Develop Bugs

"Inside" the Standard Xoom Dock

Ive been plagued by the thought that the damn dock should...by all accounts have a USB out. Now I suppose that it may have came down to a decision point of "Which is the more likely scenario... audio out or USB to a computer out", but I find myself squarely in the "dont care about audio" side of that debate.
The idea would be to crack this little sucker open, see whats inside and (hopefully) take the micro-usb connection that it has out the back of the dock with a new tip.
Now that Ive opened it up, I believe I can get there. I'll tinker around with it in the next few days to verify things like theres no "control" (or similar) signal running through the USB connections from a power perspective and whatnot. If I can do it, it will be my intent to make it look as stock as I can and I'll be sure to post any walkthroughs, pics, etc that somebody else might want.
To open it up, you have to remove the rubber pad from the bottom. Its got a lot of adhesive on it and (at least in my case) looks like something that I can successfully stick back on.
Under that, you'll find what appears to be depressions in the plastic bottom. Take a utility knife (or similar) and cut around the edges of the depressions. They are part of a plastic film that I saw absolutely no reason to be afraid of removing.
Once the holes are exposed, you'll need a T4 bit to remove the screws. Then you can just open it up.
Thats the extent of my exploration so far...
Heres a pic:

While you are at it...
Would you mind checking which of the connectors for charging is (+) and which is (-)? If I am really trying to build that alternative charger connector then I'll need to know. Thanks man!

funnycreature said:
Would you mind checking which of the connectors for charging is (+) and which is (-)? If I am really trying to build that alternative charger connector then I'll need to know. Thanks man!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The power is run to the right pin, if you were just starring at the device from the front.

gigglebox said:
The power is run to the right pin, if you were just starring at the device from the front.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will come in handy when the time is right! :thumb up:

as far as i can tell all you would need to do is make sure there is enuff room and put a male to female cable inside. No need to mess with the board inside.

I think you've got a great idea. Any Progress yet.

Thanks for posting this picture. I'm going to do a straightforward mod by simply drilling a hole out the backside of the dock, running the wire through the hole and soldering the leads together. This method keeps me from having to dremel an exact fit USB-A connection and providing an internal support for the port.

Oooooh yeah, mine will be ghetto rigged tonight. I'll order a female mini USB socket from digikey or somewhere to make it a little better in the future - but for tonight its getting hacked together.
Thanks for the pic, it was just enough encouragement to take it apart.

I'm tempted to buy the cradle, is there any way you can take a picture of the front and back of the PCB, I'm curious if there are existing pads for the USB cable.
I'm also curious about the possibility of adding a micro HDMI connection to the standard dock to make a "Swiss Army" dock, those pictures would help be get a better idea if I should buy this dock or the HDMI dock.

I don't understand why Moto didn't make a dock with power, HDMI, USB, and headphone. Then you can keep everything hooked to the dock and add/remove the device as desired. This is how most PC docks work. Is there a technical issue that would preclude all ports being brought out from the bottom connections (understanding the devices headphone jack is on the top)??
A design issue I see as far as wear and tear is the lack of docking "keys" built into the bottom of the device to aid in port alignment. It seems like getting the right alignment will be hit and miss and could put undo stress on the ports.

You were using a nail clipper to open it?
If I spend the cash for a moto brand dock, I am going to add a fullsize USB/HDMI and power to it. There is no excuse for not including these.

Do it and post the instructions, I want
Sent from my MZ604 using Tapatalk

ive modded my dock to have a usb in so i can use the dock and have my hard drive connected at the same time you can check it out @
forum.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?p=835069&posted=1#post835069

Hi, I'm bumping this thread to ask if there's any chip or so in the dock to control the audio? I would lika to make a microUSB to 3.5mm cable to avoid the distrubances from the wifi in the badly insulated headphone-port.
I imagine there must be since usb is a digital signal and headphones use analog signals. Maybe I should go all the way and make a pocket amp instead
Thanks

[Q] wiimote/classic mod

ive looked around for ways to do what ive done here and have not found any evidence that it has been successful. I just figured that if i havent found it on the net, i might as well post my mod to see if anyone is interested in my design please send feedback. Oh yeah, and i made this for my galaxy tab 10.1, but i dont see any reason why it wouldnt work with my wii console. It cost me about 20 bucks and took a couple of hours so there's still room for improvement such as paint and lighting mods. Ive got pics on my album.

Hey fuzwood,
You were able to fit a wiimote in a classic controller pro?
I only heard of one other person doing this but he wasn't helpful
Can you share your designs?

Sure. What exactly would you like to know?

What cables on the classic controller get soldered to what ports on the wiimote?

I apologize for the long delay for my response. Once you dissasemble both controllers so that you have both IC's visible, you will notice that the plugs, both male and female, will have an obvious defining shape to them... a rectangular shape with a notch missing. Cut the wire a few inches back from the plug on the wiimote wire and then remove just the outer insulation. If I remember correctly, there are 5 wires, each a seperate color. Now, like with any mod I do involving wiring, NEVER unsoldier all the wires at the same time, always one by one as you replace them with the new one. In this case, you don't have to remove any wires off of the short plug end you just cut. Now, it's as simple as comparing the shape of the two plug ends... the one still attached to the IC of the classic controller, and the one you just cut off of the wiimote, and after cutting the rest of the wiimote wire down to you preferd length, remove the plug on the classic controller (unsolder) and solder each wire directly to the classic controlller IC. Make sure you remember the direction of the plug on the classic controller... it may help to draw a diagram.... and hold them next to each other as if you were plugging them together, not looking straight into each plug, otherwise you will solder everything 180 degrees mirrored from what it should be. Try not to get the IC too hot while soldering as this is the case in any similar situation, and pay close attention as to not let the solder touch on the back sde of the circuitry. Anyway, now I feel odd considering I just wrote a whole page in response to a simple question... I got carried away. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask, and my next response will be far more shorter.

Hah, immediately after post my last respone, I relized my mistake. Obviously the wire is part of the classic controller and not the wiimote so as I refer to each part, do everything the same except keep in mind that I was refering to both parts backwards.

[q] ouya board soldering

This may be a odd question, but i broke the little plug for the cooling fan (which sucked anyway) off my ouya console. everything still works fine on it, but i was wondering where the best spot or if its possible to solder LEDS/12V fans/ETC right to the ouya board. i saw in a case mod video (the crazy cool metal case one episode 3 i think) where the video shows him soldering red leds straight to the console. if someone has a tutorial or something on how to do this that'd be awesome. Only other question i guess i have is do i really need a fan, seeing as the tegras are in tablets that have no real ventilation or fans. thanks for any help

xxsnuggl3sxx said:
This may be a odd question, but i broke the little plug for the cooling fan (which sucked anyway) off my ouya console. everything still works fine on it, but i was wondering where the best spot or if its possible to solder LEDS/12V fans/ETC right to the ouya board. i saw in a case mod video (the crazy cool metal case one episode 3 i think) where the video shows him soldering red leds straight to the console. if someone has a tutorial or something on how to do this that'd be awesome. Only other question i guess i have is do i really need a fan, seeing as the tegras are in tablets that have no real ventilation or fans. thanks for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should be able to solder the original fan wires directly to the mainboard (or extend them then solder) - just be sure you practice first so as not to break your OUYA and be sure to get the polarity correct (i.e. the red lead is positive and black negative). The fan socket is only one way, so its pretty hard to miss which way it goes in. Failing all else, you can use a multimeter with continutiy checking to check and see which of the fan connector pins is ground (negative) by putting one probe on one of the pins and one on the shielding for the network port - if it the multimeter shows a connection between the two - you've found the negative pole for the fan..the other will obviously be positive.

Depending on the fan, mixing up the input and output of the fan could either screw something up, make no difference, or make the fan run backwards.

[Q]Volume keys ripped off motherboard - resoldering?

Hello!
So I've been an idiot. I tried to replace the broken USB charging circuit - which went fine. Until I discovered the volume buttons' connectors just dangling there. To my horror I forgot the volume key having no connector, but actually being soldered onto the motherboard.
I thought I could re-solder, but I managed to rip off clean the connectors, much like in this picture: http://imgur.com/Hg1in1Z.
Note the two on the right. All three came off clean like that.
Can I fix it?
I can change the volume using the software fine, but this seriously will make going into recovery a LOT harder.
Is it possible to boot straight into recovery from the device being off but charging via USB?
Is it still safe to let CM11 handle the updating process for which it boots into recovery itself, installs and then reboots?
I feel stupid for forgetting the only thing I could actually permanently damage, since everything else is a connector.

RainbowSwag said:
Hello!
So I've been an idiot. I tried to replace the broken USB charging circuit - which went fine. Until I discovered the volume buttons' connectors just dangling there. To my horror I forgot the volume key having no connector, but actually being soldered onto the motherboard.
I thought I could re-solder, but I managed to rip off clean the connectors, much like in this picture: http://imgur.com/Hg1in1Z.
Note the two on the right. All three came off clean like that.
Can I fix it?
I can change the volume using the software fine, but this seriously will make going into recovery a LOT harder.
Is it possible to boot straight into recovery from the device being off but charging via USB?
Is it still safe to let CM11 handle the updating process for which it boots into recovery itself, installs and then reboots?
I feel stupid for forgetting the only thing I could actually permanently damage, since everything else is a connector.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that is the picture of your circuit board then it appears that you may be in for some bad news. What you have actually pulled off is the pads that make connection to the circuits. Without those pads intact you will not be able to get a connection and therefore will not be able to salvage your volume buttons. I am not an expert however I have a few years experience soldering small electronics for an automotive supplier and we would scrap any board that had the pads pulled off. Oh and don't beat yourself up too bad, those pads are very easy to pull off, it just sucks that it happened on your GN.

ThePhantom97 said:
If that is the picture of your circuit board then it appears that you may be in for some bad news. What you have actually pulled off is the pads that make connection to the circuits. Without those pads intact you will not be able to get a connection and therefore will not be able to salvage your volume buttons. I am not an expert however I have a few years experience soldering small electronics for an automotive supplier and we would scrap any board that had the pads pulled off. Oh and don't beat yourself up too bad, those pads are very easy to pull off, it just sucks that it happened on your GN.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not my picture, but does represent the damage quite damn well. I tried finding ways to solder broken pads and there was only hope if leads were visible, which are not for this board (except for ground). I think I am out of luck this time.
Thanks for the fast reply!

Replacing the charging port

Hey all,
I just replaced the charging port on my m8 and wanted to let people know it is straight forward. My port got corroded and was shorting out, melting the adapter and not charging the phone. I sent it in hoping for warranty, but the replacement quote was $400! (due to S-off they "had" to replace the entire motherboard). The phone has a separate pcb with the micro usb charge port and headphone input.
example:
http://www.witrigs.com/media/catalo...a71cb48e3d52cb890e76f9e6353/1/0/109063-01.jpg
To remove this board you need to do a few easy things:
1) disconnect the ribbon and remove the insulating tape (to reattach to new part)
2) unsnap the small white power cable
3) loosen the screw on the motherboard near the headphone input. This is clamping down the assembly a bit
tools required:
phillips 00
t5 torx bit
spudger/guitar picks
I would recommend prying the phone out of the frame starting from the bottom. I started from the top and bent the thin strip of aluminum above the sim slot when prying it out.
Also, you can pry the bracket/spring off the top of the old usb port to give the new one a tight fit if your replacement didnt come with it (like mine)
Lastly, just note that power button fell out as soon as I pried the frame apart from the guts. This made it a bit of a pain to reassemble - just be sure to reassemble with the top in first. That will keep the power button in place.
The replacement part cost me $30, so it was definitely worth it! phone now works great.

bookfast said:
Hey all,
I just replaced the charging port on my m8 and wanted to let people know it is straight forward. My port got corroded and was shorting out, melting the adapter and not charging the phone. I sent it in hoping for warranty, but the replacement quote was $400! (due to S-off they "had" to replace the entire motherboard). The phone has a separate pcb with the micro usb charge port and headphone input.
example:
http://www.witrigs.com/media/catalo...a71cb48e3d52cb890e76f9e6353/1/0/109063-01.jpg
To remove this board you need to do a few easy things:
1) disconnect the ribbon and remove the insulating tape (to reattach to new part)
2) unsnap the small white power cable
3) loosen the screw on the motherboard near the headphone input. This is clamping down the assembly a bit
tools required:
phillips 00
t5 torx bit
spudger/guitar picks
I would recommend prying the phone out of the frame starting from the bottom. I started from the top and bent the thin strip of aluminum above the sim slot when prying it out.
Also, you can pry the bracket/spring off the top of the old usb port to give the new one a tight fit if your replacement didnt come with it (like mine)
Lastly, just note that power button fell out as soon as I pried the frame apart from the guts. This made it a bit of a pain to reassemble - just be sure to reassemble with the top in first. That will keep the power button in place.
The replacement part cost me $30, so it was definitely worth it! phone now works great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there. Interesting to know that you replaced it all your self . Did you put everything back perfectly ? I mean the display being aligned properly to the body, the speaker grills being flushed with the body; ? Weird to ask, but did you damage anything while doing it all yourself ? Like the screen scratches, or something else ? Sorry, for asking these... Thanks in advance :good:

Tej XFire said:
Hey there. Interesting to know that you replaced it all your self . Did you put everything back perfectly ? I mean the display being aligned properly to the body, the speaker grills being flushed with the body; ? Weird to ask, but did you damage anything while doing it all yourself ? Like the screen scratches, or something else ? Sorry, for asking these... Thanks in advance :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't re-glued the speaker covers back on yet so I dont know if they will be perfectly flush or not, although they still look flat so I think it will look good.
The only damage is a slight bend in the frame on the screen side of the sim tray slot. The metal is thin, and I pried against it to get the hardware out of the frame. That is why I recommended to start from the bottom when separating the two. Doing this should allow others to avoid this problem. It is slight, maybe 1/4mm gap where it used to be flush along the side of the screen above the sim tray.
Otherwise everything was smooth. The screen/frame etc are still mint.

bookfast said:
I haven't re-glued the speaker covers back on yet so I dont know if they will be perfectly flush or not, although they still look flat so I think it will look good.
The only damage is a slight bend in the frame on the screen side of the sim tray slot. The metal is thin, and I pried against it to get the hardware out of the frame. That is why I recommended to start from the bottom when separating the two. Doing this should allow others to avoid this problem. It is slight, maybe 1/4mm gap where it used to be flush along the side of the screen above the sim tray.
Otherwise everything was smooth. The screen/frame etc are still mint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, you've done it like a pro then. :good: .Any picture describing the damage would be helpful, if you can provide. Is the display mint ? No scuffs/scratches on it ? But, my speaker grills were damaged onto the edges after the repair was carried out. Does yours show the same sign ? I don't mean the flatness of the grills, but the damage that should be done, while prying out the grills. A picture showing your damage would be helpful to me. I could do the same, if you insist. Thanks ! :good:

Mine is busted. But I cannot find the PCB. The link in the op is dead.
Any ideas?

http://www.witrigs.com/oem-charging-port-flex-for-htc-one-m8

bookfast said:
http://www.witrigs.com/oem-charging-port-flex-for-htc-one-m8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually got one off eBay for $17.21. Works perfectly.

Just wondering....
Sounds like you were able to avoid some steps in the teardown guide, if I recall it was damn near a total disassemble. Do you have a lot of experience with phones? I want to fix mine, but don't need a tedious project right now. If I repair mine I'd like to put a mini USB in place of the micro if possible, I've seen too many damaged micro usb to trust or like them. As for the speaker grills, if you're picky buy replacements, they're cheap.

microphone on charging port?
bookfast said:
Hey all,
I just replaced the charging port on my m8 and wanted to let people know it is straight forward. My port got corroded and was shorting out, melting the adapter and not charging the phone. I sent it in hoping for warranty, but the replacement quote was $400! (due to S-off they "had" to replace the entire motherboard). The phone has a separate pcb with the micro usb charge port and headphone input.
example:
link
To remove this board you need to do a few easy things:
1) disconnect the ribbon and remove the insulating tape (to reattach to new part)
2) unsnap the small white power cable
3) loosen the screw on the motherboard near the headphone input. This is clamping down the assembly a bit
tools required:
phillips 00
t5 torx bit
spudger/guitar picks
I would recommend prying the phone out of the frame starting from the bottom. I started from the top and bent the thin strip of aluminum above the sim slot when prying it out.
Also, you can pry the bracket/spring off the top of the old usb port to give the new one a tight fit if your replacement didnt come with it (like mine)
Lastly, just note that power button fell out as soon as I pried the frame apart from the guts. This made it a bit of a pain to reassemble - just be sure to reassemble with the top in first. That will keep the power button in place.
The replacement part cost me $30, so it was definitely worth it! phone now works great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My HTC M8's main call microphone has stopped working, and through searches on Google it seems that perhaps that this mic (first mic, non-speakerphone mic) is built into the charging port. Is this the case? I cannot find anything that explicitly says this, and I'd love to get the phone back in working condition.

dm8233 said:
My HTC M8's main call microphone has stopped working, and through searches on Google it seems that perhaps that this mic (first mic, non-speakerphone mic) is built into the charging port. Is this the case? I cannot find anything that explicitly says this, and I'd love to get the phone back in working condition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too am also curious if the mic is on the usb part because my mic doesnt wrk when i make calls.
Will replacing the usb port fix the problem?

Harvey02 said:
I too am also curious if the mic is on the usb part because my mic doesnt wrk when i make calls.
Will replacing the usb port fix the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I called HTC, the mic is on the USB port, although you should make sure that it's not a software issue first. There are several threads on the internet easily found through Google which discuss doing a factory reset to resolve this if it turns out to be a software problem.

Thanks for your reply. I did a factory reset when I got the phone but it still doesn't work. Does that mean it's not a software problem and that if I replace the usb it should work?

Harvey02 said:
Thanks for your reply. I did a factory reset when I got the phone but it still doesn't work. Does that mean it's not a software problem and that if I replace the usb it should work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think so, yes.

Thanks! Do you know of any online source confirming that?

Harvey02 said:
Thanks! Do you know of any online source confirming that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, but from what I've studied about it, it should work. Feel free to contact HTC, they actually have a live chat available somewhere on their website. Good luck to you.

Very interesting, I contacted htc and we went through diagnostics together and the rep said that I have to send it in. I asked him if the mic was on the usb assembly and he said that it wasn't and rather it was on the motherboard, and I clarified that we were talking about the primary mic which is located near the usb port. Confusing bec everywhere I saw online said that the mic is on the usb assembly. Go figure!

Harvey02 said:
Very interesting, I contacted htc and we went through diagnostics together and the rep said that I have to send it in. I asked him if the mic was on the usb assembly and he said that it wasn't and rather it was on the motherboard, and I clarified that we were talking about the primary mic which is located near the usb port. Confusing bec everywhere I saw online said that the mic is on the usb assembly. Go figure!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you end up doing? Did you discover if it was on the motherboard or the part with the USB port? I've waited a while to repair mine for other reasons, and I am now prepared to fix it. Any information would be helpful.

Just a few notes on my own experience.
I replaced the screen in my friend's M8 a few months ago. Seemed like everything went ok, except after I got done, the mic didn't work anymore. This is strange because it worked fine before, and all I did was remove/replace the circuit board in the process (yes, the small one at the bottom with the uUSB port). However, the upper rear microphone was still working I believe, because people on the other end of the line could still hear if the phone was put into speakerphone mode. I don't know why it would stop working all of a sudden.... Ran the HTC audio test using *#*#3424*#* to confirm main mic wasn't working and that the aux rear mic was.
Fast forward to this week, with my own M8. The uUSB connector was going bad, and I was having trouble charging, so I figured it was time to replace that circuit board. Ordered a new one and replaced, but when I got it back together, the USB port was fine of course, but my mic wasn't working now, just like my friends! On top of that, the headphone jack didn't work at all. Most likely the "cable inserted" signal wasn't getting back up to the motherboard, but didn't check. So pissed off. Also, the new board I got didn't have the bottom left RF connector/circuitry populated. Thinking from research that it might be for the GPS? I should have tested when the board was in there, but didn't. Fixed a bad solder joint on the original board's uUSB connector, which helped, but still charging is a bit messed up. I'd rather have a working mic and headphone jack and have to play with the cable to get to charge for a while until I get another board (from another supplier, jerks).
Yes, the mic is the small chip on the very left side of the board. It has a hole underneath the chip, going through the board and to the front face to receive the acoustics.
I don't know why the mic not working is so common after an HTC One M8 tear down, as it seems many others are having the same issue. One theory I have is that pulling the circuit board from the motherboard while power is still applied (not unplugging the battery first) might be jacking the microphone somehow. Just a theory, but I'd recommend to be safe that anyone replacing the board should unplug the battery cable before replacing the USB/mic circuit board.

I'd just like to chime in to say that I've read about some people having problems with the mic not working after replacing the USB board. From what I understand, there are two different versions of it, and replacing it with the wrong one can cause that very issue. You should look into it.
EDIT: Source - http://www.witrigs.com/blog/htc-one-m8-audio-jack-not-work-after-charging-board-replacement/

Mic broken after USB repair
Old thread but I have the same problem. Replaced USB board and now my mic does not work. However I am pretty certain I did order the correct board (had 2x connectors for my Verizon HTC m8). And my microphone jack work great which others indicate is often broken along with the mic. Anyone have any workarounds?