Related
Hi all
Has anyone any experience of the O2 Car Kit like this one
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=57252&item=6382293875
I'm well past the stage where I should have installed and be using one, (the car is a Diesel L/R Disovery Tdi, and not exactly quiet), but I'd like any opinions on the best to use, or any problems that might arise.
Althogh I have a BT GPS Unit, I dont use any Route Planning S'Ware, cause few have any usefull maps of Northern Ireland, so its the call audio I'm really interested in.
TIA for any opinions
Based on the pictures this carkit is the same as the QTek2020 / T-Mobile MDAII carkit.
It is said to be of very good quality.
BUT: It is also said that when using ie TomTom Navigator (or the like) your car-audio will be muted permanently.
This carkit was sold in Germany for approx 170 euro (about 110 gbp). So I would say the current auction price is rather high . . . .
I was not aware that O2 sold this carkit. I am using the XDAII carkit that is/was sold by ie. Expansys. The quality of that thing is not as good. Especially the mic sound is horrible for 'the other side'
BTW there are many threads on this (all approx 1 yr old)
Car Kit Query
Hi Ed
>>Based on the pictures this carkit is the same as the QTek2020 / T-Mobile MDAII carkit. It is said to be of very good quality.
Yes I agree, part of what drew me towards this one is the look of it.
>>BUT: It is also said that when using ie TomTom Navigator (or the like) your car-audio will be muted permanently.
I have considered this, and I'm not sure when or if I would use anything other than 'Pocket Streets', (and its maps of this area aren't that good either).
Most of the mapping I have been able to view provide street level detail, only in Larger Built up areas, and main routes connecting these.
Fortunately I already know my way between Belfast and other towns, As a result I dont know if TT or indeed any of the others would be of any real use. As a result, I really am more curious about the Call audio from the Speaker and Mic, during calls.
>>This carkit was sold in Germany for approx 170 euro (about 110 gbp). So I would say the current auction price is rather high . . . .
yes I found it on the T'mobile (D) site still on sale,
fully agree re the price but .... if it works ... then ... maybe ..
>>BTW there are many threads on this (all approx 1 yr old)
Yes and I think I managed to read most of them, I was sorta looking to see if someone else has lived with one of these for while, and have a experienced opinion on the it, any Rom Upgrades needed etc ...
I'm not sure how much more stress I am prepared to endure to get various aspects of this great unit to work as I hoped it would, (can't afford to be pulling on my hair much more these days)
I have yesterday just bought this car kit from the company advertising it on ebay, first of all the compnay are absolutly brilliant to deal with and would recommend them highly.
As for the car kit i have found three little niggles:
1) it isn't as easy as other car phone kits to place the xda2 into the holder, this is probably the case for most xda2 car kits due to the body of the xda2 itself.
2) any sound from the pda will mute the car radio, this so far hasn't been too much of an issue, but you can always just disconnect the car radio mute lead, but side effect of course is that you would have to turn the radio down when you recieve a call, however it is nice that the tomtom directions etc come out the car phone speaker loud and clear.
3) now this one may not be the car kit itself and maybe just that i haven't managed to find optimal settings or have missed a setting up procedure (if there is one). Basically there is a lot of background noise through the microphone, speech can be heard ok but i haven't experienced this amount of noise from any other kit, however i am going to try and relocate the mic to the middle of the car instead of up the windscreen frame near the driver door, this may solve this.
Apart from that it is a very easy kit to install (would recommend a professional install due to problems of bodged installs and car air bags!), it is of a very good physical quality and have seen it advertised for over £150 in the UK.
O2 car kit query
see now thats what I was hoping for.
thanks macca
I'm just about convinced
now just need to know where my wife hid my c'card ???
macca: Just a tip for the mic: Make sure the airstream from then vents does not reach the mic. I read several threads on background noise and most of them appeared to be created by the airstream blowing over the mic.
thanks edsub, i'll investigate that furthur, i maybe moving over to a orange m2000 soon as i have been offered an upgrade, unfortunatly it won't fit in my car kit, so i may have to sell it and get a xda2i instead. xda2 is great, i just miss the wlan.
david young, glad to have helped.
Brodit kits
I wonder if anyone has any experience of these Brodit Car Kits at pdahut? I do like the idea of ProClip Brodit have so you don't have to drill holes anywhere in your car. Any other suggestion?
http://www.pdahut.com/store/home.php?cat=378
I have Brodit and Carcomm cradles installed and they are both excellent. At the moment I have my XDAII in a Carcomm cradle which is powered and has a serial input cable to which you can connect a GPS Mouse or charge a BT GPS.
The Brodit cradles also have the option of an amplified speaker, in the photos you'll see my 2210 on the right of the steering wheel is connected to this type.
In the UK TotalPDA sell Carcomm and Handnav are the appointed Brodit resellers.
See here for images of the cradles in my car.
I too liked the idea of not drilling in my (leasecar) dashboard.
Afaik there are two options then:
Brodit Procip (plastic)
MTU dashmount (metal)
I opted for the MTU and decided to imitate it myself from a metal plate strip. Its quite easy from the MTU specifications:
http://www.mtu.no/english/DashMount/DM_pdf/70224.pdf
I managed the get the cables through the airvent that is now blocked by the carkit.
Now did I get a bargain or did I get a bargain.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5196552992&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1
So long as you want it for an XDA rather than an XDAII then yes.
I have my 2i in a Brodit kit connected to the cigarette lighter and then a bluetooth Motorola HS810...works a treat. Luckily the 2i fits perfect as I got the cradle originally for the XDA2.
I've also got my TomTom wireless BT receiver on the dash...all work nicely (other than ongoing issues with phone mast transfers causing TT lockups)
Aww hell, I'll just take a picture and show you...my only wish is that on the Mini the holder was locked in a bit higher to show off when people drive past
A
PS - yes that IS a Care Bear...that my girlfriend puts there to "watch over me". I have one of those little dog things that Clintons Cards do (the ones with the big heads and little bodies) in the other cup holder. Thought I'd get that in now to avoid the "errr....is that a care bear?" questions!!
griffog said:
See here for images of the cradles in my car.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Errr....just how many PDAs and phones do you want in your car?? Hehe...
They're not all used all of the time but I need them when performin comparison testing
Actually I tend to use TT Mobile 5 on a C500 most of the time now!
Griffog, yes it is for xda however I had an official car kit, the original I think for xda in the past and that would take an xda 2 quite happily although I never tried it out in the car it charged the xda 2 on the bench ok, what are the issues, is there a wiring difference preventing it working?
I have had it happen 4 times in less than one week... occasionally my device somehow does a HARD-RESET by itself!!!
One time, I slightly shifted the device while it was just sitting in the cradle, and it did a HARD RESET!!! The other times it just happened when I was inserting it into the cradle or when I was removing it from the cradle.
Any ideas? This is a HUGE pain-in-the ...ASK me if I really like setting-up the device features over-and-over again. Aaaaargh!!!!!
i had this problem once... when i changed the sim card..
just make sure that the battery latch is secured properly.
Have you checked that the connector, or especially the pins on the pda2k are not bent/damaged? The design of the dock isn't great (unlike Toshiba pda's where the dock cradle is so high and good quality metal design with slide rails that you can drop the unit in perfectly and quickly) and if damaged could be shorting a power line. A collegue had this problem with an XDA and it was a chargeable repair as they say it is deemed user negligence! So be very careful docking your device!
Thanks Sunish, the battery is secure... don't think that is the problem in this instance.
lx_t ...I checked the connector on the cradle and the pins on the device and everything looks good.
Maybe I should get a new cradle? Do you guys know where I can get one of those newer cradles that allow the sync AND the recharge using the USB connection. I saw them on eBay (UK) but they were silver color and I'd prefer a black cradle to match the device. I'm in Canada though, so it's not that easy to find these things locally.
dunno if it will work, its not really fixing the problem, but try and upgrade your active sync, to v4 i upgraded to this and it seems faster and fixes a couple of fixes i had.... its only a suggestion tho..
Due to an upgrade to a Kaiser, I have the following for sale:
TWO O2 Branded XDA IIs - One complete, one lacks stylus - Both are UNLOCKED.
One, my spare second one - the battery *may* be faulty. The reason I have two is that I had issues with it rebooting when i first got it, O2 sent a replacement and neglected to send a return bag . It ended up that it seemed to be the battery, so I used the original handset but the replacement battery, and I slung the replacement handset and original batt in a drawer. After rooting it out of the drawer (where it had lain for a couple of years) the battery seems to work fine and power was still over 84%. I will run it some to check. Maybe I was just being a noob or the backup battery hadn't charged.
Both handsets have some minor wear on the corners but otherwise are fine. No loose sliders etc. The rubber cap over the headphone socket on the main one is starting to split.
Also, there is a GlobalSat BT-338 SirfStar III Bluetooth GPS unit. I should have the wall charger lying around somewhere lol, I never used it though, I always used the car charger (Which I definately have and is included). A really great unit.
Also, there is a windscreen sucker mount for the XDA. Just a cheapo halfords one, but it fits perfectly and doesn't obstruct power or headphone sockets.
Also included is a retracting mini-sync cable - USB one end, custom XDA connector the other. Get a car lighter -> USB adapter (No! You can't have mine!) and leave that in your car, then you can use the mini sync you keep in your pocket with any PC or in your car to charge or transfer files.
Also included is a 1GB SD card. It is Integral branded card, it shows no speed but it seems to have enough bandwidth to play DivX off the card
Also included are two cradles - one for work, one for home
There should be two holsters, but I mislaid one the other day, I am sure it will turn up lol.
Would anyone be interested in the job lot? May split the 2nd phone off for a spares sale, but would rather sell the lot as one.
I can provide pics, I will need to bring the 2nd cradle from work, and see if I can find the missing holster / GPS wall charger first...
I live in the UK, but I suppose I would consider sending elswhere in europe. Would be unwilling to send to Nigeria even if were is for £10,000
Offers please
I think you will get your best deaL on on ebay here.
I suggest you list them separately
Might be interested in bidding on the spare one...
hardingt0110
Hi Guys,
I have just got the fantastic little E72 and it is great in almost every way. I want to be able to use my Shure headset with it so I need the adaptor that everyone else wants to find it seems. I have a HTC adaptor but it will not fit into the socket. The socket on my E72 has 5 pin holes and both sides of the interface are curved. The HTC adaptor has one curved side and a straight side so it will not fit in. The E72 does use the usb connection for its headset and audio output but when I did find a Samsung adaptor with both sides curved that did fit into the phone socket it still outputted the music to the external speaker so I am at a loss. There are, therefore, different types of mini usb connectors. Can someone tell me the exact spec of this one fitted to the E72 and possibly where I might get an adaptor that will work??
Much appreciate the help with this.
usb cant be changed to 3.5mm or any type of audio
the reason the htc one dont work is the same reason it dont fit
it have extre connectors which carry analog audio
normal miniusb is a serial digital interface which dont carry analog audio
and usb headsets for pc are really external audiocards which make the serial digital data to analog audio
and that require the ability to usbHost which few pda's support
Many thanks for the explanation. However, my phone came with a stereo headset with mic. I currently use this for listening to music but the quality is not good. Does this not mean then that I should be able to get analogue signal from it??
Please forgive my ignorance; I am learning!!
it all comes down to where you connect your headset
if it's the miniusb port benQ got an extention of miniUSB like htc's extusb
if it's a 2.5mm minijack like older htc devices used you can get a conveter to 3.5mm
The only port on the Benq E72 is the mini USB one. There are no other jacks. The problem is that both sides of the metal housing within this are curved so the HTC one (with one side of the miniUSB adaptor straight) wilkl not fit. I did manage to find and buy an adaptor that was branded Samsung and when I fitted it into the miniUSB socket on the phone it would not work. The music continued to play through the rear speaker even though the adaptor was connected. My supplied headset connects to the phone through the same miniUSB paor but again the metal housing of the miniUSB jack is curved at both sides. I hope this explains better.
as i said then miniUSb should not alow audio at all on the device
and htc use extusb which have more legs then miniusb so if it dont fit
it should not be because of any curves
does your benq device not alow headsets at all ?
if it does how are they connected?
The only connector on the Benq E72 is the miniUSB port. In the attached pic you will see the connector for the wired head set on the left and the miniUSB to standard USB for connection to the PC on the right. I looked inside the silver housing of the connectors on both cables and they seem to have 5 pins along the top (widest) part with the main section being hollow. Now the miniUSB housing on the actual phone does have a plastic inside with 5 pins and , I guess, more connectors along the top of this for the 2 cables. I am to assume that the plastic insert in the phone itsaelf is for the electric charger. There is nothing more that I can give you except to say again that the miniUSB is the only connector on the phone.
if it support headsets connected to the usb connector it must be using some sort
of special usb connector like htc's extusb
i would look at their site if they sell converters
Thanks, as I said the only way to connect the headset is by the miniUSB port so it must support audio. The issue is that the HTC miniUSb headset has a curved side and a straight side so it will not physically fit into the Benq E72 connector. I did get my hands on a philips miniUSB that did fit into the socket on my phone but the music still outputted to the rear speaker of the phone. So, my question is, is there different types of miniUSB wired internals? It would seem so. And would anyone know which would work for the Benq E72 windows mobile poweredsmartphone?
@ 17-apg,
Sorry for this off-topic post. Im planning to buy benq e72 because my o2 xphone2 is too old. Can you please give brief review of the phone, as a user. Is it true that it is laggish? Thank you.
second_east said:
@ 17-apg,
Sorry for this off-topic post. Im planning to buy benq e72 because my o2 xphone2 is too old. Can you please give brief review of the phone, as a user. Is it true that it is laggish? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem ,,
I have the device for over 2 months now and like it a lot. Had a HTC S730 before which was thick and cumbersome and I didnt really need the keyboard. This phone, in contrast, is very light and thin. It runs WinMo 6.0 and I do not find it slower than the HTC in any way. On reflection maybe a little faster even. It is very competively priced as it includes bluetooth, quad band radio and wi-fi. The bluetooth also carries the A2DP functionality. The screen, whilst a little small at 2" is very bright and clear. The keypad has large buttons and is very tactile and positive when texting.There's a 2 meg camera included as well as the microSD slot with a max size of 2GB. You can, however, with software, increase this to the norm of 6GB which I have done. Also the rear speaker (built in) is a reasonable size and therefore can play a decent sound for music if you are travelling and in a hotel room for example. And finally, it has little important assets like the ability to turn on auto redial, a button on the left side which when pressed and held will open the text messaging in a send window. There is also the facility to adjust the screen brightness as well as an internet radio and ringtone editor. All in all, for the price, I definitely recommend this phone. I have bought four more since for friends of mine. They paid of course!!! Now all I need is the miniUSB to 3.5mm audio jack sob sob...
Can you tell if a lanyard can be linked to the device - and where? On all available photos on the net I have not seen any holes for fitting the lanyard to :-(
I am really tempted to get that one as well - escpecially as it is the ONLY (!) smartphone with only a normal keyboard that can use microSDHC cards (after installing updated drivers). They seem to double in size every year - and if the standard is fully supported 6 or 8GB (as reported sucesfully) should not be the limit.
Lanyard
Yes, you can connect a lanyard at the top of the phone. If you can see the top view of the device there is a little hole there. You simply slide off the back cover and fit the lanyard to the designated area on the main body of the deivce (very easily) and then slide the back cover on again.
Now we just need a cooked 6.1 rom for the device!!!
Thanks - I found a set of pictures at a Taiwan Review site (http://www.eprice.com.tw/mobile/talk/?prod_id=2621&tid=3430647&page=1&list_page=1) - this tells it as well
I was only looking for a small device that can read memory cards > 4GB and this is the one now. Otherwise my Tornado in the house of a Robbie still perfectly fits my need. I also tried WM6 and WM6.1 on that - but fell back to the original WM5 there.
Just can't wait to get it in my hands - it was really a bargain on ebay. Search for benq E72 there and you will see a guy in London selling refurbished E72 for just 69 GBP (9 of 21 left). I just could not resist for that price, sigh...
BTW - on topic: did anyone try the Motorola mini-USB connectors - for the Razor and alike?
I dont think so. DO you habve one that you coulkd try when you get the phone? If so, let us know here cause I would really like to use my own ear buds.
BTW I think you will love this phone! It really impresses me. And also Expansys anre selling brand new ones for about £90.00!!
Is there a WM6.1 for this? Thanks.
Benq E72
Not thatI am aware of. I know that another avid fan of the E72 has requested ROM cookers to try to come up with the 6.1 version bit I am not sure if anyone has taken up the challenge.
I hope that it will happen soon ...
I have received mine in the meantime, but the refurbished one was delivered with a non-fitting headset :-(
Well, it fits mechanically, but there is no sound at all. It looks like a cheap replica of a Motorola Stereo Headset - but also a normal Motorola does not work in this socket. So I am out of any possibility to measure the data of the socket to build an adapter. I complained at the dealer - hopefully there still is a working headset available!
Otherwise the device is nice - only English language installed though for menus and T9.
bye
tobbbie
With some help from Taiwan - the USB wiring for the headset is identified, see my blog article at http://tobbbie-benq-e72.blogspot.com/2008/12/hacking-usb-headset-connector.html for more details. The main information is:
....So the final result is then for the numbered pins of the USB connector (1-5):
Must be connected with a resistor less than 200 kOhms to ground (pin 5). The voltage will rise briefly to battery level but then drop back to 0,16 V to stay there. I suspect that accepting calls with the headset button will introduce new functionality here...
Speaker channel (l,r not checked, source indicates right here) - must be connected to a speaker or a pulldown resistor at device-headset connection time.
Speaker channel (l,r not checked, source indicates left here)
Microphone channel (checked to work with Audionotes)
Grounds
So luckily no complicated electronics - get your soldering irons ready!
BTW: have still not received the original headset :-(
After the release of Froyo I picked up the desktop dock. However, I found that when both line out audio and the micro usb charger are connect to the back of the dock, electrical noise/static comes out from the speakers (connected to line out).
I have replicated this with two different micro usb chargers. The wall charger that came with the dock and a car usb charger. The audio is perfect when only the line out is connect to the dock. But, as soon as a charger cable is connected static/noise immediately starts up.
Has anyone here both charged and used line out audio without any issues? Suggesting that I may have a defective unit, terrible power, unshielded audio cable, etc.
Thanks for any insight you might have on this issue.
Have you tried connect to a different setup of speakers or use a different audio cable? It sounds like you are having a problem with poor shielding on the audio cable connected to the back of the desktop dock.
I have the same problem, and I'm using the ear buds at work. I'm highly disapointed with the quality of audio coming from this device. I waited all this time and I get static!
same static with my dock
try samsung support.
their products, their problem...
its obviously a hardware design flaw, where the internal wiring/ components are picking up interferance, from itself or the phone.
WARNING SIGHTLY EDUCATIONAL: i dont have a dock but i cant set my phone within 1.5 feet of my alarm otherwize the alarm will "chirp" every few minutes. This is due to the alarm having a transistor radio and capasitors inside, the radio picks up the waves from the phone, and that energy builds up in the capasitors until it reaches max capasity then discharges to the speaker, chirpping.
chances are that they built the guts of the dock too small and compact, probably running the 3.7V power wires right along the auido wires which use less than a Volt, millivolts actually, and all wires with flowing electricity create magnetic feilds, the power wire would have a much stronger feild than the audio wire and could interfere with it, because inversly, magnetic feilds can create electricity in other wires (known as induction).
or it could be a culmination of the two factors.
back to topic, If it is the phone causing interference with the dock, it should have been built to be sheilded, if its the internal components of the dock it should have been designed different, EITHER way it would be samsungs fault or cheap overseas labour. I would gladly pay an extra (5-10%) on an item if it were made in North America (Can/US). Not mexico they take enough of our manufacturing jobs down there and might as well be overseas labour for quality and price.
if you dont care about the warranty pop it open and take some pictures for us, might be able to see/ possibly fix the problem.
At the time I tried with two different auxilery input cables, one well shielded for car audio and the other for a logitech speaker set; they both produced static. However, after restarting the phone it has yet to produce static. This phone and it's accessories are temperamental.
Ground loop
You have a ground loop, You need one of these.
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_127SNI...e-Filter.html?tp=2653&tab=review&rvm=ShowAllt
that is actually EXACTLY whats needed to filter out the interferance! nice i never saw a headphone one before...
Can anyone confirm that this device (noise filter) in the link solves the problem?
Anyone know of any other solutions, other than returning the dock? Shame because it is a great idea and is nice when it is working properly.
knaufism said:
same static with my dock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just imported one of these docks, and the static on it really sucks, totally disapointed.
I haven't experienced static on mine due to the fact that I haven't gotten the headphone jack to even work in any capacity (media or calls). Has anyone had this problem at all?
I just picked up one and had the same issue. First few hours it worked great then all the sudden the volume went low and static started. 2 different power cords and 3 sets of headphones/audio cables later and still there.