.... sure would be nice if we had a full connector port. Maybe i could make a trip to an electronic component store and pick up some USB connectors.
If you just want to use it for power then dont we just need any sort of connection to the charging ports and the outside of the dongle? It doesnt have to be USB it could be anything as long as you have a male and female connection
pileot said:
unfortunately i dont have access to calipers, far as i can measure outside thickness is about 3/4 maybe slightly less, inside thickness is about 1/8 inches. sorry i cant be more accurate.
im assuming you want to throw a USB on the PCB? im not exactly sure how you want to connect that usb female connector, or what the purpose would be to do so.... Mind explaining just a little more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a neat tool in Google Play called Smart Tools. Possibly you could get better measurements of the items you want to measure by using the tool, and laying the item right on the screen. I have it installed, and think it was a well done app.
Bob
>I know that the PC USB charge @~500ma takes forever and the TP has to be shut off, but what would the deal be with [email protected]
No idea. That's something you can find out afterward. Having the mod in place won't hurt anything.
My guess is that it should be good enough to at least maintain battery level while on, which would be all that's needed in a car.
>It doesnt have to be USB it could be anything as long as you have a male and female connection.
You can use barrel power connector. But you'd have to make your own power cable, as opposed to using a standard USB cable to connect to the charger. Edit: On second thought, you can use a [email protected] car charger, then get a mating barrel connector.
http://google.com/search?q=12v+1.5a+car+adapter
from what i understand if you have the tablet on and try to charge with 5v it wont even maintain the current battery level. The tablet charges with 15v or something... having a barrel connector would ensure you dont accidentally plug a prime charger into another USB device frying it.
At that point if we could just get the barrel plug right to the power pins, fitting it in should be too hard....I am really interested iin this because I have 2 dongles coming tomorrow annd planned on hacking one....(I got two because one was RMA and they sent me a new one back 2 serials=2 Dongles)
BSMan1011 said:
At that point if we could just get the barrel plug right to the power pins, fitting it in should be too hard....I am really interested iin this because I have 2 dongles coming tomorrow annd planned on hacking one....(I got two because one was RMA and they sent me a new one back 2 serials=2 Dongles)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See edited first post. Because the top row does not go to the back of the PCB and i believe thats where the power is, it would be hard to throw a charging circut in there. I am still working on locating where all the pins in this thing go but it is very tiny, even with my finest nodes to test these circuts its very delicate work.
In the mean time, i will upload what i do have before i go to sleep tonight (maybe in another hour or so) so stay tuned!
Okay I will try and keep updated... if we could get a charging circiut in maybe a true car mount might be a project... at least for me, I already have a tablet window mount and with some changes I could affix a modified dongle at the bottom and just slide prime in for GPS + charging (again if we can get it to work)... I get mine today and disassembly will soon follow so I will post anything else I can to help progress
pileot said:
UDATE 5/5/2012
Ok, been doing some research and testing and whatnot, i have some very bad news. In order to attach any kind of connector to charge the tablet with the dongle attached it would mean soldering a wire to four of the pins on the connector on the TABLET SIDE of the pcb, UNDERNEATH the connector (the really fine pitch pins). Maybe i will have to take a picture to show what is needed.
Suffice to say chances of a mod that can be completed by most people out there is very low. I will continue to try to find a solution.
The red square shows which pins would need to solder the 15v+, the ground could be soldered to any of the grount points. (+5v to each of the three pins or +15v to all three)
)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay first off...have we all decided to stay low until we progress, i don't want this thread to die so soon...secondly...though I am sure you have done you research I still must ask, Are you sure? if we can provide any charge to the prime it will at least help a bit...also does anyone one else have other ideas other than charging?...
one idea I literally just thought of so it is not very thought out is, what if we remove the dongle case( as we have done) and integrate it into case.... we will need one of the 40-pin cables to wire onto it but maybe it could fit into some cases.
I will continue to try to think of more uses and mods and will update, meanwhile I hope that we can get some more input
Hmm, you've made quite a bit of progress there. I really wish I wasn't lazy haha, I need to learn to really work with electrical stuff.
So, then the dongle uses some of the pins that would be used for power from the dock? If the dock can pass power without changing the Prime, I should think the dongle could somehow. I mean, only certain pins are used for data right, so the dock and dongle should use the same ones?
Ok, firstly. Yes, im sure. Im sure of the pin placement and based on the best available information scattered around the internet, i know which pins the charger uses and i know where they are located on the dongle. I also know there is very little access to them (as seen in the pictures in OP)
as to integrating the dongle INSIDE the prime casing you would, essentially, be succoming to the same problem the internal antennas have: Metal blocking the signal. Sure its a more powerfull antenna however its encased in PLASTIC not metal, the signal it recieves is a lot stronger and there is less EMI caused by the metalic back plate. Short: Yes you can, no you dont want to.
Finally, the pins the prime uses to draw power are different than the pins the charger uses to supply power. Think one lane dirt road vs a 6 lane highway. On the highway you have dedicated lanes for traffic going in different directions. this is similar to how the prime dock connector works, the prime can turn off power to different connections depending if there is something plugged in reducing the chance of a short, spark, or power drain.
Hopefully this addressed your concerns, maybe when i have apropriate tools handy and a bit of time i may try soldering a connection to the dock connector and see how it functions but as you can see its REALLY tight. I will do my best, no promises.
I also plan, in the near future, to locate more of the data pins, see whats going on, maybe we can make a USB adapter for the dongle and use it in other devices as well! who knows, im thinking it just uses a standard USB interface but it will take more digging.
Subscribed as I see no need for the dongle unless you have enough power.
Though I was pretty sure you were sure I just wanted to ask.... but you did misinterpret my idea, I do not mean the Prime's casing but rather integrating the gps into a case which holds the prime...This is not to say that the gps is big or in the way but just an idea i had to help people with cases and a use for the gps, but since the usb uses different pins that looks unlikely as well i guess...well I will stay updated and if I learn anything I will post.
I would be more interested in adding a power jack of some sort to the dongle. So you can charge while using navigation. I already can not use my dock while plugged into the dongle. We need power!

[Q] Gtablet repair or salvage

OK so I have a Viewsonic Gtablet. It broke this weekend. Well the charging port broke, the little pin in the middle of the port where the AC adapter blogs is loose, it is still in there but even careful cord placement will not charge it. I have just enough battery left to wipe it clean. But I was going to try to repair it.
So one, where to find decent instructions to open it up. I figure a charging port is an easy fix and I am no stranger to a soldering iron. Secondly I was going to sell it as I just ordered a new tablet. So would anyone be interested in this for parts or repair themselves. I was going to sell it before it broke for like $120 OBO. Can't do that now.
It is right now I wish they added USB charging to the device. At least I would have a backup plan...
Ken
Get a dock - 50 bucks, problem solved.
Sent from my Droid using xda app-developers app
devilock76 said:
OK so I have a Viewsonic Gtablet. It broke this weekend. Well the charging port broke, the little pin in the middle of the port where the AC adapter blogs is loose, it is still in there but even careful cord placement will not charge it. I have just enough battery left to wipe it clean. But I was going to try to repair it.
So one, where to find decent instructions to open it up. I figure a charging port is an easy fix and I am no stranger to a soldering iron. Secondly I was going to sell it as I just ordered a new tablet. So would anyone be interested in this for parts or repair themselves. I was going to sell it before it broke for like $120 OBO. Can't do that now.
It is right now I wish they added USB charging to the device. At least I would have a backup plan...
Ken
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is easy to pop the cover off the back of the Gtab. Here is a link to a video on how to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M7lxllGOyc
A google search will also direct you to another site where the topic has been discussed.
Same thing happened to me: knocked it off a table while charging
Anyway, after looking into fixing the barrel connector jack I decided that it was going to be hard enough finding the part - much less getting it properly soldered onto the board, so I went a different route:
After finding the pinouts for the docking connector on the web at [*** see Note #1 ***] I went to [*** see Note #2 ***] and bought 2 connectors (in case I messed one up - the pins ARE pretty small).
I then soldered 2 wires to pins 26 (g) and 27 (+12) of a connector and cut the barrel plug off my charger and soldered the wires to the cable.
Works great.
Hope this isn't too late, but I figure in any case it might be helpful to someone in the future.
-jim
NOTES: Forum rules prhibit me from posting links, so here's how a human can find the places I would have listed
Note#1: pinouts
Google "rootzwiki Viewsonic Gtablet Dock Pins Discovered And Listed"
Note #2: The Kineteka eStore
Google "kineteka viewsonic gtab connectors"
I bought SKU# GTAB-DOCK-M-1 but the breakout board looked like an option as well

BNTV650: Info on the quick connector (aka "pogo pins") used to connect to dock and keyboard (B&N Nook Tablet 10.1")

Hello everyone,
Motivated by my tablet's failing USB connector and the great difficult of importing an original B&N charging dock (I'm overseas right now), I decided to try and see whether I could DIY a charging connector mysef, that would connect to the "quick connector" in the tablet's bottom.
First the good news:
I discovered that a standard 0.1" (2.54mm) PCB header like these has the exact pin size/spacing to make contact with the quick connector. So, no need to "fabricate" a connector from separate pins.
I used a digital multimeter to measure voltage on the pins, with the tablet both on and off, and with a USB charger both disconnected and connected, and apparently pin #1 (counting from the left when holding the tablet in landscape mode and looking at its front) is +5VDC, and pin #2 is GND (pin #3 seems to be a direct connection to pin #2 -- they are always at the exact same voltage --, and pins #9 and #10 seem to be +D/-D, not necessarily in that order).
Now the bad news:
I connected a 5V power supply to pins #1 and #2 as above (ie, +5VDC to pin #1 and GND to pin #2), but the tablet doesn' t react in any way (doesn't light up and show the "charging screen" when powered off, nor shows the "lightning bold" charging indicator in the battery icon in the notifier when powered on).
I tried changing GND to pin #3 (see above), with the same lack of results.
The moderately good news is that my attempt did not "fry" anything, the tablet kept working the same as before.
Does anyone have any more info on this "quick connector", or perhaps a better "solution" to my failing USB connector issue (I would be willing to disassemble and replace the USB connector, but I've searched Youtube and iFixIt to try and find a how-to-disassemble video, to no avail. The best I could find was these "internal photos" from the tablet' s FCC submission, but it doesn't show how to open it, and I see no screws nor anything -- not willing to try prying it open at the seams and risk cracking the case or worse).
Thanks in advance,
-- Durval.
Durval,
I came here from your posts on the GitHub issue. You've done some interesting work so far!
It's interesting that you found the pins are just like USB. I wonder if the Nook uses some sort of protocol to negotiate charging over the Pogo pins, like Apple devices put a resistor across the D pins IIRC.
I know someone who's replaced the battery so they might be able to guide you with opening the device. Their discord channel is here (they also posted in the GitHub issue). You might be able to buy a cheap Micro USB port and solder it into the board.
tgp1994 said:
Durval,
I came here from your posts on the GitHub issue. You've done some interesting work so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to hear you like it!
tgp1994 said:
It's interesting that you found the pins are just like USB. I wonder if the Nook uses some sort of protocol to negotiate charging over the Pogo pins, like Apple devices put a resistor across the D pins IIRC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could be. I also remember that a long time ago (like, 2008) I had an original (pre-Android) Motorola Razr which wouldn't charge except in a computer or with Motorola's own charger. I was thinking of full-blow USB connect negotiation... but you are right, it could be just a resistor or something.
I'm just not too keen on connecting more 'stuff' into those pins by trial and error, specially the supposed D+/D- things... I've managed to not fry the device so far, but one never knows when one's luck is running out until it finally does...
tgp1994 said:
I know someone who's replaced the battery so they might be able to guide you with opening the device. Their discord channel is here (they also posted in the GitHub issue). You might be able to buy a cheap Micro USB port and solder it into the board.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks for the Discord link! I will be sure to contact them and learn what I can re: opening the device.
Cheers,
--
Durval.
Just keeping the thread posted: I posted a similar question on the Discord server linked above, here's what I got:
Ryzen5-3600 | iPhone 12 Pro Gold — Today at 9:13 AM​It's really difficult to open the Nook Tablet. Mine had a cracked screen so it was easier to open up the device. The screen is made out of this really cheap plastic, it breaks so easily. My guess is to get like a small plastic guitar pick and pry open the back.
[9:14 AM]
You might have to get like 3 or 4 for safe measures to help keep it open so it won't close shut again
So, I think it's better to refrain from trying and opening my Nook, at least for now ;-)
I'm trying to get a dock, when/if I get one I will open it and see for myself what the heck it does to make the Nook recognize it.
I will keep this thread posted.
Cheers,
-- Durval.
Two years late to the party, but I recently purchased two of the 10.1" nook keyboard covers @ my local B&N for $5 each, to play around with. If my suspicions are correct, and this keyboard controller outputs USB, the first four pins left to right should be GND, (I assume D+, D-), then I assume VCC.
I might be wrong. But I'm fairly confident that GND is pin 1- continuity between the pin and the ground pin on the keyboard controller PCB.
hugoyhu said:
Two years late to the party, but I recently purchased two of the 10.1" nook keyboard covers @ my local B&N for $5 each, to play around with. If my suspicions are correct, and this keyboard controller outputs USB, the first four pins left to right should be GND, (I assume D+, D-), then I assume VCC.
I might be wrong. But I'm fairly confident that GND is pin 1- continuity between the pin and the ground pin on the keyboard controller PCB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have any luck? I bought the same keyboard for $4 at my B&N and just tore it apart. Turns out it only uses 5 of the 10 pins. The white box in the pic was pulled off so it originally did fit slightly more forward. Hopefully you can tell where it's supose to go.

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