Didn't know whether to put this in General or Accessories.
I have been toying with the idea to make something for the HTC one, really would be compatible with most all android phones. I don't have a tablet as it's an awkward device to use most of the time. Doesn't type too well and they tend to be more breakable than I would like. Now as some of you will point out something like this has existed before, although I didn't even know about it till recently.
The Atrix. Basically it was a phone that could plug into a laptop, "shell" and be the core for the laptop. Kinda like a portable bigger screen and a mechanical keyboard and track pad for mouse.
Now I want to do the same thing for the HTC One (m7). Mine is fully rooted and uses the Version 31 HD Rom.
I know most of you who know anything about the phone there are a few ways to go about this.
1. MHL - HDMI - LCD Controller Board - Video
Bluetooth'd USB Hub - Input (I have a plan drawn up on creating my own Bluetooth setup to do this.)
2. NFC for all Video / Input: I have done some research into the NFC field and from what I understand it has a very high data throughput, but I would have to make a custom Android program as well as a custom receiver set-up.
3. Design and program a 11 pin micro usb connector to connect in place of the micro usb connector that is in the phone. This would also require a special program to utilize.
In all cases I will use a power control board that will work both off battery and the wall. The easiest of them all will be number one. For the other it would take me substantially longer to learn what I need to make them happen. Also the benefits of number one would be having extra usb ports past just the keyboard and track pad.
What do you guys think? For my life style and job it would be the ultimate machine. My current laptop is a Compaq 6910p that I have been nursing along. I have blown a could resistors off it already and soldered in jumpers.
The point I'm trying to make is the HTC One is more than capable of running NES - PS2 games quite well while my laptop has trouble with just PS1 games and some DS games.
Wouldn't it make since to combine the two? Have the phone as the core and the laptop shell for when I need a more desktop like environment?
Kinda a price out for something like this:
LCD Screen about 50 dollars.
Controller Board about 30 dollars.
Bluetooth'd USB Hub about 70 dollars.
Power circuits about 50 dollars.
Shell any crappy old laptop shell will do, free.
Laptop Keyboard and Track Pad about 30 dollars or free from a donor.
So anywhere between 200 -250 dollars to make the prototype. Then I can take my design to a circuit board company and get a single board designed that can do all of it and shrink the laptop design even further or add new accessories.
I have all the found all the items needed to make a prototype. The hardest part that I have still to do is design an auto off circuit that charges the battery but doesn't flow into the power bus.
The easiest would be to have 2 separate battery packs, once the low voltage is reached it would switch to the second battery pack, and charge the first one if plugged in.
If anyone could contribute to a simple specific design or item that can be purchased to help with this matter feel free to chime in.
The battery packs I am designing are using a Li-Polymer pack. Just one of these packs I'm build should last multiple days of use, & charge your phone.
I will not initially be able to include a USB port, I have to design a micro controller to take USB convert it to Bluetooth then make an android program to change it back for use.
I'm initially gonna make the prototype on a piece of acrylic, flat, to get testing and working hammered out.
I will then move to making a light weight housing to package it.
Since I am using a lot of pre-built components I will not be able to patent this but I can make money building them for people. Of course once I finish and have it all working I will post links to all the items I used so ambitious individuals can venture to build their own.
I have no interest in such an item but I am looking forward to seeing your progress on this.
Its so funny you mention this, 2 days ago I was looking up if there were any such things up for the HTC one or any new phones of some kind of lapdock item. I ALMOST considered buying an outdated device just to toy with the lap dock 500 and use it. I has that lap dock during the bad snowstorm 2 years ago in the NE on Halloween and it kept my phone charging as well as a good size to browse the web.
Please let me know how this works out, as well as a kick starter if you make one. It would be nice to have a software to use when on the lap dock that's separate from just an enlarged android screen!!
The agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac stayed up all night wondering if there really was a dog.
this sounds cool, however i myself dont see much people having a use for this. i look forward to your progress.
Attached are diagrams of the power circuit i created over the last few days. Made so you can charge the battery when plugged in and use the wall power. Incorporated a smart charging design to prevent over charging or discharging.
This will keep your phone powered and even charge your phone. All those components are no bigger than 1x2x1in each.
With using a mechanical relay since it was the simplest when you unplug from the wall there might be a screen flash because of the mili-sec interrupt in power. Since the phone & BT Input both have internal batteries you wont lose your BT Sync. Once power come back on, MHL will resume.
Now I know there are probally smaller circuit card designes out that but those are expensive. By using all premade and mostly inexpensive parts can bring the price down consierably.
I will be working with a ~14 inch laptop screen 1280x800 max rez. The video controller board I am working with is capable of running up to a 1080p LCD monitor.
I have located every componet needed to make this project a reality, but since some will be coming from china it may take ahile to get an assembled prototype.
Next Ill be writing down the sizes of each componet to get a generic idea of the size of the power circuit compartment.
Because I found some high capacity high current Li-Ion batteries the potential for this to be usefull will increase expecially if i can keep a phone charged for a week off it.
The down side is the high capacity will take longer to recharge.
The total weight of this laptop seems like it will be between 2-3 Lbs, rough estimate.
The only down side to my circuit is that if you plug it into the wall and have the switch in battery still the video control board will not power up. I do not want the charger feeding the power bus.
I will be installing three voltage monitoring small digital displays in the prototype so I can monitor voltage drop over time on the battery and set a safe low limit and measure acurate time through real world usage.
Once I get a fully working design I will take my work to a PCB company and make a single board design.
There are two ways to use this design, the stock way which emulates or extends the stock android desktop.
The second is how I will use it, I dual boot Android and Ubuntu at the same time using a handy free app. Once I plug in my phone I will put Ubuntu on the display for a desktop environment and still have access to my android through my phone.
Currently Ubuntu is trying to create a working Android replacment OS, other than Nexus devices they have been unable to get the phone part working yet so I'm following that as well.
Which type of mount would you like to see?
A vertical off to the side
A horizontal laid into the input surface
A slide in compartment where you can't see phone at all anymore
So I did some more research it seems connection wise it will be possible to create a Bluetooth usb hub. using a external powered 9 pin serial Bluetooth adapter - 9-pin serial to usb cable - female/female usb adapter - external powered usb hub.
Connection wise it would work but I'm not sure if it would allow you to read and rite tot he drive. I'm reading more into the slave/master modes.
there is also some information I have to figure out with the RS spec. there are apparently multiple specs. RS232 and the like.
Although this probably wont make it into the prototype it's a step forward in learning.
Good luck with this. No use for me but I'm sure there is people out there willing to use it
Related
I like Callpod (have been able to abuse one of their Dragon bluetooth headsets while enjoying the extended range) and their accessories, but... I think one of their accessories is what killed my Excalibur, my Asus P600 PND, and my Athena (all of them had their charging circuits fried somehow...).
None of the three devices will take a charge or be recognized as even being plugged in on a USB port on either side.
The only common thread between all three of these devices is that they were in my car (which I have a 4 way 12volt splitter in place) and they were all plugged in to the callpod chargepod Adapter (not the chargepod itself, mind you, but the car adapter *for* the chargepod) at various points, and the Callpod was the last charger it was plugged in to. I should know better... much better, but when I was out of town and needed a Mini-USB car charger, I grabbed it as it was the only Mini-USB charger that was on their shelf (and with a dead phone in the middle of a conference call, you can imagine the rush).
Chalk it up to experience but don't use their charger directly with your devices. All I can find for technical specs is that it is 6VDC from 12VDC, no info on the mA or A that it provides. Heads up.
Now I have a nice Diamond Touch on the way and a few weeks on the couch due to an upset wife and the Callpod adapter is being dismantled systematically to make me feel better.
-Will
PS. I know Li-ion batteries have circuits to manage the charging etc. But this is honestly the only thing I can figure is that somehow it was sending small surges down the line that eventually popped something in the circuit... feel free to pose other hypothesis to me if you have one.
Yes mate it can be done i have fixed a tomtom same plug you can order them online ,you need a very small tipped soldering iron (low wattage) search these forums for strip down guides for your phone good luck
I have posted this in other forums, but trying to get a general feel for the public acceptance on this:
I have an extended / travel battery idea.
Imagine this:
A small box about the footprint of our Evo. This box holds 2 of the regular batteries (think side by side flat). It has a normal USB Port on it and a micro USB Port. And maybe a few indicator LEDs. We can then hook this small box to a USB Charger, a Laptop, etc to charge the batteries inside.
Then when our Evo needs more juice, we have one of two options. Either pull out one of the batteries from this small box, or plug via USB cable into this box to charge the battery in our phone from the two batteries on board.
Because we are using stock batteries, the idea would to be make this box available, with and without batteries. Also it would need to work just with one battery installed. That way, people can spend as little or as much as they wanted.
Does anyone know of something like this? Is this something people would be interested in buying if could be purchased cheap enough... Maybe this is something when can petition Seidio to make?
webdude12 said:
Does anyone know of something like this? Is this something people would be interested in buying if could be purchased cheap enough... Maybe this is something when can petition Seidio to make?
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Thare a lots of things just like that with the exception of them using the HTC battery. Many are smaller than the evo and just have thier own Li-ion batteries in them and recharge via AC or USB. I have one made by energizer.
EDIT: http://www.energizerpowerpacks.com/us/
I know there are other options out there as far as being able to charge the phone from a remote battery. The key to my idea is, there have been a few occasions, where being tethered to a remote batter pack just isnt feasible.
With this option, would have the ability to pop out one of the fully charged HTC batteries and replace it in your phone and go on your way. But for things like long plane trips, etc, being tethered back to the battery pack is a great option, without wearing down your in phone battery.
I would think a company like Seidio would offer this for several different phones. The nice thing about the Evo, is its starting to use a standardized battery from HTC, as we see it in more devices.
I like the idea, but I don't think its something that would sell enough to be profitable to produce. Although, I think it would be a fun little project to tackle, I may steel ur idea and try to build a crude one for myself.
Right now, I just have a cheap remote battery charger in my pack, and a couple HTC batteries that are charged. If I can't get to an outlet, I'll swap batteries.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
producing the plastic box really is not that big of deal. Simple mold making stuff can be gotten from a place like Hobby Lobby. My concern is the electronics, i.e. making sure if dual batteries are installed, they do not drain to each other.
I would think with as many devices take this battery, it would be worth making. Right now, we have the following devices:
HTC Evo 4G (SPRINT)
HTC TOUCH PRO2 (Tilt 2)
HTC HERO
HTC DROID INCREDIBLE (VERIZON)
HTC Imagio
HTC Ozone
HTC Snap
And it appears the new HTC Slider that is coming to Verizon will use this battery as well, but thats not confirmed.
So, we 7 devices that are active on a many number of carriers. Thats alot of phones out there, that are potential customers.
Buy a couple of the AC Chargers for the battery casings a contacts ($10 maybe?). Use the Trickle charge circuit (making the voltage appear 3.8-4V) and install a mini usb port. Use a Plastic Hammond case or better still a 2.5" HDD case (cheap and will already have the miniUSB mounted).
Less than $20 before you calculate batteries.... and I hope you have a proper soldering station with a dremel and epoxy.
The idea of this thread is not to home brew this product, but to get enough feedback to see if its a plausible idea to take to one of our trusted manufacturers.
I do love small projects and do have some circuit design experience, soldering Station, etc... But anymore my time is better spent else where.
So I went a little crazy today. Before k begin, I need to explain some events leading up to this accessory shopping spree. I have been out from work for 5 weeks while recovering from lumbar back surgery. For the 2 weeks prior to surgery and during my recovery I had 4 Asus Transformers. This week i had enough with 2nd and 4th chances. Dont get me wrong, Asus made a great product. I would be still using if I got my hands on a July unit. HOWEVER, 1 week with the Tab 10.1 and I am wondering why I was so hung up on ports. I go back to work Monday. So I am going to rely heavily on this light and thin wonder, meanwhile my work laptop will be 'bolted' to my desk (too big and heavy still to tote around.) Here are the accessories I picked up today and my initial thoughts.
1) Keyboard Dock - This keyboard is compact but they aren't joking when they say full size. Having owned and used the Asus Keyboard for the Transformer, the Samsung kit is far more productive for me. I felt sort of cramped on the Asus and always had to disable the trackpad. Thumbs would glaze it and cursor would end up where it shouldn't be. The dock lit right up. No funky hide the clock, and I just had to change from ThumbKeyboard to Samsung. This is easily done with the notification option when using any keyboard in Honeycomb. Once I undock, it was a breeze to switch back to ThumbKeyboard. The dock had no tight squeezes on the unit itself or the invisible shield.
2) Media Dock - I did get the clock screen. Tapping back took me back to my last used activity. From there I could home, recent apps, or back my way out. Not tired the HDMI pass through as I don't have the adapter, and ill hook up my work deal speakers on Monday. The angle is great for my sitting height at my desk or event when standing. The ease of docking/undocking was easy. The downer is the front inside edge of the dock cradle has to little tiny notches. They tend to ruffle the invisible shield in the lower L/R corners of the Tab. You can flattened back out once you undocn. But I am sure it'll result in a new invisible shield periodically. this is going to sit on my desk at work. That way I can charge, use, listen to music, or multi task while my work laptop is in tied up. It'll function perfectly for that purpose, but the Invisible Shield wear and tear will be a test to see if it stays.
3) Samsung Wall Charger - Just like the one included with the tablet. Same length and module wall plug. Will use with Media dock while included plug will stay at home with Keyboard Dock. I've learned my lesson with non OEM chargers... they can damage your battery and its ability to hold charge. So I am drawn to OEM plugs or certified by OEM partners. But honestly $50 for a 3ft cable and wall plug? Even the Apple chargers are less than that. But no alternatives mean I pay the price.
4) Samsung Leather Pounch - I was very shocked when I pulled it out of the case! THIS THING IS NICE! High quality leather and soft felt interior, but most importantly it is thinner than the Tab itself. Therefore it does not double or tripple the thickness of the Tab's thin profile. Which is what drew me to the tab to begin with. It will work great to transport to/from/around work and other travel needs. I highly recommend for those who don't want a flipper always dangling around while thumbing it. I found that a annoying with my iPAD1 and Asus experiences. So if you aren't a fan of the full size keyboard and angle setup, this will be a great thin, light, and safe method to protect your tablet. It is basic but stylish. Best of all its a 1 step process to remove the Tab10.1 for docking with the above.
So.... I am actually looking forward to returning to work Monday now. LOL. Mission accomplished. The Bluetooth keyboard and notebook case were on my lost but no one has then in stock yet to examine. The two Belkin cases were very nice and high quality, but they both add considerable mass. And most importantly require more than 1 step to remove the Tab for docking. That is not desirable to me as over time it makes the safe guards that keep the tablet from falling out of the less effective.
I hope this is helpful. I know there are a few other review and comments about the two docks. But I wanted to give more of a 'my personal setup' perspective to my review as well as share why personally a stable and pimped out tablet is so important to me right now.
Enjoy and let me know of you have any questions or comments.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
djchad72 said:
3) Samsung Wall Charger - Just like the one included with the tablet. Same length and module wall plug. Will use with Media dock while included plug will stay at home with Keyboard Dock. I've learned my lesson with non OEM chargers... they can damage your battery and its ability to hold charge. So I am drawn to OEM plugs or certified by OEM partners. But honestly $50 for a 3ft cable and wall plug? Even the Apple chargers are less than that. But no alternatives mean I pay the price.
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There are plenty of alternatives. A solder blob and a resistor turns an iPad charger into a Tab 10.1 charger. There's also a good possibility that a kernel tweak will allow the Tab 10.1 to use unmodified iPad chargers (I just need to find if there are separate ADC channels for D+ and D-)
There is NO reason why any iPad charger could damage the Tab - USB is USB is USB, 5 volts is 5 volts is 5 volts. Samsung's weird detection resistors violate the USB Battery Charging standard (so do iDevices for that matter), and it is purely a racket to milk money from users.
Your views on OEM chargers are archaic and date back to the days when dumphones were so dumb that charge control intelligence was in the charger/power supply and not in the phone itself. This hasn't been valid for 95%+ of phones for years, and isn't valid for 99% of the devices that are discussed here on XDA, if any. These days, if a battery in a smartphone or tablet gets damaged by improper charging, the device itself and only the device is to blame, because all charge control intelligence has been moved into the device.
I disagree. I bought non standard non OEM wall charger and cables for a Palm Pre. That was only 2 years ago. It fried both batteries and my battery charger pack. The batteries would degrade quickly upon operation and random reboots crept up. Techs examined the batteries and they tested bad. They had to replace.
I know there are 3rd party makers that can be trusted. But in the end the OEM and end user is going to only take so much before replacement get bothersome.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
The only thing I can think of there is that the charger was weak and browned out, potentially confusing the phone's charging circuit.
Either that or the charger was SERIOUSLY defective. I'll be honest - before using a charger I do check that it is at least regulating to around 5 volts, so far I haven't had any surprises. The only surprise I've had were Monoprice "1A" chargers that were really only capable of 400-500 mA.
An iPad charger with the charging resistors tweaked so that D+ and D- are around 1.2 volts will be indistinguishable from the real deal for our tabs.
I'm looking for the perfect Xoom case (for me).
I want a case that can house the Xoom, Motorola keyboard, Altec Lansing Sound Blade, and assorted small accessories such as a Mojo mini mouse, usb otg cable, stylus, card reader, etc. It can be hard or soft, and I don't want it to be larger than what I need for all those things.
BUT- I want it to have solar panels and a battery that will charge my Xoom & Droid.
I've found one for $600, but I'm not really quite THAT green!
Anyone have such a case? Chime in even if you have a charger (solar) that can fully charge the Xoom. I'm not opposed to buying a solar charger and somehow matting it with the bag.
Next choice would be a stand alone solar charger w/battery that is dimensionally close to the Xoom.
Thanks all.
Also looking at non-solar backup batteries. I would want one that is the same dimensions as the Xoom.
Question: What are the battery specs I'm looking for to fully charge the Xoom? Double what the Xoom's capacity is?
if you can do simple soldering and are proficient in modding you could make a pelican case to suit your needs. pelicans are also water proof. (do not work for pelican, i promise) they come with foam liners you can cut to suit individual items.
i turned one into an all in one 12v powered, ipod, wireless remote system with a headphone jack to plug into a amp on my dinghy so i could use my ijet wireless commander without getting everything wet, and keeping ipod and separate phone and wireless unit powered and charged. was pretty cool cause when i went out in the dinghy all i had to do was plug this box into cig lighter and haedphone jack on amp, and i had a water proof stereo, with wireless remote so i never had to touch ipod. or risk getting wet. ive since dissassembled the setup but i can show you pics of how the pick and pull foam in the box is easy to deal with.
not sure if i can post links, but here is waht i suggest, or something similar
http://www.pelican.com/1075/index.html
also solar panels are not that efficient, the solar panel will be more of a gimmick than anything else, especially if you are charging extra batterys as well, unless you make a mini foldout array, and now it is just getting complicated and unecessary. lithium packs are light, if you look on google you can find slim lithium packs to make a spare external pack, keep in mind you will need to keep the pack at 12v since thats what the xoom charges with. also its important to remember that the xoom uses 12v at 1.5 amp. by comparison thats almost equal to the output of 5 standard apple wall chargers, thats why our xooms charge so quick.. solar panels put out around 7w per square foot at 12v for the affordable panels that you see on peoples roofs, you would need a 4 square foot solar panel to meet the charging requirements of the xoom. so it would just be easier to integrate a beefy lithium pack that you can plug directly into the xoom. a properly sized pack could charge a xoom at least twice without weighing you down too much. of course you need to make sure you have the proper protections in place so you dont over or undercharge the external pack, packs can blow if treated incorrectly as we all know.
sorry about the ramble, sometimes i get carried away.
Thanks for all the input, bundles.
I am a good fabricator, so I may actually adapt something similar to the pelican, fitting it with a solar panel and LiIon battery pack. I know I can't run or charge directly off the solar cell, but the cell can take all day to charge the power pack; -That doesn't matter. Fitting the case together with all the components doesn't bother me, and I solder well (used to be a jeweler). But setting up several batteries in parallel or series, etc, I'm less confident about. Don't wanna burn the Xoom, and I don't wanna start one of those pretty green flamers like the old laptop batteries sometimes did!
I was also hoping to find something that allowed for several different currents/voltages so I could also charge the wife's iPad, our cameras, Droids, etc.
So it looks like the Energizer XP18000 is what I'll get for realtime practical functionality that meets my criterion, but I might make a separate solar cell unit to charge it with in the future.
the one other thing i forgot to mention is leaving a bag out in the sun will get very hot, i wouldnt want to cook my xoom in a solar powered oven of death. when you want to use it, it may be too hot.
If looking for solar / power up combo (costs a bit, but panels are amazing, I have the Adventure 10) ... check GoalZero products.
http://www.goalzero.com/shop/c/1/
That links to their power kit list.
if you can charge via your USB port you should also check out PortableSolarPower dot Biz and look at their USB solar charing panels , the 12w USB panel is perfect for the tablets that need 2 amps to recharge.
PortableSolar said:
if you can charge via your USB port you should also check out PortableSolarPower dot Biz and look at their USB solar charing panels , the 12w USB panel is perfect for the tablets that need 2 amps to recharge.
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Unfortunately, the Xoom cannot charge via USB.
It's the same thing almost but easier so if it's the same thing why bother getting a pad for it
That depends... on you.
For me, it's totally worth it. I hate plugging in cables when I can just rest my phone on something and have it automatically charge. It's just convenient as heck. Never going back, f*ck phones that don't support wireless charging.
Not sure I get your point, but for me wireless charging is one of the things I don't want to miss anymore.
Just drop your phone on the charging pad - thats it. If you can live with the normal QI charging and not the supercharged proprietary variants its also a purchase that continues to last over several devices.....
The teardown videos make it look like it's nearly impossible to repair the usb connector, so I'm going to try to limit its usage by wireless charging.
Norma Stitz said:
The teardown videos make it look like it's nearly impossible to repair the usb connector, so I'm going to try to limit its usage by wireless charging.
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Jea, soldered on means it's basically "change out the entire logic board or have fun trying" - and that will be troublesome, IF Google - at all - offers that part at some point (and it will be extremely expensive, since all the RAM, storage and the new Tensor sit on that board). Plus you need to tear down the entire phone down to the last part to get the logic board out.
Even though the screen and battery can be replaced relatively easy, the USB port is a nightmare.
The most common points of mechanical failure on contemporary phones are the power button... and the USB port.
Those are also the parts that are most used on a physical basis. No secret that increased duress translates to fatigue then failure.
Use gestures and other accommodations (d2w, d2s, etc) instead of mashing on the power button.
Use wireless charging instead of the USB port.