Phillips Fidelio - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures...lack - AS11137&ProductID=5354873&ProductTab=3
Just thought I'd post to say I've tried this Phillips Fidelio Alarm Clock/Charging station/ Bluetooth speaker system.
My impressions are pretty good with it. The speakers are not amazing, but good enough for a bedroom use which it's intended for. It plays music via bluetooth and has an application that you install with it such that the bluetooth will turn on once you plug the phone in. It will automoatically revert back to your normal bluetooth settings once you remove the phone.
For the price of this system, it's cheaper than me buying a charging dock from samsung. Also, I'll be able to use it for future devices as the bottom slides to adjust for phones with the charging plug mounted on the side.

I have it too, and I like it. Their Fidelio app seems to work acceptably with the Galaxy Nexus. It's also possible to use Tasker to have a "nightstand" mode (based on charging and being connected via Bluetooth) if you want more customization.
When the phone is docked, it shows up as charging via USB, not AC. I assume that means it can only draw 500 mA of current. I don't mind this (I normally leave it docked long enough to charge fully, and I'd rather it charge slowly anyway since that's likely easier on the battery.)
The main annoyance I have with it is that the speaker makes a "boop boop" noise when it connects or disconnects via Bluetooth, so if my wife's already asleep, plugging the phone in will risk waking her up.
I use my phone without a case, but I would think that this dock probably would still work with the phone in a case as long as it's not too thick on the bottom.

The bottom of the mount has a couple of adjustment screws to adjust to different thickness bases in case you have a case on the phone.

Yep, so they should accommodate most any reasonable case. They do, however, hold the phone by the bottom and therefore render the headphone jack inaccessible if you wanted to use it for some reason.

Related

[Q] Desktop Dock Line Out Electrical Noise/Static

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.

Official Vehicle Dock Kit

Hi all.
Just took delivery of my dock kit, and it's very nice. Well built, but whether its worth £35 quid is another story.
Anyway, that aside...
When the default "Driving Menu" is enabled, is there a way to change it, especially to use CoPilot instead of Google navigation?
I have had a quick search in this section to see if anyone else asked the same question.
Im in the same boat. It would be nice if someone could do a workaround. Nice bit of kit for the price.
NatTheCat said:
Im in the same boat. It would be nice if someone could do a workaround. Nice bit of kit for the price.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you get audio to come out of the rear connector. I plugged my 3.5mm cable into the socket and the sound still comes out the speaker!
Have you tried it?
Settings - dock settings
ALexander
alx37 said:
Settings - dock settings
ALexander
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep! I should have read the booklet, it did tell me in there ;-)
RTFM!
I struggle to take the phone out cleanly using on hand - always hit the power button. Dock mode seems pretty poor to me, seems to get all voice activated with road noise - is the google one any better? (we have a samsung 'special', I think?)
Another thing I've noticed is the terrible engine whine from the loudspeakers when its charging.
Now I tried headphone out socket too, and the same problem occurs.
To me it's a lovely piece of kit, but if you have it connect via Aux then u need to listen to the whinning noise from the charging.
Anyone conquered the noise suppression from an in car charger? It's doing my head in!
stratplayer said:
Anyone conquered the noise suppression from an in car charger? It's doing my head in!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you checked it's not your car? Will try and remember to test if mine does this...
i also have the whining problem when charging. after some investigation, it appears to be caused by poor connections. in my case i suspect the head unit, as i didn't connect the rod at the back to the car frame with the bolt and nut.
you can get a ground loop isolator for about £15, but they just mask the problem - should really get it fixed if there is an electrical problem
Interesting. I have a 2008 Ford Mondeo from new. I'd hope that is electrically correct, but who knows.
I am awaiting delivery of a new car (Audi A3), so I will see if this has the same issue.
It's a real shame because the AUX out on the device increases the volume limit sent to the head unit and it makes a massive difference all round, this limit set by the poxy EU rules on the headphone out socket of the phone is really low (83% of max volume) and when you compare the two on the device its obvious the car kit is better.
BTW it makes the whining noise out of the headphone socket too, when plugged into cradle.
from what i've read, the noise when charging is usually from the alternator. do you notice the whine change when you speed up. if so, i'd get it checked out.
There is a method of basically powering the head unit direct from the battery, bypassing all the other connections and wires the juice has to go through to get to the head unit. probably what i will do if mine doesn't work after i've installed it properly.
I plugged mine into the radio today. From the headphone socket, no problem apart from a lack of volume (even on max gain, it is only just loud enough against the road noise). No background noise though.
Plugged into the connector on hte back of the dock is a completely different story. A ~10khz whine, which is present even with the 12V lead disconnected, and worse when it is connected. Sounds like breakthrough from a switch-mode power supply to me. Makes the audio-out on the dock not fit for purpose. Time to add my review on a fre sites selling them...
The other complaint I have is that it doesn't grip well enough to the windscreen.
tshoulihane said:
I plugged mine into the radio today. From the headphone socket, no problem apart from a lack of volume (even on max gain, it is only just loud enough against the road noise). No background noise though.
Plugged into the connector on hte back of the dock is a completely different story. A ~10khz whine, which is present even with the 12V lead disconnected, and worse when it is connected. Sounds like breakthrough from a switch-mode power supply to me. Makes the audio-out on the dock not fit for purpose. Time to add my review on a fre sites selling them...
The other complaint I have is that it doesn't grip well enough to the windscreen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, although I get noise from the headphone socket when in the cradle and charging.
I have raised a returns to send my unit back for a refund. It's a waste of time having it if you cant listen to music on it! Imagine listening to the SatNav with all that silence and "whine" on the speakers, it would drive you bonkers.
It's a real shame as the overall quality is pretty good, but it is not fit for purpose in my opinion.
Will update this thread if I get any more news.
Just posting a review on Amazon... found this review too
2.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointing, 28 July 2011
By
Sean Houlihane
This review is from: Samsung Vehicle Dock Kit for Galaxy S II (Electronics)
For the price, this does not do well enough. Yes it fits well, and holds the phone, with an integrated dock connector. However:
It is a push-fit corner grabbing design, and I find it almost impossible to release the phone with one hand.
The windscreen suction mount is feeble, so maybe 20% of the time rather than removing the phone, I end up with the whole thing coming un-stuck.
Dock mode on this phone is almost useless, so plan on replacing it if you think it is a good feature.
The audio-out functions, but there is a very poor electrical design - even if the charger is not plugged in, the signal picks up a constant high pitched whine (even with the car engine off)
Buy a cheaper one, and you'll feel less hard done by.
tshoulihane said:
I plugged mine into the radio today. From the headphone socket, no problem apart from a lack of volume (even on max gain, it is only just loud enough against the road noise). No background noise though.
Plugged into the connector on hte back of the dock is a completely different story. A ~10khz whine, which is present even with the 12V lead disconnected, and worse when it is connected. Sounds like breakthrough from a switch-mode power supply to me. Makes the audio-out on the dock not fit for purpose. Time to add my review on a fre sites selling them...
The other complaint I have is that it doesn't grip well enough to the windscreen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hilarious, just posted your comment on here from Amazon, didnt realise it was you until after I posted it!
There's one more for you to find - and it's not a cut'n'paste... Maybe not live yet.
If you don't want to run a car Samsung's menu
If you don't want to run a car Samsung's menu install aps from the store :
Dock No-Op .
If you want to restore the default you have to uninstall the application.
Samsung Cars Menu and that sucks and this increased volume of system sounds, it's up scares. I think everybody can hear it in the around car
And what this menu is, and so one can make your own card to use in the car.
Personally, I mounted the Launcher 7 menu that conforms to the Windows Mobile 7 and has the icon in the system ankles. Cubes as they rotate with the vertical grip twist at the best level for navigation. This arrangement works well in the car, because after docking nothing changes and I can continue listening to your music on the equipment in the car, not a hundred times to click to activate the music listened to on headphones before
Sorry for bad english, but google translator
I was a bit apprehensive about buying this dock as I'd read a lot of reviews complaining about engine noise and sub-par audio quality when outputting sound through the line-out but since receiving it I've been really pleased with it. There is no engine noise or unwanted sounds so I guess this varies from car to car and depends on how your stereo is wired up. I've also run a few low frequency speaker test mp3s through the line-out and headphone-out it as I'd read reports of the line-out cutting off some of the low frequencies but to my ear I hear no different and I get a good response from my sub with both. My only gripe is that the call audio is not routed through the line out. Although I knew this was the case prior to buying, I just can't understand why Samsung would have left this feature out. I've read that this was the case with other Samsung phone's official docks previously and in most of the cases I've read about a solution has been found either through a OS/kernel tweak or an app which sorts the problem out. I'm just hopeful that a helpful dev is able to have a look at this and see if a solution can be found for the SGS2. Otherwise it's a great dock
I have to say I am disappointed with this dock. Coming from a Moto Atrix dock, this is poorly designed. Love my phone, hate the dock.
At first glance it seems extremely well made but after using for a while it is fustrating.
One, they use to many materials compared to the Atrix dock. This thing is huge.
Two, its hard to get out of the dock. The atrix dock had a nice flip up latch that secured the phone.
Three, you have to run two cables from the dock for changing and audio. The atrix dock had one cable coming from the dock with an audio out dongle near the end of the cable.
Last, the freaking background noise is terrible. Dont even try to listen to audio at a low volume.
I like the flip up charger adapter. Also it works with the official extended battery. But thats about it.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

Car dock

Well, I got the Samsung dock, and as much as I like the E4GT, the dock is terrible. Here's my experience:
1. There's a ton of line noise when the phone is docked but nothing is playing, just like with the Epic. I'm using the OEM charger, but that's not the problem--using the same charger, the Photon's car dock is absolutely silent. Samsung must be using some cheap electronics in this thing, and it's simply horrible. (Sorry for venting, but seriously...)
2. The software isn't nearly as seamless as the Photon's either. First, on the Photon, when you dock an app starts that essentially takes over the home button. That means you can move back and forth between the app and the home screens easily. On the Samsung, it seems like once you leave the Vlingo app to, say start a radio streaming app, you can't get back to the dock mode. At least, not without unplugging/replugging the dock connector, but that's extra wear and tear. If I'm wrong about this, please let me know.
Then, the Photon app allows for 4 custom apps to be assigned. That provides a great deal of flexibility, and again it's easy to go from one app to another and then back to dock mode.
Overall, the Samsung car dock experience is nowhere near the Photon's. Motorola really did a great job with this, and Samsung makes it look like they gave actually using the phone in the car zero thought.
What's everyone else doing to make this experience more usable? I'm still choosing between the Photon and the E4GT, and the car dock definitely is a mark in the Photon's favor.
1) Use bluetooth audio streaming for zero noise. Are you connected by the dock's audio out jack, or the GS2's headphone jack? I noticed better sound with the latter, but using BT is easier and sounds so much better.
2) Ditch Vlingo for CarHome Ultra. Extremely customizable and lots of great features, including up to 18 app shortcuts and auto-switching day/night themes. I love it.
You could make a profile in tasker that recognizes when the phone is plugged into a dock. Or you can make one for when it is rotated in landscape and plugged in. Then, you can enable an app to run, or have a list of apps that you can choose from. This is what I do with my phone and I don't even have a dock. It's awesome how much you can do with tasker!
fonseca898 said:
1) Use bluetooth audio streaming for zero noise. Are you connected by the dock's audio out jack, or the GS2's headphone jack? I noticed better sound with the latter, but using BT is easier and sounds so much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd love to do that, unfortunately my car doesn't have Bluetooth audio. And I'm going from the dock's audio out to my car's AUX in. That's an idea, using the headphone jack, but I hate adding wear and tear.
2) Ditch Vlingo for CarHome Ultra. Extremely customizable and lots of great features, including up to 18 app shortcuts and auto-switching day/night themes. I love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, I'll give that a try, thanks!
Sholland91 said:
You could make a profile in tasker that recognizes when the phone is plugged into a dock. Or you can make one for when it is rotated in landscape and plugged in. Then, you can enable an app to run, or have a list of apps that you can choose from. This is what I do with my phone and I don't even have a dock. It's awesome how much you can do with tasker!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's another idea. Thanks!
fonseca898 said:
2) Ditch Vlingo for CarHome Ultra. Extremely customizable and lots of great features, including up to 18 app shortcuts and auto-switching day/night themes. I love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for the tip, that app rocks. In fact, it's better than the Photon's car dock app.
Now all I need to do is find some way to clean up the line noise and I'll be a happy camper.
Go to radioshack. Ask them for a ferrite core. Should be a ring of "ferrite" or iron. Make sure it's big enough to put the plug on your audio cable through. Push it through and wrap it around a few times and see if that helps. Also, running a separate hot lead and ground from your car battery to the cigarette plug you use should help. But the ferrite core should be easier/cheaper
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
iamtheug said:
Go to radioshack. Ask them for a ferrite core. Should be a ring of "ferrite" or iron. Make sure it's big enough to put the plug on your audio cable through. Push it through and wrap it around a few times and see if that helps. Also, running a separate hot lead and ground from your car battery to the cigarette plug you use should help. But the ferrite core should be easier/cheaper
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give it a shot, thanks! I might even have one sitting around somewhere...
call audio routing
Has anyone else been able to get call audio to route to the output on the dock? media audio comes out the port so I can hear that on my cars speakers but when I make a call it comes out of the phone speaker....
So, I've tried a variety of power adapters, USB cables, and audio cables, and the line noise remains. I'm going to try the ferrite core around the audio cable, but I don't think that's the issue--if you unplug the unit from power, the line noise disappears. So, I think it's just bad circuitry in the dock.
One would think that Samsung would have received complaints about this with the Epic dock (at least) and would have fixed it. Motorola managed to make a dock with excellent sound quality and zero noise, so it's certainly possible.
Otherwise, the E4GT is decent in the car with that Carhome Ultra app. Although, that doesn't really help with my decision between the E4GT and Photon, because with the Photon I could have the same dock app but also outstanding audio quality.
I can only assume the noise you are hearing is due to a Ground Loop/Hum.
It has to do with the fact that your power source is grounded to a different point than the stereo/speakers. the hum you hear is the difference in voltage's between the 2 grounds being represented as noise in the line.
for instance. I recently installed a new head unit in my truck, the unit has an AUX in and a USB port. If i plug my E4GT aux cable into the stereo and plug the USB charger into the port on the stereo - NO Noise. However, if i plug the phone to charge in another outlet (say, the cig lighter) then there is Line Noise everytime. The same principle applies when plugging your phone audio jack into any electronics.
Hope this helps shed a little light on the noize.
ReFiLL said:
I can only assume the noise you are hearing is due to a Ground Loop/Hum.
It has to do with the fact that your power source is grounded to a different point than the stereo/speakers. the hum you hear is the difference in voltage's between the 2 grounds being represented as noise in the line.
for instance. I recently installed a new head unit in my truck, the unit has an AUX in and a USB port. If i plug my E4GT aux cable into the stereo and plug the USB charger into the port on the stereo - NO Noise. However, if i plug the phone to charge in another outlet (say, the cig lighter) then there is Line Noise everytime. The same principle applies when plugging your phone audio jack into any electronics.
Hope this helps shed a little light on the noize.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear you, except that I have two different docks that display entirely different behavior. Actually, I have two docks from the same manufacturer (Samsung, for the Epic and the Epic Touch) that have significant line noise, and one (Motorola) that does not. Note that these are all plugged into exactly the same power adapter and outlet and using the same USB and audio cables.
So, you'd need to account for the fact that the Motorola signal is perfectly clean in precisely the same circumstances while the Samsung's signal isn't.
I believe every word of it.
From what I know about Ground Loop Hum there are many weak links in the chain, and certainly some products behave better than others. The problem is still most likely the Ground.
One possibility would be that the manufacturer of the Moto Dock has included an isolator in the power supply line (or even in the audio supply line), and the manufacturer for the Sammys didnt.
My experience in this subject is with my Laptop/DJ setup making noise when plugged into audio equipment. when the power supply was plugged into the lappy, 60hz hum. Unplug it and it goes away. More than likely the problem was inside the computer or the power supply was just poorly manufactured as other models may not have the Hum. In my case i purchased a small isolater solved the problem. It may be possible to find one for a 12v car electrical system.
ReFiLL said:
I believe every word of it.
From what I know about Ground Loop Hum there are many weak links in the chain, and certainly some products behave better than others. The problem is still most likely the Ground.
One possibility would be that the manufacturer of the Moto Dock has included an isolator in the power supply line (or even in the audio supply line), and the manufacturer for the Sammys didnt.
My experience in this subject is with my Laptop/DJ setup making noise when plugged into audio equipment. when the power supply was plugged into the lappy, 60hz hum. Unplug it and it goes away. More than likely the problem was inside the computer or the power supply was just poorly manufactured as other models may not have the Hum. In my case i purchased a small isolater solved the problem. It may be possible to find one for a 12v car electrical system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually hooked up an old RadioShack groundloop isolator to the AUX cable, and it got rid of the hum.
Something like this should work fine: http://www.amazon.com/GROUND-LOOP-I...QTRI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322958491&sr=8-2
ReFiLL said:
I believe every word of it.
From what I know about Ground Loop Hum there are many weak links in the chain, and certainly some products behave better than others. The problem is still most likely the Ground.
One possibility would be that the manufacturer of the Moto Dock has included an isolator in the power supply line (or even in the audio supply line), and the manufacturer for the Sammys didnt.
My experience in this subject is with my Laptop/DJ setup making noise when plugged into audio equipment. when the power supply was plugged into the lappy, 60hz hum. Unplug it and it goes away. More than likely the problem was inside the computer or the power supply was just poorly manufactured as other models may not have the Hum. In my case i purchased a small isolater solved the problem. It may be possible to find one for a 12v car electrical system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the salient point is that Samsung uses inferior components. It's possible to make a device that doesn't suffer from the problem, as Motorola has shown.
DevalB said:
I actually hooked up an old RadioShack groundloop isolator to the AUX cable, and it got rid of the hum.
Something like this should work fine: http://www.amazon.com/GROUND-LOOP-I...QTRI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322958491&sr=8-2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll give that a try.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
most times I've had line noise, be it from improper grounding or from cellular interference (namely from ground issues) the ferrite core fixed it. If it doesn't, the power isolation will. The reason the USB Ports on the head unit doesn't create line noiseis because it has isolation circuitry built in. The core is cheap. If that doesn't work, isolate power.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Okay, in the latest saga with the Samsung car dock, I noticed this morning that when I received a Bluetooth phone call, the TuneIn Radio audio I was playing didn't stop. Or, rather, it did stop once the stream buffer ran out, because I was on 3G and of course 3G data isn't available during calls.
Is this really how the Samsung dock works, that audio doesn't give way to Bluetooth calls? Or is that perhaps the CarHome Ultra app?
Still a bit frustrated with this aspect of the Epic Touch. The Photon's car dock works perfectly, including muting audio while on a Bluetooth call.
Grrr. I know, I know, if I like the Photon's car dock so much, why I don't I just stick with that phone... But seriously, Samsung, how hard is it to get this right?
wynand32 said:
Okay, in the latest saga with the Samsung car dock, I noticed this morning that when I received a Bluetooth phone call, the TuneIn Radio audio I was playing didn't stop. Or, rather, it did stop once the stream buffer ran out, because I was on 3G and of course 3G data isn't available during calls.
Is this really how the Samsung dock works, that audio doesn't give way to Bluetooth calls? Or is that perhaps the CarHome Ultra app?
Still a bit frustrated with this aspect of the Epic Touch. The Photon's car dock works perfectly, including muting audio while on a Bluetooth call.
Grrr. I know, I know, if I like the Photon's car dock so much, why I don't I just stick with that phone... But seriously, Samsung, how hard is it to get this right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if it might be the phone or the application. When listening to Sirius/XM radio without a dock, and I get a phone call, the radio keeps blasting away.
You don't stick with that phone because this one is superior in every other way. Its a minor issue. Why would you even have the aux input selected when there is no music playing? I have the noise too so I get it but ...yeah I just change the input when I don't need it.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Samsung SGH-T989 Vehicle Mount

Anyone bought and have any reviews for this guy ?
Samsung ECS-K1F4BEGSTA T-Mobile SGH-T989 Vehicle Mount - Car Kit - Retail Packaging - Black
Listed for $33ish bucks on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-ECS-K1F4BEGSTA-T-Mobile-SGH-T989-Vehicle/dp/B005LGUCRE
Looks like a good buy just wana know if anyone had bought this and liked it?
Looks like the one I bought from Best Buy. I like it, the only thing that I would warn about is that the phone can be a little difficult to take out. It doesn't want to just snap out like it should.
I have one. It holds the phone very well, but only without a case; absolutely no worries about the phone coming loose, and the phone doesn't bounce or vibrate, so the image is always quite readable. The only possible downside is that you might find the arm a bit short if you're driving a vehicle where the windshield is far forward, but then there's the adhesive disc, although I wouldn't want to go sticking some disk permanently to the dash of *my* car.
Leaving the charger and audio cables connected to the dock is very handy.
The phone recognizes that it's in a dock right away. There are a number of car dock launchers available (I like CarHome Ultra) as well as a car-specific voice mode.
The auto-plug charger that comes with the dock seems OK, but if you're using Navigator plus Pandora, your run-down battery won't get charged. I have yet to experiment with other high-amperage car chargers; seems like all the ones I have don't have USB conductors 2 and 3 shorted together, so they're pretty useless for this until I crack 'em open and solder.
I keep mine in a Toyota MR2 MK2 (little car) mounted at the bottom left of the windshield, and it's basically perfect there.
Oh -
Have it on my crv I can't live without it. Its easy to put in. Audio and charges are usable with one push. If you go caseless and are going to keep the phone for a while the price Is definetly worth it. Third party ones make you manually plug in charger and headphone Jack this makes it way more convienent.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
It's pretty unfortunate that it doesn't work with any case though...too bad they didn't make a case combo that would fit that mount specifically.
for the price you can get other mounts that are so much better, look at Micro Center
For what it's worth, I have the Samsung OEM car dock as well and I absolutely love it. One thing I've found, though, is that the phone will occasionally go nuts thinking that I've pushed the button for voice recognition. It'll endless loop repeating "What would you like to do?" until I close out of the car launcher.
Not sure if this happens on the stock OS, I have Synergy+Bombardier loaded on it (rooted.)
I bought it. It's amazing, the dock mode syncs directly with my car stereo Bluetooth.
the only down side is you can not have a case on with it..
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
does it fit the phone with the Tmo D3O case on?
I'm definitely in the friction mount camp for car mounts. This one works great for me:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060B38SY/ref=oh_o04_s00_i00_details
Bonus: works for your future phones and works with cases
AllGamer said:
does it fit the phone with the Tmo D3O case on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Are you guys able to get call audio through the car speakers with your docks?
If so, please post how. I cannot seem to get call audio to route through the car speakers. Media plays fine, but no call audio. Almost a deal breaker for me. Thats what I bought it for. ;-)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
$2 on ebay :
item 251116471659
Slap it on you dash and put the phone on top.
Super Sticky.
Try "car mode" in the market...
How to disable car mode for T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 / SII T989 Hercules car dock
This is mostly useful if you use Bluetooth audio for your car stereo. This method renders your car dock's USB audio-out jack useless, and you would have to use the phone's headphone jack for an audio cable (untested, since I use Bluetooth audio). The only thing I want a dock to do is hold my phone and charge it. I automate the rest myself. Proceed at your own risk...
Car Mode Ultra is great for overriding your stock car mode, but I wanted to disable it entirely. I didn't like adding another layer of car modes and letting them wrestle for control.
Anyway, since I couldn't find a way to 100% disable the stock car mode software, I did it in the hardware (in the car dock itself).
On the back of the sliding part of the dock, take off the two small stickers and remove the screws under them. Carefully pry the slide apart at the seam to reveal the circuit board inside. Remove the tiny resistor between pads D- and ID. No more car mode!
Apparently, no more charging, either. Or at least not enough current to keep up. Maybe the car mode resistor tells the phone to charge at a higher rate, I'm not sure. Either way, the next step gets the charging to work again, but first, there's a warning:
If you don't want to burn your car down, make sure you have at least a 1 amp (1000ma) rated charger for this next part, otherwise, don't do it. This step increases you charge rate from 500ma to about 800ma (some people with custom ROMs go even higher). If you do this, and your charger isn't powerful enough, it could fry your charger. I have no idea what your charger will do if it fries. Maybe nothing, maybe light your car on fire. If you're not sure about it, don't do it.
On the side of the printed circuit board opposite the audio jack, there are two pads labeled A/R and AL/D. Shorting them to each other will put your phone into "AC charge mode", which means higher charge rate, no USB data, and no USB audio out. Now reassemble the dock.
With Car Mode Ultra and NFC task launcher installed, you can do all kinds of cool stuff. I set Car Mode Ultra to activate upon connecting to the stereo's Bluetooth. This starts the program without activating stock car mode. I stuck an NFC tag on the back of my dock for even more automation. Bluetooth turns on Car Mode Ultra, which unlocks the screen, which enables NFC, which reads the tag, which toggles more settings, starts Pandora, etc. Pretty cool. Full automation.

The Ultimate Car Setup

OK. So 2 years ago I saw a thread on the Nexus 7 tablet forums where someone essentially turn it into a car deck. At the time it was complicated, convoluted and buggy to say the least. Since then its been a thought exercise to make this work. How I wanted it to work. This is what I wanted:
Simple plug&play. One USB connection to carry high quality audio out from the device while still allowing it to charge. This is the most difficult. On the Nexus 7 it required a special kernel and plus the accessories had to be connected in the right sequence. Not exactly the one action set up I was going for.
The easy way to accomplish this was to use a standard USB charger and then use the headphone jack to send audio to the Aux input of the stereo. Great in theory! However the phones/tablets I have used always allowed alternator whine into the sound. Not ideal either.
Third common way is to use bluetooth audio. My Pioneer deck does support this. But we all know the quality of the sound from this is OK at best. Play some ripping guitar or something melodic and you can really hear the compression (watery, slurred "S"s sound). Not good enough for me.
Now when I had first read about this concept I started accumulating various adapters and parts to play with. First was a Behringer 202 External DAC. Its low cost but had decent reviews. Perfect for my installation. Plus the added benefit of several output format options, so a deck with an optical input could also be used if yours has one. With this I got a simple USB OTG with the Micro USB charger Y-cable. The one that has a standard female USB, the charger connection and the one to the device. Now this whole thing never worked properly. I ended up using the OTG cable with the DAC, but on my home stereo where I could place a Qi Pad under the Nexus (and my S4 before) to charge and the DAC for audio. At least I was using what I spent money on. Just not the way I wanted.
Fast forward to yesterday morning. I have had my Nexus 5 for a few months but had not tried this set up. The fussing with kernels on other devices and units over the years had me giving up. But I figured why not try with the DAC and standard charger connected (they were just sitting there after all). Low and behold it worked! And I mean perfectly! It was a big light had been turned on and the world was beautiful! Then I tried my M8 and it failed......but the Nexus 5 for the win! Oh, and even when connected to the power the DAC turned off when I disconnected the phone. So it shouldn't drain my truck's battery (though I parked on a hill tonight just in case!).
So! Here is my car installation that I was finally able to complete. I have included photos of the installation and the parts I used. It's in a list format that I hope follows the pictures. it will take me a post or three to get it all in! So bear with me.
Ingredients:
Nexus 5 (I am running Liquid Smooth for my ROM, I have not tested it on other ROMs at the time of this post).
External DAC. Like the Behringer 202 I used, but I would assume most would work.
USB OTG and Charging Cable
RCA to 3.5mm headset adapter.
Standard car charger. I have a Belkin 1A one that works like a charm. In theory you could use the USB on the stereo if included, but you may not charge reliably.
Standard USB to Micro USB cable
iBolt xDockPro for the HTC. This is optional, but i like the iBolt and their right angled USB is the right way for the Nexus. Which made the set up cleaner.
Car Home Ultra from the Play Store
So. The first photo shows all the stuff I used (minus the car deck and truck).
Second you will see I am in fact using the HTC Dock
Next is the DAC I used
Followed by the adapter cable
The the RCA adapter
The before picture. The sticky pad for the mount was there cause I was already using my iBolt with just a charger tucked in.
This one you will see I have taken the y-cable and connected it to the iBolt adapter. My dash had the room for this, you may need an extension as the y-cable is really short!
Dash is coming apart!
To be continued (I can only post so many pics at once!
Part Deux!
So the next photo shows my deck's AUX input. Now I bought this unit because it had a rear jack. So connected the headphone plug into the AUX jack.
These next four pictures are just to show which power supply I used and how the USB cable is run up to the y-adapter. Now it would be possible to use your stereos USB for power if equiped. I didn't for two reasons. First, the phone/stereo may think your connecting a flash drive (both unit could be trying to be the "host"). Second the stereo may not put out enough amperage to run both the phone and the connected DAC. So I just went with the separate supply. Plus its easy to disconnect it should I need too.
This is me connecting the DAC. Now I wanted to show this particular step as you can see the power light is NOT lit even when connected to vehicle power.
RCA cable is now connected to the DAC.
The set up all buttoned up!
To be continued.....
Trio!
This post is more about the proof of concept and the Car home Setup. Here it is!
Basically once the hardware was all set (1 & 2) I fired it up, and used Play Music (and others) making sure Bluetooth was NOT paired yet. Sounds AWESOME! Makes a night and day difference! Then I paired it for hands free while making sure the media wasn't connecting. Now went into Car Home Ultra and just set it to launch with the my stereo's bluetooth connection. My only next goal I need to finish is to get an NFC tag to control Bluetooth on the iBolt. Car Home is set to turn WiFi off automatically when its running, but my set up is reliant on BT running all the time (or have me remember to turn it on/off, but defeats my plug'n'play concept).
That's the gist of it. If you would like more details or suggestions please let me know!
So it's not just my Ford Fiesta that sends lots of noise to the charger? I am a little relieved, but it sucks to find out that this is somehow a "standard"...
Nice setup there!
daniel_loft said:
So it's not just my Ford Fiesta that sends lots of noise to the charger? I am a little relieved, but it sucks to find out that this is somehow a "standard"...
Nice setup there!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a fix. They make something called a "ground loop isolator" that can usually fix the noise generated from you alternator. Here is an example, quick google search brought it up. http://www.amazon.com/PAC-SNI-1-3-5..._sim_pc_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1FEVW0RPFQ5W3V742E6G
You could put a more temporary/portable set up like mine, wouldn't be hard if your still having issues. Put all the parts together, stuff it all in an old cassette or floppy disk case with a few holes for the cables to stick out of.
Yeah, now the challenge is to find ways to make it work on more devices. It's really unfortunate that the M8 doesn't on Sense based ROMs (I plan on trying a GPE ROM in a few days to see if that makes a difference).
And I may now invest in a proper proclip mount so it's not up on the dash like that. But it works like a hot damn as is for now. Even with LTE on, display always on and streaming audio it charges, though pretty slow. Still. Better than not at all. And I can always turn the screen off if I wanted to give it more juice.
I have my Nexus 5 w/o the case using an iBolt mount I already had and a cheap qi charger and works great.
Nice Setup... I was actually looking for something like this. Thanks for posting
There are a lot of microUSB to USB + aux splitters on amazon for the Samsung Galaxy phones. Would these have worked all the same? Or does the Nexus 5 not have a docking capability that would sense the plug?
For those that don't know BlackBerry sells a blutooth adapter that uses power from the usb charging port on your after market stereo. I use it on mine. This thing is crazy small I hide it in the gap behind my stereo and the reception is good you have around a 10ft radius depending on where you hid your dongle.
http://shop.crackberry.com/blackberry-music-gateway/9A172A11438.htm
Nice I see you have a Colorado. I have a Nexus 7 in mine. I can say that after hours and days of troubleshooting ground noise I could not get rid of it. I had to use a ground loop isolator
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

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